How common or rare are OTR tanker jobs?---Key part: OTR

It seems to me that almost all tanker jobs are local or, at most, regional, not OTR. Most tanker trailers I see on the interstate are fuel tankers that carry diesel fuel or gasoline to truckstops and gas stations to fill up the truck stop's diesel supply or that gas stations gasoline supply. These tankers are almost always pulled by day cabs. A tanker trailer pulled by a day cab truck might transfer crude oil from the oil well to a pipeline. But when crude oil needs to be transferred over 100 miles to an oil refinery, the crude oil is usually transferred in pipelines, not by trucks. I doubt anyone ever transfer milk or orange juice in tanker trailers over long distances over, say, 300 miles.

How common are OTR tanker trailer jobs where one pulls a tanker load over, say, 500 miles so that the trucker needs a sleeper berth and sleeps in the truck?

 

Indian River Transport is coast-to-coast and hauls milk, wine, etc.
Indian River Transport Company
Trucks:

• Indian River Transport runs a late model tractor fleet consisting of 600 Peterbilt tractors.
• All trucks are furnished with refrigerators and premier interior packages, over 70-inch sleepers.
• All tractors are assigned and are less than 36 months old.

 

Peterbilts are not made for someone as short as I am. I prefer Freightliners.

 

My company hauls lubricants, Shell, Valvoline, BP, etc to oil distributors and auto/machinery manufacturers. We can be home nightly, bi-weekly, weekly, weeks, or months whatever you want. With 9 terminals around the country you can go anywhere and stay as long as you wish.

But to specificity answer your question, lots of bulk commodities travel long distances. Next week, I’ll pick up a load of resin in Garland, deliver in Matteson Il and then return home. Normally I would call our Granite City terminal and see if they have a load but this specific customer pays for the exclusive use of certain trailers therefore I’ll come home empty. 50% of our miles are MT, unload and head home. We also haul a lot of Ashland Chemical loads out of Texas City. These loads goto Sacramento and Marlborough Ma, again, unload and return empty. Tanker Yankin is the only thing I’ll ever do again.

 

Double post

 

What state is Garland in?

 

We regularly haul molasses 960 miles one way.

We have another customer that gets a couple vegetable oil loads a week, 1100 miles one way.

And we're not a very big company.

If you researched it, I'll bet there's some true otr foodgrade tank outfits. You'll probably have to "live wash" your trailer a lot, though.

I hear Carry Transit will keep you out as long as you want. But I have no direct experience with them, and the hearsay I offer is from pre-Heniff takover.

 

On those molasses and vegetable oil loads, do the drivers at your company drive truck with sleeper berths and sleep in the trucks, or do the drivers drive day cabs and spend the nights at motels?

 

Trimac https://g.co/kgs/gDZWXK

 

Texas