Gasoline Tanker: Tips on how to make fast drops at stations

Aquaman I think you employer should be lax on time for a new guy.id take your time you dont want a spill or mix thell can you in ahurry.I drop 8700 gallons at most my stops in 20 mins stick tsnkd no vapor hosr and let her rip just know your tank determine of load will fit and do your papetwork while dropping.speed will come be patient.

 

Do I understand that you are dropping gasoline with out any vapor hose to the underground tanks? If so I sure hope you're out in the sticks and no one is around you when you're unloading. The product will run off faster with the vapor hose connected because you'll use that pressure to push and pull the product where you want it to go.

But even a couple of minutes is not worth the hazard you create when the vapors slowly move their way down from the vent tube and onto the ground. You'll be standing in an invisible blanket of just right vapor mixure to light off and make the evening news. Please tell me you're just unloading diesel PLEASE.

 

I have to agree.. It takes an extra 2 minutes to run vapor recovery and its also a law..

 

no diesel only no vapor, i know about the laws with gas i do it all properly.have you guys been busy out west been slower here just starting to pick back up

 

I agree it's been awhile since doing it but you'll have to explain the system to me if you would please. I do know there's still huge fines for dropping with no vapor and I can drive by and tell if there's no vapor recovery because of the smell. Some old timers ( I mean old old timers) think it's faster without it but with todays hoses being 3 to 4 inches it's actually quicker. Our company's policy was if it's there you'd better use it. That even included diesel. There was a couple diesel tanks that had vapor recovery and to me it was just not worth taken the risk for. I guess that's the difference between hourly pay and load pay.

 

There is no vapor recovery here for Diesel.

 

When you get in a hurry that's when it all falls apart. Some guys were born to haul gas and some were born to do other things. And vapor recovery is just now moving into central MO. Most stations have it on gas but never on diesel tanks and some are for looks only. If you don't vent the trailer it pulls a vacuum on it.

 

Vapor is not required on diesel anywhere that I know of. But like I said to avoid problems if it's there I'd use it. We only had it on tanks that once were used for gasoline. We also had our trucks set up so we could vent through vapor recovery for each compartment. The best way was to send the load to the common carrier and stay clean.

 

Had a new guy drop gas without a VR hook-up ... just propped open the poppit valve from the ust with a screw driver and hooked up his 4" drop line to the tank and let it rip. Camera outside the store recorded the whole thing. A small note here, all of our new trucks have the diesel regeneration system with the vent located under the drive shaft and that sucker gets HOT. Anyway the fumes (from not using the VR) migrated up towards the regenerating vent and ignited the fumes. A flash fire (and I do mean flash) suddenly appeared on the camera as all those fumes he had let escape ignited and you could see him first run away from the tank and then run for a fire extinguisher. The flames got about waist high but burned off pretty quickly, faster than I thought they would anyway, except for around the VR coming from the UST because he still had the product pouring into the gas tanks and the vent propped open with a screw driver so new fumes were still coming from the tank and being ignited as soon as they reached the oxygen outside. He finally grabbed the screw driver and jerked it away from the VR and the fire went out. Needless to say that lad will never work for another gas hauler anywhere again. I tell you, the lad was lucky the flash fire never got quite high enough to get sucked into the poppit valve at the rear of the transport which was propped open also ... if it had ... it would have been sucked into the tank and God only knows what whould have happened then ... the truck, the driver, the store and all the customers might all be history. For Gosh sakes, use that VR especially with this new diesel regenerating system ... those exhausts are incredibly hot and the flash point on gas with ethanol is incredibly low.

 

Only a rookie would've used a screwdriver - the black part of the handle on the UST's VR cap works quite well to hold the inner plate open.




Oh wait, I meant to say "only a rookie would bypass the VR system."


In all seriousness, I'm glad nobody got hurt or killed. It's just not worth the risk.