Hi all I’m new to the site, I’ve been driving 2 and a half years as a class 1 driver. Just wanted to know how you would go about getting into fuel tanker driving? Do you need experience? Are there jobs out there? And do you get a better hourly rate? Would be grateful for anyone would could help.
Hi guest. Im pretty new driver myself having my full liencses still havnt drove yet though 
. Still knocking on doors. I know for driving tankers you will have to do adr course cost ya around 4 to £500 to carry flammable liquids. Think its pretty good pay. Not sure about the experincw part. Hope this helps mate. Ps you deffo need to do adr though. One of the other guys or dolls be along soon with more help. Good luck bud 
Diesel Dave is the ADR king on the forum. He’ll probably be along soon with words of wisdom.
My only contribution is that ADR work tends not to be for the new driver.
Pete
Don’t quote me on this but… do the ADR but I think employers will look at number of years road experience without accidents
Swampey2418:
Don’t quote me on this but… do the ADR but I think employers will look at number of years road experience without accidents
In addition, they normally want you to have previous ADR experience and sometimes previous tanker experience as well, even if it’s non ADR tanker experience.
I saw an advert just before Christmas for fuel tanker drivers and it said applicants must have previous fuel delivery experience.
Guesty1982:
Hi all I’m new to the site, I’ve been driving 2 and a half years as a class 1 driver. Just wanted to know how you would go about getting into fuel tanker driving? Do you need experience? Are there jobs out there? And do you get a better hourly rate? Would be grateful for anyone would could help.
Just out of curiosity, what sort of pay or hourly rate do you think fuel tanker drivers are on? I have a sneaky suspicion you could be in for a shock re your expections vs reality.
I think between 9hr 11hr pay for tankers
Hi all thanks for all your replies, well I thought shell drivers were on £41,000 I heard a few year ago when they were going to go on strike. I’m assuming that would be your basic.
I know a Hoyer driver based at Kingsbury. Esso or Shell, can’t remember. He does 16 shifts a month. He does 4 days, 3 nights, 4 days then 5 nights on a rolling 4 week rota. On just over £16 per hour.
I asked him how he got on and he said a mate of his got him in and it’s basically dead man’s boots. I asked if he could get me in and he said I’d need at least 2 years experience and preferably some experience in fuel delivery but the last bit is not essential. And of course, there needs to be an opening, which is very rare on that kind of money.
In local newspapers,i have seen adverts for class 2 drivers with small family fuel delivery firms.
Heating oil drops to houses or red rebate diesel to farms.
That is ideal for experience,then up to class 1 tankers.
How about aircraft refueling at major airports?
Ford Fuels Ltd at Radstock near Frome were after drivers and Tinknells Fuels Ltd.
William Hocking at Devon now hauls tankers.
Guesty1982:
Hi all I’m new to the site, I’ve been driving 2 and a half years as a class 1 driver. Just wanted to know how you would go about getting into fuel tanker driving? Do you need experience? Are there jobs out there? And do you get a better hourly rate? Would be grateful for anyone would could help.
Hi Guesty1982,
You’ve already had some very good answers to your question, so I’ll explain the ADR licence part first…
To drive a fuel tanker, you would need an ADR licence valid for the absolute minimum of “Tanks” and UN Class 3.
If you do that, you’d be able to drive any tanker that your driving licence covers you to drive, but only if it’s carrying a flammable liquid (UN Class 3.)
Of course, you can already drive any tanker that your driving licence covers you to drive when it’s cleaned/purged or when it’s carrying any substance not classified as a dangerous substance.
If you’d like to broaden your appeal to employers, my suggestion would be to take UN Classes 2,4,5,6,8 &9 in addition to UN Class 3. At the same time, you could also consider whether it would be worth your while adding the ‘packages’ module to give you even more scope. In all honesty, you’ll be more likely to see a return on the outlay for ‘packages’ than you would be for “tanks.”
Now for the reality as pointed out above… you’ll probably find it very difficult to get into a tanker driving job, especially if you’re a new driver or lacking in experience.
In the cold light of day and being realistic, my advice is that you could save yourself the cost of the “tanks” element of an ADR course if there’s no realistic prospect of you getting a tanker driving job.
You can always add “tanks” to an existing ADR card at a later date if need be.