What's Happening In The Bakken Now? and Personal Story

I was just reading that if you want housing bring your own 5th wheel or camper...

 

Really matters on the area you're in. Some stay in trucks. Some go back to campers. Some do the man camps. Lot's of full rv spots cost $600 - $900 per month for the space and hookups.

 

About a year ago, full hook ups were hard to find. It's pretty easy now to get one where ever you want. If you want the max amount of hours possible, a company with sleeper trucks will get you that.

 

Advantages to sleeper truck:
1. no housing cost (huge plus)

2. You obviously wont be slip seating which means you could work your full 14 legal hours.

3. Never forget that whatever time it takes to get from the truck to where ever you are staying is time taken out of your day. Play it off any way you like. There are 24 hours in a day...if you use 12 of those working and one commuting... you have 11 left for everything else. Time gets away quick when your putting in long hours...and you NEED rest.. whether you think you do or not.

Disadvantages to the sleeper truck:

1. You may have trouble finding places to shower.
2. It will be a task to live full time out of the truck...clean clothes, food, cooking etc. It is done everyday by otr drivers but the oilfield will have new challenges to everything.
3. Just being confined to a 7'x6' box all the time. Especially in ND in the winter time. Summertime you can get out and stir around a bit... wintertime, your going to want all the warm air you can get.

Thats pretty much my take. For what it's worth... I would prefer the sleeper. No slipseat, more hours available and no housing expense. You are in the oilfield to make and save money. The sleeper matches those goals to a T. Go home and take some home time when you want out of the sleeper for a while...or get a room for a weekend if you can find one that is affordable.

 

I'm not in ND, so I cant comment too much on how it is up there. Most places are slip seat and they do run 24/7 if they can keep the drivers. But...at least in OK and TX... there a lot of places that run sleepers also. I'm slipseat now and looking at another job that would be slip seat as well...but it's truly not the best situation because of the things I mentioned above. I didn't even mention the part of dealing with another driver constantly. I see very few slip seat drivers that like each other...lol.