Local fuel hauling jobs. Give it a try!!

hmmmm, haul fuel? been there, done that - for 2 days. no thanks. hooking that stuff up at the fuel terminal is more strenuous than tarping a flatbed load.

 

I have 4 years of hauling fuel in the Dallas metroplex, under my belt. Needless to say, I'm no longer doing it. I found it easier to drop my X endorsement from my CDL, and go back to flatbedding, and I make more.

 

I probably would've made pretty good $$$ hauling fuel, especially considering how bad OTR pay has gotten - but at what cost to my body? all that money would do me no good if I couldn't walk and my back got permantly screwed up.

when I was still running flatbed, I ran into a few guys who USED to haul fuel. and they ended up going back OTR with flatbed. I couldn't understand why they would do this until I grabbed ahold of those nozzles at the fuel farm. then I quickly realized it wasn't quite the laid back cakewalk I had envisioned. no wonder you see so many of the older guys leaned up against the tanker at gas stations - they look like they're about to fall over dead!

 

Never hauled fuel, but I hauled water for a construction gig and believe me, big hoses, nozzles, clamps, and adapters are no fun. We got paid straight time, but for a rookie like myself, it was a dream come true. When we get back to work in April, I'm probably going to keel over!

 

We at Gemini AKA Loves went to 4 days a week and our minimum pay went from 185 to 150 a day. This has been the last month. We are hauling loads out of Ardmore, Ok. Back to the metroplex which is Dallas Ft. Worth. All of a sudden the diesel is so much cheaper in Ardmore they want us to work 6 days a week . Since we all have to go to Ardmore you only have time to do 1 more load which might bring you up to min pay. Looking for something better and I know everyone else is too! Good luck!

 

What's it like running fuel for the airlines or the trains? I've seen a lot of tankers in both locations. Some of the guys I've talked to seem to like it. I know the guys on the flightline back in my military days did.

 

I have a friend, Perry, who worked for NALCO, a petrochemical company, driving OTR. He lived in San Jose, CA., and occasionally, he was required to go to Carson, CA for various reasons, such as training. When he went, the company flew him and his wife first class, paid all meals, provided full-sized car rentals, and arranged beautiful hotel accommodations.

This company was one of the best I have ever had first-hand experience of (I did not personally work for them).

On the road he was issued an American Express card and was allowed $25 for breakfast, $25 for lunch, and $45 for dinner. Further, while the trucks had sleepers, they were never used. The company paid for nightly hotel/motel with $150 allowance per night. Very nice trucks and HOS violations were not tolerated under any circumstances. Also, while he was running OTR all pay was at an hourly rate. I can't recall what the rate was but I am fairly certain it was over $30/hr and less than $40/hr.

I stopped to find more info online but didn't come up with much. Let me just say that none of the above claims are exaggerated. The chemicals they haul are many and most are very dangerous. But they do provide extensive training in their handling, all of which is compensated at the same rate as your regular pay. But of course, they require an excellent driving record and do a thorough background check.

I haven't spoken to Perry for a month or so. If anyone is interested in researching this company and can't find what they want online then feel free to post or email me and I'll do my best to get what information I can from Perry.

One last comment about OTR tanker outfits. I've worked for three OTR tanker companies, one I hauled jet fuel to Air National Guard bases, one I hauled sulfuric acid, and sludge which is highly toxic, the other one I hauled a variety of petrochemicals, most of which were used in road construction. All were HazMat and all three required you to run outrageously in violation of HOS. While driving for the last company; I was hauling a fully loaded HazMat load down I-5 and fell asleep and rolled the truck. While they required you to run illegal, it is in no way their fault that I rolled that truck. It was my fault totally because I made the wrong choice. What I am saying is that while the large carriers generally all run legal. Many of the smaller companies are just the opposite; at least that was MY experience, others may have found otherwise. I would think it may be related to the fact that usually you run empty on return, seldom have I had backhauls with tankers. Otherwise, as previously said by others, there is no better work than tankers. And while the load racks can get backed up, at Shell Oil I have waited over 8 hrs. to load, I personally have always received detention pay. You will never encounter the chaos that is routine at major DC's.

