fuel tankers

[driver67373]

I know that I'm going flatbed OTR for now but I know once I get my two years OTR I'm going to want to go local. I'm realizing the OTR lifestyle is not for me. I love driving cross country but it is also very lonely and I miss having a normal life and coming home to my own place at night. 2 years OTR seems to be the magic number for every local job I inquire about. Since 14 months is not far away (even though now it seems like it will be an eternity), I'm already starting to look into my options for local. I've found lots of stuff on here about LTL and flatbed, but I can't seem to find much about hauling fuel local. I've heard these positions can pay very well, like 50-65K a year. I was wondering if that's true or not. How do you find these jobs? Are the benefits good? What about equipment and how employees are treated? Are you forced to drive in icy conditions? I would appreciate any info you guys can offer and would like to hear from you guys (and gals) who are doing this or have done it before. Thanks,

Ryan

[teamster]

I know that I'm going flatbed OTR for now but I know once I get my two years OTR I'm going to want to go local. I'm realizing the OTR lifestyle is not for me. I love driving cross country but it is also very lonely and I miss having a normal life and coming home to my own place at night. 2 years OTR seems to be the magic number for every local job I inquire about. Since 14 months is not far away (even though now it seems like it will be an eternity), I'm already starting to look into my options for local. I've found lots of stuff on here about LTL and flatbed, but I can't seem to find much about hauling fuel local. I've heard these positions can pay very well, like 50-65K a year. I was wondering if that's true or not. How do you find these jobs? Are the benefits good? What about equipment and how employees are treated? Are you forced to drive in icy conditions? I would appreciate any info you guys can offer and would like to hear from you guys (and gals) who are doing this or have done it before. Thanks,

Ryan

I have been doing this for about two years and it is probably one of the easiest jobs I have had. Although it is easy, you must stay focused, because it only takes a second to make a major and costly mistake. As far as the income goes, I can tell you most everyone at my company made between 50-60k+ last year. Your income will depend heavily on the company you drive for and your area of the country. I would suggest only working for a company that pays by the hour. Alot of fuel haulers are paid by the load and what if the truck breaks down, what if weather is bad. You are SOL. As far as benefits and equipment go, it will again depend on the company. I have good benefits and I drive a brand new truck. From what I have seen most fuel hauling companies have pretty good equipment. In a single word about icy conditions-NO. No company can force you to drive in conditions which you feel are unsafe. The bad things about delivering fuel: 24/7 operation, working holidays, working nights, working weekends. These things will all get better as you get more seniority, but plan on nights and weekends to start unless you get real lucky. The best thing is you will sleep in your own bed everyday. Hope this helps. You can PM me if you have any questions.

[btinc]

Fuel trucks can be very lucrative, but it will have a lot to do with location, 70k is a real possibility with the companies in my area. I can not speak of all companies but the equipment in my area is top notch and that seems to be the norm around the country. Like all companies some will be treated well some will not. Driving in bad weather, each company will have there own policy and you will have to check each company for what they expect.

[BUCKEYE_TAI]

Where I'm from, local is the thing to do... But like you said, they want that experience cause they do pay so much...

[Cluggy619]

I started this post so everyone can see what a local fuel driver makes around D/FW area.

http://www.classadrivers.com/phpBB2/...084&highlight=

[BUCKEYE_TAI]

wow

[Cluggy619]

wow

Nice comment. Maybe next time, you can try a few more words, unless this is all you have.

Since you are so quick to judge, tell us all how much fuel delivery you have done. I'm sure we all would like to know.

[teamster]

3 pump offs done just by you in a month and a half. Are you the only one that does pump offs. Do you guys have alot of cross drops or something?

[driver67373]

Thanks for all the info. I DON'T mind working nights or weekends, I actually prefer night driving. As long as they give me at least one day off a week. I will be seeking something local in the Little Rock area so I would imagine with it being a bigger city that the jobs would pay well. What kinds of extra precautions do you have to take when hauling fuel? Are you always afraid of something bad happening and getting blown up? Do your companies put saftey first?

