Needing advice from fuel delivery transporters

I would start with the top companies first. Try to talk with the drivers and find out if there's any rumors going around about the company pulling their trucks out. The bigger companies are trying to cut coast and are turning over some operations to common carriers. They may still hire even if that word is in the works and that's ok because when a common carrier takes over they hire the drivers from the major to work for them. Just be ready to pour your life out to the company because they check everything. Plus you might find competition from other drivers trying to move up. Put on your best foot forward and tell them you like their operations and you'll do whatever it takes to work for them. You have doubles experience which is a plus. It was for me anyway with triple experience. Even if they do not have an opening they can put you onto a company that may do some of their work and may even call them for you.

If you've tried all the majors and no luck go to the next best. I call them the dedicated carriers. Those are the guys that you see a major oil company on the trailer but on the cab of the truck you'll see another name. That truck will only haul for the advertised company on the trailer. You'll never see a trailer with Chevron unloading in a BP station. The company that pulls for everyone ( the common carrier) is most of the time the lowest paying company there. And a lot of times are the ones that hire new drivers. But you've got good experience and should shoot for the top.

Don't get discouraged and keep trying for the top. Sometimes the company wants to see how bad you want the job. Expect a lot of applicants for the top jobs. In the gasoline business everyone knows everyone else and word gets around. The companies usually have the pick of the top when filling a position. We would take the best and out of that stack of applications we would make our decision not only based on experience but on appearance and how the driver seems to be motivated. So you have a shoot. Good luck and I'll try to help the best I can.

 

yep what gashauler said. dont know what area you live in but around here Pilot and Florida Rock are the top paying, a friend of mine that use to work at the same company went to rock and he love's it. Pilot pay's by the hour and hear tell they have bennie's from H$ll. drivers stay with them for years and years. but you can still get hired on, it just takes along time to get the shift you might want. Eagle tank lines is another big one with very good pay. Marathon also. the smaller company's are easy to get on with like gashauler said and also lower paying but a good way to get your exp. good luck wish you the best. most everyone that get's into fuel hauling and does not get a bad case of nerves stay's with it.
but i have seen some start, go a few miles down the road and do a u-turn back to the yard because they got to thinking about that bomb behind them.
good luck and god bless

 

oops forgot to say,,, you will have no problems with your driving rec.

 

In my area, there is no BP, Shell, Chevron, Tesoro, etc who hauls their own gas. They are all hauled by common carriers. With your driving record, I would certainly apply for the "top" haulers. Gas hauling is a very stable career for me. I don't have to worry about lay offs, staying home due to lack of work, not enough hours, etc. Get on with a company who pays hourly, good benefits, and you'll be good to go. It takes a few/many years to get into a shift that doesn't include nights/weekends. I will say that I don't mind working on the weekends, no lines at the rack, less traffic, just more peaceful for me. I chose not to work nights, as I wanted to be able to spend time with my gf, and the night differential pay wasn't significant enough for me to work nights. Good luck with your decision to haul gas. Remember to get a routine, and stick to it! Load and unload the same every time!

 

The truck as a bomb??? Well there's a hazard for sure but that's when training comes to minimize the hazard. You learn to keep your tanks either vapor rich or product rich. You should be taught about how the fire works and it needs air to burn. So you keep the air out. It's easy to do with modern trucks. The only time you'll have a problem is when the product is exposed to air or in the slight chance your tanks are in a fire the temperature reaches auto-ignition and that's around 600º. If you could see the statistics on how many gasoline truck fires there are with the number of gasoline trucks on the road you'd see it's very low. You only hear about the truck fires because it's big news when it does happen. I know my last company lost 3 drivers in a 50 years period. All the gasoline companies have better than the industry safety standard.

 

Gas Hauling is a very small group of people in a given area. Once I started hauling gas, I started to realize they are always on the road, regardless of weather, holiday, or time of day. Drive on a Sunday night/monday morning at 3-4 am, and I bet you don't see too many other trucks on the road aside from fuel haulers... We are what allows other trucks, and the general population to get from A-B... Again, best of luck getting a job hauling gas. Once you do, you won't want to haul anything else.

 

That's for sure. The best is to work in the city. We do cut down the work load on some holidays like Xmas and New Years. We'll do 3 loads when it takes about 5 hours to do then get paid for a full shift. But yeah it doesn't matter what is going on the gasoline trucks are still moving.


Remember the earthquake in Los Angels that knocked down a few freeways? I talked to some drivers out of that terminal and asked them if the company was cutting back on loads. The acted like it was no big deal to use surface streets and the load requirement stayed the same. My hat is off to those drivers.