Whats going on with food grade tankers?

[Aftershock]

How about the big 2.5 food grade tanker companies: Indian River, Bynum, and Ruan? I was under the impression that Ruan was phasing out their OTR side of their business and going to mostly local and regional hauling so tell me if I am wrong. Are these companies still hiring currently? Will they hire a driver that has the tanker endorsment but no experience pulling a tank? If so, I'm assuming that they will train that driver on how to use their tanks as part of orientation?

Something else I noticed the other day at a dairy, Morning Star Foods in Murray, KY, and I saw an Indian River truck sitting in the back parking lot. The truck was a Freightliner Cascadia; not a Peterbuilt 379? Does anyone know if Indian River is changing all of their trucks over to Freightliners now? Same question with Bynum: I havent seen a Peterbuilt pulling a Bynum tanker in a long time, they have always been Columbias or Mack Visions. Do they have any Peterbuilts left?

[Jackrabbit379]

I see Indian River trucks quite often. They run out to Lubbock quite a bit. All of the ones I've seen are 379's.

[Cyanide]

Unless things have changed drastically in the last few years, neither River/North American Tank Lines or Bynum will train you. If hired, you go through orientation, then literally get thrown a set of keys and a load to run. Right from the frying pan into the fire for those who've never hauled tank before....

Oh, I wouldn't even count Ruan in that number btw. Ruan has done nothing but screw up what was once a great company to drive for (Jim Aartman, Ripon, CA). If you wanna say "Big 3", then it would be the above-mentioned outfits and then throw Oakley into the mix. Now Oakley may do some training, but with the modification in their pay package as of late they have just about sunk back down to the other two's level.

[rcpilot]

Yup count Ruan (should be RUIN!) out.. they have over bideded so many contracts they have lost many of the runs/loads that Aartman worked to get.. friends of mine when I drove for Aartman say now they sit for days waiting for something to haul...Ruan OTR (Line Haul) has moved their operations to Des Moines, IA, Ruan's headquarters, and you have to live within a small area of Des Moines, I believe Wisconsin is the farthest east you can live... they will no longer hire any west/east coast or southern states drivers for the OTR. Theere has been rumors for a year now, which menas it's probably not happening, that Jim Aartman Jr. is getting the line haul division back... if that was to happen I'll be back with them in a heart beat.... the local Aartman/Ruan drivers are getting laid off all over Cali... the terminal mgr at ripon said he sent 8 drivers home for good last month.. eek and I hear from other Ruan drivers that Bakersfield has sent many drivers home also... Schnieder has a tank division but I don't know if they would train you.. good luck.

[Aftershock]

Thanks for the responses folks. I pretty much have counted out Ruan from what I have read on this message board; but I havent actually contacted them though. What did Oakley do with their pay package? I think I read something on one of these posts where they got rid of their longevity bonus or did it have something to do with safety?

I havent seen Dak1 post for a while; is he still around?

[Phreddo]

All you coolie carriers need to get with the program and haul fuel!
Nah, just kidding. I'm doing it now, it's long days, but so far it's good.
I called Ruan a while back cuz i saw they had a local dedicated job, but I haven't heard anything since, and that was like June.
But, i got this job since then, so I'm good for now.