How often does a tanker truck crossdrop a load?

[The motor guy]

I'd imagine the gas and diesel hookups would be different, but I bet they get the different grades delivered into the wrong tank here and there at the gas station.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

Don't know if the hookups are different, but several years ago (6-7?) a BP tanker was filled at the terminal with diesel when it was supposed to be regular unleaded. He delivered to eight different BP locations (including the AAFES gas station at Fort Leavenworth) before the error was caught. BP did the right thing and reimbursed all the victims' repairs for mistakenly getting diesel in their gas tanks.

That is the only incident I can remember being publicized around here. Can't speak to mistakes like regular being substituted for premium or midgrade.

 

[slo town]

A bit off topic, but my own gasoline tanker story....

One summer during my high school years I was working day shift at a large Texaco station with 12 pumps. That afternoon we got a fuel drop. We had a regular driver, a guy named Rudy. Rudy was an older guy but he was always nice to us. We liked him and he liked us. Rudy parked the tanker and setup up the hoses. I wasn’t paying any attention because it was just another day. Remember, these were the days of full service. You got your tank filled, oil checked, windows washed, tires checked if they asked. We weren’t simply collecting money.

There were no customers in the station at the time so I leaned back against the shelf in the dog house (a small building near the pumps) and watched the cars drive by. I noticed the Sky Chief pump on the island in front of me start to leak something out of the top, near where the hose nozzle is parked when the pump is not in use. Curious, I walked over to the pump to see what was going on. As I walked out I noticed that clear liquids were shooting out of the same area on all the Sky Chief pumps. I quickly realized it was gasoline! What the heck?!

I turned back towards the tanker. Rudy was sitting in the cab, his head back and his mouth hanging open, sound asleep. The connection where the hose attached to the underground tank was spewing huge amounts gasoline, spraying it 10 or 12 feet into the air! He miscalculated and was overfilling the tanks! I ran over and woke up Rudy. He leaped into action and shut off thevalves on the tanker.

But by now there was gasoline everywhere. All three islands had raw fuel spreading all over the concrete surfaces. The gasoline spill by the hose connection was 20 or 30 feet in diameter and a quarter inch deep. I ran into the main office and told the station manager. He immediately called the fire department. One small spark and half the block would have blown up.

We cordoned everything off to keep customers away. The fire department arrived and hosed all the gasoline down the storm sewers! Can you imagine that? And, oh, BTW, they sprayed down our street side Texaco sign because it was dusty and dirty. This is a very good example of just how different things were back then. If that happened today the entire surrounding area would have been evacuated and the EPA called in to clean up the spill.

Scott

 

[Chris142]

That happened pretty recently here. I forget if it was gas in the diesel or diesel in the gas.

 

[JTK]

For our cryo liquid tanker trucks (N2, O2, Ar, H2), the loading, offloading and sampling fittings are specific to the product.

 

[JohnnyG]

Several things can happen to cause a "cross drop" (yes, there's even a term for it) so it does happen.
The tanker can be loaded incorrectly, or the compartment not marked right when loaded.
The BOL does not indicate which compartment (there are normally 4) the product goes into. That is up to the driver to flip the (now) indicators on the drop connections to mark the correct product.
Sometimes quantity will indicate the correct compartment, i.e. you can't put 3000 gal of 87 into a 2000 gal compartment.
At the station, the drops are "supposed" to be marked and color coded, If recent work has been done, lids can be switched, and that's commonly where the color coding is painted on.
Finally the driver may be in a hurry or overworked, a mixup can occur. Like poor Rudy above. He could have just hooked up to the wrong tank, or one that had insufficient room for the drop. Should have stuck the tanks with the gauge pole first.

To surmise, there are plenty of things that can cause a mix, and over the course of MANY millions of gallons delivered, tanker drivers never get the credit they deserve for keeping things right!

 

[The motor guy]

Don't know if the hookups are different, but several years ago (6-7?) a BP tanker was filled at the terminal with diesel when it was supposed to be regular unleaded. He delivered to eight different BP locations (including the AAFES gas station at Fort Leavenworth) before the error was caught. BP did the right thing and reimbursed all the victims' repairs for mistakenly getting diesel in their gas tanks.

That is the only incident I can remember being publicized around here. Can't speak to mistakes like regular being substituted for premium or midgrade.

