Service Transport, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I came back to trucking after 10 years, took a 40 hours refresher course, and put together a spreadsheet of all the tanker companies I would want to work for, and who hired recent graduates. I checked out Gemini (you can see the thread on that), CTL, Schneider, Service Transport, and others. By process of elimination whether by me or by bad recruiting experiences, I ended up with Service Transport. It was not my first choice, because they had no set time off, and it is a 24/7, 365 days operation.

Needless to say, Beth the recruiter was very professional, and returned my calls promptly! Here's how it went:

• Two days computer based training i.e. all the chemical safety videos, certifications, etc...
• Three days of mostly videos and classroom instruction on chemical tankers, chemical safety, PPE to wear, etc... Classroom trainer very funny, engaged the class in discussion, had good stories, good realistic tips, and didn't put you to sleep.
• Second week and beyond, assigned to a trainer, and you are home every night, and off every weekend if doing mostly local. If doing regional or OTR with trainer, you will not be home every day obviously, but will usually have the weekends off. The amount of training you get depends on how much experience you have driving chemical tankers. So it can be anywhere from two weeks to six weeks. They will give you as much training as you need. Of course, what you learn in training and what actually happens loading and unloading chemicals, no consistency, and you all know what I mean if you've driven chemicals before. I had good trainers, very professional and thorough.
• Get paid $100 per day in training, $125 if you drive regional or OTR while training. After training pay is percentage of load, 23% lowest, 28% highest DOE.
• Pay per load is nice, but you don't get to see what the load pays until the end of the week when you get your settlement sheet.
• You drive home after you unload, that's built in to the load pay, so that's good. If you time your loads properly, you can be home, even if just to sleep, more often than most companies.
• Being around chemicals was not enjoyable, the smells, and possible fatal exposures, did not make me feel good about the job from the beginning. If you have even a drop of spill while you are unloading, you have to report it to safety. If the operator at the chemical plant makes the spill, no reporting, unless you get hurt or killed I guess.
• Learning how to unload the chemicals using the hoses and pumps were confusing to me. There can be a lot of valves and openings you have to deal with. Some chemical companies will reject you if you don't have seals on the dome lids, wash out caps, discharge outlets, etc... So I used to put seals on everything, but it was time consuming. Tire pressure very crucial and DOT Level 1 inspections, loomed over your head because its a chemical tanker.'
• While training, the trainer said don't trust the directions and address they give you. He knew where all the chemical plants were from just past experience, and didn't use a GPS. So now I'm thinking to myself, wait a minute, I'm not from here, how the heck am I supposed to know where to go to get my loads or unload. I said to myself I would deal with it when on my own i.e. I will make phone calls, and use my personal GPS. However, for the most part, when I was on my own, the directions were mostly accurate on the way bill. What's not accurate are the equipment you need i.e. hoses, and pumps. I always took extra hoses, problem was, not knowing if the way bill had accurate sizing on it i.e. 3" vs. 2". Pumps are attached to your truck, so no prob there.
• After I got released to be on my own after training, we spent half a day processing, and making corrections on our application, i.e. admin stuff.
• Then we were issued our trucks, or should I say, they didn't have enough trucks, so we had to draw straws to see who would get the two trucks available, and one loaner. Well that's where things started going wrong, drawing straws for trucks?? Well ok, I got a Mack to use, although trained in an International. Went out to the truck, lo and behold, inside of truck completely smoke infested with ashes still hanging around. I'm a non-smoker, and this was disgusting. My impression of the company started to go downhill from there. I had to spend two hours cleaning a smoke infested truck. One of my co-workers got a truck infested with roaches!
• Ok, so we ended our half day processing with a meeting with the HR manager. We told her of the dirty trucks incident, and she said that was not acceptable, and she said she would get us new trucks. Glad to hear that, BUT, doesn't the right hand know what the left hand is doing? I took her word for it and waited.
• Now let's talk about driving inside chemical plants. Most of the plants are going to make you watch a safety video if it is your first time at the plant, you need your CDL and TWIC card also. They issue you a safety card, usually good for a year. Here's the kicker, no one takes these videos seriously i.e. just a formality - bad news! Here's what happened to me in one of the plants. The video shows you how to use the plant spotter, and follow their directions. Ok, so here I am at a plant in Baton Rouge, LA. Plant operator says, you have to back up into this rack. The plants are usually crowded with tanks, racks, people, forklifts, vehicles all over the place. In order to back up, I had to go up a sidewalk, and the spotter was guiding. So I'm watching the spotter in my mirror, then I hear ssscccrrraaapppeee! What the heck? I get out, and my passenger side steps scraped a 4 inch diameter yellow painted pole on the sidewalk, and bent it back. I get out, look at the spotter, and he said "I wasn't watching your right side!" Oh, I'm supposed to trust my spotter according to the safety video, but he's not really taking his job seriously. So, I filled out a form to report the incident, called our safety office, get my product unloaded and headed back to the Houston terminal. Reported the vehicle condition to request repairs. One week later, no repair.
• By the way, if you have not driven tankers, the surge and sloshing that goes on inside the tank while stopping and accelerating can hurt your back. Not so bad on the open highway, unless going over roads like I-10 going thru Louisiana.
• Next incident, really tight plant corners again at BASF plant in Houston. Went to pick up a load, went through the formalities again i.e. safety videos, etc... followed map directions from Security Guard, making sharp left, watching my left to avoid demolishing a stop sign and my trailer, then ssscccrrraaapppeee! What again? Oh yes, another 4 inch diameter pole, 14 in off the ground, cleared my bumper on the Mack, but not the bumper brace. Thought nothing of it, went and picked up my chemical load in the typical tight rack, came back out to check on what scraped, and WOW, bumper bracing bent back, and plastic bumper touching my right side steer tires. Went thru the motions again, reported incident to BASF, reported to my safety officer. Came back to Houston terminal, bummed out, met up with safety officer, gave me safety talk, said don't worry about it, but if it happens again, I may be subject to disciplinary action, oh, and I had to take a non-DOT drug test, which I passed. Dispatch gave me a loaner because truck they were to get me, I still didn't have. Not happy with the situation, twice in one week scraped iron poles in tight chemical plants. It's bad enough having to deal with the hazardous chemicals, but when they make the plants hazardous to drive in, that's where I draw the line. I went home, could not sleep because thoughts of this happening again but in someone else's truck (loaner), would not be fair to the other guy. So I came back to the terminal, told them I could not finish load because I didn't get enough sleep, and that I don't want to put another driver's truck at risk. I turned in a request for indefinite time off, turned in all my PPE gear, returned the keys from both trucks, and said goodbye!
• I had a hard time getting used to the odd hours for pickup, and not able to pickup or unload early, everything was scheduled, or be turned away at the plant when loading or unloading. I was missing the days when you pull up to a dock, get loaded, drive, pull up to a dock, get unloaded, then off to the next load. No valves, spills, chemical exposures, etc... to worry about. I guess that's why the pay is supposed to be higher driving hazmat chemicals.
• I'm no longer interested in hauling chemicals, but wouldn't mind food grade or non-hazmat tanker loads, that don't require driving inside tight chemical plants. You guys who are surviving the hazardous chemical environment, my hats off to you!

