Tanker or Van?

I don't know who or what you are hauling but your info is not 100% correct. If you pull a chem tanker loading your self is rare. The major chemical plants (Dow, Dupont, Akzo Nobel etc) and refiners (Exxon, Chevron, BP etc) load the trailers. You are lucky if you can even stay in the cab while they are loading. Unloading is hit or miss, sometimes you unload it and others all you do is pull up where they they want you and hand them the paperwork.

Unless you are doing dedicated stuff most of the chem trailers are single hole smooth bore. Thus one product and most of the time it is loaded by weight. (scale light, load, scale heavy).

 

I found this post very informative. I'm always a very cautious driver, and I'm interested in getting into hauling Haz Mat Tanker. Thank you for posting that wsyrob.

 

IMHO, if you get trained in tanker work and are a cautious person you will not go wrong. You will have hazmat training and experience, and can always go to pulling a van or flatbed. I would recommend to any young driver to get all the experience you can get, without jumping around (the grass that looks greener on the other side may be crab grass!). You never know what the economy is going to do, and you may have to pull a van for a while. I will say that when the economy went bad I was still getting tanker loads. Yes, it slowed some, but I was working. Good luck and be safe!

 

I would go tanker I loved my fuel haul prefer it to say a flatbed but now that i am doing heavy haul I love that even more but if that ended tomorrow I would try and find another tanker job if I could.

 

We do scale light, and scale heavy. Some of the loads we get though they want so much product but if we haul that much product it'll put us overweight. Just for example I did a load of fuel additive with two stops, one to Renton, WA and one to Moses Lake, WA. Well the Moses Lake amount was fine because we could put it in the front two compartments, but the Renton load would've put us about 500 pounds over on our trailer axles. So we had to figure out how much of the product we actually could take. The company I'm pulling for hauls fuel additive, bleach, caustic, bisulfite, used oil, resteraunt grease, floride, and all other kinds of crap. All the plants I've been too have us get in our suits and go up with the operater to load the trailer. As far as unloading in the few runs I have done I've never had anybody come out to help us unload, most of the time they unlock the valve sign our papers and leave. I'm new at this so I'm still learning I was just trying to share what I've learned so far.

 

All I can speak of is BP and gasoline. Nobody loads the truck except the driver. There's just too much at risk to have someone else load the truck. Mostly for product. What hole is the regular in? I've been around drivers for too many years to remember and the last time anyone else loaded the truck was when the trucks were top loading.

As far as smooth bore goes that all depends on the company and product. For safety most have baffles as a minimum and baffles with bulkheads or compartments for the maximum. The reason a trailer is smooth bore is to allow for easy cleaning. If you have chemicals that reacts with another then smooth bore would make sense if you switch load all the time. Or hauling a product like milk that needs to be spotless before you load.

To answer the OP, go tanker IMHO. It sounds like you have a golden opportunity with no downfalls. I've driven trucks pulling flats, doubles, triples, vans, and tankers. I'd never pull anything but a tanker now.

 

I drive local non-hazmat tanker, It's okay, but I wouldn't want to deal with all the hazmat stuff myself like some of you otr guys do.

 

pulled tanks off and on for mostly of my 25 years driving , and have to say go tanks, the customers and shippers are ussually happy to see you and treat you nice ( i often got offered coffee or gatorade when its hot or cold out ) , I rarely had to load a trailer , had to assist if I was coming off a rail car at a spur and using my pump to fill the truck ( but ussually you get paid extra for pump charges and situations like that ), and off loads its hit or miss depending on the customer , some customers like rohm hass its drop the trailer and grab a loaded and go ( they unload it by them selves ) , and others you have to pump the load off with a pump or use their)s or use air to unload , yes you have to know math really good to set up compartments , and the pay is better than most , but one thing to consider , you should never be in a hurry with a tank ever ...and always be cautious with the products and read the MSD before leaving the customer know what you haul ! some products are on dedicated trailers so no washout is needed and there will be no backhauls , others will washout and they find you a backhaul ( best way to make money ) and most companies will supply uniforms too . and like said before you can go box or flatbed when things get slow , and your chances of gettig hired at a non tanker company are better as long as you have a good record , insurance companies like tankermen when we come over to the box side as we are more responsable and have a safer driving reccord . as for OTR tanks , lots of companies like otr guys , the companY I was leased to I had several drivers thats all they did run from chicago to points west or Canada , but I also had trucks that didn't leave the 5 satate area . and they where always busy .. my drivers where ussually out of hours by friday morning onthe regional work an d I was scrounging for weekend drivers ( weekends depending on the carrier or shipper paid extra for delivery ) often I had to turn work away , but I had 2 guys who would work sat/sun in exchange for wends /thursday off they made a killing .

 

Most tank work will pay more than van work BUT doing food grade tank appears to be cheap from what I have read.

 

My last job was food grade tanker and we averaged about $22.00 an hour