Fuel hauling top pay

Huh? We had a recruiter from Coastal at my school a month or so ago. When she found out I was going to go tanker, and that I already had a TWIC Card, she offered me a job on the spot. That was a month ago and the offer was still open when she called me two weeks ago.

Only reason I didn't take it it that the pay was kinda low, compared to crude hauling.

 

what was the pay offered? %of load or hourly? how much? Just curious
what area of the country?

 

It was like 39 a load in town and went up a little for longer trips. There were some small bonuses involved too. I figured you could probably make about 150 in a decent day. It just didn't compare to the driving jobs out in the oilfield. Probably a good way to get experience though.

Sorry I don't have more info. I had the numbers written down, but I tossed them when I decided to look elsewhere. You can call them though and I'm sure they can fill you in.

Oh, and that's Coastal in Corpus Christi TX.

 

Slowest day......2 loads.
busiest day......6 loads but you have to consider that the distances to run for the loads can vary from company to company. I know some drivers can do 10-11 loads a day but there all,in close proximity, so asking that kind of question can lead to an answer that could be misleading.
Dupre would only let me run 3 loads at day, for instance That's one of the reasons I quit them. Not enough work to do.

 

Did they pay you % of loads or hourly?

 

I hauled chemical, I thought no problem it's just another liquid. Yes partly true, in chemical I never had to load. In fuel hauling YOU load it. Each loading rack is totally different, different rules, different procedure, different computer to program your load. Learning each rack takes time, and getting carded at those racks. All it takes is one wrong button to be pushed or hook the wrong loading head up and you have a huge problem and most likely locked out of that rack for 3 days or more.
If you want to make some $ $ $ you have to keep it moving if your paid by load. With allocation problems switching RVP it has been a freeking mess in the 381. Fuel hauling is crazy in my opinion, but you have to be a little crazy to haul hazardous chemicals...............Right ?

 

$1500 is quite doable if you are in the right location and get into the right situation. I had a bad night last night. Did 4 loads. Caught in gauging at midnight. Flairs out at another place. Had to take 30 min brk at the worst time and still made $250. 1st you need to get some experience. If you pick up fast-the job procedures not the product- you will start seeing your income go up. Once they know you can handle the job they start giving you the better loads. We haul diesel for Murphys USA. They pump it up to 20% biodiesel{chicken fat}. $50 stop charge for 10 minutes work to add the nasty bio into regular diesel you loaded at various racks. So your say $68 from DFW to Weatherford goes to $118. Get lucky and catch another bio. Load bio in FTW on way to rack and then say Southlake to Wylie in another $138. You are over $250 and still have 4-6 hours to catch something else. Be a trainer and get $60 a day more.
Oddball loads pay more. They don't give the Patels at some dinky market the same rates as QuickTrip, Murphy Usa, Costco, other big boys. Know which ones to take and you can make some easy money. But also eat some as you learn which ones suck and are real pain to get in and out of.
The only constant is safety. If you can do basic math, show up on time ready to work, and make sure you put right product in right place you can haul fuel. Get your routine down and you won't make mistakes. Cross drops are no no. Especially diesel. Spills are a no no. Especially diesel. Reckless driving is a no no. Not paying attention is no no. Loaded one last night. Set up for quickest exit from rack not best ride. Only going 5 miles. Light on front 4500 gallon tank. Start around long curve. Remember that this is not normal loading. Can really feel surge heading sideways. If going too fast could have been real problem. Will still make you pucker when not expecting it. Can get yourself in trouble fast so that's why they don't hurry us. We get paid by load so the guys we lose are normally the ones who are Hell bent on getting an extra load.
Log violations. Unsafe driving. Lost one in Houston a few months ago. Was a Grand Master. Term they use for top guys. Lot of spiffs and higher pay. Caught him stealing fuel. Had been doing it for some months. Not sure why. Made over $85K last yr. Booted him. Lucky they didn't prosecute him.
Again safety is king. Going to have great nights and some bad nights. Long as the good ones outnumber the bad by a lot you will make money.
Dupre, Pilot, others pay by the hour. Lot of guys like that better.

 

Just curious, if any of you have been living in California for a few years and understand the job market here. Is $16. dollars an hour (with a .50 cents raise every 6 months) a normal starting pay to drive a double tanker Bobtail fuel truck? 3000 gallon each jet fuel? That's a 12 hour day shift by the way.

Unrelated comment:
I talked to a guy working for Shell Gas the other day while fueling my car, he was driving a large double tanker semi. I didn't ask him, but he volunteered that he was making only $21 dollars an hour after working for this company for 15 years.
He was driving a truck like this:
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/paul_kane/pk_shell_wstar.jpg
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/martin_phippard/multi_trailers/file0076.jpg


It seems like company's in California don't pay as well as back home in Chicago, and it's expensive to live here and the income tax is 3.3% higher then back in Chicago. And the cost of gas in CA is out the roof.
Eight years ago I started my last job making $1.45 more an hour driving a box truck. I don't understand what the deal is in California, or is this just how the trucking industry is going now? Another Hazmat job I applied at (That was just a VAN truck however) only wanted to pay $14. an hour. They needed a hazmat driver to deliver medical tanks.

 

16 dollars an hour seems pretty low for California high cost of living and taxes... oh well I've been hearing alot more lately that trucking is going farther down hill... more risk low pay = disaster for the people at the bottom of the food chain...

 

That probably is low for CA, but in some parts of the country its a living wage. Down here in South Texas, you wouldn't be getting rich of $16per, but you certainly wouldn't be starving either.

I'm not advocating for lower wages, just pointing out that different regions have different economies. Actually I am amazed that a lot of folks around here seem to get by and raise their families on much less.

For a lot of people around here, $16per might as much as double their pay. Not everyone down here is working in the oilfield, and even out there the scale is kind of low. The difference with the oilfield is that you get zillions of hours in at $16-20per. In Corpus Christi there are many, many more jobs that pay less than $8per than there are that pay $10per or more. And very few jobs being offered at $16per or more, if the local want ads and CraigsList are any inidcator. The number you seem to see constantly around here is $7.50per for just about any kind of unskilled or semi-skilled labor. Heck, I've CDL jobs listed at $10per. I don't know how they get filled, what with oilfield trucking paying at least twice that, but apparently they do.

Its criminal what some of these companies offer people nowadays. And then they have the nerve to wonder why they don't get their employees best efforts. Its not worth showing up every day if you can't even make enough to live off of.