 

You can't take full responsibility for running illegally . They could have stopped you . I drive tank for a Quality Carriers affiliate . All our logs are audited and we get monthly reports . They do not tolerate HOS violations . The replaced Qualcomms with Blackberries and the GPS gets pinged every 15 minutes . Doesn't bother me a bit . I make more money working less hours than I id with previous employers . You ought to report their sorry azzes to FMCSA . It shouldn't take a 7 fatality accident like Crete had to get a company to run their drivers legal .

 

In a perfect world I would wholeheartedly agree with you. Working for Quality (weren't they once Chemical Lehman? Or was that Superior?), tells me a great deal about the kind of driver you are: Experienced, good work history, excellent MVR, and you have good judgment. I would doubt that to any real extent you have run illegally, maybe fudged a little here and there, but didn't make a habit of it.

I, on the other hand, like any driver just out of a truck school, wanted to advance, and advance quickly in trucking. After hauling containers for around 6 mos. and hating it; I applied to a tanker company, they desperately needed drivers to run sludge between Martinez, Ca and Los Angeles, Ca. Running for Quality Carriers I'm sure you know what sludge is, but for those who don't: it the waste by-product from production of light oils and is vile stuff. It's crude oil with a high concentration of sulfuric acid and still very reactive. It's an inhalation hazard, highly flammable, reacts to water. Just bad stuff. With just 8 mos. experience they actually hired me! One of the owners drove team with me initially. Coming to the scales, we pulled over to get our logbooks in order. Looking at mine, he grabbed about 10 pages and ripped them out of the book, just ripped them out and threw them out the window and we were just legal as hell as we pulled back on the road. What were my choices? Quit and report him, or run and get the tanker experience I wanted. I knew I didn't ever want to see a container in my rearview mirror, so I chose---WRONGLY. Once you start running illegally it's a self-perpetuating downward spiral.

My next tanker job, in 1998, was hauling jet fuel to National Guard Bases. My first dispatch was San Jose, Ca to Martinez, Ca to load and then to a Guard base in Klamath Falls, OR with two other trucks. I was the last to arrive at about 3 pm and last to unload which completed at 9 pm. Tired, I was getting ready to go in the sleeper at about 10:30 pm when I got my dispatch. Load at 6:30 am in Martinez for 3 pm delivery at the Guard base in Fresno. Now, it's 40 mi. S.J. to Mrtnz, 300 mi to Klam Falls, 300 back to Martinez, 200 to Fresno and 200 return. From my first departure to K Falls and return I managed 1.5 hrs sleep before loading for Fresno and that's it. Yeah, the money was good, but the physical toll, and the risks to the lives of yourself and the innocent drivers on the road is overwhelming. These poor people see you in that tanker, with your flammable HazMat placards and assume that by virtue of what you are hauling that you must be a responsible and safety-conscious driver when in fact you are anything BUT! The fact that when I rolled that tanker, while working for an outfit that was even MORE irresponsible than the above, it was approx. 3 am and was probably the only reason I am not in prison today and no lives were lost.

This is where the self-perpetuatiion comes in: By driving irresponsibly with no regard for safety and HOS, you'll find that the only companies that will hire you are those with an equal disregard for the law. You'll probably never have the opportunity to run for NALCO, Quality, Superior, Shell, UNOCAL, or any decent company. I don't want to preach from a pulpit but for you new drivers; the choices you make today place you on the road that you'll travel for years to come, so choose wisely.

 

For the average run of the mill loads tankers are pretty easy to learn. What you'll never learn (either you got it or you don't) is attention to detail. For instance failing to vent the tanker while unloading can create a vacuum within the tanker that will just crumple it like a soda can. Failing to monitor the levels of the vessel into which you are unloading can create a toxic spill. The repercussions for lack of attention to detail can easily go into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and more. With a dry van you're looking at tipped skids, etc. It's great work, but not everyone is suited for it.