Wanna be OTR Hazmat/ Tanker driver...

Chinatown · May 13, 2022

Western Dairy Transport
Milk Tankers
Hires new cdl school grads and also has their own cdl school.

Chinatown · May 13, 2022

Food Grade Carriers - Trucking - Transloading | Carry …

For Entry Level drivers- Must attend a class A CDL Truck Driving Training course with at least 200 hours of instruction and provide transcripts. Must present Diploma for Entry Level Driver Training in Accordance with 49 CFR 380.503

Vision · May 13, 2022

Thank you Chinatown... The school Im attending is 3 week, 120 hour, in Northern Colorado... Where do you find all of these companies?? Obviously you are a master googler....

Vision · May 13, 2022

tscottme said: ↑

No reason to be afraid to ask ANY question here. Most HazMat tanker companies want you to have 1 year CDL experience before they hire a newbie. Almost all tanker companies will hire with no tanker experience. The thing to know about Prime tanker division is that the tanker division is TINY compared to the rest of the company. Prime does a lot of dedicated tanker so many of the drivers only run out and back trips in one area near a big customer or region. Because the tanker division is so small there is a high likelihood that you will get your PSP training/CDL and then have no tanker drivers to train you for TNT (2-3 month supervised teaming/training period). That leaves you sitting in a hotel until a tanker trainer is available or EVENTUALLY you volunteer to do your TNT with a reefer or flatbed trainer and attempt later to move to tanker division. Most of Prime's tanker division is food-grade, not HazMat, if that's important. People will really play up the difficulty and danger of pulling liquid tankers. I almost avoided switching from dry van to tanker after 20 years experience. Liquid surge CAN be dangerous, but you can keep it safe with just a few simple and basic habits that EVERY driver should already be using, but they don't. Tankers are so much easier to maneuver for parking and so much easier to see behind when parking.

Tanker is the best part of the industry, if only because the customers treat you like a human being, unlike dry van and reefer customers. NO tanker customer gets 300 tankers per day and looks at each tanker truck as ANOTHER "diseased rat" that got onto the property. That is the attitude MOST dry van and ALL reefer customers treat truck drivers.

If you have any interest at all in tanker and especially Prime tanker, you simply owe it to yourself to watch all of the videos of John Ogren on YouTube. He is a Prime tanker driver and explains the company, the job, and all details you should know. Please be willing to watch old videos on his channels. I notice most people want YouTube truckers to make a brand new video for every question the newbie has. The newbies think the YouTube trucker can make a brand new video, while working, rather than the newbies watching an old video that answers every question they have. The answer to almost every question you now have or will have is in a past video. All you have to do is watch them. He does a good job of explaining the hiring process, the tanker division, driving with a loaded tanker, getting trailer washouts, working for a dedicated customer vs OTR, everything.
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Thank you tscottme, I will absolutely check out John Ogren

Vision · May 13, 2022

Dave1837 said: ↑

I didn't know prime did hazmat, I see a lot of their tankers but they're all food grade. Schneider used to have a good tanker training program. They do a ton of work for Nalco Water hauling all types of chemicals, mainly corrosives. As stated by @tscottme, you can get into a lot of tanker companies with no experience. Unloading tankers is very easy but never forget a lot can go wrong. I don't remember who said it on here but it is the perfect phrase..."we don't have accidents with tankers, we have disasters".

It would probably be better to get in somewhere hauling non haz loads like oil or wax to get your foot in the door, then move on to hazmat. That way you can get to know your way around driving and loading/unloading tanks and if anything did happen to go wrong at least you wouldn't go blind or end up with chemical burns.
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Thanks Dave1873, I was finding it tough finding anything... I have seen some local oil and fracking companies but they dont train and want 1-3 years experience

Chinatown · May 13, 2022

Vision said: ↑

Thank you Chinatown... The school Im attending is 3 week, 120 hour, in Northern Colorado... Where do you find all of these companies?? Obviously you are a master googler....
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Western Dairy Transport hires in Colorado.

tscottme · May 13, 2022

Dave1837 said: ↑

I didn't know prime did hazmat, I see a lot of their tankers but they're all food grade. Schneider used to have a good tanker training program. They do a ton of work for Nalco Water hauling all types of chemicals, mainly corrosives. As stated by @tscottme, you can get into a lot of tanker companies with no experience. Unloading tankers is very easy but never forget a lot can go wrong. I don't remember who said it on here but it is the perfect phrase..."we don't have accidents with tankers, we have disasters".

It would probably be better to get in somewhere hauling non haz loads like oil or wax to get your foot in the door, then move on to hazmat. That way you can get to know your way around driving and loading/unloading tanks and if anything did happen to go wrong at least you wouldn't go blind or end up with chemical burns.
Click to expand...

I don't think Prime tanker hauls HazMat. If they do it is a tiny number of HM loads to food-grade customers, like alcohols. I never worked there, and don't especially recommend them for newbies for various reasons. Like CR England, to newbies the only trucking company they know are the biggest in the industry, regardless of quality or fit for a newbie. Because Prime is so big and so nationwide some people assume Prime tanker is a big player or widespread in the industry. It's nothing of the sort. It's the tiny boutique division of a huge company. They don't have hardly any OTR tanker type work, according to the Prime tanker drivers I've heard.

I think Indian River Transport and Oakely Transport do far more tanker business than Prime. They both seem to have a quality operation. They both operate almost everywhere.

tscottme · May 13, 2022

Chinatown said: ↑

Western Dairy Transport hires in Colorado.
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Also, Idaho Milk Transport hires out of CO. The company is based near Burley, ID, IIRC. The only complaint I've heard about milk hauling is sometimes they make newbies start with loads at dairy farms, duh. And some dairy farms are just barely, if you squint real real hard, suitable for big semi-trucks. All of the dairy tankers have non-farm work moving product lots of other places.

tscottme · May 13, 2022

tscottme said: ↑

I don't think Prime tanker hauls HazMat. If they do it is a tiny number of HM loads to food-grade customers, like alcohols. I never worked there, and don't especially recommend them for newbies for various reasons. Like CR England, to newbies the only trucking company they know are the biggest in the industry, regardless of quality or fit for a newbie. Because Prime is so big and so nationwide some people assume Prime tanker is a big player or widespread in the industry. It's nothing of the sort. It's the tiny boutique division of a huge company. They don't have hardly any OTR tanker type work, according to the Prime tanker drivers I've heard.

I think Indian River Transport and Oakely Transport do far more tanker business than Prime. They both seem to have a quality operation. They both operate almost everywhere.
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Indian River has a terminal near Grandview, WA. I think Oakley's westernmost terminal is Iowa.

Vision · May 13, 2022

Thank you, I do appreciate all the help, however, All of these show minimum one year experience... or at least thats what they are showing on their websites

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