How Dangerous Is Hauling Hazmat For Drivers? What Are The Risks Of Death Or Serious Injury?

In the past, I have heard of tank trucks loaded with gasoline and exploding killing the driver instantly. Is this a common occurrence still in 2017?

In the army I was once riding shotgun in a straight tank truck loaded with diesel fuel, 2,000 gallons, but I was not apprehensive since diesel is just flammable but not volatile like gasoline. Diesel is actually hard to set on fire. We did have a tank trailer, I think 800 gallons??, loaded with gasoline following the truck but I still felt reasonably safe inside the cab up front in case that blew up.

What other hazmat goods besides petroleum products pose serious risks for drivers?

Are there plenty of trucking positions for rookies that don't involve hazmat? I believe most OTR cargo is dry van or reefer anyway.

I don't want flatbeds as I get vertigo in high places. I don't want to be on top of a load where I could slip and fall.

Hauling a tanker full of milk seems much safer since it is not hazmat.

My personal safety is something I have to also seriously consider when pondering about getting into this big-rig business.

As far as I know I'm the only one that pulls hazmat gasoline tankers for a living. We are typically loaded with 8,600 gallons in 2 seperate tankers.

Its not for everyone. You sound like a good normal person so I would advice to stay away from it. If you're partially crazy and not fully sane then its a perfect job for you. But if you're going to panic because it can blow up then I would suggest hauling a box trailer since its 15 times easier.

I noticed we really dont talk about how dangerous it is at work. I get we just try not to think about it. You have to be aware of the dangers and constantly be vigilant. Theres a lot of security policies to prevent a terror attack since it literally is a bomb on wheels. We cant leave our trucks on lunch, we can only take luch in certain areas, we cannot tell anyone where we get the gas from, we cant tell anyone what we are hauling.

But honestly, it will ignite if you give it an ignition source. Dont let any ignition source come near it and you will be fine. The biggest risk is our deliveries because you have people driving around in cars (exhaust can ignite gas), and people walking around smoking. No cell phones or other electronics can be near the gasoline because believe it or not but cell phones can easily ignite gas.

Obviously the gas vapors are usually what gets set off since it "travels". So you have to know how gas vapors behave. Vapors sit on the ground level and go with the wind.

But honestly its not too bad. You just have go be serious at all times and keep your eyes open and always be alert. Know how to tell people to back away and not smoke. You are no ones friend and you cannot trust anyone. You go there, deliver, and get out asap.

As far as I know I'm the only one that pulls hazmat gasoline tankers for a living. We are typically loaded with 8,600 gallons in 2 seperate tankers.

Its not for everyone. You sound like a good normal person so I would advice to stay away from it. If you're partially crazy and not fully sane then its a perfect job for you. But if you're going to panic because it can blow up then I would suggest hauling a box trailer since its 15 times easier.

I noticed we really dont talk about how dangerous it is at work. I get we just try not to think about it. You have to be aware of the dangers and constantly be vigilant. Theres a lot of security policies to prevent a terror attack since it literally is a bomb on wheels. We cant leave our trucks on lunch, we can only take luch in certain areas, we cannot tell anyone where we get the gas from, we cant tell anyone what we are hauling.

But honestly, it will ignite if you give it an ignition source. Dont let any ignition source come near it and you will be fine. The biggest risk is our deliveries because you have people driving around in cars (exhaust can ignite gas), and people walking around smoking. No cell phones or other electronics can be near the gasoline because believe it or not but cell phones can easily ignite gas.

Obviously the gas vapors are usually what gets set off since it "travels". So you have to know how gas vapors behave. Vapors sit on the ground level and go with the wind.

But honestly its not too bad. You just have go be serious at all times and keep your eyes open and always be alert. Know how to tell people to back away and not smoke. You are no ones friend and you cannot trust anyone. You go there, deliver, and get out asap.

I just found this report on the biggest danger culprit of American fuel tankers: WET LINES. They obviously should be outlawed by DOT or other motor vehicle authorities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdMj9LE4fqg

I imagine jet fuel is also highly volatile.

Over half of my dad's 44 year driving career was with Exxon, hauling AvGas (jet fuel) from their Memphis terminal to the airport and a few years before he retired from Exxon, and went O/O he did gas station deliveries within 150 mile radius. Those jobs are very risky and it takes a special kind of person to be able to haul fuel like that.

