How to Best Understand Your Tanker Trucking Options

Executive Summary

• Tanker trucks are categorized into oil tankers, gas tankers, CNG trucks, chemical tankers, agricultural tankers, liquid food tankers, water tank trucks, compartmentalized tanker trucks.
• In this article, we cover all of these categories.

Introduction

The truck tanker is a specialized type of trailer designed to carry fluids or gasses. The truck tanker sub-industry is one of the lesser focused areas of trucking.

In this article, we will describe the options for truck tanker transportation.

The Major Categories of Tanker Trucks

Tanker trucking companies transport liquids and gasses. They range from 1000 gallon tanker trucks up to over 9000 gallons, with a typical tanker truck being 4500 gallons. The primary market for tanker trucking companies is industrial transportation. This includes moving gasoline to gas stations, industrial chemicals between manufacturing plants and distribution centers, and liquid foods before being a finished good.

The Primary Market for Tanker Trucks

The primary market for tanker trucking companies is industrial transportation. This includes moving gasoline to gas stations, industrial chemicals between manufacturing plants and distribution centers, and liquid foods before being a finished good. Tanker trucking companies transport little in the way of liquids and gasses to the end consumer because by the time the raw material has been processed for consumption, it is typically placed into a carton or a bottle.

Gasoline is the one exception, so gasoline tanker trucks are some of the most common types of tanker trucks.

The major categories of product that are carried in a tanker truck are the following:

• Oil, Gas and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
• Chemicals
• Agriculture
• Foods (Milk, Juice, etc.)
• Water

Oil Tanker Truck or Gas Tanker Truck and CNG Truck

The majority of liquid and gas transportation by weight in the US is not carried by trucks but by rail or pipelines. The most common type of tanker truck is the oil tanker truck or the gas tanker truck. This is because gas must be delivered to gas stations, and there is no other way to get it to such distributed locations as gas stations. And, of course, the car-based economy relies upon ever-increasing volumes to keep things moving. The oil company typically owns the gas tanker truck and the oil tanker truck as part of their private fleets.

CNG is primarily propane that is compressed and placed into a cylinder on a CNG truck. A CNG truck contains pressurized gas, which is maintained at roughly 3000 PSI. A CNG truck relies on compression rather than temperature control. Liquefied natural gas storage, which keeps the gas at -260 degrees Fahrenheit. LNG trucks perform a similar function using temperature control, but these are far less common than the CNG truck for transporting natural gas.

The oil tanker trucker, a gas tanker truck, and the GNG truck are hazmat tankers and have special trucking safety regulations because of this.

Chemical Tankers

Chemical tanker trucks are used to transport industrial chemicals between chemical processing plants and industrial customers.

Agriculture Tankers

The agricultural truck tanker is a subset of chemical tanker transportation. All manner of agricultural items is liquids. This includes the most common agriculture fluid of fertilizer and pesticides. Agriculture also uses a special type of water truck with a side spray attachment to both water areas when lacking an irrigation system or uses water tank trucks to spray the ground for dust suppression. These water tank trucks are designed to distribute fine spray over a wide area, maximizing water use in the water truck.

Liquid Foods Tankers

Foods are less often transported by tanker trucks because outside for production, a milk truck tanker moves milk from farms to the dairy. As a finished product, these liquids are normally placed into bottles and cartons and are therefore sent by a container truck.

Water Tank Trucks

It may be surprising that delivering drinkable water is a small fraction of the overall market for the water tanker truck. These water tank trucks are called “potable” water trucks. The water tanker truck has two primary components aside from the cab. One is the tank, and the other is the pump. Some water tanker trucks have several water distribution tools as well.

A water tanker truck or water truck is usually where the water system does not extend. Water trucks can either deliver water unloaded into a waiting tank, or the water trucks can be used as a reservoir on their own for uses that are off the grid.

• Construction: The water tanker truck is frequently used on construction sites where a water truck can supply a site with water.
• Mining: Mining companies will use a water tanker truck for dust suppression and compression of mounds of their product that are housed outside. Some of the water tanker trucks used by mining companies are so large. One example is the CAT 773 with a water truck installation, which holds 13,000 gallons and is too large for roads and spends all of its time at the mine. Water tanker trucks are considered instrumental in increasing safety and productivity in mining.
• Drilling: The water tanker truck is commonly found at drill sites.
• Forestry: The water tanker truck is used for fire suppression and fire fighting.

Compartmentalized Tanker Trucks and Combined Tank Truck and Cargo

While from the outside, it appears that there is one cylinder per trailer. In fact, tanker trucks tend to be compartmentalized. This is both done for safety and compartments and even baffling within the compartments limits the sloshing of the liquid during driving and improves tanker trucking’s stability. However, it also allows different liquids and gasses to be carried on the same truck. For instance, a gas tanker truck may carry diesel fuel, regular unleaded gas, and a higher grade unleaded gas to each gas station that it visits, removing the need for multiple gas tanker trucks from servicing the station.

Additionally, the tanker truck comes in different configurations. This includes the rear bucket box, canopy, side delivery, and barrel root. The barrel root tanker truck combines a tanker truck with a rearward compartment to hold barrels or pallets.

Tanker Trucking Companies

Tanker trucking companies tend to be focused on a narrow type of fluid or gas cargo. For example, most gas tanker trucks and oil tanker trucks are private fleets. Chemical tanker trucks tend to focus on transporting specific types of industrial chemicals. Gas tanker trucks, oil tanker trucks, and chemical tanker trucks all fall under the hazardous material category and have higher safety regulations than other truck transport types.

Conclusion

Tanker Trucking is a varied sub-industry within trucking. It offers highly specialized tanker trucks that are of immense importance in some sectors. Food, oil & gas, chemicals, agriculture, mining, forestry, and others all rely upon tanker trucks to perform their task to function properly.