The Cryo Hauler Thread

Ok -- but did you get dinged for pulling a trailer with a faulty valve?



-- L

 

Nah. You can just Crack it open a bit until you get back to the yard and get it looked at.

It was also a rainy night so you could see the trailer venting that cold nitrogen a lot more.

Just my first time happening. I've heard drivers talk about how they get woken up by the fire department at hotels for the same reason. People reporting the trailer venting cause they don't know what's going on.

 

That’s good to know I guess. I’m sure Linde/Praxair is doing the same. Matheson is probably the common carriers’ only reliable customer these days since it seems like they can’t keep drivers. They’re always advertising for drivers. Heck, when I lived in Killeen before moving to Houston, Matheson had a basically continuous ad on Indeed for their Austin terminal.

I guess I could look into going straight to AP? If I stay at my current carrier until August, I’ll be 1 job in the last year, 3 in the last 2 (I had a brief stint with FedEx that didn’t work out). Do they do regional? I suppose I could also work on my AM license and get a motorcycle. Weather in Houston is pretty conducive to riding for most of the year.

 

You can try. You have enough experience but i did see your post on the other thread and just wanted to give you a heads up.

All the cryo companies are very strict on safety. It means no Bluetooth, no touching of the phone while driving, Most accidents will get you fired, PPE must be worn at all times, constant observing/spying from safety man to make sure all procedures are being followed. Long hours but it's mostly local work with a few layovers per month.

If you can follow these rules then you're golden.

Even though everything I wrote sounds harsh, it really is the easiest and best job I've ever had.

 

I’m pretty well used to those rules. I was a lease op with Schneider for a while and I worked for Cardinal in the past. Both of them have the no Bluetooth rule. Honestly, most carriers are getting bad about the phones (for good reason I might add), and installing interior cameras to enforce it. PPE is something you should be wearing anyway. They wouldn’t tell you to wear it if someone didn’t get hurt and they realized you needed it. I’m not going to lie, that’s actually part of why I want to do cryo. I have always been a bit anal about safety myself (I have on more than one occasion quoted FMCSRs to justify my actions), and most van/reefer OTR companies could care less about safety until you get caught and then they’ll throw you under the bus.

 

I submitted my info to AP. They don’t have any driver jobs listed on their website, but holy heck do they have a ton of terminals near me. I’m down by Webster, and they have terminals in Pasadena, Deer Park, LaPorte, and Baytown. All of which are within a 30 minute drive of my apartment (with Houston traffic).

 

Yeah. They're pretty big there. They just recently closed an opening for a local driver out of Laporte and openings for Hydrogen teams and regular teams.

They also constantly hire drivers for their APEX team out of Deer Park which make the most money but also have the worst schedules.

Setup a notification from Indeed for AP so you can be notified as soon as an opening pops up

 

Will do. Linde has an opening in Deer Park now, but it’s local. I wouldn’t really be able to do it unless I can coordinate schedules with my partner, or rely on Uber occasionally. Sadly, I live just past where METRO has regular routes. The routes all stop at Beltway 8 and I’m just past Beltway 8.

 

Since cryo is down atm, I went ahead and applied for the Linde job. I’ll coordinate my schedule however I have to and then just Uber home if and when I have to for now. It won’t take me long to get a car or motorcycle, I just haven’t up until now because I haven’t needed to being OTR, and I just wiped out my savings moving to Houston to move in with my partner. Maybe I’ll get lucky and that Linde position is for overnights.

 

I still remember the time leaving a plant that also loaded chemical tankers. Where one of the workers mentioned to me about the venting. I'm guessing people can't read