Oil Field Drivers & Workers Needed Badly!

The oilfields are a place you can make good dough. But like is stated above you pay for it in more than skills and time. My wife of 33 years is 900 miles away up in a remote canyon in colorado. She has to plow the 1/4 mile driveway keep the pipes from freezing split wood and stoke the woodstove without help. I get to live in a house the size of a queen size matress try to eat right get enough rest and make enough money to make it worth having a week off about every two months so i can get together with her. The hardest thing about driving a sand can is managing your sleep and not pn-off the site safety man. The money is here if you are tough enough. If you are an OTR driver practice your backing skills before before you come. Im not talking finding a slot at the truckstop, im talking backing down a winding dirt road. I have seen million mile no accident drivers be hummiliated in the first week because they cant negotiate a 300 foot long curve without having to pull forward a couple of times. Then of course there are the times when the directions were not clear and you find yourself backing away from a locked gate 3/4 mile down a dirt road over cattle guards with muddy ditches at night all alone with no spotter. I hope i dont sound whinny because i love this gypsy life. Your not really independant and free but to me it feels that way.

 

I don't work directly in the oilfield, I'm what you would call support. I pull product into the oilfield, pipe, bagged non-hazmat chemicals, pumps, machinery and all kinds of things. I can attest that Midland/Odessa and South of San Antonio are booming. I could spend all my time in those areas. Rates are usually $3-$4 per mile, sometimes more. Rates coming out, not so good. For me, I can't see working that many hours in the oilfields and tearing my equipment up for essentially, more hours for less pay. I have thought about it, I continually, read everyone's post and it's tempting, but I can't seem to pull the trigger.

 

terrylamar---who do you pull for? Are you o/o or independent...? am curious since I have had some stirrings in getting involved in the Texas oil industry. Been on the road for 19 yrs, and want something new. Any info you can share is appreciated...

 

Myself, I have had my own authority for a little over two and a half years. Before that I pulled flatbeds, stepdecks and RGNs for TMC and ATS. I live in Austin. Austin isn't the best place to be base out of. We don't have a lot of industry located here. There is some, but San Antonio, Waco, Marble Falls and Ft. Hood are close by, and if you stick to runs between Midland/Odessa, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston with occasional runs to the Valley and El Paso, it's a good living and I'm home all the time.

I read all these account about drivers working directly in the oilfields, they are working long hours, they are away from home for extended periods of time and they are making less than I am. Now don't take what I am saying wrong, I have no benefits, pay all my own expenses and taxes and have to look for all my own loads. I am not criticizing what they are doing in the least. At the end of the year, they might be doing better than I am.

I have thought about getting some of the specialized equipment needed and lease on with someone in the oilfield. But, then I think, if I worked those same hours for myself, doing what I'm doing now, I would be netting more than $1,500 a week.

I think I am going to continue doing what I'm doing, pulling loads into the oilfield and then going home afterwards. Still, working the oilfields have a certain attraction to it!

Your choice is surviving the cold in the Dakotas or surviving the heat in Texas. It is Feb. 9th today and it is 76 F., it won't be long before we are over 100 F. everyday, for months at a time. It would be great if you could migrate between the two areas, working Texas in the Winter and North Dakota in the Summer.

 

Tagging....

 

thanks terrylamar for the comeback....always nice to get a thought on an issue that is interesting. I am not ready to pull the trigger since I will be in Florida for a couple of weeks and its hard to work when setting on the beach with a tootie-fruiti ####tail. I am leased on to a very fine company in Arkansas and unless some oil company wants to stuff money in my pockets I will hang with them. Very fortunate to work with people I like, and they really try to help the other o/o's make money. Still will be vigilant on a high dollar opportunity yet not give up on the real deal...will watch for you on the forum! tks again

 

Speaking of which, I will be heading to Odessa in the morning to deliver a load of lime. I need to take the time to develop contacts with loads out of Midland/Odessa. I wouldn't mind to this a couple of times a week.