Father-son duo Keith and Zach Bauer, owners of Z&K Bauer Transport out of Felton, Pennsylvania, run 23 trucks primarily hauling milk and other food-grade products. The elder Bauer, Keith, has been in the milk-hauling business for 47 years and said it’s a nonstop operation -- “Nights, holidays, weekends, snowstorms. Cows produce every day,” he said. “They don't say 'I'm not going to make no product tomorrow to haul because it's going to be bad weather.'”
Not only is the time investment demanding, the nature of the hauling itself can be dangerous when it comes to potential rollovers. The product “is in there slopping around, moving everywhere,” Keith said. “The rollover rate on this stuff is horrible.”
Unlike many other commodities that move in bulk liquid tanks, food-grade tanks don’t have baffles, “so you have 46 feet for that liquid to get moving back and forth and side to side," Zach said, "and so it kind of demands some of the best people to do it safely.”
[Related: Liquid-bulk tanker: At once rare and common challenges for owner-ops come with rewards]
Because the Bauers haul unprocessed milk from farms and dairies, they qualify for an agricultural exemption that allows them to haul up to 96,000 pounds. Their trucks and trailers are equipped with pusher axles to handle the additional weight.
As noted, Keith has been hauling milk for 47 years.
He pulls today in this rebuilt 1996 Kenworth W900L.Photos and video by Lawson Rudisill
