In a holding pattern

When I did frac fuel, I had to squeeze into places no OTR driver could conceive of. And that was right out of CDL school. When I did crude, I dealt with everything from two-trackers to interstates. Now I haul fuel, and work my way in and out of tight stations, as well as deal with everything from interstates to street-traffic at rush hour. All of this without a scratch on the trucks or other people's vehicles, or buildings, or rigs ,or persons, etc., etc.

Again: How exactly am I not qualified to drive OTR? Is there some secret handshake I have to know to get through the scalehouse? *

*Never been through a scale in thirteen months of driving. I'm actually kind of proud to have avoided them for that long

Meh, you can keep your regional OTR gig. Doesn't pay near as much as my local job anyway. I just thought I would ask you about it because I was bored.

 

Personally I believe a guy who can get in and out of a lease in the spring, or a guy who can haul 40+ tons of wood or forestry equipment safely off the side of a mountain and down the highway is a much more all around skilled driver than someone who just drops and hooks vans all day in an automatic truck.

 

I just remembered this one time when I was hauling crude. They send two trucks, me and this other guy out to this new well that no one, and I mean no one from our company had ever been to or had any idea of where it was at. All we had was this xeroxed map to work with.

He took the lead, since he was more experienced. It was a very overcast and dark night, and once we got to the lease road we realized it was going to be slow going until we got familiar with the area. No big deal, so we moved on.

Then, the other guy made a wrong turn. It didn't look right from the start, but we went in and within a mile or so we were in dense brush and hills. First gear type stuff. This was literally a horse or cattle trail, and I'm not even sure about driving cattle on this track. And it's pitch black out. And like two in the morning. Not a comfortable situation to be in. The only thing we were sure of is that we were in somewhere in South TX about 20 miles or so from Mexico.

There was no turning around, and there was no backing out, so we just kept on going. I figured we were in big trouble when I realized I had no cell signal whatsoever and there were no signs of any kind of road anywhere in the distance, so we just kept on moving, at less than 5mph, just trying to follow this trail as best as we could. Brush was so dense I doubt you could see 100ft ahead of you most of the time.

We followed this trail for like two hours, and then suddenly came across this FM that was about ten miles or so from where we had originally started. You never saw to guys so happy to fid some blacktop. We got the hell out of there, went back to the yard and told them they needed to scout it out during the day. They weren't happy but when they saw brush and leaves stuck in odd places all over the trailers they figured out what had happened.

I never thought it was dangerous or anything, but it was not something I would ever want to do again. I'm just glad we weren't loaded down when it happened. Or that we ended up in Mexico for that matter, although I think we would have stopped when we saw a big river in the way.

 

Eh, I still have my moments when I can't back up ten feet in a straight line, but at least I know that I can do what the dock-bumping guys do, with a little practice and familiarization. Not trying to denigrate what they do, because it ain't easy either, but when you can do this stuff off-road, you can do it just about anywhere.

 

There is a difference between otr and oilfield. I think oilfield drivers probably need to go with a trainer for some amount of time. Not that anybody would ask or care, but I would suggest a mandatory training period with the length of time determined by the trainer. A "competent" trainer would be able to judge your abilities fairly quickly. If it were me making the decisions, I would much rather put an oilfield driver into a trainer truck than recent graduate with no experience at all..seems like a bit of a no brainer to me. The oilfield driver is probably going to be ready to go on his own in 1/3 to 1/2 the time of a fresh cdl...my opinion of course.

 

Hey Arky! What's shakin'?

I agree. Training would be needed, but I think your average off road/oil field driver could do the job.

Are you still doing frac fuel? Frac is picking back up around here.

 

Hey Glenn. Yep, still pluggin along. The crew that we're fueling lost the contract that they working ever since I came out here...but they moved us to a crew half as far from home and making more money, easier work and super nice hotel rooms here...so I'm just grinning

I don't have any faith at all in the industry under the current conditions. We're doing real well right now, but I'm rat holing ever penny I can between now and the new year. If all goes well, I won't be too concerned one way or the other at that point..lol.

Fwiw, I do believe that we should be at the bottom of the down cycle. I think we might stay here for a while, but those who have held on might just squeak through to the next uptick.

 

Frac fuel, were you doing that in semi or body mount? I've only taken body mount fuel trucks into fracs, but I've backed water trucks into a live frac before as a new driver and that was painful. Thankfully I had a few other water truckers there to help guide me. Now, I've been body mount so long I don't know what it would be like if I had to do that backing again - slow and painful I'm sure. On fuel stations, I love doing them but thankfully I rarely need to take a pup and when I do they are the big truck-stop style stations with plenty of room. I take my hat off to anyone that can take a pup, or worse doubles, into some of these little stations. No thanks!

 

Usually the staging area was next to the frac pad, so it wasn't a problem, but if the staging area was inside the site then it could be a real hassle. I had one that I had to do two blind turns with equipment and vehicles in each side, with the total distance backing up being over a quarter mile long. Got assigned that one in my second day working alone. It took me over an hour to get the trailer in the right spot. Good thing the company man was cool. He figured out what was going on and gave me all the help I needed to get me in there. I was probably as nervous as at any time in my life, but I got in in there without killing anyone. It just took awhile.

Most of the fuel stops I do are routine. The biggest problem is dodging customers, who seem to think they can wedge themselves between me and the tanks/pumps. I do have this one station though, where I have to back in across five lanes of traffic. The store was designed for a bobtail, but all we have are t/t's with 45' tankers, so I just wait until there's an opening, then proceed to block traffic for a couple of minutes. When they start honking I just laugh and wave.

I have no idea how those guys out west with all the weird doubles combinations that they use get in and out. Maybe Cali kid or Rockinchair can shed more light on that one.

Oh yeah, I also learned a lot about backing from watching the water guys out at wells They have to get into some strange spots to draw waste water.