Thanks To All Here

Update: Got hired yesterday, went for drug screen today, start tomorrow night. Will work nights as this is what I wanted. I found the job only because of a person who read my post and told me where to find this job. It worked out exactly has he said it would. A good experience so far. Many thanks to this member of this forum!

Because I have no oil field experience pay is $19 an hour to start, then after 90 days goes to $20 an hour, then after 6 months goes to $21 an hour. This is for running a vac truck hauling water. They pay 8 hours extra for any holiday you work, this on top of any overtime. After one year you get 40 hours paid vacation. This job is 5 days on, one day off, then 5 days on again. It is 12 hours.

Not sure what kind of truck or anything else at this point. My wife is still sick and has not gotten out to apply anywhere.

Blasted hot water heater element burned out in our RV. Enclosed in a small area, it is impossible to remove the element without taking the entire heater out of the RV. I had things to do, like the drug screen, so could not do it myself. Cost $250 for an RV tech to come out and do it. That sucked!

Had a good look at Big Lake the other day. Looks like that is where the action will be soon. More soon.

 

Update - Jan 18, 2014

Have been hauling water products for a little over a week. Never done this before, but it is easy - as long as you pay attention. Have hauled OBM (oil base mud), production water from tank batteries, hauled ground water brine, fresh water, etc. I work nights. It is cold, you must dress well and warm. It is dark, hard not to get lost if not following someone who knows where to go. At times it is hard to stay awake. Overall the job is a good one, especially for the pay.

There are those you will work with who work hard, who do the job right, know what they are doing. And there are those who goof off and don't really know what they are doing. I recommend at first you learn who the good ones are and work with them. They are willing to help, to train. That is how you learn the job. It is a team effort, and you will run with other trucks most of the time.

You will work long hours. Most companies will work you a minimum of 72 hours a week. There is no guarantee that when your shift is over you can leave. It's a daily gamble on that. You work 12 to 14 hours go home to eat, sleep, and get up to do it all over again. Very little time off to do anything. I work 5 days on, get one day off, then back on for 5 days again. There is little time for anything else. If your goal is to work hard and make money, this is the place. If you want to work just 40 hrs, then get two days off, that is hard to find.

On the downside I am learning that one must be careful with truck inspections. These trucks take one hell of a beating. The competition here is intense among hauling companies. Customers have several competing companies to choose from. There is hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into the area and the competition for that money is like an Old West Gold Rush. It is indeed the Wild West. As a result trucking companies really push the limit of truck maintenance. Keep a close eye on your tractor and trailer and do your inspections, it could save your butt big time.

Regarding living in Big Spring, TX in the RV Park, it's not too bad. The RV Park is great. Big Spring does not have much in the way of shopping, the Walmart here sucks. It's hard to find the expensive fire retardant cloths you are required to wear. Some companies supply uniforms after 90 days, etc. You can get by without the expensive fire retardant clothes for a while, but you will want warm steel toe boots, and those cost at least $100. I paid $235 for mine.

 

Update: Jan 26, 2014

Have completed my second week driving a vac truck. So far so good. This post will be for those new to vac trucks. I'm far from a pro at this point, but i will share some things I would have liked to known before I started.

First, think of a "Vac" truck as a giant wet shop vacuum. That is all it is - a big powerful vacuum cleaner. And like a vacuum cleaner can either suck things up or blow them out. Vac trucks have a powerful pump run off the truck's PTO (power take-off). Drilling rigs need drilling fluids hauled in, and when done, they need them hauled out again. As a vac truck driver and operator, you will pump water out of something and then blow it back into something somewhere else. You'll suck fresh water out of well tanks or, as I have done, suck it right out of a natural spring.

When a drilling rig is set up to drill a new well it needs a lot of fresh water, and it needs something called brine water, which is salt water. You will haul in this new fresh water, and in my case, I haul in brine water. Both are pumped into "reserve pits" at the drill site. Also needed at many drill sites is something called Oil Base Mud. This gook is expensive, about $200 a barrel. This goes into steel tanks, not pits. You'll connect a hose to the tank and pump in the mud, and when they are done with it you will also pump it back out and haul it off to a plant where it gets recycled and used again at another drill site.

There are several other types of water-based "products", but you'll almost always be using 3 inch hoses to connect to tanks or to put in a big pit, to move all of them. I usually drive between 100 and 400 miles a night. Usually I run with other drivers to the same site to suck up a load, and then run from a few to up to 100 miles to unload it. It is not a hard job. It is not all that physically demanding. Dragging hoses is the hardest thing, and most of the time even that is easy. A woman can do this job, and I work with women who do this job well. However, when using long hoses running down into a pit, it does take some strength to wrestle the end of the hose down into the pit. And at times you'll need to haul a hose up 20 steps to the top of a tank to suck up crude oil off the top of the water in the tank.

If you work with good people everyone helps each other, as they do where I work. There are only a few valves used, on the truck and on the tanks. But you must open and close them in the right order, and you must make sure a hose is not pressurized when you disconnect it. If you open or close the wrong value at the wrong time, nasty things happen, and you can be seriously injured.

The biggest challenge of all is staying awake at times. The shortest shift is 12 hours, and many days it goes for 14, even 15 hours. Whether on days or nights you will get sleepy. You WILL learn when and how to take a nap!

If you are used to driving OTR with a 53 foot trailer, you are in for a surprise. A vac truck trailer is 13 feet shorter than a 53. Therefore it turns faster and tighter. It takes some getting used to as they are very nimble and quick compared to a 53 dry van. Also, vac trucks are incredibly tough. They can take a beating like no dry van ever could. They turn tighter so you don't need to swing out as wide on turns. Many vac trucks have day cabs so you have the added luxury of a rear window to look out of when backing and turning.

Compared to OTR, logs and paperwork, at least at my company, are extremely easy. We have no qualcomm or other eob system for logging. All we do for a log is show the days we work, and the hours we worked, and its all on one sheet of paper for the whole week. Paperwork is extremely simple and fast. My truck is governed at 80mph. the speed limits here are typically 75 to 80 mph so that is what I run fully loaded. Since the tank is baffled there is not a great deal of slosh and slop of the water in the tank causing problems. You do need to use common sense. Take it slow and easy until you really have a feel for the truck. If you have driven OTR and around used to the slow, lumbering 53 foot trailer pulled by a sleeper tractor, get ready for a fast, nimble truck.

The lease roads to the drill sites are very rough and you can't sensibly go over 20mph. All in all, this is a very easy job that pays well. With no oil field experience I started at $19 an hour for the first 40 hours, and time and a half after 40. You make your money on the overtime - if you have enough dependents or other ways to keep it all from going to Uncle Sam.

You will need to do good pre and post trip inspections. Pay close attention when doing so. These trucks take a hell of a pounding and stuff does break. It is up to you to find what is busted.

regarding life in our travel trailer, all I do is eat, sleep, and shower here. That is all I have time for. So it is not bad at all.

Okay, all for now. Will update in a week or two.