I doubt they even got out of the parking lot before it sucked up the diesel and shut off. Luckily it won't hurt anything other than your time. Now the other way around is a different story

 

[skyactiv]

I highly doubt a tanker would do 8 fuel drops from one tanker as that is very inefficient.

 

[The motor guy]

I highly doubt a tanker would do 8 fuel drops from one tanker as that is very inefficient.

Yeah, that is odd.

 

[The motor guy]

Several things can happen to cause a "cross drop" (yes, there's even a term for it) so it does happen.
The tanker can be loaded incorrectly, or the compartment not marked right when loaded.
The BOL does not indicate which compartment (there are normally 4) the product goes into. That is up to the driver to flip the (now) indicators on the drop connections to mark the correct product.
Sometimes quantity will indicate the correct compartment, i.e. you can't put 3000 gal of 87 into a 2000 gal compartment.
At the station, the drops are "supposed" to be marked and color coded, If recent work has been done, lids can be switched, and that's commonly where the color coding is painted on.
Finally the driver may be in a hurry or overworked, a mixup can occur. Like poor Rudy above. He could have just hooked up to the wrong tank, or one that had insufficient room for the drop. Should have stuck the tanks with the gauge pole first.

To surmise, there are plenty of things that can cause a mix, and over the course of MANY millions of gallons delivered, tanker drivers never get the credit they deserve for keeping things right!

Yeah these tanker drivers do get jerked around a lot. Some statations expect you to be there at certain times to avoid you showing up at a peak time and being in the way. It's always something. Like anyone really cares if a tanker is there. Although I guess a lot of people still believe you get a ton of crap in your tank if you fill up when they're loading it, but I looked into this thoroughly years ago when I had more time on my hands and sole of these stations refill more than once per day and the crap stays suspended for up to 8hrs after word. After that I was like oh well and I don't think anything of it when the tanker is refilling

 

[Kira]

crap stays suspended for up to 8hrs

Was the nature of contaminates described?
You'd think a storage tank could be rigged with something akin to an aquarium filter.

 

[4wheeldog]

A bit off topic, but my own gasoline tanker story....

One summer during my high school years I was working day shift at a large Texaco station with 12 pumps. That afternoon we got a fuel drop. We had a regular driver, a guy named Rudy. Rudy was an older guy but he was always nice to us. We liked him and he liked us. Rudy parked the tanker and setup up the hoses. I wasn’t paying any attention because it was just another day. Remember, these were the days of full service. You got your tank filled, oil checked, windows washed, tires checked if they asked. We weren’t simply collecting money.

There were no customers in the station at the time so I leaned back against the shelf in the dog house (a small building near the pumps) and watched the cars drive by. I noticed the Sky Chief pump on the island in front of me start to leak something out of the top, near where the hose nozzle is parked when the pump is not in use. Curious, I walked over to the pump to see what was going on. As I walked out I noticed that clear liquids were shooting out of the same area on all the Sky Chief pumps. I quickly realized it was gasoline! What the heck?!

I turned back towards the tanker. Rudy was sitting in the cab, his head back and his mouth hanging open, sound asleep. The connection where the hose attached to the underground tank was spewing huge amounts gasoline, spraying it 10 or 12 feet into the air! He miscalculated and was overfilling the tanks! I ran over and woke up Rudy. He leaped into action and shut off thevalves on the tanker.

But by now there was gasoline everywhere. All three islands had raw fuel spreading all over the concrete surfaces. The gasoline spill by the hose connection was 20 or 30 feet in diameter and a quarter inch deep. I ran into the main office and told the station manager. He immediately called the fire department. One small spark and half the block would have blown up.

We cordoned everything off to keep customers away. The fire department arrived and hosed all the gasoline down the storm sewers! Can you imagine that? And, oh, BTW, they sprayed down our street side Texaco sign because it was dusty and dirty. This is a very good example of just how different things were back then. If that happened today the entire surrounding area would have been evacuated and the EPA called in to clean up the spill.

