Essential Information for New Drivers

Th

Thx . Ill look him up

 

If your user name is reflective of what you actually want, you won't have trouble finding it in this industry.

 

Don't work for Boyd Bros Trucking if you live in the northwest part of the country

 

What are the Qualcomms like at May Trucking Company and do they have Macros? An onboard GPS for the route?

 

Here's some tips on how to find a good gasoline company to work for. One thing to remember we call gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and all the rest as "Product". Basically you have 3 types of trucking companies that haul product. It's basic and some places might be completely different but I have found that most are like this. I'll list them in the best to the worse. #1 is the "Major Oil Company". That's a company that has crude in the ground, the equipment to ship to the refineries, and the trucks to delivery to the stations. They are like Shell, Chevron, BP, and all the others that you see on the corners. Here's an example- Shell. You see a Shell truck in a Shell station unloading. You think that's a company truck but it just may not be. A positive way to tell who owns the truck is reading the name on the door of the truck. If it's a Shell truck it will say Shell, if it's an other company you'll see Dave's Trucking on the door.

Now the bad news of the day. The Majors are getting out of the downstream business. That means they have sold all their trucks, terminals, and refineries. They have sold all their assets and signed a contract with another company to take over the downstream part of the business. With that the best jobs in the gasoline business went away too. There might be a couple of companies left but not many and I'm sure they have plans to sell out.

So the type of trucks that haul product are #1 the Majors, if you can find one. #2 the company that sign that contract with the Major to haul their product. We called them a dedicated truck. You can also identify these truck very easy by looking at the names. Using Shell as an example, You'll see a nice looking truck with Shell on the tanks and most of the time they are painted the old scheme and in this case you'd see yellow. To identify the truck again look at the door of the truck and see what the name is. These dedicated trucks that look like the Major only haul to that companies stations. However, you may have the same company that is dedicated and a common carrier, that's #3 and the last. . But you'll never see the Shell truck (#2) dropping in another company like Texaco. I know it's kind of messed up but hang in there. Now you come down to the Common Carrier, that's #3. They will haul any product for any company.

There are many differences in these companies but you'll find that out later. Now you can identify the trucks and what they do. This will help in finding a good job. I believe you can see that if you're lucky and get hired on with a Major you're going to retired from that company. Also I hope you can see that the best drivers around will get the job if they are looking. With the dedicated trucks they must follow certain things in the contract. They may have to have a clean and good looking truck to go into their stations. They pay the company more for this which allows the company to pay the drivers more. If you can not get on with a dedicated company try to get on with the same company on the common carrier side. Then the last in pay and the worse looking trucks are the common carrier. Most times this is where the company will hire drivers with no experience. But do not turn them down. This just might be the stepping stone you need to get on up the line. I hope this works a little better for those who look towards the gasoline business. It's not set in stone on how every terminal or area should be set up. It's just a model to show what the basics are and what to look for. Go to the tanker group and ask those guys in there because there's a few that are really sharp when it comes to hauling product. Good luck.

 

new driver here still in school i already have my tanker endorsement and taking my road test in April ... I've been thinking it over because i live in upstate ny that im going to try and get in a milk hauling company..does anyone have experience hauling milk? and if so what tips would you give to a newbie?!

 

as @GasHauler said, you might do better gong to the tanker group part of the forum. I haul asphalt; and have no clue on food-grade except the surge is worse, and the wash-outs are tedious.
Good luck, man!
Check out the other threads, tho.

 

Get out now lol

 

^^^ LoL

 

What I get from reading this entire thread is your chances for success getting into trucking are slim to none