typical day of a tank driver?

Well the best part about pulling a tank is that when your empty you go home or go back and reload. Back hauls are very rare. I've never had one but they are a possibility. Another huge difference is the overall quality of the customers. It's night and day difference in the attitudes. Grocery warehouse as opposed to, in my case, a mom n pop oil distributer who wants their product and is pleased you showed up on time.

I haul motor oil and biodiesel. It's simple, clean, and non haz-mat. The shipper always loads and the customer unloads about 90% of the time. Tanker companies don't tend to nickel and dime their drivers and are more than likely to offer perks like paid holidays and to pay you for cell phone usage. The company supplies the customers and the equipment to do the job, other than that they leave you alone.

I can't really help you much with the day to day aspects since there are so many variables but there's little chance you will want to do anything else after pulling a tank.

 

So far, in my short time in ND, it's gone like this. Get your first dispatch at the office. Pick up the water from wherever and dispose of at the disposal. Call dispatch and repeat. The only thing that is different is the type of water or where it is being picked up. If it is something like a flow back then you may not talk to dispatch all day. Production water you will call for every load. It may be different at different places, but this has been my experience.

 

Typical day hauling crude is not bad. Do your dispatch and unless the truck boss needs you to do something different than what he dispatched you on he won't call except to maybe check on you if your a worm. Which you are. Show you can read a map and that you know north from south and won't get lost and he won't call unless to change loads on you. Real crude company's have a phone in the truck that's a company phone. They also provide all PPE. Expect to get oil on you at some point in your day until you learn to stay away from your load hose bs upwind of your work. You will blow a hose at some point in your crude hauling career. I repeat you will blow a hose. So double check valves. Open all valves before you load and unload. Days are long, 12 to 14 hours and longer at the end of the month. Faster you are the less time your out. But as to do they leave you alone....... You do your job and most will. Usually have good benefits and pay about every 2 weeks is average. Should be able to make 70$ or better anywhere you haul. Good luck.

 

6 AM get dispatch sheet, 5 or 6 wells. load salt water take to disposal truck back in yard by 6pm.

 

Dispatched at 4:30 am to 5:00 am to the location we will work all day. Pick up FW at a designated location. Run loads all day. Generally see anywhere from 3 to 7 loads a day. Perhaps more depending if the turn is less than 2 hours each.

I usually get about 12-13 hours a day between drive and duty time.

Wash, rinse, and repeat until reset.

 

When I was hauling production water I had my wells and the amount of water they produced an hour memorized so I knew from day to day what I was doing. Didn't usually have to talk to a boss all day. That company was crap though, had to leave before someone got hurt so then I went to a bigger water company that hauled everything you could feasibly get into a tank. We had a 2-way radio that was always blabbering. You called in, dispatcher gave you a load and instructions, you did that and called back in to see if there was another one or if you were returning to the yard. Anything from 1 load a day to 10 or more.

Haul fuel in the oil patch now. Get a dispatch in the morning, load the truck and make the stops (usually 1 rig but sometimes a bunch of little stops), then come back in and see if I have another stack of dispatches. Move anywhere from a few hundred gallons of fuel a day to 20,000 - 30,000 if its all rigs. Usually only talk to the bosses when I'm back in the yard between runs.