Tanker to Dry Van

EDIT: I just saw your question about moving from tanker to dry van was posted in the intermodal forum. I didn't notice that fact until after I posted my reply below. So if I reference something that doesn't help or is super obvious, it's likely because of my missing that before I answered.

Moving from tanker to dry van is like moving from airline pilot to DoorDash. If you can do the more complicated one with more rules then moving to the one with less complicated one with less rules will only be some sort of small challenge.

Yes, there are dry van features you don't ALREADY know and they are not ALREADY your habit so they will FEEL like underwater Chinese algebra the first 5 times you do it. But those things are simple to learn, you will do them on almost every load, so they become your new habit pretty quick unless you fil your mind with "I'm not used to doing this, why do they do this, WHAT ELSE will I maybe be asked to do" every moment you are awake and then conclude dry van is too much stress and leave in the first month. Dry van requires the least amount of attention from the driver, which is why most newbies start in dry van.

Your challenges with dry van will likely be:
1) 53 ft trailers with flat sides are a little more difficult to back, due to the length, less visibility to the rear. If you can already back, don't worry just watch both sides and the rear of the trailer while backing like your child's life depends on it until you recognize where the hidden dangers of backing lie.

2) Dry van customers have a lot less professional staff in the offices and they deal with the worst driver all day every day so the staff are more rude than tanker and they ASSUME you already know everything about the customer procedure and property and are irritated you are asking a very good question they the staff answered 6 months ago for another driver, or they answer the same question 89 times since they started their office shift. It's not personal, they hate all truck drivers. Read the Google reviews on the company and scan it for procedures or habits the customer expects.

3) you will likely slide your tandems at least twice at many customers, even if it makes zero sense, helps nobody anywhere with anything. Slide your tandems if the trucks in the door beside you slide their tandems to the rear. Air release tandems are not usually difficult to slide so learn how to use air-release and spring-release in case you see any of those trailers.

4) You may have to go through the lumper payment procedure at some customers. Lumpers are very common with reefer customers and less common with dry van, but it's not your money so just make sure you have a contact person at your company that will walk you through the lumper payment process. (Lumper is contract labor at a customer that gets paid to load/unload freight)

5) When you are road tested at your trucking company, ask for the phone number of a veteran driver for the company and talk to him and ask about you contacting the veteran to answer questions on how to do the job the way the company wants the work done. The dispatcher will know nothing about many things and will likely give bad advice and then deliver the news you did it wrong. So talk to drivers at the company doing the job to find out how the company wants the work done and then do it that way, even if some grumpy slacker claims he doesn't think the procedures should be followed. You want to have a job and the slacker wants to leave the company. Don't adopt his bad habits to fit in.

6) you will need to learn to "scale your load" or "axle out" or "weigh your load" which just means driving to the nearest CAT scale and weighing the truck and moving your trailer tandems so you are legal weight on each set of axles. Get the CAT Scale phone app. Watch the YouTube videos on sliding your tandems for weight distribution. And keep the phone number of the veteran driver nearby to answer questions about what issues/questions you have making your weight legal AND getting your trailer tandem length legal for the states you will drive through on a trip. When you try to learn this info it may feel like trying to plan a trip to the moon in a missile, it's a few simple things. Since all of the simple things are new it will feel more difficult than it will feel after you get through a few trips.

I'm a worrying person so I understand your concerns. It's good to TRY to learn everything before you need to use the information, but even the most OCD type person cannot have all of the info in advance and walk into every situation without a surprise. Surprises are easy to overcome with a good attitude and a willingness to learn and without blaming others for not giving you all important info earlier because they are worthless humans, ahem, I mean they are busy.

 

Who would do such a thing?

Stick with tanker. It's better for your blood pressure and overall mental health.

 

How much experience did you get prior to taking time off?

 

Dry van is really easy and I find it to be low stress compared to reefer and flatbed. I got no experience with with tankers so can’t comment there.

Where in South Florida are you located, Miami?I’m from Melbourne which is actually considered South Florida believe it or not.

As far as pulling a 53’ vs 48 there’s really not much difference. I pulled both sizes for a milk company in Michigan. While it was nice getting a 48 to go into Detroit there really wasn’t much of a difference.

Securing loads in a van is absolutely nothing to worry about. I use straps ( hate load bars) and have logistics posts every 1foot in my trailer. Some may have e-tracks which is even better.

I always and I mean always use at least one strap for any load I picked up. I mainly do this just to cover my butt in case I get inspected. They have always asked if my load was secured. Other than that securement is nothing.

Sliding the trailer tandems is quite simple as is understanding how to legally scale the load. Again, absolutely nothing to worry about. Heck, I will be at the TA in Vero Beach on the 18th for a few hours and then Melbourne for a week or so if you want to learn and practice with my trailer.

Unfortunately I don’t know who to recommend you apply with..Florida is tough in general. Walpole has a dozen or so super nice new trucks and bulk trailers where I park mine but by the looks of it there’s probably not a lot of turnover there. Don’t even know how much experience they require.

 

Why not ask them to put you with a trainer for a couple weeks so you could learn the dry van routine?