“Investigating the chaotic tanker transport industry: Loading edible oil immediately after unloading coal oil” 

By Han Futao, Zhang Xinhui (intern), and Hao Zhelin (intern)

11 May. Tankers line up every day outside the logistics centre of a CTL plant, waiting to be filled.

24 May. Near the gate of a cooking oil company in Tianjin, a truck driver is cleaning the truck’s output nozzle.

7 June. A truck outside a cooking oil factory waiting to be filled; the content label on the tank exterior has been obscured by a piece of paper, and the driver has stuck on an “Edible oil” label.

24 May. A tanker that has just unloaded CTL has now arrived at a cooking oil factory, and the driver has climbed atop the tank for filling. 
Pages A08-A09
Photos: Han Futao, Beijing News

At 10 a.m. on 21 May 2024, a tanker truck slowly pulled into a cooking oil plant in Yanjiao, Sanhe City, Hebei Province. An hour later, the truck left the factory with more than 30 tonnes of soybean oil in tow.

Unbeknown to most was that the truck, now filled with soybean oil for human consumption, had just brought a full load of coal-to-liquid fuel from Ningxia Province to Qinhuangdao in Hebei Province just three days ago. After the fuel was unloaded, the tank was not cleaned before the truck went to transport the soybean oil.

Coal-to-liquid fuel (CTL) refers to chemical liquids processed from coal, including liquid wax and mineral oils. According to a tanker truck driver who spoke to Beijing News reporters, it has long been an open secret in the tanker industry that the same trucks are used to transport both edible liquids and industrial chemicals, and the tanks are not cleaned in between.

Beijing News conducted a long-term investigation into this phenomenon this May, and discovered that many general-purpose tanker trucks in China are not used to transport just one type of liquid: in addition to syrups, soybean oil, and other liquids for human consumption, they are also used to transport CTL and other industrial chemical fluids. To cut costs, the tanks of many of these trucks are not cleaned in between loads, and some cooking oil plants also neglect to inspect if the tanks are clean, leading to cooking oil becoming contaminated by industrial chemicals.

Indeed, there are currently no mandatory national regulations concerning the transport of cooking oils. Although the “Rules on loose transport of edible vegetable oils” does specify the use of dedicated vehicles, these rules are merely advisory and not mandatory, meaning that companies are not bound by these rules.

However, according to Prof. Wang Xingguo of Jiangnan University’s School of Food Science and Technology, although the current rules on transport are advisory in nature, they do have some regulatory force: “After all, they are a set of national standards which companies should follow when they devise their own internal standards. Company standards can exceed those defined in national standards, but generally they cannot be lower.”

Mixed-use tankers

After unloading CTL, trucks used to transport cooking oil, without inspecting if tanks have been cleaned.

A line of tanker trucks are waiting to be loaded at the car park of the chemical production base in eastern Ningxia.

Located in Lingwu City in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the base is China’s largest CTL production site, spanning thousands of acres. After a series of high-temperature and high-pressure procedures, black coal is turned into products such as liquid wax and mineral oils. 

According to publicly available data, this plant—part of Ningxia Coal Industry Co.—is currently China’s top CTL producer, with an annual capacity of 4 million tonnes. The CTL produced here is mostly transported to highly developed regions on China’s east coast. It is used as raw material in the chemical industry or as fuel.

According to a tanker truck driver, tanker trucks are categorised as transporting hazardous or general-purpose goods. Hazardous tankers are used to transport highly flammable liquids such as petrol or diesel, while general-purpose trucks cover everything not classified as hazardous, “including CTL products like liquid wax and mineral oils, which cannot be ignited by an open flame [mineral oils can be ignited using specialised equipment]. General-purpose trucks can carry these non-hazardous products”.

During mid-May this year, Beijing News reporters saw a wide range of tanker trucks parked around the roads near the Ningxia Coal Industry CTL plant, many of which were general-purpose tankers used to carry CTL. Painted on the exterior of the tanks were information such as the volume and contents. According to a driver, “contents” refers to what is transported inside the tanks, with CTL usually classified as “general liquids”.

