Props to you tanker drivers

I’ve only been driving 8 years but I’ve only ever been in a tanker besides the 1 year my company offered me transfer dump truck work. I did it to get off of the nights hauling oil and pneumatic tanker. Relocated and went back to fuel. I’d be lost doing something else. It’s hard to do something else once you start yanking.

 

Is most local tank work at night?

 

I'm local with a 3-4am start and usually
A 10-12 hr day, but have used a 16hr every now and then,

 

Do you have to have a lot of experience to get a run like that?
I'm just starting out and want to pull a tank but was wondering if it was possible to start local.

 

Most local tanker work will be during the day time most places we load and customers are 1st shift.
Lots of local work around here. All depends on your location

 

I saw a bumper sticker with this deep question: If you had enough, would you be able to recognize it?

 

I've been pulling tanks for 16yrs and don't want to do anything else...thanks for respect...

 

Most gasoline tanker work is done around the clock every single day. I have never seen an outfit run just on days with weekends off. The way we work the company had us bid on a shift at the first of the year. The shift was usually set up to run 4 -10 hour shifts with all your days off together. Our start time was 6am and 6pm and you had to be done after 12 hours of work. That included 2 hours @ time and half. So as a new driver you're going to get the worse hours, working weekends, and at night. Most drivers prefer days and weekends off, but there are some drivers that like nights (usually a dollar an hour more for shift differential) and weekends because there are no bosses around. I finally got what I wanted and worked Sat to Tues days. There are companies that have different hours and the number of days but those companies are not that busy and I would watch out for those that do.

 

After a considerable number of years getting tanks yanked, I can say this industry is the only one where I've seen good men leave due to the wife's fears of the load...

I've seen my fair share of rolled over tanks and have to say they really are built to survive much more than any old van trailer. The safety devices do work as designed.