Better Wake Up To See Who's Banging On The Door

I had an interesting night. Pulled into the Loves on I-80 exit 242 in Pa just before Jersey. Parked and got to sleep awhile later until I woke up to what sounded like maybe someone getting a running start and backing under a trailer?

A little while later the same thing.. wierd.. Just then someone was banging on my door like the police. I look out the curtains and see someone parked in front of me "great" then I look towards the tractor which is in a ball of flames. Shxx just got real..

I hopped into drivers seat... "sorry to anyone that may have seen more than they should've or wanted to" and proceed to get my tanker away from the ball of flames. Meanwhile all those sounds of someone slamming home into the trailer turned out to be the tires on the tractor blowing.

So.. just be ready to make a run for it.

Main reason I don't sleep in my birthday suit while out here. Hope everyone was safe.

Wow!!! That's crazy. I pulled a food grade tanker for a year, but I'm assuming you weren't hauling orange juice or honey?

It's amazing how quickly things can go from zero to red alert out there, even when you're sleeping!

I was loaded with McDonald's fryer oil. Food grade tanker as well for me Brett.

And Scott.. I'll definitely sleep however comfortable...

Wow!!! That's crazy. I pulled a food grade tanker for a year, but I'm assuming you weren't hauling orange juice or honey?

It's amazing how quickly things can go from zero to red alert out there, even when you're sleeping!

Honestly after reading about your time with a food grade tanker I looked very carefully at what was being offered vs hazmat. I took my experience with tanker and decided that the only hazmat I found that had better pay then food grade was cryogenic. I wasn't comfortable with my lack of experience vs the jump in pay. Thus I'm happily hauling food grade.

I did get curious and asked a Loves fuel hauler about his pay. I make more than he does. And the flip side is that he goes home every night... dead tired.

Fast forward a little while and I might be tempted to look local but to be honest I'm scared to be in the "come home dead tired" rut of local work.

I did get curious and asked a Loves fuel hauler about his pay. I make more than he does. And the flip side is that he goes home every night... dead tired.

My company rents parking spaces at a Ryder yard that we keep our trucks at. I talked to a driver that parks there who drives for "Solar Transport" and he claims he'll make close to 85k for the year hauling fuel to primarily Kum & Go conveneince stores. He runs from Des Moines to Omaha 4 times a week and is doing 5 13 hour days. His biggest complaint about the job is how careless people are constantly cutting him off in heavy traffic (like we all face), and idiots trying to talk to him while smoking, while hes emptying at a gas station. We had a driver who left us to work for Casey's General store. In his position hes shuttling tankers out of des moines roughly 5am to 5pm making $29.12 an hour.

To me the little extra pay isnt worth the risk.

Don't get me wrong. Money is what drives me to tanker. But I wouldn't start at cryogenics.

I've seen some pretty high paying cryo jobs but until I'm a lot more comfortable with pulling a tank... that extra 40k isn't worth it...but.. in a year or two..

I hauled gasoline tankers, primarily delivering to Arco's and Chevrons for 2 years working 1800-0600 night shift.

I make more doing P&D at OD and I have weekends off working 0700-1730.