Flatbed or Tank

Bulk = less work, more money.

 

Tanker pays better but requires some tactical skill to drive. I don't think anyone with 1 year experience should be pulling tankers. Defenitly not starting out in teh winter.

Flatbed can be a lot of work and sometimes thinking. And really sucks when the weather is bad.

I did flat for 6 years. Now i'm pulling tank and verry happy. But i started pulling tanks 5 years ago. With no baffles. I"m glad my neck survived.

 

I am too old to flatbed.

 

I've done flatbed, tanks, refrigerated, dry van, and tanks is absolutely the best, in my opinion.
Quick turnarounds at shippers and receivers and very good accessorial pays. There's nothing complex or difficult about hooking up a hose and then unhooking it after unloading. Same goes for opening or closing dome lids.

 

Way back in my Railroading days we had a foreman who would taste the stuff that leaked out of the tank cars. He died of cancer for some reason.

 

Ethanol is denatured with gasoline in a certain percentage. Sure your railroad licker taster will get a nice buzz, but it will and apparently did buzz him into the grave.

Anyway.

If I had a choice between a tanker and flatbed. I would go with tanker. Now there is a certain specific tanker stuff I wont do such as hauling fuel. I don't believe that the spirit of my uncle getting strafed on the redball when his load of jerry can gasoline gets hunted by the Luftwaffe or having a tanker get away from him on the Big Savage Grade (He survived, quit by western union, rode home on the B&O railroad so they say...)

I would not be the third in my family hauling fuel in a tanker.

Ive hauled raw milk to dairy daily and it was a good money, good gravy except one minor problem Terrain. I was once asked or taught to rotate trailer tandems on a 10 x 10 patch of flat gravel with a 400 foot ravine next to it. Yes I said 400 foot. Should the outside tandems slip under that trailer, over you go. and voernadovernadover anover, breaking your bones in several places as you rotate inside your rotating tractor like a load of laundry to your death.

Looking back on that, ive done bigger drops than that little farm. I was such a wuss. and am still a wuss. I had to drive out between two quarries once following a 2 foot wide yellow line with strict orders to put the left front steer in the middle and leave your doors half way open to bail should she flop over that 1000+ foot verticle straight down to either side. My fear destroyed my recollection of that entire day. I have gone over google earth hunting every quarry in the USA and aint found it yet.

That was flat bed.

So. Tanker? Flat bed? Tanker? Flat Bed?

I suggest you stick with tanker, behave yourself. Why? I did tanker with a hour each way commute in a car and after a 16 hour day that one hour commute and 6 hour sleep before one hour back to the yard is rideicilous. But it's a business for young People.

Ive done flatbed with commutes after a 16 to 20 hour day, 3 or 4 loads a day, tarped. My commute was only a few miles across frederick and with certain specific loads like roofing foam I would spend the night right up there on top of the foam load under the stars. So I swing down climb into cab and crank.

Bulk Tanker has several very ironclad rules. Thee shalt drain thy air before a man goes topside to open hatch. You will keep fresh bolts and latches several times a year into that hatch. Lives depend on it.

Without any more details from you regarding company stuff... there is nothing else for me to offer you,

 

What's that leak underneath the aircraft? Oh, a quick taste will tell! Uh, that's the pee tube outlet.

 

I started driving tanker straight after school.. I hauled salt water in the oilfields of West Texas . Doing van. Now and missing the good old times. I'll probably go back to tanker when I turn 25 and get hazmat. It can be done.. just slow on the curves lol