HazMat

Getting on with a hazmat only company may be troublesome for a rookie. Though there are companies out there that would do it. The company I work for requires 23 years of age or older and at least 2 years tractor-trailer experience.

I haul fuel local in Jacksonville, FL.

 

there are a lot of companys hauling hazmat. lots of them hire newbs. what your looking for can found, but, 1 you need experience, 5 years or so, 2 0 points on your record at time of hire, 3 you must be able to clear for a security clearance, you cant get it your self, the company tou go to work for has to sponser you. there are lots of things that classified hazmat, some are very dangerous, others not so. I used to haul hazmat out of several Ecolab plants, boxes of restaurant dish machine detergent were labeled "class 8 corrosive" "class 5 oxegenator" " class 4 organic peroxide" and plain old dangerous. This is not there to warn the public of the load, simply for emergency response in case of an accident. if theres a fire or crash they need to know what precautins to take. A lot of the critical stuff that your talking about a lot of times won't even be placarded, it will be in plain nondescript trucks and trailers and escorted.

 

If your a student now then you need to focus on learning to drive a truck first. Running HAZMAT is nothing to take with a grain of salt. You need to understand HAZMAT routes, permitting, and trip planning, placarding. Making a mistake with HAZMAT will cost you a ticket in the thousands of dollar range. Get on with an LTL carrier to learn the ropes then you can do the more risky stuff.

Old Dominon
UPS Freight
YRC
ABF
Conway Freight
Saia

 

Hauling gas is obviously hazmat all the time as are chemical distribution companies.

Brenntag
Univar
Nexeo
Harcross Chemical
etc. etc.

 

R&l is a mid range ltl carrier. All ltl's haul hazmat but there not like taking bombs to a navy base or blasting caps in a drom box. I am an ltl driver and in the year I've had my cdl have hauled all placards even 1.4. My company does not do radioactive (thank god)

 

http://www.energysolutions.com/business-units/global-commercial-logistics/hittman-trucking

There you go. I'm all for ignoring "required experience" and putting in applications and making calls, but landing that job right out of school is going to be all but impossible.

 

I'm just going to guess you're anxious to haul dangerous freight because you want to start out at top pay. It may sound neat talking about hauling hazmat,but I from experience can say its not neat when you actually do it. I was a rookie thrown into a truck with a heavy trailer full of barrels of anhydrous ethyl alcohol 190 proof and it wasnt cool. I had 3 months experience and I was sweating and nervous(nervous about everything ie. Weigh stations,blowouts,getting on a nonhazmat route,huge fines,wrecking into a fireball etc.For your safety and everyone on the road recommend learning how to control the truck very well BEFORE starting in the top dangerous trucking gig. JMO

 

I don't see where I was telling the man to go straight out of school and start hauling fuel or other things that go boom. I for one wanted to get Into a top paying company after I was otr 2 years. I also wanted to be home every night, so I chose hauling fuel. This is the best job I've ever had.

It's dangerous yes, but also a lot of fun. I enjoy my job and the money makes the danger of blowing up worth it. I get asked all the time at gas stations "How much they paying you to drive around in a bomb?". To which I always reply "enough".




unless you quoted me but you're talking to the OP.

 

Sorry,yeah I was responding to the OP,wrong quote posted