Jobs in ND Oil Patch

This is 100% correct. Normally pays a little less up front, but in future years your earning potential will be much higher. Oil companies will give you a chance to advance if you show desire and competence. Friend of mine went to work for Key in Midland about 15 yrs ago literally sweeping shop floors. He now makes BIG money. Turned down going and running all Venezuelan operations a few months ago. Even if Daddy owns the company not many start in the executive suite. Daddy will make you go out and learn before he puts you into mid 6 figures. Not a lot of PC ness either. Just get along and work and anyone can make great money.

 

So why doesn't a guy skip all the bs, go buy a truck and trailer and get in with a company as an o/o....How hard is it to get work as an o/o here in ND? Curious if someone could chime in on this...Why work for half the money driving when you can have it all working in your own truck? Is it that hard to find work for your truck? Anybody? Beuhler....Beuhler.....Beuhler....

 

I ran five trucks under Taylor and spent some time in ND so if ya want the scoop send me a PM

 

Yeah cuz we can all just Buy a 10 year old 10,000 dollar truck and the fuel to take it to ND.... Please

 

Not quite as easy as it sounds. Even if you have a pocket full of cash you still need to get on with a trucking company that owns the work. More and more are not leasing trucks. They are buying trucks. Some owner ops are only paid every 30 - 45 days too. Not easy to flow cash when it only comes around every 6 weeks. So yes, it is pretty difficult to find work for your truck.

 

Oh yeah....and trailers (depending on the type) are becoming more and more difficult to find. Ordering new can take months.

 

LightsOut- I would like to thank you for the information. I've been looking at ND and
Alberta,Canada- which seems unlikely, (not really sure if they allow USA guys up there to work anyway) but that was the most detailed information I have read on any job from up there. If I get on there, I will give them your name. Thanks Again.

 

Most people can, some can't I guess.

 

Ya I've heard about the slow pay, kinda sucks but if a guy can find a company to get on with it would be worth it. But like you said, it's getting harder and harder to find a company to get on with.

 

As many of you know I have done a lot of research and made many calls. There are several on here that are working or have worked in the oilfields. These guys have forgot more than I may ever learn. Still I wanted to share a little of what I have concluded based on my research. Sometimes thoughts from a similar point of view (oilfield newbie) can be helpful.

It was suggested that the time for the big opportunity for an inexperienced driver has past. I really don't believe this is true although I can tell the difference between TX and ND. It appears to me in this business, just like all others, the height of the hiring bar is directly proportionate to the balance between supply and demand. IMHO, TX companies are not nearly as flexible on hiring or schedules as ND because they don't have to be.

I don't have recent experience so for most purposes I am in a same or similar situation as a newbie. It does seem that, even more than 10-year-old experience counts for more in the oilfield than an OTR situation. Some that I have talked to that require experience will (35%) take old experience if you can pass the road test and some won't (65%). There are still many opportunities for everyone.

Probably the easiest jobs to get are with a service company. These are about 10% driving and 90% rigging up and down. They generally don't require any driving experience. If I were a young man I would go after this. Once you learn this job, if you were a hard worker, you could work your way through the industry and eventually pick your job. Jobs like these will allow you to learn everything and you could eventually be running a crew. If you are worried about racking up OTR experience, I don't know why you are headed to the oilfield. An oilfield-driving job will probably not have any more value to an OTR company than this service position. Most OTR road companies specify a 48 state operation and I have seen a few that say at least 5 states of operation for the experience to count.

From my research, I'd say many of us might never get a job hauling crude. The testing, qualification and screening are more thorough than most bank jobs or police officer positions. I have smoked cigarettes for years and doubt that I can pass the cardio-pulmonary tests. Asthma, COPD or chronic breathing problems won't make it. The background check will uncover anything in your past and little to nothing will be overlooked. It costs millions to clean up spilled crude and they aren't taking any chances for any reasons.

Now as far as going to work for an owner operator goes, many to most have to get you approved and put through the same orientation as you would go through for the company. So don't think you will be an easy hire with an owner operator. If you will look on ndworkforceconnection, you will see several owner operators or small fleets that have exactly the same hiring standards as the company they lease to and that company does the qualification process. This is always the case for hauling crude.

