Adventures Of A Young Tanker Yanker (Daily Journal)

[Double L]

Reason behind the title, starting tomorrow I'm gonna be working on the yard of a tanker outfit and they may help me get my CDL, I'm gonna get the permit along with the tank endorsement. Even though I can't drive their trucks on the road until I'm 22 I think they will allow me to drive around the yard, I'm not sure on that just yet. But anyway I'd like to make a career of pulling tankers first as a company driver for Ee-Jay and then eventually as a owner operator pulling tankers.


6/2/08

I just got off the phone with work and they told me my trainer is gonna be in the maintenance department today so I'm off today and start tomorrow. I'll be working from noon to 8pm and they are gonna adjust my schedule when the time comes. I'll officially start my journal tomorrow and I'll learn how to inspect rail cars and wash out a couple trailers.

[Trukrswyfe]

.....

[Double L]

Go on ahead I'll let ya, I'm sure I'll get a chuckle out of it, nothing offends me anymore.

[Trukrswyfe]

.....

[Double L]

No ma'am you haven't offended me at all.

[Twilight Flyer]

Geez, people. I usually don't have to worry about cleaning up a Rev vs. Steve thread until about page 50 or so. You guys barely made it to page 2!

:shock:

Topic cleaned...let's drop the panty fight that went on last night. Thanks to all for playing. Your contestant prizes are in the mail. If it's ticking, you might want to dunk it in a pail of water first.

:P

Onward...

[Rev.Vassago]

Geez, people. I usually don't have to worry about cleaning up a Rev vs. Steve thread until about page 50 or so. You guys barely made it to page 2!

:shock:

Topic cleaned...let's drop the panty fight that went on last night. Thanks to all for playing. Your contestant prizes are in the mail. If it's ticking, you might want to dunk it in a pail of water first.

:P

Onward...

I missed the fun?

[Twilight Flyer]

Actually, that was probably a good thing. 8)

[Double L]

It got way way out of hand Rev, thanks TF for cleaning it up

Part 1: 6/3/08

As of right now I'm not leaving for work yet until 11:00 and we're suppose to get rain today well it's been raining. I'm getting tired of all this rain, it feels like the rain forest with as much rain we have been getting. Rain all week with one sunny and warm day then rain again and again and again! :evil: :x Part 2 is coming up when I get home late tonight.

[Double L]

Part 2

6-3-08

I went in early and good thing I did, I had to read alot of manuals for each shipper when it comes to inspecting rail cars. Today I inspected about 5 rail cars. Some shippers you got to take samples out of the top and bottom. Most of them you only take a bottom sample! When you do a top and bottom sample you have to climb on to the rail car and inspect the lids for seals intact, make sure if they have vent caps that they are not damaged. Then break the seals and take a sample out of the product out of each compartment and seal it back up with a zip tie. Now when it comes to taking a sample out the bottom, you have to break the seals as well. Let me back up there are 4 compartments- A, AC/CA, B, BC/CB. Anyway for inspecting the bottom you break the seals and take off the cover and then the dust cap. Then you release some of the product and the put the cover back on and seal it with a zip tie. You do that for one side, then when you get to the other you break the seal, remove the cover, and dust cap and put the cover back on and seal it. Then after we inspected the 5 rail cars we went to a warehouse to take samples of some product to make sure it wasn't contaminated.

As of the yesterday or today they insitute a new 5 MPH speed limit on the yard and we can't use our cell phones, not even on the road cause a driver flipped a unit and he was on his cell phone! Oh yeah on the 28th of June they are offering a defensive driving course. I signed up for but I did it so I can drive trucks on the yard and or road when the time comes.

So for a first day it wasn't bad at all, I really enjoyed it! I tell ya what I was scared ****less the first time I climbed up the rail car and was on top of it. I'm use to it now so it doesn't bother me and I think tomorrow is my last day of training so I can move on to something else. Oh yeah good thing is I won't be getting on top of rail cars when it's snow and ice and maybe rain as well. Safety hazard! Oh yeah most of the shippers are now only requiring us to take a bottom sample instead of both a top and bottom sample. I'm glad they are doing that but still taking bottom samples is a bit time consuming, but all in all I had fun today! 8)

[FlaCrakr]

Keep up the good work.

[Double L]

Thanks and it's not hard work at all! It's easy work actually, it's just time consuming. But hell we got done with 5 tanks in 2-3 hours so thats not a bad deal at all.

[Larry Heyns]

My impression is that the job requires responsibility and accuracy. Also, a mistake when closing the bottom valves could result in a spill. It has been many years since I loaded from tank cars, but I recall the lonely feeling if something should go wrong.

[Double L]

They are hopper cars not tank cars,

6-4-08

I'M WORE THE HELL OUT!!!!!

I spent the first 4 hours painting, then I took lunch, after lunch I cleaned the shop for a couple hours. After that I washed and detailed a truck then when I was done with that I was showed the procedure for outbound rail cars. Then the last thing I did was spend 2 hours helping lay down rock for an addition loaded trailer drop area.

I got chewed out for being early today. I got there at 8am but come to find out I was suppose to be there at noon! I never heard of anyone getting chewed out for showing up to work early. :shock:

[Mtc_Is_Hell]

Maybe they think that you can't take a simple order on what time to be there

Yeah sounds like alot of work, what are they paying?

They are hopper cars not tank cars,

6-4-08

I'M WORE THE HELL OUT!!!!!

I spent the first 4 hours painting, then I took lunch, after lunch I cleaned the shop for a couple hours. After that I washed and detailed a truck then when I was done with that I was showed the procedure for outbound rail cars. Then the last thing I did was spend 2 hours helping lay down rock for an addition loaded trailer drop area.

I got chewed out for being early today. I got there at 8am but come to find out I was suppose to be there at noon! I never heard of anyone getting chewed out for showing up to work early. :shock:

[Double L]

$8.50 an hour

[Double L]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, you old timers may know what I'm talking about but the FLD's that they got have the tachographs in them. I'm not sure about the new Columbia's or Sterling's. But the FLD's are pretty much stripped down, no radio or nothing! Only radio in the trucks is the dispatch radio and the driver's cb.

[Double L]

6-5-08

Today I inspected 3 days and then did a 50 pound sample. Then I washed and detailed a 99 Freightliner FLD120 with a sleeper because a driver was going out for a layover. Then I spent the rest of the day in the shop putting bungee cords together and cutting off hoses. Then after that I was helping Mondo out (mechanic) with the trucks and then I helped Mike out hooking up the units, they unhook the trucks and hook to them to the drivers load for the next morning.

Me and Mondo was talking and he told me Mike is gonna be leaving to go back to school. He told me they will be looking for a 2nd shift which is from noon-11pm. He told me if I keep working my ass I may get it and he said he'll put in the word for me that I want the position!

Saturday night at the local horse track Ee-Jay is holding an employee appreciation thing and I'm going to that!

I'm off until Tuesday, I got to call dispatch on Monday and see what they got going on for me!

All in all I been busting my ass off doing my job without complaining and I must say it's a damn great feeling when I get off and drive home what I accomplished since I started working for Ee-Jay.

Oh yeah I forgot, all the trucks have tachographs in them even the new trucks. All the trucks have no jake brakes on them though and they do have radios in them! A majority of the fleet is local but there a few trucks that are over the road.

One more thing, I found odd with the Sterlings, in order to fire them up you have to push in the clutch like you would a car! :?