On the road again, delivering fuel

Julio Concepcion's daily deliveries keep vehicles on Oahu from running on empty

Julio Concepcion Title: Fuel truck driver Job: Load and deliver fuel from the Aloha Petroleum terminal in Kapolei to retail and commercial customers on Oahu

Julio Concepcion is a Farrington High School alumnus whose first job after graduation was pumping gas at a service station in Kalihi. But the job he thought might be really cool to have? Fuel truck driver. And now, having "just made 40," Concepcion is a veteran at the vocation, having worked at it for more than 15 years, mostly with Aloha Petroleum, which provides fuel to more than 110 retail outlets, plus various government agencies and large commercial customers. He takes his inherently dangerous job in stride, downplaying fears that his daily ride could end up in a ball of flames, preferring instead to focus on how nice it is that each workday is different and that he gets to be mostly outside. Concepcion is married to the former Arlene Marquez, with whom he lives in Ewa Beach and has two children -- a daughter, 14, and a son, 6.

Question: How long have you been working for Aloha Petroleum?

Answer: Going on 15 years now.

Q: What were you doing before you joined Aloha?

A: Actually I was driving for what used to be PRI Gas Express.

Q: How long were you doing that?

A: I was with them for about six months, before going to Aloha.

Q: Why the switch?

A: Actually I wasn't really thinking about switching. But I knew they were hiring a driver, so I told them I was interested, and gave them an application. Their drivers seemed not stressed out. PRI used to have independent haulers, and had a lot of bosses and few Indians, so everybody was your boss. So that kind of made me want to switch. Plus Aloha didn't work on Sundays, and I thought, "Cool, they don't work on Sundays." But little did I know, when I got there, I was a Sunday driver.

Q: What, essentially, do you do each day for the company?

A: Just pretty much we go back and forth. The dispatcher looks over the inventory of our (gas) stations and determines which ones are low, and then she'll set up a schedule of where we go. It goes like that every day, so every day is different. You don't know where you're going.

Q: You're on the day shift?

A: We call it the p.m. shift.

Q: What are those hours, basically?

A: They stagger the times, so we have two drivers coming in at 1 (p.m.), and two coming in at 2, or it could be one driver at 2 and one driver at 3. They try stagger 'cause can load only two trucks at a time, and no sense the other drivers come in and wait. Then the a.m. shift is pretty much the same hours, but just in the early morning.

Q: What kind of a truck do you drive?

A: The truck I'm assigned to is brand new. We just got it last year: Peterbuilt, conventional.

Q: Is that a kind of a truck?

A: Yeah, that's the one with the long nose in the front. Then we have the cab-overs. They call it that because the cab sits on top of the engine. It's like a flat-nose truck.

Q: What brand are those?

A: Those are Peterbuilt, also.

Q: What about engine size?

A: They always get the biggest engines that are available at the time.

Q: Is your job pretty much a solo thing or do you have a partner or others that you drive around with?

A: Yeah, it's solo. The only time you'll have a partner is when you're training a driver. Or say we have a new account, because we do have commercial accounts, too, besides service stations, like military, construction companies or companies that have their own trucks and their own pumps. City and County, also; we do some of that.

Q: Do you need to have any kind of a license to drive for the company?

A: Yep. You need everything except the passenger endorsement.

Q: Is that a yearly thing?

A: Once you get the CDL (commercial driver's license), it's permanent. Only thing is every two years you have to get a physical, and every time you renew your (regular driver's) license, you have to take a hazmat (hazardous materials) test.

Q: So what are they looking for with the physical?

A: They want to make sure you didn't turn color blind, that you're still fit, and as far as hazmat, they want to make sure you don't have high blood pressure. They do eye tests, check your hearing.

Q: Is there any special equipment that you have to use?

A: For delivery?

Q: Yeah, I guess so.

A: We have 4-inch drop hoses for the underground tanks, and then for above-ground tanks we have to pump it in, so we use the 2 1/2-inch hoses.

Q: How about personal protective clothing?

A: Oh yeah, when we go to construction zones, we wear hard hats, and safety glasses when we're loading and unloading, and gloves for anytime we handle the hoses. Loading and offloading, same thing. And the company requires us to wear safety steel-toed shoes.

Q: How difficult is it to maneuver your truck into the gas stations so you can fill their tanks?

A: Well, for me, I've been doing it for so long it's like driving a car. It's second nature.

Q: Are there any stations that have real difficult access?

A: I'd say the smaller stations, and when the stations get real busy, it's more challenging, 'cause the customers park their cars here and there and we have to maneuver around them.

Q: How long does it take to fill up a gas station's fuel tank?

A: For one full truck load -- we carry 9,400 gallons, that's the maximum -- it takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 25 minutes.

Q: What do you do while you're waiting around?

A: We can do our paperwork; make sure nobody comes walking around lighting their cigarettes. ...

Q: How many gallons does each service station take?

A: The average for us, each service station is about 10,000 gallons. But the biggest tank that I know of on the island is around 30,000 gallons, and that's Costco.

Q: In Iwilei?

A: Both locations -- in Waipio, too.

Q: Do you fill up the truck more than once each day?

A: It's one truck load for one location.

Q: And then you go back and get more?

A: Yes, then you go back and load up for another location. So it's back and forth.

Q: How many back and forths a day?

A: We average about four loads a day.

Q: How do you feel about driving around in a truck that has so much highly flammable liquid on board?

A: Well, I don't really think about it that much. But that's always in the back of my mind. It kind of keeps you thinking about safety.

Q: What's the best thing you like about your job?

A: Keeps you out of the office. You're always out there somewhere different.

Q: What's the worst?

A: When I was working on the a.m. shift, it was getting up early in the morning. That was the hardest thing.

Q: What was your first job out of high school?

A: Service station attendant. Funny thing is, when I would see the fuel transport driver, I would admire him and say, "Wow, must be a cool job."

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