Tankers for a Rookies?

Just wait because certain products move differently in a tanker. It's totally different experience that does not come from hauling dry van with liquid containers in it. When the surge first hits the front of the tanker, you will think somebody ran into you.
With liquid tankers there's no more stab braking at all! You will learn how to shift and brake differently for all road conditions. Be safe and have fun.

 

I started out pulling smooth bore milk tankers as my first driving job. You just have to go easy on the throttle and the brakes. Slow down before you get to a curve, not in it. Drove 18 speed petes, which I learned how to do split gear shifting from my first boss.

I liked pulling tankers....easy to fill and empty. Usually go home with empty trailer after the delivery.

 

Speaking of stab braking...

When you commit to braking, you gotta pile the liquid to the front and hold it there until you get stopped. There is usually a line painted where the intersection is in your lane, you plan to stop right on that line. When your wheels quit moving, ease up on your air application and wait for the rear slosh trying to pull you backwards. Always keep enough air on your wheels to sort of chain your rig down to the pavement so it can sit there and bounce.

You will get used to it. If I remember, the best way to stop tanker is to put the liquid to the front and hold it there until you get stopped.

As the other Drivers have told you if you abuse the rig, that liquid will kick you around in that cab. Wear your seatbelt.

Food grade is well and good. But when you get a hold of a 80,000 dollar Cream load it must be flawlessly delivered. On time. Or better early.

One driver said that there is not much movement of liquid in bottles inside a container. He's half right. It depends on what the bottles are. Little tiny bottles of beer versus say one gallon jugs of cider. You will know it's liquid inside that box and you are a tanker for purposes.

You are not going to get hardly any trouble from cars stuck behind your farm milk tanker. No one is that stupid. They will get by you one way or the other. There is a one mile pull I always stopped briefly at the store to fix up a thermos of coffee to allow the turbo to cool and the engine a chance to cool the radiator before the pull. When you attack the hill, all the fluid goes to the back and stays there creating a ### end heavy sitaution.

In ice and snow your drives are gonna be real light so taking it to the governor and waiting until you hit the top aint gonna cut it. That is the other thing too. Pure Ice....

If you get up to go get milk, you are going. No matter how bad the ice is. You are going to just have to learn how to walk on it as not to break a leg (Boot chains is the solution) and get to the farms on your route. The farmers depend on that money. That is one of the reasons the state licenses you because not only you decide the grade you also determine the weight, and thus the dollars the farmer will get for that pick up. Trust me when I tell you that farmer knows down to the half pound how much you are going to pick up after you write that number on the sheet from which the farmer's revenue is cut and paid.

You do not load bad milk into the trailer with the good milk because all of it will then have to be dumped in a field or river. It will never be allowed to make the entire dairy with it's 100 trucks worth of milk go bad.

 

Yeah, this is true. You will learn to first use your jake brake to slow, then you will downshift to decelerate even more. If that doesn't get you to where you want to be, gently apply service breaks while using the jake brake. The service breaks will be a last resort while driving a smoothbore tanker. Hitting those service breaks will absolutely cause a hell ride with that liquid surge hitting you very hard

 

Yes, I drive for Trimac OTR. I liked my time at Schneider, they treated me right. Trimac could pay a lot more so I decided to jump ship.

It is about 30 days altogether, as in from the day you arrive it will be roughly 30 days till you get your truck.

 

One more thing Thull, as you are already hearing, people will tell you some crazy things about surge. About how you have to 'control' it. You don't 'control' surge, it doesn't matter how smooth you shift, brake or drive you can't control the product. To me surge is surge, I've hauled thousands of different products all with a smoothbore trailer. I've never been thrown around the cab, flipped over, or been pushed through an intersection. The truth is, it's not all that big of a deal, just drive the truck, be smart and everything will be alright.

But every rookie tanker thread will bring out the stories and myths. Just think about this, how many times do you see a tanker rolled over? If they were that dangerous we would laying all over the road like Armadillo carcasses.

 

I ran with them before they changed dispatch systems so it's all new but I stayed with them almost 3 years before I left. OTR is all I've ever been no matter the company I was with.
Loading is usually done for you, I've loaded less that 10 times in my career. Unloading can be difficult, it just depends. No real good answer for you on that.