Kin Kincaid, a driver for Coal City Cob Co. of Avalon, Texas, checks the connection for a heat transit line that pumps a water-based solution through his tanker to keep volatile concentrated paint between 150 degrees and 190 degrees.
Does a job with high rates and lots of home time sound good? How about a job that’s expensive to enter and loaded with governmental scrutiny?
Hauling a tanker often involves all of that, which can make it undesirable to new owner-operators. The tanker industry attracts experienced owner-operators who are looking for higher rates, stability and home time, says Don Benoit, vice president of operations for Quality Distribution, a major tanker carrier in Tampa, Fla. “We have 2,000 owner-operators making between $1.04 and $1.07 per mile,” Benoit says. “They make as much in a year as the owner-operator pulling a dry van, but run 50,000 to 60,000 miles less.”
Owner-operator Leo Greenwood, who has been pulling tankers for Schneider National for three years, says he never misses home time, thanks to cooperation from Schneider dispatch. “I was home every week,” Greenwood says of 2002. “And I don’t get dirty. I just hook up my hoses and wait.” He seldom pulls the same tanker for more than one load. Greenwood, who drives a 2000 Kenworth T600 with a 460-hp Cummins, says he averages $1.05 per mile for all miles. Last year he grossed $144,000 and netted $68,000.
Most owner-operators who want to pull a tanker lease to a for-hire carrier. According to the Overdrive 2003 Owner-Operator Behavior Report, 9 percent of leased owner-operators pull liquid tankers, but only 2 percent of for-hire owner-operators with their own authority pull liquid tankers. One reason independent owner-operators don’t get their own equipment is cost. New tankers range from $75,000 to $95,000.
Even without buying a tanker, the start-up costs “scare off a lot of owner-operators,” says John Hazenfield of Manfredi Tanker Lines in Newberry, Ohio. The main cost to the owner-operator is usually the pump and compressor, commonly called the blower, which must be mounted on the power unit. The blower can cost $5,000 to $8,000, counting installation. “This is one reason only 2 or 3 percent of our trucks are contractor units,” Hazenfield says.
The National Tanker Truck Association, which represents the biggest carriers, has about 180 members. All members work in the for-hire segment and carry about 90 percent of the nation’s chemicals and 50 percent of the petroleum products. Dry bulk, such as plastic pellets, is also a part of the product mix. At the other end of that scale are the small, mostly private carriers, such as oil jobbers who move petroleum products locally and regionally.
