Entering the world of tankers

Hey all. Today I start my new job hauling spring water from the well to the bottling plant. I've run vans, flats, and refers during my career as a truck driver, but never tanks..other than a straight truck for a bit. This will be a new adventure for me, but one that I'm sure will be very rewarding. I will be home every night (drive 2nd shift) and for the most part off on the traditional weekend of Saturday/Sunday.

 

Well, day one in the books. Everything went well, except for a bit of a wait on the last delivery. I had to wait about an hour or so to finally pump off the load. Still, not bad at all. I will be doing the same thing every night so I don't know how much updating I'll do.

 

Yup. It sure beats pulling vans and reefers and dealing with lumpers and pissy receivers!

 

Two pics. One of the new ride and one unloading at the bottling plant. I may not be in the Pete very long though as rumor has it the 2012 Mack Pinnacle the boss just bought is going to be put on my run.

 

Well, tonight I'll be hauling one of the big 3 axle 8,000 gallon tanks. It grosses out at about 100,000 lbs, so we are permitted for the 2 routes we take to get to the bottler. Should be an interesting night. I'm loading out of a different spring so have a shorter round trip which will allow me to do four turns instead of my normal three.

 

So far so good with the new gig. It's been 3 weeks and about the only complaint that I can come up with concerns having to share the truck with another driver. It's something I'm just not used to doing. Other than that, except for one night when one of my loads cancelled due to 2 manufacturing line breaking down, I get my 3 loads every night, and can still get home before 1:00AM.