Profile For Dave T.

We had a guy back over a bollard around an above ground tank and ripped 3 of his 5 load heads off his trailer. It was pouring rain and he couldn’t see out the passenger mirror because it was soaked and he was going back blind. He didn’t wanna get out and look. Luckily the belly valves were shut. Same guy also cross dropped at a customer site and ruined 20k (10k gas/10k diesel) gallons of fuel because he was too busy talking to a worker there and didn’t pay attention. He finally lost his job after he had a major spill somewhere else. He was parked nose up on a pretty big angle, opened all the belly valves (the trailers have a manifold system so you can drop the whole trailer at the same time through one load head but mainly used for for pump loads), flooded the vapor recovery and was pouring a load of dyed out of the rear port and didn’t even know it. Luckily someone saw it and alerted him to it but it made a heck of a mess. I’m not with that company anymore but he cost them a lot of money and time.

Pay attention to what you’re doing at all times! A conversation that takes your focus away could cost you and others their lives.

I used to travel that route from Hagerstown to Harrisonburg just about every day making deliveries way back when but I don’t get up that way much anymore. I grew up outside of Williamsport but now live in central VA. I haven’t keyed up my CB in almost 20 years though. It’s been sitting in the box in storage ever since. Luckily I don’t have to drive 81 much anymore. It’s a nightmare out there.

Also, look into companies that have an emergency fuel operation. There’s a company here locally that keeps people on the books strictly for emergency and disaster relief. I’ve heard they start at $650 a day for an 8 hour shift and time and a half after 40 if you’re out that long. It’s mostly Class B work too.

Have you considered other forms of hazmat? If you’ve got at least a year or so under your belt, hauling fuel is a great career. Whether you have a Class A or B, there’s a potential to make some decent money and possibly have the home time you’re looking for as well as the pay and benefits. I started out delivering heating oil as my first hazmat job and got into driving the class A tankers hauling ethanol then on to the gas and diesel. It was a stepping stone for me as it led to my new and certainly improved job with the state. If you have the experience, look into broadening your horizons into a different area. If you’re already hauling that kinda stuff, propane could be a good option or even butane in the winter time for the fuel terminals. There’s also local p&d that have good pay and benefits too. Keep your options open.

Excuse my ignorance as I haven’t driven OTR in over 15 years, but is idle air still a thing at the truck stops? The company I worked for didn’t want us to idle while in the bunk so they paid for it if it was available. I haven’t seen it in a long time but then again, I get to sleep in my own bed every night. I wish we could have had APU’s on the trucks, that would have made it a lot more comfortable. Nowadays it’s just annoying if the AC doesn’t blow cold enough 😂

I have been using unisom sleep gels for years. It has the same ingredients for sleep as the Benadryl does. I got hooked on Ambien a long time ago and it took forever to get off of that. Now I can’t sleep at all without some kind of medication but at least I don’t sleep walk anymore like I was on the Ambien. That stuff is dangerous. Also, my ears ring really bad at night so I have to have noise to sleep with but I have a super noisy neighbor upstairs who works night shift from home… his office is directly above my bed with hardwood floors. I tried different types of headphones but I’ve been using the soundcore sport x20 ear buds for almost a year now. They make ones specifically for sleep but the x20 sport has the ANC feature plus the ear hooks so they stay in my ears while I sleep. After almost a year of every night use, they still last 8-9 hours of continuous play. I use a sleep sounds app on my phone and it helps to drown out the noise from upstairs and anything else so I can sleep. They’re actually comfortable to sleep in and I’ve only lost one in the bed one time since I started using them.

It’s tough making that transition for sure. I went from working second shift for 6 years to having to be at work at 6am and it took me a long time to get off that night shift sleep schedule.

Back when I was jockeying trailers at a good size distribution center, I had a guy come in the yard one evening who worked for a local carrier. Our company had contracted with them to help us shuttle trailers between the DC and the cross dock. I was absolutely floored when I pulled up to his driver window to give him some instructions and he held his finger up to tell me to wait while he wrote on his note pad. This guy was 100% deaf… driving a big truck. Nothing against him at all but I couldn’t believe that he was able to pass the tests without being able to hear. It was extremely difficult trying to communicate with him in a high pace setting like that. I’ve got no problem with folks with disabilities bettering themselves, but I just couldn’t believe it. I guess he was able to get his CDL after those lax regulations were passed.

I’ve been hauling fuel for about 3 years now and I’m way out of shape. The toughest part of the job for me is getting in and out of the tractor with a bad knee. We have a few customers who made terrible decisions on their drop placements for their tanks that make it very difficult. Sometimes I have to run a 20’ hose under the trailer because the drops for different products are on opposite sides. Lifting that hose full of gas and trying to drain it can be tough. We have other customers who placed their drops above the level of our load heads so you’re technically dropping fuel uphill. When those hoses are full of diesel, they can be extremely heavy and difficult to manage without making a huge mess. Sometimes I think we deliver to those places because other companies refuse to due to driver safety. If you go with one of the bigger companies that mainly does gas stations, it shouldn’t be too bad. You can always get creative and never have to lift a full hose like I try to do if I can. We carry jugs of diesel additive to dump in before we drop… I keep a few of the empty ones around to place under the hose so it’s a gradual downhill from the trailer to the drop tube. Work smarter, not harder.

Nah, that’ll buff right out. 😂

I’m glad I only have to load in Roanoke and don’t have to deal with all those headaches 😂 It very rare that we need anything we can’t get here.