Petroleum Tanker Safety

Unless you get washed out you leave placards on. There's always residue. You rarely park loaded. The fuel is treated for local conditions. Even if diesel gels the rack shoots with such force that gel will be gone from friction in a matter of seconds

 

You wouldn't have 6 stops with a 4 compartment tanker. You drop a full compartment. If the contents of the compartment won't fit in the customer's storage tank, you don't drop.

 

There is no fumigating anything especially with fluid (Load) inside that type of tanker.

Any gelling issue is erased by the unloading, once in the ground it will "Feel" a much more constant temperature, example walk downstairs into your basement and you will find 64 degrees year round. As was in one of my old childhood homes as a useful defense against 100 degree days in baltimore without airconditoning. (Didnt need it then, I understand from the special roof installed on there now it has central air for it's three floors)

Placards stay on.

Unloading goes until the tank is empty. There are clear sight sections that go into the pipe system to verify that yes all of the fuel is out of each compartment. There is no reason to hold back. Unless for some odd reason the underground tank is full or overflowing which means someone did not pay attention to the one panel inside the station that says exactly how many gallons of what fuel is in what tank and how much you can fill it and be 100% full not overflowing. Therefore you do not order fuel in excess of what you can hold.

My gas station was equipped with four tank.s One for deisel, 10,000 gallons, one for regular, one for mid grade and one for premium all 10,000 gallons each. 40,000 gallons total capacity. It is also a double walled system under ground so there is a large percentage defending against leaking etc. Monitors for that are active as well. Once or twice a shift we check those and log it. We usually got either 8000 gallons of deisel every other week or once a month and it will last quite a bit. And we usually picked up around a combination of 3 gas grades up to 8800 gallons every 24 hours if the sales support it. Otherwise several times a week with a option for a second delivery that day should the people rush the place and threaten to drain us dry which has happened before. We averaged around 4000 gallons of each grade on hand and around 5000 in Deisel. when that gets to 2000 or so in deseil or less then a whole tanker shows up;

Our 24/7 volume total sales would run about 5000 to 7000 gallons across the board daily. Profit margin for owner is about 5 to 7 cents a gallon depending on what time of day he ordered the fuel. Prior to or after a increase or reduction in price fixing once a day. Whatever that price is is combined with that small mark up and taxes passed to the public by law results in a retail price per gallon.

Hoilidays are the worst. We were a transit major highway so tens of thousands of people will come by and get gas. To work on the holdiay being the only one open for xmas or thanksgiving etc makes us awful useful. But also awful busy. SOmetimes we take two gas trucks a day. And poof. More please.

We were just two stations. Its easier when we are the only one open. Its much more difficult to get fuel out of Curtis Bay in Baltimore or Boston Street when everyone is open and crying for fuel. It gets really stressful beyond belief down that way loading tanker trucks of gasoline.

Here is a secret. All fuels more or less depending on who refined it and where they got their crude stocks determine what you put into your car. If you are careful and fueled at certain stations, for example Royal Dutch Shell, you are fueling out of Saudi Arabia. If you are fueling BP then it's either US Gulf or British North Sea among other sources. If you are getting citgo then it's south american fuel out of Venezuela and other places. And so on.

I don't "do" fuel hauling in that tanking. My skills lean towards the bulk and milk side of it among other things. But it is relatively mindless. Unload until she is empty, measure by big stick whats in the ground and give the papers to cashier to sign and go away to load for someone else. Or if supporting a major truckstop get another load. That 8000 gallon load will be gone soon enough. Get going yer late already.

 

AvGas and Jet fuel are different. You cannot cross load or mix load them.
All aviation fuels are loaded in a certified and dedicated trailer.
Even if you have a four compartment trailer you cannot load one compartment AvGas and the others jet. All have to be the same.

 

I remember having a 5 pot that we used for mixed loads of avgas. They required an empty compartment between the two grades and #5 had a separate outlet instead of being on the manifold. They only wanted gas or avgas as prior products,unlike gas which can be 'slow-loaded' over diesel. they used to open all the valves and smell each outlet before we could load the avgas...now this was the late 70's so it is ancient history.....

 

Most tankers hauling fuel haul the same fuel in the same trailers over and over. For example, that trailer hauls diesel. That trailer hauls gasoline. If the customer is one that routinely receives a combination then a trailer might be dedicated to that combination. Fuel trailers are not washed out between loads. They are washed out before internal maintenance or when they switch product being carried.

 

An underground tank is full at 90% capacity.

Anything above that is considered an overfill, with penalties on the driver according to his/her company policy.

 

Just do what the Russians do, inhale the vapor.
(I’m joking please dont do this)

 

I’ve never had a #2 fuel oil load jell up in a trailer even at -20F. Probably after a couple of days you’ve have trouble . And the diesel loads would be winterized with kerosene or #1 diesel at the loading rack.....

Never seen a load temp at the rack below like 20F usually it’s like 40ish most of the winter........