Idk. But I would think of being a company driver for two months to get experience. Then bring the tractor on. I'm leased on with coal city, I worked out of Rahway. Now I'm out if Houston. Rahway we did a lot of air plane wing deicer. Decent money. Like ,680 a day, for 11 hours, iirc. A lot of Jersey to the Carolinas , decent money, not killer. I make more out of Houston. I have heard guys hauling propane out of South Jersey make crazy money.
When I did it.... I did a triangle.... North Jersey to Houston to Illinois/Michigan. Spent 99% of the time in there. Tried to stay loaded as much as possible but lots of mt miles and to much tank wash F’n around for me.....my record mt miles were eastern South Carolina to Houston ....... It didn’t pay enough for me and make more tanking at home every night.....
I'd look for a local gig rather then a long haul gig. Hauling dedicated stuff. Like food waste, milk, bio fuel, etc. Those don't require hazmat. And you're home every night.
Unless the trailer is dedicated to the customer, most tanker rates for the easy to haul/clean/reload products are pretty much one way. I know that Chem Leaman and Matlack operated with most MC307 [dot 407 now] trailers were 'owned' by central dispatch as a 'trailer pool' allowing teams and other OTR units to drop a dirty trailer and go on with a load -or- another trailer who's last contents are in line with the next shipper's requirements and prepped with the required hoses, etc. The cost of cleaning for each load, coupled with the time involved will be limiting. What would happen if you were under a contaminated load that ends up siting for an extended period. Though extreme; I have seen a couple 'OPPS' load sit for over a year while corporate and the lawyers slug it out over who screwed the pooch and who should pay for the results. Owning the trailer requires a dedicated gig; even then a lot of larger companies would still prefer to deal with a carrier instead of a one man band. Deeper pockets to protect the shipper after the trailer ends upside down, leaking, in a 'protected' trout steam.....
Wow, how did I not think of this. We had a B tanker truck down for about six months for just this reason. And just as you stated, most of the hold-up was arguing between our corporate and theirs. Great post!
Inperial Oil [Esso} had a trailer for grease; literally an enormous Grease Gun on wheels. someone screwed up and dispatched one of the US owner Operators with an insulated stainless barrel into Pittsburgh area to load the grease and The plant loaded it! No questions as to where the 'special' trailer was...nuthin. It sat for 1.5 years before Exxon took it back and spent another month getting it empty...
Sure, there are guys that own their own trailers, but they usually have a dedicated customer, or group of customers that use the same type product. I personally own my truck, but pull company trailers. I haul industrial gases, or cryogenic liquids. These trailers are product specific, and cost upwards of $300,000 apiece. I make good money, but not nearly enough to buy one each of the four different gases that I routinely haul.
I remember seeing a food grade tanker at a tankwash, with the crew taking turns with a jackhammer chiseling chocolate boulders out of it. No one bothered to tell the rookie he was suppose to have in transit heat on the load. He turned it into a 45,000 lb. Hershey bar.
New owners at Quadrel Bros. attempted to clean out two tanks used to haul the black material used to seal in windshields. Paid a couple guys for a few weeks, burned up every tool they tried...
Back in the day when I was hauling bio fuel to L.A. Driver took a load without his water turned on. Middle of January. His entire load was gelled up when he arrived.