“It’s not peak season right now, so the number of trucks parked here is actually quite low. More than a hundred trucks might be parked here during peak season,” said a tanker driver relaxing in the car park. These trucks are usually parked near the plant, and will file into the plant as soon as they receive a transport order. When the trucks are filled up, they will be driven to their destination as dictated by the order. “Many of the tankers here have been pulling in income from this CTL plant for a long time.” 

On 16 May, a tanker truck with licence plate number JI-EXX65Z left the CTL plant in eastern Ningxia, and reached Qinhuangdao City in Hebei Province two days later, travelling more than 1,000 km. The tanker entered a courtyard on the edge of the city, and left more than an hour later. Our reporter noticed that instead of leaving immediately, the truck stopped on a roadside nearby, and the driver opened the door to have a rest.

Our reporter went to chat with the driver under the guise of getting an estimate. According to the driver, he transported CTL from Ningxia to Qinhuangdao on this trip, and he had just unloaded his cargo at the courtyard: “They will be using the CTL as fuel for their kitchen here.” The driver further mentioned that the truck was part of a fleet, for which he worked as a truck driver full-time, and the fleet had more than a dozen other tanker trucks. Since he did not have a new assignment yet, he parked his truck by the road to rest. “Usually we can’t return with an empty truck, we need to find another shipment near where we unloaded.”

Beijing News reporters remained nearby to keep an eye on the truck. On the afternoon of 20 May, the truck started up again, and reached Yanjiao Town in Sanhe City, Hebei Province by evening, where it drove onto a car park belonging to a cooking oil company. According to the security guard on site, the car park belonged to the Hopefull Grain and Oil company, and the trucks parked here were all prepared to transport cooking oil.

At 10 a.m. on 21 May, this particular tanker entered the production site of Hopefull Grain and Oil. The tank had not been cleaned after unloading its previous cargo of CTL. After an hour, the truck drove out of the plant filled with its new cargo. According to the copy of the manifest kept at the plant’s entry checkpoint, the truck left the plant with a cargo of first-grade soybean oil, with a net weight of 31.86 tonnes.

On 24 May, at a car park in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area, another tanker truck with licence plate number JI-EXX76W was awaiting a shipment of cooking oil. While waiting for his assignment, the truck driver told our reporter that he had also just driven a load of CTL from Ningxia to Hebei. After unloading his cargo at Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province last evening, he then drove through the night to Tianjin. The driver revealed that after unloading the CTL, the tank had not been cleaned. When asked if he was concerned that the cooking oil plant might reject him, he shrugged it off: “If they don’t let me in, it’s not a big deal.”

That same afternoon, our reporter saw the truck drive into a plant owned by Sinograin Oils (Tianjin) Corp. According to the security guard at the plant, the trucks entering the plant—including the one tracked by our reporter—were all there to transport soybean oil. Since the filling station was located near the plant’s entrance, the reporter could see the entire tanker filling process. Throughout the process, the truck we tracked was never stopped by anyone, nor did anyone inspect if the tank was clean. The truck left the plant roughly 40 minutes later. According to the checkpoint truck scale, the truck now carried 35 tonnes of soybean oil.

In other words, after just unloading a shipment of CTL, the truck now had a full load of cooking oil without its tank being cleaned.

Cutting costs

Fleet bosses decide if tanks need cleaning, say drivers

Tanker trucks carrying CTL to coastal regions often return with cooking oil, since many cooking oil factories are located there.

During our investigation, our reporters found that cooking oil manufacturers in China are mostly concentrated along the coast. Soybean oil, for example, is usually produced from imported soybeans, and thus soybean oil factories are often located near ports, as is the case in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area.

According to a cooking oil industry insider, not all cooking oil leaves the factory in smaller packages that consumers are accustomed to. Rather, much of it is sold in container-less form: “Some cooking oil factories near ports do not produce for the end-user market. Instead, they will sell the oil to other companies for packaging into smaller bottles. Some food manufacturers also buy unpackaged oil as raw material.

When cooking oil factories sell unpackaged oil, they rely on tanker trucks for transport, of which many are based in Xingtai.

