backing in tanker

Tanker work can put you in some real awkward places that dry van may not. Delivering fuel oil to schools and hospitals etc where you have to meander through a parking lot full of cars to get to a fill that was given no thought whatsoever to the drivers when designed, or delivering to the 150 year old paper mills where you have to back along the side of a building with a swollen river on the other side of you in the spring time on a narrow icy driveway. Best to have a day cab or short wheelbase tractor for this industry. Still the best work out there IMO.

 

Try getting your spotted trailer out of the inside of a power company sub-station fence when 6 others and the power companies trailer that re-processes the transformer oil after a lightening strike repairs.


Not every delivery is into a storage tank, some times you back down the alley, around the boiler house to the back of the plant and unload directly into a vat or reactor.


I had a driver calling from a plant in Mass where he was able to drive in and pump off but needed the plant forklift to shift the trailer to back out.

Numerous cleaning racks are back in only.

 

Heh, just had an awkward/frustrating situation today. Delivered in Arizona, and had to back up in kind of a reverse ¿ shape and then pull straight forward up to the tank. Not a super wide area, and on my right was a conveyor belt about 20 ft in the air supported by vertical steel beams. On my left was a dirt berm (sp?) and then a 3 ft drop off. Wasn't all that difficult, just required me to get out and check my surrounds about 12 brazillion times as I was getting into position.

Couple that with the fact it was raining so everything was a giant mud hole, and I had to pump. I would've much rather bumped a dock today.

 

During my very limit experience with driving tanker... you will definitely NEED to be good at backing. The shippers usually had racks you go under to get loaded but those places often require tight maneuvering and the majority of the receivers required me to back into to unload. There were atleast two receivers that required "creative backing" over side city streets.

Some of the places I been looked like they belonged on the dark side of the moon lol.

 

I regularly back mine down a narrow alley, then do a 90 degree turn into a down sloping pit...there is also a location that is so tight that i have to disconnect the trailer to do the delivery....cant even begin to explain the logistics of that one....and nyc....oh nyc!

 

When looking for a job your first question shouldn't be "will I have to back up a lot"...

Your driving a truck...of course your going to have to back up!!!

Look for good pay/benefits/ pension/etc...

 

The only backing I do is when I'm hooking my pup trailer back up to the lead trailer. Have about a 2" target (pintle hook) to hit...it doesn't move once air is removed, so you need to be right on. Our stores (Loves) are all pull through in this area.

 

As others have said, when you have to back with a tanker... It is usually in a spot that NO big truck should ever be... but guess what? You have to back in to unload... In this respect, backing into a dock with a box, is a piece of cake.