He said the gas station deliveries were the worst lol.. simply because of the 4 wheeler drivers and their stupidity. He was paid by the hour and worked four 10 hour shifts. For someone who has the nerve and the experience to land a job like that and wants to be home daily, it's a sweet gig. However he was shot at and had robberies attempted several times. Not sure how they do it now, but back then, stations with poor credit or those who had bounced a check to Exxon were required to pay the driver in cash. . Yikes. He actually was allowed to carry firearms and did so. I can't imagine fuel suppliers operating like that in this day and time.

He missed OTR terribly, retired, bought his own truck, which ate his lunch financially then drove for Canadian Pacific which was bought by ProLine Carriers of Nashville. He retired permanently at age 70 in 2000 and that company went belly up in 2002.

In dry van , I've had my hazmat endorsement from the beginning and hauled plenty of hazmat loads (not tankers). Never worried about the danger.

Sometimes a load would be classified hazmat on the assignment and when I got there, the amount was small enough it wasn't required to be placarded.

Just a reminder not all companies haul hazmat materials or enough that it needs to have placards. Honestly though it's a dangerous job regardless of what you're pulling.

Modern jet fuel (jet-A, jet-A1, or jet-B) is more akin to diesel than gasoline. Actually military uses jet fuel in all their vehicles (ground and air). JP-8 stands for Jet Propellant type 8. Diesel #2 weighs roughly 7.1 lbs / gal. Gasoline weighs 6.2 lbs / gal. JP-8 weighs 6.7 lbs / gal. Yes I know specific formulations and impurities and temperature all effect the specific gravity therefor the weight.

Modern jet fuel (jet-A, jet-A1, or jet-B) is more akin to diesel than gasoline. Actually military uses jet fuel in all their vehicles (ground and air). JP-8 stands for Jet Propellant type 8. Diesel #2 weighs roughly 7.1 lbs / gal. Gasoline weighs 6.2 lbs / gal. JP-8 weighs 6.7 lbs / gal. Yes I know specific formulations and impurities and temperature all effect the specific gravity therefor the weight.

Because of this we estimate gas at 6.5lb and diesel at 7.5lb just to be on the safe side.

The trucks themselves are extremely light. But we haul 56,000lb of moving product so that puts us at 80k gross.

My wife always worry's when I haul hazmat , most of the time its class 3 on a flatbed or 1.4 explosive on a flatbed. I am far more worried about the people around me doing something stupid then the load blowing up on me. I spent over 10 years hauling jet fuel, and 100ll avgas, on airports. In all that time i saw one tanker fire, and you know what it did not blow up just burned and gave the fire department so real training. I would not like to haul milk, I think I have seen more milk tanks in a ditch then fuel tankers. Probly because of the lack of baffels. I am always more scarred of the people then anything I have hauled. Daniel is right tho you have to be on your toes 100 percent of the time. But that should be the case when driving these trucks anyways, your load can always kill you if you let it.

When I decided to change over to tankers recently, my wife forbad me to haul hazmat. She has some friends from doing Chamber of Commerce stuff who are firefighters and law enforcement. Apparently they've told her some really scary stories about truck drivers involved in a crash where they were trapped in the middle of a chemical spill and no one could go get them out of their truck. These are in addition to the usual stories of exploding gasoline trucks.

I have the kind of personality that wants to be able to casually mention during a conversation that I've hauled 50,000 pounds of pure liquid nitroglycerin in a smooth-bore tanker over Loveland Pass during the worst blizzard in the last century so the avalanche crew could make some custom dynamite sticks that were needed to clear the road so the President could go skiing. My wife knows this about me. She said, "Haul food grade for a year or two to get used to the tanker part, then if you still want to haul hazmat , go for it."

But seriously, I think most of the really dangerous hazmat driving jobs involve tankers and various chemicals, not just flammable / explosive fuels, but variations of chlorine, flourine, sodium, and other highly reactive and toxic chemicals. There are also radioactive nuclear material loads, but I don't think anyone here is likely to get one of those jobs soon, and I'll bet if they do, they won't tell us anyway.