Potential job offer Delivering Propane~have to pass drive test

another thing, I was always told to remember,

if you open a 'spit valve' and it doesnt make a hissing sound, or doesn't have vapor pressure behind it, do not fill it, because mostly likely it is empty, like it may be empty because LP has leaked into the house, or has leaked out of the tank outside, perhaps from a loose fitting, or a faulty regulator.

sometimes customers will call saying their tank is leaking, because they smell gas.

you can figure how much a customers tank will hold, by the information plate on the tank. 80 percent is all they will hold. but I can tell you some of the 500 gallon and 1000 gallon tanks, they will only hold about 70-75 percent according to the gauge before the spit valve starts spraying.

to do the math you just multiply 80 percent by the water capacity on the tanks information plate. so the tank you'll usually see is a '100 gallon' tank, but on the information plate it will say rated at 120 gallons. thats what the tank is pressure tested at for safety. but .80 percent times 120 gallons is really only 96 gallons.

also something kind of neat, if you have a T.I. 81 calculator laying around, you can program your calculator to speed up the process of calculating customers LP tickets. just program it for the price of propane. I have a program on my T.I 81 calculator called "propane" where x=the price of propane. all I have to do is hit enter, and x= will show up on the calculator and all I have to do is type in the gallons distributed and hit enter and the calculator adds it up and all I have to do is write in on the ticket. that saves me some time throughout the course of a day , instead of mashing on a 4 function calculator.

 

here is a view of a road if you can call it that leading to a cabin I havent been able to get to in a while. it was dry enough and freezing today, so it was a pretty good day to venture to the top of the mountain.

 

and watch out for stuff like this backing up, a wind storm came through one day, and this tree was hanging on a powerline. it took the powerline company 2 days to come out and cut the tree off the powerline. the customer had to call in ,and say it was OK to come back out.

 

notice the 'beware of dog signs' especially when there is a fence, because once you open the fence gate to get in, most likely there is a dog running around somewhere in there. sometimes I leave the fence gate open just in case I have to make a run for it. can you say "who let the dogs out" woof woof. haha.

 

I would also get a good pair of UV blocking sunglasses, and try to keep all of your windows clean on the truck youre driving , because salt/dirt on the windows make it hard to see out of, especially when the sun is out, it really distorts the image of whats in the side view mirrors. I try to wash my truck off at least once a week. the road maintenance crews around here throw salt melt down even if its a light dusting of snow on the road.....

where I work at, we dont have snow chains, and if the roads are bad, we dont go out, and we get paid that day.

so far this year we havent had any snow days, its only snowed twice so far, and where we have had a mild winter, the days it did snow, it all melted 3 days later... when it did snow it wasnt much.

kind of hoping we get snowed in a few days next year, sweet!

 

Open the valve real quick, and give fido a little shot of mercaptan across the bow, he'll go back to his dog house.

 

haven't got to try doing that yet, I usually dont get out.

usually people take care of their tank in the summer months, and don't let hornets/wasps/yellow jackets build nests in the lid, birds like to build nests also, and when we start delivering in the fall there are usually tons of birds nests underneath the lids.

the boss man gives us a couple of cans of bee killer to spray at the beginning of the season. I did one time use the delivery hose to spray a bees nest, it work well, it was like hitting the bees with a cannon. I looked on the ground of what bees I could see left, and I'm pretty sure the LP killed them. but just for good measure, in case the LP just stunned them, I stomped on the bees that were left. haha.

its funny people who stay home, will watch their mean mutts running around trying to get close to bite, the only time I feel brave enough to get out is if its a small dog. I got out the other day, and I knew the dog would be out, so I took the bee spray with me, and the woman who was home, finally brought the dog inside after she saw be spray towards the dog with the bee spray.

 

if you dont mind me asking, how much did you get started at hourly?

 

Good stuff. Bobtail 1993 hauler here.
I drive a twin screw kw with a pre emmissions kitty Kat
Boston Steel 4k gallon aluminum tank with a pinwheel hose reel.
Deliver to commercial and residential in the greater Boston area.
There's lots of good advice on here.
Yes. Use your Jake. I constantly use mine.
Go slow. Like stupid slow especially in residential areas. Kids are attracted to tank trucks, especially paccar trucks with chrome.
My General rule is 5 under the posted speed limit at all times.
One mistake and everything is over. Almost no one will hire you after a big accident under placards.
I am not sure how heavy your hose is. 1993 is 7.5 lbs/ gallon. It sucks to drag up 30 ft stairs to back of houses, in the snow, unshoveled.
Take your time. No need to blow your back out.
There's one house that gets called to clean up their dog ####.
I got that house once.
Well after I made the delivery, when I left the tickets I wiped my boots off on the mat at the front door.
I won't leave this job unless I am fired or move out of state.
I make above union pay and am not union.
They let me pick the truck I wanted.
The benefits were meh... So I went through the health connector for half price. Boss kicks me some cash for that.
I go and do my job and leave. They don't ask me to be friends with co-workers. They ask me to do my job safely.
We do roll in the snow. All the trucks get new snow tires every season or 2.
They just replaced 8 drives and 2 steers on my truck.
Mine were giving me a hard time in the snow.
They said NO PROBLEM, they will be on the truck next day. They were.
I am asked to use common sense in severe weather.
Part of my negotiated pay was my years of emergency wrecker and plowing wheel time.
I went into storms others were ordered off the road for.
Stay safe. Watch your six in residential areas.
And watch out for low trees. They will put a damper on your day