The Fuel Hauler Thread

10-4, Cali kid! About to get into fuel hauling, just looking for some recent information. Nothing specific, just checking it out. Anything I need to know? Plenty of safe driving experience, just not hauling fuel!

 

Hello. Former fuel hauler here. I second that notion about being in a rigid routine. You have several opportunities to prevent incidents like cross dumps. Never drop by color. Never assume premium is red, mid grade is blue, regular is white; especially if you deliver to Mobil stations. The first thing you do when you arrive at the gas station: CHECK THE ADDRESS AND VERIFY IT. Look at your paperwork, and verify the address. Cross check it to your cell phone GPS. Take a look at the station layouts prior to leaving the rack with your load of fuel--you can find these on Google Street View, and Google Maps will even show you exactly how the station is laid out with color codings of the lids. From there, you will have an idea of how you need to pull into that station, how to spot yourself, and how to exit that thing without taking out the pumps. Also remember, truck/trailer has almost zero off tracking. If going between t/t and a fuel semi, always , always, always remember to double check that you have enough room. There is something about the newbie truck/trailer driver switching back and forth to a semi, that really throws off the entire process. When you learn truck/trailer, you're deliberately compromising your original training of swinging wide in a 53' trailer. It's not the case with a truck/trailer, you swing too wide and that back trailer follows the front one almost perfectly. This means, drivers will see the gap and try to cut in there at the last moment. Always watch out for that since the vehicle doesn't offtrack. One last thing. Always make sure you are empty before leaving the gas station. You have to be empty , 100%. We call this a retain in this industry, if you have retain and you don't know about it, and you load 2000 more gallons over that 1000 gallon and you only have room for 2000 gallons--what do you think happens? You dome out . Back in the day, you'd burn the entire place to the ground when that fuel squirts out the top of a petroleum tanker at 650 GPM. Always use your bucket, never open your internal valves unless you have a hose hooked up to it. Always hook vapor to truck, vapor to ground, product hose to the fill, product hose to the truck. Never hook up the vapor to the ground first, or you'll vent vapor to the atmosphere and could get locked out of the racks/fined by the EPA. What else am I missing. You are nothing, the rack operator runs the show, and he'll look you up and down and spit on your $25/hr shoes and in your face directly, because the dude makes $60 an hour to look at porn hub all day in his office while you beg for his approval. The rack operator. How do I describe this dynamic. He's like the dude who will keep you safe, but then he's the guy who is like a police officer. You're always trying to keep your mistakes from the rack operator, if it's not crucial to operations. The rack operator is your worst enemy and will end your career for minor infractions!! You'll see some interesting safety videos , you'll probably learn all about Charlie Morecraft--his story and video is industry standard for the petroleum industry. It really is worth it to wear that PPE . Wear it with pride as you unload that Arco station in 110 degree heat standing right next to a freshly-polished chromed out fuel tanker. Better get some sunglasses , and get some rain boots and a good coat for when it rains. Also get a bat or some other object to harm unruly homeless people covered in excrement, since they will cross into your cone area begging you for change and cigarettes. Best of luck. the rack operator will stab a driver in the stomach and his union will save his job, then he'll steal your family from you and pretend to be you. and claim your wife as a dependent on his tax return. You never want to upset the rack operator

 

I hope I live long enough to read one of your posts.

 

Since we're back, any of you SoCal guys know anything about Mohsen Transport?

Supposedly they're moving into the Las Vegas market.

 

No way. On the sixth day, I am tired and more likely to make mistakes. Also, I'm probably running short on hours I'm probably running short on hours for the week, which just compounds the problem.

 

Moloko, thanks a million for the information. I greatly appreciate it!!

 

A rotating schedule usually blows hard. 6 days on is like hauling agriculture. You could find a company that does a 4 on 3 off, if you're in So-Cal , Tesoro and Sentinel come to mind after you get some rack certifications . Those are the two big and exclusive names in this industry