Scott

My “Why didn’t it blow us all to Hell?” Story is from an airport. 100 degree day, I am at the fuel island gassing up. The sound of an airplane engine firing up with an open throttle is followed almost instantly by the sound of mechanical carnage. The fuel attendant and I both run in the direction of the sound.
As soon as I turned towards the sound there was a huge puff of vapor that dissipated instantly.
An airplane had a dead battery and the pilot attempted to start it by “Propping” it. He didn’t keep it tied down so when it fired off it taxied into the airplane directly across from it and the prop cut into the wing tank instantly vaporizing 25 gallons of 100LL.
Given the air temperature and the huge fan mixing the gas with the air the ground wasn’t even damp. But for a second or so, the perfect vapor bomb had an excellent chance to blow a big assed hole in the ground, taking a few planes with it. That pilot was extremely lucky.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Several things can happen to cause a "cross drop" (yes, there's even a term for it) so it does happen.
The tanker can be loaded incorrectly, or the compartment not marked right when loaded.
The BOL does not indicate which compartment (there are normally 4) the product goes into. That is up to the driver to flip the (now) indicators on the drop connections to mark the correct product.
Sometimes quantity will indicate the correct compartment, i.e. you can't put 3000 gal of 87 into a 2000 gal compartment.
At the station, the drops are "supposed" to be marked and color coded, If recent work has been done, lids can be switched, and that's commonly where the color coding is painted on.
Finally the driver may be in a hurry or overworked, a mixup can occur. Like poor Rudy above. He could have just hooked up to the wrong tank, or one that had insufficient room for the drop. Should have stuck the tanks with the gauge pole first.

To surmise, there are plenty of things that can cause a mix, and over the course of MANY millions of gallons delivered, tanker drivers never get the credit they deserve for keeping things right!

So do they run different product in compartment load to load? Ie could it be diesel this trip and gasoline next trip in the same compartment?

 

[The motor guy]

So do they run different product in compartment load to load? Ie could it be diesel this trip and gasoline next trip in the same compartment?

That's what they do in the pipelines

 

[tnt_motorsports]

Don't know if the hookups are different, but several years ago (6-7?) a BP tanker was filled at the terminal with diesel when it was supposed to be regular unleaded. He delivered to eight different BP locations (including the AAFES gas station at Fort Leavenworth) before the error was caught. BP did the right thing and reimbursed all the victims' repairs for mistakenly getting diesel in their gas tanks.

That is the only incident I can remember being publicized around here. Can't speak to mistakes like regular being substituted for premium or midgrade.

Better diesel in a gas vehicle than gas in a diesel IMO. That would have cost BP significantly more to rectify.

Just my $0.02

 

[SC Maintenance]

That's what they do in the pipelines

So then I assume a little residual in either / or is a non event?

 

[The motor guy]

Was the nature of contaminates described?
You'd think a storage tank could be rigged with something akin to an aquarium filter.

I have no idea. Probably mostly very fine sediment. Anything else would go back to the bottom. I'm sure there is all kind of stuff in those tanks. Rust particles, sand, rubber pieces from hoses, an ex's wedding ring, some guys bubble gum that fell into the tank. No telling

 

[The motor guy]

So then I assume a little residual in either / or is a non event?

I asked a while back about residual gas in a gas can now being used to hold diesel and I got the 3rd degree from everyone on here. I think the refineries and such deal with such a large volume that a few gallons mixed in with several thousand isn't worth worrying about.

 

[The motor guy]

Several things can happen to cause a "cross drop" (yes, there's even a term for it) so it does happen.
The tanker can be loaded incorrectly, or the compartment not marked right when loaded.
The BOL does not indicate which compartment (there are normally 4) the product goes into. That is up to the driver to flip the (now) indicators on the drop connections to mark the correct product.
Sometimes quantity will indicate the correct compartment, i.e. you can't put 3000 gal of 87 into a 2000 gal compartment.
At the station, the drops are "supposed" to be marked and color coded, If recent work has been done, lids can be switched, and that's commonly where the color coding is painted on.
Finally the driver may be in a hurry or overworked, a mixup can occur. Like poor Rudy above. He could have just hooked up to the wrong tank, or one that had insufficient room for the drop. Should have stuck the tanks with the gauge pole first.

To surmise, there are plenty of things that can cause a mix, and over the course of MANY millions of gallons delivered, tanker drivers never get the credit they deserve for keeping things right!

I'm surprised it's not idiot proofed. Standardized hose fittings for each type of fuel. Etc

 

[JohnnyG]

I'm surprised it's not idiot proofed. Standardized hose fittings for each type of fuel. Etc

That would make it over complicated. There is only so much room on a tanker truck to transport fittings and hoses.