Employed as a trucker in the Texas oil field with no experience?

Go visit your local Texas Workforce Commission office (especially if you're in the Basin), they will be able to give you a lot better answers than we can, and they might have resources to help you pay for it.

Check your local community college, they will probably have a truck driving program. There may also be stand-alone truck driving schools in your area. You will need to complete such a program before anybody worth working for will hire you. Companies that require a year's experience might be willing to waive that requirement if you can prove you graduated from an accredited school.

Since you're just starting out, you might try some of the big freight companies that have oilfield operations, like Stevens. Avoid fly-by-night companies, and remember if anything sounds too good to be true, it's definitely untrue.

DO NOT get suckered into a lease or lease purchase program under any circumstances. And make sure they pay you on a W-2, not a 1099.

 

I've done drive away (our company provides drivers to move customer trucks from A to B) for most of the companies you mentioned and more. What you say is absolutely correct. Many big oilfield companies have their own CDL schools.

A typical fracking crew might have 10 on the crew that have a CDL. There might be a few dozen trucks that are in place during the fracking. When it comes time to move to another fracking site those drivers will take 10 trucks, the rest are taken by drive away drivers.

You won't primarily be driving trucks. Your primary job is physical labor, a dirty job with lots of overtime. You only drive when the crew moves to a new location. You will drive a variety of truck/trailer combinations. You will become familiar with the use of brake cleaner to get dried fracking fluid off the windshield, windows, and mirrors so you can see at all.

 

As I understand it, it is not the getting the job part that is hard down there, it is the finding a place to live part.

 

I live two hours from midland and lots of people live here and make the commute daily. It is nuts.

It is not at all uncommon to pay $3-400 a night for a motel over there that would go for $50-60 anywhere else.

 

Apply at Halliburton Jobs!! I had to move when I first started, but I don't regret it one bit!

 

That wireline grease is a doozie to clean off, isnt it?

 

I tried a paint scraper once. That just smears it so you can see anything. Really the only thing that works is sometimes an entire can of brake cleaner and a whole roll of paper shop towels. Then you can use a normal degreaser to get the film off, then you can use an ammonia based window cleaner. Sometimes it can be 15-20 minutes hard work just to be able to see.

 

Quite a few of the drivers in our dedicated drive away division got their start at Halliburton. They have their own CDL schools.

I understand their benefits are absolutely great. But they still have high driver turnover. Lots of folks get their CDL from Halliburton, then jump ship. Screw the benefits, get me the big payday!

 

I just did that the other day. Wind was from the wrong direction and wireline was going down hole. Definitely one of the more miserable things things to clean off.

 

Don't know what part of TX you live in but at HCC its 3,200