I know some guys in the past have asked about fuel tankers, this is what I know about 2 companies, just wanted to pass the info along.

Liberty Transport, part of Frost Oil Company..I think, Van Buren Arkansas.
They start at around $17.00 per hour, they used to pay by the load but guys were doing stupid stuff to make more money, so for safety reasons they went to hourly pay. They work 10 to 12 hour shifts with OT after 40 hours, 5 day work week, new guys start out on nights and weekends, the driver I talked to said they have really good medical ect., they usually try to put only one delivery per tank load but every now and again you will have 2 stops per tank load, they have straight truck tankers that haul to the really tight spots and to farms, all the new guys I see are in tractor trailers so I am guessing these straight trucks are a desired position, as it all pays the same. I was told it is easy to make between $50,000 and $60,000 per year depending on how available you make yourself. If you dump the wrong product in the wrong hole, first time is a write up, 2nd time the same and 3rd time termination, if done in one year, that is if I remember what he told me right, he did say everyone does it at least once.

Dupree Transport, the yard at Ft. Smith Arkansas
$16.50 or a little more to start, 5 day work week, 11 hours per day, thats all I know about that.

I hope this helps someone, at least gives them an idea of what life is like hauling gas around here.

Your friend,

GT

It's pretty hard to put the wrong fuel down the wrong hole these days. Its all color coded.

Most companies use the standard: Red=Reg. Unleaded; Blue=Premium; White=Mid-Grade, Green/Yellow=Diesel Fuel.

Most of it is "fixable" (pump product out and return to the tank farm) unless you mix diesel with gasoline. That was a good way to get fired, back in the day.

$17.00 per hour to haul liquid dynamite to a gasoline station these days?

Oh yeah, that's why I haven't hauled motor fuel in years.

The driver told me the $17.00 per hour was to start, thats a pretty good starting wage if you ask me, I would rather make $17.00 and be with a good company that doesn't lean on me all the time, than make $20.00 in freight and be treated like I am nothing, and pushed all the time, like I was for 7 years with fedex, I asked this guy for the info because I thought it would be useful here, personally I like where I am at, if something happened though, I would rather haul gas than go back to freight for roughly the same starting wage.

Sure, its sounds like a good starting wage, if you compare it to hauling non-hazardous freight wages, particularly non-union freight pay.

That is until you start working at non-union fuel delivery company,(which is most of them) and find out that the unionized petroleum tank-truck drivers (most of the major fuel companies like ARCO, Union, Chevron, Shell, ect.) fuel-drivers are union, and the rest of them are not, and they are making *Double* the wages that you are, and not including all the union benefits, to boot.

Then it really hits home, because you have 8500+ gallons of gasoline in the thin aluminum tanks behind your day-cab that will roast you alive, and half a city block, to cinders of dark carbon, if it ever spills and goes up in flames.

Then it seems that $17.00 per hour isn't such a good wage after all, when those big-oil company drivers pass by you with a big grin on thier faces, smiling all the way to the bank.

Like they say: "been there, done that; never again".

I've been hauling fuel for 21 years now.

It is a nice clean job, very little frustration involved, but it does not suit every one.

Yes, you do need to pay attention to what is going on around you all the time. Yes, you can mix products, and that is a terminal situation.

In my part of Canada, we do not have union fuel haulers. The oil companies decided that it was more economical and efficient to use outside carriers.

Lineups at loading terminals is now our biggest frustration with waits sometimes exceeding 4 hours.Airplane fuel is what I haul mostly, and that is a bit more complex than ground fuels. There is a 5 to 10 minute testing procedure that is required before departing the loading terminal. If the fuel does not meet the specs, then the load does not leave the terminal.

Then you see the lab rats swarm over the load to find out why!

As aviation fuel drivers are usually delivering inside the airport grounds, security checks are the standard, so be sure that you are "clean"before looking at that end of things.

Hijacks are not yet a real concern. Yes, the load is not traceable once it has been put in a tank, but the real baddies are not interested due to the relatively low value of a load.

Fire and explosion are a hazard, but when you consider that a van may have "mixed consumer quantities" of hazmats that can combine into some really nasty explosives in the event of a collision, or even due to load shift, it is not so bad.

I saw some of those union fuel haulers out in cali., I was there on vacation and talked to one of them, this was years ago, around here we have no union fuel haulers, no one hauls for the actual company, shell, chevron,ect., I am very pro union, I left UFCW 2008 close to a year ago due to low wages, I did love being in the union though, I wish we had more of it around here, freight is about it though, ABF, little bitty terminal here, same with Yellow. At any rate, when the card check recognition passes, and it will eventially, maybe we will see more union in the tank sector, foodservice, flatbed, the whole works, man I got off topic big time. I only posted the info to help someone that was wondering about it, not trying to say its the greatest job on earth, just putting some stuff out there.