The Pneumatic Tanker Thread

We haul mostly cement and flyash but for two months every year we have a lime haul that runs 24/7. The rest of the year it's just ten or fifteen loads a month.
Like everybody else we worry about contaminating a load of cement. We do a lot of cleaning.
We also haul railroad sand...the sand the locomotives carry to get traction on the rails in winter. That stuff is a little hard on trailer plumbing and hoses but it sure cleans the tank out nice.
Our worst haul for danger of contamination is a special ammonium nitrate prill used in making explosives. They sample load on arrival and several times during unloading. If they find anything in the load you've just bought yourself a very expensive load of garden fertilizer.

 

Just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year....

My New Year is sure going happy. Getting things done for employment. Did drug test today. Physical agility test next Tuesday. Quickest they could get this stuff set up from out of town.

I am wondering if you people notice a couple things...

One) These bulk pneumatic trailers... They handle wind better than a reefer or dry van? I imagine so. How much better?

Two) Do you get less pulled on you on the roads? I've seen what they pull. Wondering if they show a little more respect for this trailer?

 

You'll still notice the wind, but not nearly as much. If you're pulling a 1600 cubic foot trailer you'll definitely notice it. The little 1050 cubic foot trailer I pull tends to pick up the wind more than our others, I think it's because everything is enclosed.

On your second question, I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but I'll assume you're talking about the general motoring public. And to that I say no, they don't care what you're pulling. If you're in their way, they hate you. Especially in PA

 

I'm leaving for Denver tomorrow. Start orientation/training Monday morning.
I'm actually excited. All I keep finding out, sounds good.
I'm thinking right now that I lucked out finding a pneumatic tanker job, with food grade bulk. Actually flour. Someone called my job: A big piece of cake. (flour) hehe
I'm seriously looking forward to the lifestyle, OTR. Downfalls don't bother me at all. Upsides I love.

 

Well, after fighting with that worthless Heil trailer for the last two months, constantly overloading it with lime, I've reached my breaking point with it last Thursday. We load lime off the suspension gauges, and the gauge on the trailer was frozen. So I've been using the truck gauge for the most part, which is a major pain, because I can't see it when I'm on top of the trailer. So you load for a bit, run down and check the truck gauge, load some more and hope you don't overdo it. Well, Thursday night I ended up overloading by alot. 92600 to be exact. Made me late for my last stop, which wasn't a huge deal, but still makes me look like an idiot. So I dropped that POS and hooked back to my Mac that I normally pull. (The owner wants me to use a different trailer in winter, to keep the Mac looking Sharp)

Surprisingly, he didn't protest my decision at all. But he knew I'd had my fill of the Heil, and would have probably quit if he said anything.

 

That would be rough, never had suspension gauge freeze up, but I would want to stay hooked to Mac.

 

It happens fairly often around here. Our shop is next to a small stream, down in a hollow between two mountains. It's always a few degrees colder there. The quarry where we load is only a mile away, so everything is still very cold when we load.

To be fair to the Heil trailer, we have 15 trailers and I think about three of them have gauges that work in the cold. So it's not just the Heil. But this Mac that I pull, I love it. Just hate taking a nice shiny trailer in the salt and snow...

 

Hey guys, waddup! I might be joining the pneumatic gang pretty soon. I have a company that's currently doing my background and if everything comes up normal (which is should) than they should schedule my orientation. I'm pretty excited, but at the same time cautious. My current company is pretty good, not too many complaints, but they are local and in my current situation I can profit much more from an OTR gig. The company I am going with is pretty small (snapshot shows like 60 drivers) and there is not a ton of info on them. I like what I heard from the recruiter, but you have to take what they say with a grain of salt. They haul everything, industrial and food grade, they list like 15+ commodities that they transport. They travel all 48 and Canada, out 2-3 weeks with 4 days home. I'm on board with all of that. They tell me they pay 25% of the load and guarantee a minimum of 42cpm on all miles. I don't quite understand that last part, from my experience when you are paid by the load you don't get compensated for empty miles .... but they do state in bold letters that the 42cpm minimum guarantee is on ALL miles. So I don't know, something I need to ask the recruiter about. From what I can understand 25% of the load seems average? I'm coming in from fuel hauling, but I've ran strictly to gas stations so no experience with pumps. They said they will have me train for about 5 days and pay $100/day and provide a hotel. I'm not worried about the training pay though, as I have enough of a cushion to get my by until I start getting comfortable with busting the loads out. They said they have a complete range of load lengths. Some will only be a couple of miles, and others they have can cross most of the country.

I'm pretty excited, but kind of cautious since it's a smaller company. I've never worked for a small trucking company. I hear people gloat about how much better small companies are, but I've never had experience with them so I'm naturally cautious on it. They seem legit, most of the drivers on their facebook say they are good. But there is not enough information on the web to make an educated decision. So I guess we will see. To be safe, when I put in my notice at my current employer I'm going to make sure I'm re-hireable by them in case something goes wrong.

Anyways, if it works out I'm sure I will be adding pages to this thread with stupid questions ahaha!

 

Welcome! There seems to be quite a bit of experienced people on here, and happy to answer your questions.

When you get to your new employer, pay close attention to the trailers. I'd argue the trailer is more important than the truck in this line of work. And while you may be unsure what exactly to look for, you'll soon figure it out. If you look at the trailers and there's hammer marks on the side of it, that's the first red flag. There's very few products where a hammer is needed to beat on the trailer. How clean are they, specifically around the hatches up on top. If there's a buildup, that's usually a good indicator of the places you load at being rather messy, and a company that's too cheap to wash the equipment. Thats not to say an ugly trailer is reason to run though. Some of our best trailers happen to be the ugliest. There's other red flags I could point out, but I'm almost empty and don't have time right now.

Above all, remember this. Don't ever try to be in a hurry while loading or unloading. It usually doesn't save any time in the long run. I've been pulling these tanks for 8 years now, and I've seen quite a few guys come and go at my current company. The guys that last around here are those that aren't in a huge hurry to be the fastest to unload.

Any questions just ask.

 

I pull a heil, but I have one that will unload. I have been pulling these tanks for 15 years, the trailer is same model as the truck both 99 models. Unloads like a champ, while I set in truck and watch gauges. It makes all the difference. Our load gauges are in the truck, I always use the trailer gauge, but we don't load our own trailers. Just blow the horn when we want the loader man to stop.