Getting stuck on a lease road. Does your company charge you to tow?

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That depends on the company.I've got stuck before and paid the tow.You're lucky your boss paid.If it the drivers fault some if not most companies will make the driver pay for the tow with so much each week out of his check till its paid.

 

O/O, L/O, or company driver? Not chained up?

 

The little, and I mean little only 1 year, of oil field work I did the lease holder or exploration company would get you out unless you wrecked then it was up to your company. Snow, ice, mud they just sent a dozer and chain to pull you up to the pad, but it may be different in Texas as I was in Pennsylvania. It may also be different if you are hauling crude after the exploration period, I hauled mud, water, sand, and liquid nitrogen during the testing and development phase.

I am all for personal responsibility but to charge back a tow because the lease road was muddy, that seems a bit extreme unless they would have let you turn down the load and you chose to proceed at your own risk.

 

Not sure what a "lease road" is, but are you a company driver?

 

If you are a company driver, you shouldn't be expected to pay if you got stuck in the normal course of doing business.

Grey areas where I company technically should pay, but you driver should pay if they wish to continue their employment on good terms:
If you didn't have chains on
If you were stuck where you were not supposed to be (off the road)

 

I'm gonna make a couple assumptions. First of all, I expect you're a company driver. Next, I expect you chained up or otherwise did anything/everything you could to make it work (power divider, full lockers, etc). Now, given those conditions, moving on:

I would never make any of my drivers pay for getting stuck on a lease road. It's an occupational hazard in this industry, and it happens to almost everyone at least once. We very strongly recommend boot-checking (walking) the lease road before venturing off the hardtop, if there's any doubt such as inclement weather or excessive mud. This works in my particular operating area as most of the lease roads are not terribly long, but won't work in all fields. As far as off-road, well, there are plenty of instances where trucks can slip and slide off the lease road too, where I would not fault the driver. It happens. Pull it out, wash off the mud, and carry on. Maybe you'll have to hammer out a step, or replace an air line that got snagged on something, but if you're driving equipment specced for the job, the damages from getting stuck or tilting into a ditch should be minimal.

I wouldn't work for a company that operated like that.

 

A lease road is a privately built access road to service oil and gas well sites. It is called lease road because it is built by or for the oil company that leases the land and you are using it to access the land lease, it is oil field industry jargon. Picture a small dirt/mud/gravel path usually not more than 10 to 12 foot wide cut into the side of a mountain or across a field. Some of them can be quite scary, I have been on ones in the Pennsylvania State Forest that required a dozer to pull you up the grade and lower you back down because at 15-18% grade you would not have enough traction to do it on your own, especially with a tanker that likes to shift all the weight off your drives as you start up a hill.

Also, it is fair to assume the OP is a company driver, owner operators in the oil field would be paying for most everything themselves, including the tow. Leasing on to a oil service company is a lot different than leasing onto a mega fleet.

 

Company driver: company pays the tow, no question.

O/O, L/O: Lease holder should pay the tow.

Lease roads suck, no question about it. If you did all you could (chained up, locked in, all that) then it is NOT your fault. Tell your boss to go pound salt. He sent you in, he gets to pay to get you out.