Re-newed Trucker Starting Again - Its Changed A Bit Out There!

Greetings all,

New to the forum but have been reading for a couple of months. Enjoyable and very educational, as I just went through CDL School here in Florida (National) and now have my CDL Class A and Hazmat and Tanker Endorsements. I used to drive for a couple of years in the mid 70's and then have had office jobs primarily since then. Put myself thru college in the 80's and a series of tech layoffs and here I am. Some students in the school didnt understand why I was driving again, but for me it was to make some money again and stop collecting unemployment. Tech skills are nice but the job market is tight and being my age didnt help much. So fast forward to today and Im putting my head around this new challenge. This has been a bit of a work culture shock for me but I need to make some money and I do like to drive. I have little OTR exp from the 70's driving from Florida to Michigan for an O/O.. but it was a long time ago. I drove mostly Florida runs back then.

Today my priorities are home time, money is important too, but being gone weeks at a time is not appealing to me anymore. From what I can tell all decent regional positions here in North Florida seem to require some type of recent experience to land. Im going to a company in central florida next week to go thru orientation to drive OTR tanker. They are telling me I will be out 7-10 days and home some weekends. Time will tell.

Look forward to keeping up with the forum and learning from those that have been down the road and hopefully I will be able to add a newbie chapter along the way!

Hey, welcome aboard!

Are you gonna be hauling food grade tanker? I pulled food grade for a year one time and it was a fantastic job - really unique form of trucking. I wouldn't pull a chemical tanker myself - don't want to be in chemical plants all the time hauling dangerous stuff. Especially considering the fact that hauling orange juice pays the same (or better) than hauling gasoline or hydrochloric acid.

But yeah, things have changed quite a bit since the 70's. The most profound difference really is the equipment - the trucks themselves and the technology we have for communicating and navigating. The nature of the job and the industry itself haven't changed as much as the equipment and technology has.

Hey, welcome aboard!

Are you gonna be hauling food grade tanker? I pulled food grade for a year one time and it was a fantastic job - really unique form of trucking. I wouldn't pull a chemical tanker myself - don't want to be in chemical plants all the time hauling dangerous stuff. Especially considering the fact that hauling orange juice pays the same (or better) than hauling gasoline or hydrochloric acid.

But yeah, things have changed quite a bit since the 70's. The most profound difference really is the equipment - the trucks themselves and the technology we have for communicating and navigating. The nature of the job and the industry itself haven't changed as much as the equipment and technology has.

The company says "general chemical" transport.... I know they don't pull gas stuff, but not sure on the other yet. I have already done a road test with the company and go for the orientation next week. There is a company in Florida, Indian River that I would have loved to have started with but I needed at least 1 year OTR , so, I think this company will be a great starting point and then I will have more options later ;-) I suspect this is where they start new drivers to see if they can cut it, so , it should be interesting,,,, I figure if I can handle this.... ;-)

I figure if I can handle this....

Oh I'm sure you'll handle it just fine. The chemical tankers have baffles in them so that helps keep the liquid from sloshing around as violently. Food grade does not have any baffles so it's 48,000 pounds of liquid with nothing keeping it from moving around - a giant thermos bottle.

It can get really hairy at times, like hitting the off-ramps on icy roads in the winter. It's critical to get it slowed down and get the speed stabilized where it needs to be before entering any sort of curves or turns. Once you're in the turn, you hit the brakes or steer a little too hard and you're gonna be in big trouble. Actually, anytime you have to hit the brakes hard it's going to slosh forward in a big way. You hit the brakes hard, you hold your breath for 3 seconds cuz you know what's coming, and BAM - it rocks the entire truck like you got hit from behind by another rig. I've had it knock my hat clear across the cab and clear everything off my shelves.

So you definitely have some challenges that lie ahead with a tanker. Shifting is a real chore too with the liquid sloshing around - you'll see what I mean. But I really loved it. It's like anything else - you have a handful of critical things you have to be aware of and take care of properly. If you do, things will work out just great.

Hey, welcome aboard!

Are you gonna be hauling food grade tanker? I pulled food grade for a year one time and it was a fantastic job - really unique form of trucking. I wouldn't pull a chemical tanker myself - don't want to be in chemical plants all the time hauling dangerous stuff. Especially considering the fact that hauling orange juice pays the same (or better) than hauling gasoline or hydrochloric acid.

But yeah, things have changed quite a bit since the 70's. The most profound difference really is the equipment - the trucks themselves and the technology we have for communicating and navigating. The nature of the job and the industry itself haven't changed as much as the equipment and technology has.

The company says "general chemical" transport.... I know they don't pull gas stuff, but not sure on the other yet. I have already done a road test with the company and go for the orientation next week. There is a company in Florida, Indian River that I would have loved to have started with but I needed at least 1 year OTR , so, I think this company will be a great starting point and then I will have more options later ;-) I suspect this is where they start new drivers to see if they can cut it, so , it should be interesting,,,, I figure if I can handle this.... ;-)

It looks like the truck I will be driving will be a Freightliner with an automatic, so that will take some of the stress out of driving the tanker. I go next Tuesday to finish orientation ;-)

PS.. and all that work I put in at driving school to learn to double clutch again lol!

Bill