Oilfield Owner Operator - Canadian in the USA

I have a day off today so I thought I would add some of my thoughts in case someone was looking to do the same!

I'm 32, been in the trucking industry since I was 18, owned trucks on and off through out the years but have recently started getting serious about actually OWNING trucks. I got into this current line of Oilfield work ( Pulling Water + Oil tankers ) in the last 4 years. Bought my first truck 3 years ago and have since bought 2 more ( while selling the first )

Trucks;
- 2015 Kenworth T800 Tri drive pulling a 11,700 gallon ( 44 cube )Tremcar Stainless Steel trailer
- 2013 International Prostar pulling a 11,700 gallon ( 44 cube ) Heil Aluminum trailer

I started in Grande Prairie, Alberta in 2016 driving for someone which quickly turned into buying my own truck and doing the work how I wanted. I bought a POS which was really tough. This $50,000 quickly turned into a $100,000 truck after many many repairs. LUCKILY I was busier than a pig in poop so it was all fine and dandy. That brought me to buying the Prostar, mainly because it was a smoking deal - as was the trailer.

This is when things started to slow down, oil kept on going down and more competition was slowly creeping into town. I seen rates go from $200/hour down to $140/hour when I was reading to kick the can and give in.

At this point my partner and I wanted something different in life and knew living in the states would be an awesome experience. We started doing research and decided this was the route we were going to take. With that being said, this can only be done if your equipment is paid off. We got our VISA application all ready to go, imported the trucks into the states and waited in line while everything go approved.

This whole process started in March of 2019. Visa got approved at the end of October 2019 and from that point up until 2 weeks ago we have been dealing with permits, insurance, registration, licenses, Social Security Cards and all that fun stuff that seems to take forever.

I've finally got fully insured, leased onto a local oilfield company just outside Williston, North Dakota and have been on a 1/2 dozen jobs or so.

I can definitely say the standard of safety down here just isn't where it should be vs Canada and it blows me away. I will continue to do what I've always done because that's how I've been trained.

At the end of the day, I'm thankful I've been given this opportunity to do this and I'll make #### sure I build it to eventually get my green card. At this point I've been approved for a 5 year VISA and as long as I build it up I can continue to renew it, except I'll never be a permanent resident.

I'm open to questions as well!

 

Since I have my own Insurance I got on with APL Logisitc, Bell Energy, Blackduck Trucking and Avery Enterprises.

 

I can definitely say being a Canadian has seriously impacted me leading onto their insurance.

My other thread states how my insurance started at 52+k and finally got down to $18,000 with everything included.

 

Updates:

Tanking down here is weird, oil companies ( the ones we work for ) don’t want to move water when it’s below 32.... I personally don’t understand that BUT it’s given me a chance to pull a step deck / flat bed and learn that side of trucking!

I’ve been deathly afraid of hauling pipe but honestly it’s not so bad!

My dispatch is bidding on an oversized load for me from Williston down to Oklahoma City so hopefully that comes through! I would be excited to actually take my truck OTR instead of always just local.

On that note is there a routing helper for oversized loads through America ?

 

I used a Canadian company personally. It requires me to come back to Canada every 60 days to "reinstate" is ( which I did last night )

The cost is $650 per year ( based on my age ) and gives me a 10 million USD coverage for medical concerns.