I know that I'm going flatbed OTR for now but I know once I get my two years OTR I'm going to want to go local. I'm realizing the OTR lifestyle is not for me. I love driving cross country but it is also very lonely and I miss having a normal life and coming home to my own place at night. 2 years OTR seems to be the magic number for every local job I inquire about. Since 14 months is not far away (even though now it seems like it will be an eternity), I'm already starting to look into my options for local. I've found lots of stuff on here about LTL and flatbed, but I can't seem to find much about hauling fuel local. I've heard these positions can pay very well, like 50-65K a year. I was wondering if that's true or not. How do you find these jobs? Are the benefits good? What about equipment and how employees are treated? Are you forced to drive in icy conditions? I would appreciate any info you guys can offer and would like to hear from you guys (and gals) who are doing this or have done it before. Thanks,

Ryan

I have been doing this for about two years and it is probably one of the easiest jobs I have had. Although it is easy, you must stay focused, because it only takes a second to make a major and costly mistake. As far as the income goes, I can tell you most everyone at my company made between 50-60k+ last year. Your income will depend heavily on the company you drive for and your area of the country. I would suggest only working for a company that pays by the hour. Alot of fuel haulers are paid by the load and what if the truck breaks down, what if weather is bad. You are SOL. As far as benefits and equipment go, it will again depend on the company. I have good benefits and I drive a brand new truck. From what I have seen most fuel hauling companies have pretty good equipment. In a single word about icy conditions-NO. No company can force you to drive in conditions which you feel are unsafe. The bad things about delivering fuel: 24/7 operation, working holidays, working nights, working weekends. These things will all get better as you get more seniority, but plan on nights and weekends to start unless you get real lucky. The best thing is you will sleep in your own bed everyday. Hope this helps. You can PM me if you have any questions.

[driver67373]

What is a pump off?

And what kind of shifts do you generally work? 8, 10, 12 hrs?

[teamster]

A fuel tanker has baffles, so it is not as unstable as a smooth bore tanker. However there will be times when you might have a small load and your compartments are not completely full-this is when you need to be extra careful. You want to take turns very cautiously escpecially if it is uneven ground-for example making a turn where you are turning and going down hill at the same time. You need to watch for everyone else. I get cut off more in a tanker than I ever did pulling a van. People have no respect for the power of a gas tanker and the damage it can do. Be mindful of what you are hauling, but dont let it scare you or you wont last long. Also an empty tanker is an explosive tanker. When you drop the gas you are also collecting all the vapors from the tank you are dropping into and transporting them back to the terminal. One other thing is, when empty, tankers are very light so you will need to slow down in bad weather. As far as the shifts, you usually go home when your done. It might be 8,10,or 12 hours. A pump off is when you take gas out of the ground. Some reasons might be water in the tank, bad gas, or somebody may have dropped regular in the premium tank or whatever.

[Orangetxguy]

I did fuel delivery from 1988 through 2003. 16 years of those were nights, 14 of those were by choice. Started driving at a Carrier in 1988, working for dozen different accounts, doing everything from diesel to lube oil, pump off's...into bulk storage, to pump-out's..emptying contaminated UST's. Pay was by the hour, but bennies were minimal.
Moved from the Carrier company in 1989 to a Major. Hauled only gasoline, did only C-store delivery, was paid by the hour, ($15.90 per hour in 1989, $25.90 an hour + $1.00 an hour shift differential in 2003)had Teamster type bennies, but was non-union, had a 4 on- 3 off work schedule, and worked as many 5th days as I chose to work. Started at #36 on the board, was number 12 when laid off in 2003. Was happy to take lay-off, as the job had moved from being fun in 1988 to being miserable in 2003. Of the 65 drivers that were working at the terminal in 2003, when I took that lay-off, there are now only 18. Every one of them are wishing they had taken the lay-off, since they lost all the great bennies and OT, and now work 40 hour weeks, at $4.80 less an hour than they were making in 2003.

Here were I am now, the fuel hauling jobs are paid by the load, average load pay's the driver $32.50 and takes between 3 hours and 3.5 hours to complete. If a driver has to load all the loads at the Motiva (re; Shell) load rack, you can easily add 45 minutes to each load.

[Cluggy619]

3 pump offs done just by you in a month and a half. Are you the only one that does pump offs. Do you guys have alot of cross drops or something?

Are you asking about me?

Most drops ate gravity drops with the tank underground. But every once in a while, someone has a tank above ground..we just hook up the pump to unload to the pipes that are fitted.

We have different meanings for pump off. To me, it's pumping the fuel off the truck. We have a different team to pump it out of the tank if needed. :wink: