Now I know I’m well stricken in years and I’ve been retired from the tanker job quite a while now but I was walking through town yesterday and a big spirit motor was stood at the lights, I looked, and I looked again, 
THERE ARE NO LADDERS TO GET “up top”. My knees, (well one of them, the other has been replaced), are knackered after many years of running up and down those ladders. Don’t the spirit/derv men have to go up top now?? How does the customer check the dips? I wish it had been so easy in my day. 
Automatic gearboxes, armchair sprung cabs, frilly pelmets, HEATERS, 
Hells teeth the driving job has gone to the dogs. 
grumpy old man:
Now I know I’m well stricken in years and I’ve been retired from the tanker job quite a while now but I was walking through town yesterday and a big spirit motor was stood at the lights, I looked, and I looked again,
Automatic gearboxes, armchair sprung cabs, frilly pelmets, HEATERS,
Yeah ive been retired over 2 years and the last tank i used had (infra-red dipsticks) they gave a reading for each pot and the total at the end of the delivery,so no ladder and no lids.The younguns ave got it made eh.Vic.
Greetings,All. Kinell,when I retired in 1987,bottom loading with vapour recovery was just coming in.I thought that was modern 'til I saw this.Must be heaven in the pouring rain not having to get up on top to show the dips,(before and after).Sometimes,progress is a good thing, though not very often. Regards,900x20.
900X20:
Greetings,All. Kinell,when I retired in 1987,bottom loading with vapour recovery was just coming in.I thought that was modern 'til I saw this.Must be heaven in the pouring rain not having to get up on top to show the dips,(before and after).Sometimes,progress is a good thing, though not very often. Regards,900x20.
The bit that got to me was half the zbs did’nt look at the sticks when you showed them the dips 
No ladders on the back anymore as we are not allowed access to the top of the trailer.
If we did get up on top then the man lids are all fixed shut.
The dips have been replaced by the Bill of Laden as to how much is in each pot.
You don’t “split” anymore either.
The downside of all that is we get less time to do everything.
It’s so much quicker to load and deliver and with the improved road network we don’t get any time for a chat.
This job is probably not the job you have retired from.
Good old days have long gone.
The ladders had just disapeared when I retired after 43 years on tankers. This rule finished off a lot of the small garages as they had to order a load where a tanker pot would go straight into one of their tanks and places that had old small capacity tanks could not do this unless they got supplies from a small distributor with small lorries. Always had problems with the dips showing short if the lorry had been loaded overnight and stood out in the freezing weather. Had to put the stick in the tube and wiggle it to try and get the level up to the mark.
One of the drivers had a couple of special sticks on his tank where he had taken the rivet out of the cross piece so it could be adjusted to read whatever you wanted it to. We used to do loads split between two or three garages and I think these sticks paid for his holidays.
Numerous times I have held the stick over the side of the tank to show the garage owner the dip and it has slipped out of my hand and he has nearly done the sword swallowing trick.
Me with the sticks out in the late seventies. This garage had a long forecourt with two tanks at one end, four in the middle and one at the other end.If the garage ordered 1000 litres of 3 star petrol we had to keep 500 litres of 4 star and 2 star on board and drop it into the 3 star tank. At this time the garage dipsticks were in gallons and the tanker sticks in litres and we had to work out the conversion.
A typical delivery years ago. After filling all the tanks on the forecourt we had to reverse down to this tank which was in the garden of the bungalow next door. There was a greenhouse behind me when I took this photo and one driver threw the end of the hose over his shoulder to drain it out and stuck it through one of the windows.
Easy to have a contamination if you get the pipes mixed up.
Happily retired Cheers Phil.
Numbum:
The ladders had just disapeared when I retired after 43 years on tankers. This rule finished off a lot of the small garages as they had to order a load where a tanker pot would go straight into one of their tanks and places that had old small capacity tanks could not do this unless they got supplies from a small distributor with small lorries. Always had problems with the dips showing short if the lorry had been loaded overnight and stood out in the freezing weather. Had to put the stick in the tube and wiggle it to try and get the level up to the mark.
One of the drivers had a couple of special sticks on his tank where he had taken the rivet out of the cross piece so it could be adjusted to read whatever you wanted it to. We used to do loads split between two or three garages and I think these sticks paid for his holidays.