 

Didn't say they were totally bad! That's why my title says "good" in it. Like I said, if you don't mind the hazardous environment, being home as often as you can be with this company, is a good thing! Just not for me. That's why I said "my hats off" to all who work in hazmat tanker!

 

Comes with the territory. My driving record on the open road is spotless! Thank God, and I want to keep it that way!

 

No I didn't, no one really talks about it. No one talks about the guy that cleans the tanks, almost dies, because of residual chems still in the tank, the driver is supposed to check for this before leaving the chem plant they unloaded at. You have to be "certified" at Service Transport to haul certain chemicals e.g. some chems can blow up because they are temperature sensitive, others kill instantly upon inhalation, and at least Service Transport has an oxygen tank available to use while unloading this fatal chemical. The heat of the summer alone can kill you when you have full PPE gear on, and your unloading your chem in the hot sun. No, you can't run into your truck to sit in the AC, you have to man the pumps and watch for leaks or spills. Of course you know there are a lot of things ignored.

It just wasn't for me. We all have our niches to work in, chemicals tankers I tried, but don't want to live and work around it anymore. The chemical I was talking about previously that can blow up at certain temperatures, is the same one used to make Vinyl products, and foam for beds - go figure! I live around a lot of chemicals here in Houston, and we are now actually going to move away from it. My wife is a cancer survivor, and we don't want to be exposed to it anymore. We are going to move back to our home we were renting out near The Woodlands - cleaner air.

As far as jobs in chemical tankers, plenty of them, and Houston is the world capital for it. Just not for me. Call Beth at Service Transport, they are still hiring. Small company, you work from the Corp HQ terminal, if in Houston, usually good with requested time off, always return home after delivery for next dispatch, dispatch is from list you sign in when you return from your delivery.

 

Thanks, that's good to know. I need info like this so I know what I'm getting in to!