According to a number of industry insiders, Nanhe District, Xingtai City, Hebei Province is well-known in the industry as the “hometown of tankers”: “There’s a high concentration of tanker trucks in Nanhe, at least 3,000 of them.” This falls in line with what Beijing News reporters have observed during their investigation: whether around the CTL plant in Ningxia, or nearby cooking oil factories, the most common licence plates on tanker trucks began with “JE-E,” with “JI” being the abbreviation for Hebei Province, and “E” signifying that the plates were issued in Xingtai.

According to a number of tanker drivers in Nanhe, local tanker trucks at first only transported cooking oil, but later on began hauling other liquid goods, with many heading to Ningxia for CTL in recent years.

“In the past, cooking oil tankers would usually return empty. As an example, a one-way shipment from Tianjin to Xi’an used to cost more than 400 CNY per tonne, but now costs around 200 per tonne.” As mentioned by a tanker truck driver, the growing number of tanker trucks in the past two years has led to increased competition and lower price quotes, forcing many to try and locate shipments for the return trip, and thus many drivers have thus turned their attention to CTL. “Usually it’s hard to find cargo for shipping where we unload, and we make do with what we can find. There has been a rise in demand for CTL transport in Ningxia in recent years.”

With growing demand for CTL transport, and price slashing across the transport industry, tanker trucks are thus unable to be used exclusively for cooking oil. Moreover, many drivers even forego cleaning their tanks in a bid to cut costs. “Cleaning the tank costs at least 300–500 CNY each time, and can go as high as 800–900 CNY.” A tanker driver explained to us: since trucks often transport different goods on each assignment, and cleaning the tank costs a substantial amount, many drivers choose to skimp on cleaning costs when they change their cargo.

Moreover, as our reporters discovered, very few tanker truck drivers operate individually. Most tanker trucks belong to fleets that can range from just a handful of vehicles to more than a hundred trucks. For those trucks that belong to fleets, drivers say that even if they want to clean the tank, they still need permission from the fleet boss: “If the boss wants it cleaned, it gets cleaned. If the boss doesn’t want it, it doesn’t get cleaned. It’s all up to the boss.”

Lax enforcement

Cooking oil companies only inspect photos; tanker labelling altered at will

In the view of many tanker truck drivers, fleet bosses do not arrange for tank cleaning because many cooking oil factories neglect to check if the tanks are clean: “They only clean if there is an inspection, if there’s no inspection then they won’t clean the tank.”

According to a driver in Xingtai, fleet bosses know very well if or how each cooking oil company conducts inspections, based on their years of experience in the industry: “Most will not inspect inside the tank. They will only check the nozzle, so we can get away with just cleaning the nozzle.”

Early this June, Beijing News inquired Hopefull Grain and Oil about their cooking oil transport policies. According to one of their employees, the company does not require dedicated tankers for transporting cooking oil, only that the tankers also transported cooking oil in their previous three assignments. Additionally, “the tank must be clean, and employees will inspect the tank before filling”. However, many drivers we spoke to said that the company’s inspections were quite cursory: “Usually they only look at the output nozzle, so we just need to clean that part. If it’s a familiar face in the driver’s seat, then it’s even easier.” Although the manifest requires drivers to detail their previous cargo, drivers can make up whatever they want.

Beijing News also inquired Sinograin Oils (Tianjin) Corp., where a sales manager noted that in principle, cooking oil needs to be transported using dedicated tanker trucks. However, he immediately added that the tank only needs to be labelled as “for edible oil only”.

“In truth, we don’t really inspect the tanks, and we have no means of determining if a truck is indeed only used for cooking oil.” The manager further stressed that according to their sales contracts, all relevant requirements are the responsibility of the buyer, and the buyer is in charge of hiring tanker trucks. Once the oil is loaded onto the trucks, the company no longer bears responsibility for its quality.

Another cooking oil company in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area has been lax in its tanker inspections.

According to a driver waiting outside this particular factory on 24 May, this company conducted superficial inspections as well, only requiring drivers to upload a few photos: “We just need to photograph our output and input nozzles, and the ‘edible oil’ label on the outside of our tanks.” He also said that simply using older photos stored on their phones would do: “Just find a few clean photos for them to glance over, it doesn’t need to be shot on that day.”

