Tanker Endorsement: Highly Reccommend

Ok, so you're in school, or just in the planning stages of your driving career. You decide that you dont want to pull tanker, so you skip the tanker endorsement. This is a HUGE MISTAKE !

I'm currently sitting at a coca cola plant and I'm about to get my reefer trailer filled with syrup. Guess what.....If I didn't have my tanker endorsement, I would have missed out on this load. Just like your hazmat endorsement, (another must have) it is valuable to have, despite your decision to not specify in that type of cargo transport.

I've hauled a cleaning agent, that was basically a soap for microprocessors...it was in 500 gallon totes, and was flammable. How about hauling paint? Not really that scary stuff that comes to mind when you think hazmat or tanker, now is it?

Dont sell yourself short. We all want to be that top tier driver, and making yourself marketable is part of it. I would highly suggest getting every single endorsement that you can. If you can't afford the background check at the time of your licensing, you can still take the permit test, and then go back and get the background check knocked out at a later date. Then it's a simple trip to the DMV (that's an oxymoron, sorry) to get it added to your license.

Thanks for the advice! Im at Prime orientation and already have tanker on my permit.

Thanks for the advice! Im at Prime orientation and already have tanker on my permit.

Good man !

You're 100% correct. A few years ago the Feds changed the definition of a tanker to include truckloads of totes and other large containers of liquids. This is because you can get the same or similar surge. I can't find the statute.

The endorsement test for it isn't much to study, so there's really no point not to imo.

I tried to switch to tanker & was told not possible cause I live in Florida. I said but Orlando isn’t far from Savannah & he still shut me down. What’s worse is that they started routing before knowing my address then left me in routing know limbo without an assigned division.

What’s even crazier is that they still assigned me a truck & even sent me out to St. James to pick up a trailer only to be made to come back to Sprimo cause I was still a B-seat in the system. That was a fun day! NOT!!