Numerous times I have held the stick over the side of the tank to show the garage owner the dip and it has slipped out of my hand and he has nearly done the sword swallowing trick.
Me with the sticks out in the late seventies. This garage had a long forecourt with two tanks at one end, four in the middle and one at the other end.If the garage ordered 1000 litres of 3 star petrol we had to keep 500 litres of 4 star and 2 star on board and drop it into the 3 star tank. At this time the garage dipsticks were in gallons and the tanker sticks in litres and we had to work out the conversion.
A typical delivery years ago. After filling all the tanks on the forecourt we had to reverse down to this tank which was in the garden of the bungalow next door. There was a greenhouse behind me when I took this photo and one driver threw the end of the hose over his shoulder to drain it out and stuck it through one of the windows.
Easy to have a contamination if you get the pipes mixed up.
Happily retired Cheers Phil.
We had a rule that you only gravitated into no more than two tanks at a time.!!!
Numbum:
The ladders had just disapeared when I retired after 43 years on tankers. This rule finished off a lot of the small garages as they had to order a load where a tanker pot would go straight into one of their tanks and places that had old small capacity tanks could not do this unless they got supplies from a small distributor with small lorries. Always had problems with the dips showing short if the lorry had been loaded overnight and stood out in the freezing weather. Had to put the stick in the tube and wiggle it to try and get the level up to the mark.
One of the drivers had a couple of special sticks on his tank where he had taken the rivet out of the cross piece so it could be adjusted to read whatever you wanted it to. We used to do loads split between two or three garages and I think these sticks paid for his holidays.
Numerous times I have held the stick over the side of the tank to show the garage owner the dip and it has slipped out of my hand and he has nearly done the sword swallowing trick.
Me with the sticks out in the late seventies. This garage had a long forecourt with two tanks at one end, four in the middle and one at the other end.If the garage ordered 1000 litres of 3 star petrol we had to keep 500 litres of 4 star and 2 star on board and drop it into the 3 star tank. At this time the garage dipsticks were in gallons and the tanker sticks in litres and we had to work out the conversion.
A typical delivery years ago. After filling all the tanks on the forecourt we had to reverse down to this tank which was in the garden of the bungalow next door. There was a greenhouse behind me when I took this photo and one driver threw the end of the hose over his shoulder to drain it out and stuck it through one of the windows.
Easy to have a contamination if you get the pipes mixed up.
Happily retired Cheers Phil.
Hehehe, Happy days eh? stood up there in the pouring rain with the wind howling up yer kilt. Better still in winter, tops covered in ice etc.
Numbum:
The ladders had just disapeared when I retired after 43 years on tankers. This rule finished off a lot of the small garages as they had to order a load where a tanker pot would go straight into one of their tanks and places that had old small capacity tanks could not do this unless they got supplies from a small distributor with small lorries. Always had problems with the dips showing short if the lorry had been loaded overnight and stood out in the freezing weather. Had to put the stick in the tube and wiggle it to try and get the level up to the mark.
One of the drivers had a couple of special sticks on his tank where he had taken the rivet out of the cross piece so it could be adjusted to read whatever you wanted it to. We used to do loads split between two or three garages and I think these sticks paid for his holidays.
Numerous times I have held the stick over the side of the tank to show the garage owner the dip and it has slipped out of my hand and he has nearly done the sword swallowing trick.
Me with the sticks out in the late seventies. This garage had a long forecourt with two tanks at one end, four in the middle and one at the other end.If the garage ordered 1000 litres of 3 star petrol we had to keep 500 litres of 4 star and 2 star on board and drop it into the 3 star tank. At this time the garage dipsticks were in gallons and the tanker sticks in litres and we had to work out the conversion.
A typical delivery years ago. After filling all the tanks on the forecourt we had to reverse down to this tank which was in the garden of the bungalow next door. There was a greenhouse behind me when I took this photo and one driver threw the end of the hose over his shoulder to drain it out and stuck it through one of the windows.
Easy to have a contamination if you get the pipes mixed up.
Happily retired Cheers Phil.
These pictures are the very similar although the last one was taken 35 years or so later.
not much has changed after all.
