What I do - Hauling liquid fertilizers with super b trains

Hi all, this may seem boring to some but i thought that i would share my typical day at work. This being a new section of TTR I hope this is an insight to a typical tank haulers day for those interested.
I haul liquid fertilizers with super b trains to individual farms and Cargill depots.

Arrive at company yard at 4am : Pre trip, the usual for the tractor but a bit more to check on the tanks. Check all the valves , hoses, pumps, make sure i have enough gas for my pump, all fittings and couplers, double check valves are in the correct positions.

Depart company yard at 430am: Yep pre trip is a bit more in depth so takes more than the usual 15 mins with a reefer or dry van. Drive to wherever it is I am loading at.

Loading procedure: Before entering the plant i allways double check all my valves are in the correct position. Then through security and scale in. Head for the loading racks. Depending on what product I am loading and were it is going depends on how much i put in each tank and my gross weight. Usually load 92 500 lbs of product for a gross weight of 137 500 pounds but could be less depending on destination. All plants are self loading so i get up on the racks and put the spouts into the trailer fill points and input the load data into the loading computer and load out my truck myself. Once loaded its over to scale out and get BOL's from security then off to the delivery.

Delivering: Majority of deliveries are done on my own either with my pumps at farm tanks or with the permanent pumps at the depots. Sometimes the depot guys will come over and chat while unloadiong but usually i am on my own . It takes about 45 mins to unload at a depot into one large storage tank. At the farms it varies depending on how many tanks they need the fertilizer in. Sometimes its not uncommon to hook up and pump to 2 or 3 individual tanks at a farm. This can make the unload take more time, 2 hours or so.

Then its back to load again and onto the next delivery. Usual days are 12 to 14 hours. Good money and as far as jobs go its really not that hard.You have to be on your game when driving tanks and its allways a challenge. Love it and dont really want to do much else at the moment.

 

is this stuff caustic, do you need googles or is it pretty tame. if you topload the same product everyday, it's nice you don't have to deal with a tankwash.

 

I am required to wear goggles and gloves. Its not caustic and its not classed as hazmat. But it is a bit nasty to get the stuff to get on the skin, it is an ammonium nitrate based product so it can get a bit of fumes at times. Its not that bad but its really sticky and makes a mess of everything if you get it on your clothing or touch anything with gloves that have it on them.

 

3 miles ! That stuff must go up with quite a bang!

 

what province you in? ( if you care to share? )

you do this everyday?

I am in Ontario, and most guys hauling 28% or 32% do not do it year round, just go nuts for several weeks , at different times of the year

 

Manitoba. 28 -0 -0 mostly, (has been a few loads of 10-34-0 ammonium phosphate lately as well ) has been busy, but is on allocation at the moment but should be getting more loads soon. I have been going to saskatchewan to get loads occasionaly as well. When the plants are slow we do deliveries to customers for cargill from there depots if they need us to. We also haul a bit of grain and dry fert as well so allways busy.

 

I used to run fertilizer around northern and central CA. Mostly UN32 and CAN-17 but every now and then I'd get a 10-34-0 or something similar. No washouts and metered racks most of the time but some real F'd up drops.

 

hey guys, how do you break into tankers? i have a few years in now but all with a 53ft. box, i have the tankers endorsement but no time pulling one. will someone take a rookie?