The requirement for an “edible oil” label on the tank was easy to skirt as well, said the driver: they only need to wipe off the “general-purpose liquids” label and spray-paint “edible oil” on the tank. “It’s even easier now that we have paint cleaner.”

According to our observations at the entrance of this factory in late May, many tanker trucks entering the plant showed clear signs that their content labels had been altered: some simply covered their “general-purpose liquids” label with a sticker, and then stuck on an “edible oil” label.

Even with such obvious signs of tampering, these trucks were not prevented from transporting cooking oil.

Regulations for transport

Dedicated vehicles required for loose transport of cooking oils

According to the “GB/T30354-2013 Rules on loose transport of edible vegetable oils,” which came into effect in 2014, unpackaged edible vegetable oils must be transported using dedicated vehicles, and may not be transported in vehicles or containers not exclusively used for edible vegetable oils. Moreover, the rules require that the tank or container be carefully inspected prior to filling, to ascertain that it is clean, dry, and indeed for dedicated use only.

However, the rules are merely advisory in nature. Since they are not mandatory requirements, cooking oil companies are not bound by them.

Even with their advisory status, according to Prof. Wang Xingguo of Jiangnan University’s School of Food Science and Technology, the rules do have some regulatory force: “After all, they are a set of national standards which companies should follow when they devise their own internal standards. Company standards can exceed those defined in national standards, but generally they cannot be lower.”

For loose transport of edible vegetable oils, Prof. Wang notes that companies should adhere to the guidelines set by the rules and use dedicated vehicles, to prevent the risk of contamination during transport.

According to Qiu Jian (pseudonym), a tanker driver with more than a decade of experience, several kg of residual CTL may remain in the tank after unloading if the tank is not cleaned. “For a relatively deep clean, you need to use alkaline water to rinse, followed by high-temperature steam. If you just use plain water, there will still be some residue left.” In most cases, residual CTL will contaminate cooking oil: “Since liquid wax and mineral oils are colourless and transparent, it’s hard to detect contamination.”

In addition, general-purpose tankers are allowed to carry all kinds of non-hazardous liquids, ranging from industrial waste water and waste engine oil, to plasticisers and water-reducing agents. CTL is merely one of the most frequently transported types of such liquids. “In addition to Ningxia Coal Industry plant, there are several other factories producing CTL. Also, other industrial chemical makers may also use the same tanker trucks with cooking oil companies.”

Even though cooking oil is sampled for inspection at the destination, Qiu Jian notes that inspections only look for a limited set of criteria, and most inspections are not able to detect contaminants: “Most inspections look for water content and acidity only.”

In Qiu Jian’s opinion, the long-range transport of unpackaged cooking oil is basically unregulated. “Factories selling the oil don’t really care, buyers of the oil don’t really know what is going on, leaving the transport companies with free rein.” Moreover, according to him, many transport contracts are then subcontracted over and over, so that in the end neither buyer nor seller knows who is ultimately responsible for transport.

As a tanker driver himself, Qiu Jian feels disheartened by the entire situation. He asks that more attention is paid to how messy the industry is, since the quality of cooking oil can impact millions. In his words, “CTL might even be relatively cleaner than other industrial chemicals, which may cause even greater damage if they contaminate cooking oil.”

According to Zhu Yi, adjunct professor at the School of Food Science of China Agricultural University, CTL consists primarily of hydrocarbons, and the unsaturated hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, and sulphides in these chemicals may be toxic if ingested for a prolonged period: “The more one eats, the more toxic they become. Excessive exposure to benzene and aniline may also impact blood cell formation.”

In Prof. Zhu’s opinion, there is an immeasurable risk if cooking oil tankers also transport other industrial chemicals. “This is especially acute if one has no idea what contaminants are in the cooking oil. Highly toxic residue can damage the human body either via contact or ingestion: organic solvents, acids, alkalis, or heavy metals can all damage the respiratory and digestive systems.”