Tanker driver make big bobo

That's what I was thinking . It all got to the rack in the same pipeline. Not a giant plug between grades.

 

That's known as cross dropping and its akin to dropping a trailer on a landing gear. A moments inattention and a little distraction is usually the culprit. Each situation is handled differently. Sometimes when 91 octane is cross dropped with 87 octane, they will call a company out to suck it out and it's sold to a municipal fleet at a discount.

 

A few years back, residents of a Milwaukee suburb were complaining of a gasoline smell coming out of their sewer covers in the street. Hazmat traced it to a corner gas station, believing either their tanks were leaking in the ground, or a drive off with the hose running. Although, they could find no evidence of either, the owner faced a huge fine. I couldn't contain myself, and called the Wis DOT who got me the # of the asst. DA handling the case. He was amazed I got his # and was very interested when I told him I think I know what happened. I said, before you hang the station owner, I'd look into the delivery of gas, as what I think happened, at night, when the station was closed, they got a tanker delivery, and the driver either overfilled the tank or the hose came off , sending a river of gas down the storm sewers. The DA asked how I knew this, and I told him I was a truck driver for 35 years, and know the fuel business, and I said, I've met people that don't even know how gas gets to the station. I said, the driver isn't going to say anything, they could lose their job over that. He said, interesting, I'll look into that, but now I see the station is closed, so they must have hung the station owner.

 

He most likely won't lose his job. We had a driver dump 1,000 gallons of 93 I to an 87 tank. We sent one of our drivers out to pump out the tank and take it to a rack where they'll send it where it needs to go.

We've also had a driver drop gas Into a ulsd Tank. Dropped about 30 gallons in before she realized she didn't change the hose to the other drop hole. Had to send a driver there and pump it out as well.

If you do it frequently, you could lose your job. But those people still work for us. Things happen, distractions happen. Not all companies give second chances on these things though, they're expensive mistakes.

 

I use to deliver gas up into VT and NH alot. Sometimes it would be a tight squeeze for the 93 octane and they would have us dump some off in the 87 or 91 which from what I was told was legal. How ever you couldn't downgrade it by dropping lower octane in the 93

 

As far as I know that is legal.


I delivered to a store once that said they needed 7,000 gallons of regular. I get up there and they can only hold 5800. They tell me to drop the rest into the 89 tank. I said forget that, had a lot of phone calls to make and finally was told to go over the 90% full limit in the regular tank. I was nervous about it over flowing but it all fit.

 

Had 8,600 gallons in a 10,000 tank once and we are restricted to putting no more than 90% in the tanks, but still had 1,000 gallons left on the unit. Called dispatch and told them I still had a thousand gallons left and they called the customer. The customer said to put it in the tank because it would easily hold 9800 gallons. Had a new guy on dispatch and he told me what the customer said and to go ahead and drop it. I refused and said if the s*** hits the fan ... and it doesn't hold it ... or hits the OPD the customer might deny that he ever had that conversation and I'd be stuck with a possible spill and breaking a compartment and a violation of company policy on the 90% rule ... and me and that dispatcher might be walking down the road lookin' for another job. Dispatch thought better of the situation and called the customer back up and asked for a new home for that extra thousand gallons or we would have to bring it back to the yard let the unit sit until he could find another place for it. Customer came around real quick with another store to put it in. It's called CYA. Always try to make the customer happy, but he don't sign your paycheck.

 

Same here. 90% rule.

Had to get the customer who runs the account we're on to email dispatch saying that if It overflows it's not my fault and he would take responsibility. After that they called me and said to drop it I did. The lady comes out saying the alarm is going off lol. I said yeah, that's going to happen when you fill a 10,000 gallon to 9600

 

As that last bit is going in all you can do is watch the vents and the base of the pumps.....and pray.

 

Their vents were on top of the fuel island canopy. I couldn't see them, my heart was pounding the whole time though lol