Pneumatic tanker vs. Hazmat tanker vs. Smoothbore tanker

Chemical trailers, unless dedicated to customer/product, clean as frequently as food.

BTW most chemical trailers are smoothebore too.....

I also delivered haz mat on a dry bulk too.

 

Smooth bore is used for liquids and there’s lots of slosh. They are either gravity offloaded or blown off.
Pneumatic is typically dry and doesn’t slosh. Loads are blown off.

 

HazMat tankers, I pulled one for 3 years, may be washed after every load. It depends on the product that was in the tankr and the next product to be loaded. I pulled for a dedicated account. In general, every trailer was washed thoroughly after every load. On some occasion when the trailer had the exact same product before it was empty as it will be loaded with next, you could skip the wash, but you had to have a copy of the paperwork showing the last product in the trailer.

I wouldn't think of pay varying by food-grade, HazMat, and pneumatic but by company and region, and how much competition for that ype of trucking. Our dedicated Hazmat smoothbore customer paid so much ALMOST every load we hauled, even we took it from Nashville, to Washington State, or San Francisco, or Bangor Maine, anywhere in the nation, once empty we drove all the way to Nashville empty. The product we hauled (various types of acid) and the one producer that loaded us was expensive to their customers.

I suggest you need to know what the various tanker companies in your area are paying and what are they hauling. You aren't going to work for the average company, but one specific company. I'm assuming HazMat tanker loads PROBABLY pay more to the trucking company than pneumatic and food grade, but I have never done any food-grade or pneumatic. Don't confuse regional pay difference betwene very expensive cities and very inexpensive other cities for great pay. Compare the pay in the expensive cities with their cost of living. A 70 CPM, if you live in a less expensive area may be better than a 90 CPM, or higher percentage of the load if you live in an inflated cost of living area like NYC, San Fran, etc.

One thing is easy to find out. Tanker is the way to go if you want a better job. The customer treat drivers so much better than dry van and reefer customers. Most tanker drivers say they wish they had gotten into tanker sooner. I feel that way.

 

As a rule, hazmat and fuel tankers pay better than food grade.
Gas tankers usually run 24/7 so that means you'll be sharing a truck with another driver. You'll probably run nights and the more experienced man will cover the day shift.
Plan on working every weekend and holiday until you build up seniority.
Gas tankers are very unforgiving. You must get the right amount of the right stuff in the right place. A typical gas load might contain three or even four different products. You'll be given the knowledge and tools to make sure no mixes or spills happen. Use them.

Dry bulk tankers can be a great job if you get on with the right company. The people I know that are doing it have assigned trucks, regular days off, and decent benefits. You usually load or unload within a certain area so you get to know the plants well. Unloading can be a little tricky because some bulk products like to clog up in the hose. You'll learn how to prevent that and how to keep it from happening. Dry bulk work is usually noisy and sometimes dusty.

That's just a starter. I don't know anything about hauling chemicals or food grade so I won't comment on them.

 

Pnumatic trailers can be more regional and can be dedicated/return when MT where chemical and food may have more OTR mixed with regional and local work. Lots of different elements in yanking a tank.

 

Depending on how the company operates, arrangements they have various tank washes and locations of terminals you can avoid tank washes doing food grade.

I do food grade and I have had to wait for tank washes maybe 5 times this year. I mostly work out of one terminal that has its own tank wash so I usually deadhead (lots of DH miles in food grade) back to the terminal when empty, drop my dirty tank, grab a clean one and roll. The few times they send me to a tank wash it's a drop and hook there too as they always have 4 or 5 tanks staged at the various tank washes we use.

Dairy loads are washed after unloading at the receiving plant so no need for another tank wash unless the next load requires a specific wash.

Food grade pay is running about 60 cpm, 65 cpm if it's a hazmat load (I rarely do those). A sizeable percentage of my pay is border crossing pay going into Canada so I don't pay much attention to miles I run.

 

Welcome back, Tequila!