Tank Wash? Trailer Wash?

Okay, guys & gals (and especially PJ) TANKERS: How does this work?!?!?!

I've been out w/ my husband on and off for about 10 years now, a taste of OTR , but mostly regional / local... and a washout is the ONLY thing that I've never been a part of ..... !

PJ, when we (he) pulled asphalt (that was the MOST of my involvement.... I learned SO much, it was amazing!) I couldn't go on the HZ runs, obviously...but the 6122 and 3257 were placarded as such, and 'hot.'

Additionally, with asphalt, after pumping off, there was a 'heel' (leftover product that just won't move anymore) as I'm sure you are aware. So, tank washes were never a part of our day(s.)

I believe, once a month (or once per quarter?) the bossman would do a tank wash, just like a 'start over' as the heel tends to build up. I'm not even sure if Ted (bossman) took the tanks to a 'regular' tank wash, or something special? It's always intrigued me, and Tom doesn't know, either.

I'm just curious; very. Any input would be greatly appreciated~! I know we've got a few other tanker guys on here; y'all please answer, as well!

Does food grade differ from chemical grade washouts? How about pneumatic / bulk tanks ?

Now, onto trailers (vans, reefers, boxes of any sort):

I keep hearing about 'Blue Beacons' and such.... there's videos on Y/T, I know. What 'justifies' a washout? Who pays for this? How often? Is it 'product' specific as to when and why? I know, I could Google it .... and get directed to a million sites, but was just hoping that our fellow TT'ers could share some insight, from a trusted source on the web~! (Also figure it'd be a topic for aspiring drivers to learn from, as well!)

Finally, any type of flatbed / open deck:

Do you guys get your trailers washed as well? Regular and OS flatbeds? Stepdecks? Conestogas/Curtainsides?

I would kind of 'hope so' after you's guys do those 'onion' hauls, hahaha!

Just got my interest piqued in the last few days, and ... finally, here I am!

Thanks to you all, for any and all replies, guys & gals; appreciated~!!!

Anne :)

ps: PHOTOS ARE WELCOMED AND ENCOURAGED~!~ tysm!

I drive a dry van and only had to do washout once. I had hauled small trees to nurseries in the spring and the trailer was muddy. Went to a Blue Beacon actually and they washed out the trailer. I paid for it myself and was reimbursed by my boss, that's how all of our expenses are covered where I work but can be different everywhere. He was also looking into setting up an account with Blue Beacon to get a discount on truck washes. As far as tank washes I would assume that is all dependent on what was being hauled and what is going to be hauled next.

I drive a dry van and only had to do washout once. I had hauled small trees to nurseries in the spring and the trailer was muddy. Went to a Blue Beacon actually and they washed out the trailer. I paid for it myself and was reimbursed by my boss, that's how all of our expenses are covered where I work but can be different everywhere. He was also looking into setting up an account with Blue Beacon to get a discount on truck washes. As far as tank washes I would assume that is all dependent on what was being hauled and what is going to be hauled next.

Thanks, Joseph I. ~!! That's exactly what I'm looking for, info like that. Appreciate the info, driver ~!!!

Keep 'em coming, you other y'alls~!

Thanks!~ Anne :)

Crete pays for the wash (national account) at Blue Beacon once per month. I always just wash the truck, not the trailers. It's $42 to $50 out of pocket. I don't do reefer loads, so no trailer washouts. We can do unlimited washes at any terminal that has a wash bay.

Depending on the location and time of day, the waiting in line for the wash has lasted as long as more than two hours. The actual washing of the truck takes the staff about 15 minutes tops

Anne I pull chemical tanks mostly, occassionally a food grade. We have some dedicated trailers to customers that haul the same product and they wash them out once a week. They top load them 4-6 times then wash. Everything else is washed after each load. Have to really be careful to watch last contained even after washing. Also not all tank washes can clean everything. It can get pretty involved.

We’re running pretty hard till tomorrow night. I can give you more detals later if you want.

I drive a refer. There are a few shippers that require a washout before loading. For the vast majority though a good sweep out is all you need. Sometimes the refer floor will build up a layer of gunk from the moisture of the condensation making the dust and grit stick to the floor. In that case, If I know I’m going somewhere that’s picky I’ll get it washed out. It’s really just a judgment call.

I’ve had a couple loads where a careless forklift driver caused a spill requiring a washout. One was melted ice cream and another was a carton of eggs.

If I’m on the road, I just call maintenance and they’ll direct me to the nearest washout. We have accounts with many of them for direct bill. if not they’ll issue a PO and I’ll write an EFS check. If I was at or near a terminal I would wash it out there myself. Come to think of it, I’ve never had to do that. I wash the outside every time I’m in a terminal, but never had to clean out a trailer there.

I was at a Tyson plant recently that had a washout bay on site that they required you to use wether the trailer was clean or not. That was literally the only thing in that whole place that went smoothly.

Hope that’s helps your curiosity.

My current company has an account at blue becon for wash outs. The "official" company policy is to get it washed out between every load, but like wild bill said 99% of the time you can just sweep it out and it'll be good to go. The only time the outside of my truck gets washed is when it rains or goes in for service. The company doesn't pay for exterior washes at the beacon n wants us to bring it to the terminal to get washed.

When I worked at roehl it was the same way, account for wash outs at the beacon and exterior was washed at the terminal. The difference was I was at the terminal much more often with roehl. I would wash my truck usually once a week there.

With both companies if i had to go to another wash out location then I had to call in and get a po number and write a comcheck/efs check. And then remember to scan in the receipt with my paperwork.

The biggest problem I see with washouts on trailers is some places also want them dry and I have seen some guys have a terrible time getting them dry enough to be loaded.

Hi Anne, I work for Schneider, where we haul strictly chemical liquids; maybe half are HAZMAT. After we complete a delivery/offload, we bring the empty tanker to a tank wash, where we just drop it. That’s one of the benefits of working for a larger company: we don’t have to wait for the tank wash to clean the trailer we just brought in. We drop the dirty, and move on to our next assignment. If we have to pull a trailer out of the same tank wash, it’s usually clean and sitting somewhere waiting for us.

The tank washes we use also process food grade tankers, usually in separate wash bays dedicated for the food grade trailers. I don’t know where the asphalt tankers get their trailers cleaned... I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in my 3+ years at any of the tank washes we frequent. Every once in a blue moon I’ll see a reefer come through for a wash-out, but that’s very rare.

I pull three different types of tankers-lp, gas/diesel, and asphalt The only one that gets cleaned out on rare occasions are the gas tankers, and that's only if we're hauling something like aviation fuel. We have a wash bay and attendants, so to wash out a trailer consists of us just dropping it off and picking it up the next day. Our asphalt trailers haul nothing else, and seriously never get washed out. One reason being that even a small amount of water in an asphalt tank is extremely dangerous. My company is strict enough about preventing this that we can't even wash the outside of our asphalt trailers when they are empty. You've got to leave the thumb down on our older trailers to break the seal on the dome lid when empty so the vacuum doesn't lock it down, and because it's no longer an airtight seal, water can trickle in during an aggressive wash. Our trailers are also set up to get a really good drain, so the "heel" your talking about never materializes for us. The miniscule amount of product left over melts the next time a load drops in. The only "washing out" we do for asphalt is running diesel through our valves and pumps to keep them clean. Also, after hauling polymer, we like to run a couple regular asphalt loads right away to flush that goop out.