What you do save by going to work for an owner operator is the 2 - 3 weeks that it takes the company just to get you through the standard FMCSR background and verification process because the owner operator takes that responsibility and does it himself instead of the company who hires it out. Some of the companies use Hire Right or other big name companies to approve your application just like the OTR companies do.

The driver that I know who went out on Thursday the 20th of October was told it would take 2 - 3 weeks to get approved for crude with a company but that they would forward his information to a contractor, if he wished, for a faster hire. He was hired by Saturday but has been testing and training all week. He is hoping to be working by Tuesday, November 1st. It would have most likely been somewhere between the 18th and 21st of November if he had went with the company. He did get housing and has been paid for some of the training.

Now let's cover the subject of buying your own truck. I have examined a half a dozen lease opportunities with crude, water, pneumatic and dump jobs. If this were easy, I'd be on it in a heartbeat. First let's cover experience or training. Nobody is going to train you. If you have a truck and no experience you just as well go home. So just like any other business, you need to crawl before you walk and walk before you run.

Next problem is finding a trailer, which tells me anyone that says just get your own truck has done little research. New crude oil trailers for ND (tri axles) are around $90,000. If you put a $10,000 deposit down today, you might take delivery between March and May. You might find a used one but it will be nearly $50,000 and too old to finance. Water trailers are slightly easier to find. There are trailers as old as 1968 being pulled out of fields and being rebuilt. Again most are too old to finance, rolling junk or selling for twice their real value. Dump trailers are slightly easier to find and in demand too. A 5 - 6 year old trailer is not much less than a new one. Pneumatic trailers are hard to come by too. Many of the available ones have to be setup for sand by replacing the aluminum fittings with steel. The sand ready trailers are gone by the time you know about them.

Now let's pretend you have experience and you got your hands on a trailer. Add another $5,000 to $10,000 for a wet kit, pump or blower. The contracts call for the truck to be operated 24/7. It usually takes about 30 days to get your first check and then most contracts pay weekly. So let's say we run 140 hours a week instead of the 168 available. My figures are about $60 per hour for fuel, maintenance and wages. These are the things you must pay and assume that you purchased license and insurance and can postpone truck, trailer and insurance payments until you get the first check.

This is a risky assumption but I want you to get you brain wrapped around the magnitude of the capital needed at a bare minimum. 140 hours * 4.333 weeks (in a month) = 606.7 hours * $60 hour = $36,400. Who still wants to buy there own truck and has about $70,000 lying around for down payments, startup costs and operating capital. I'm only looking at 20% down on equipment. Even if you cut everything to the bone, you would need $45,000 - $50,000 and you would be gambling on your success by running on a shoestring. It would be foolish, IMHO, to take a cheap worn out truck to ND. It is harder to find a mechanic than you can imagine. For most of us it would be our home as well as our means of income. So if it breaks down you have no income, a repair bill and need somewhere to stay.

This is why you see owner operators that want to pay once a month. I don't know about you but I'm not working a month for someone that has no operating cash while hoping he doesn't go out of business before I get my money. Many a small companies have already gone out of business from cash flow problems.

Now back to the job situation. I haven't found any companies in TX that furnish housing or that allow you to stay in the sleeper. I would run from anyone that didn't provide somewhere to stay in ND. The worst you have to settle for in ND is a travel trailer or a truck sleeper. Only the worst of the worst are trying to find drivers and expect them to find their own housing. These people will be out of business in short order IMHO.

Most TX companies work a set number of days a week on and off. Often you can work extra days. I have found very few that work so many weeks on and so many off for drivers. They just expect you to relocate. In ND most of the bigger companies are on the same kind of schedules. Many of the smaller companies and owner operators are much more flexible. They want you to work more days and hours in a week with rotating weeks.

In ND several of the smaller companies have crude, water and dump trailers. This is the type of operation that appeals to me. I believe you can get hired quicker and easier. Once working you could get endorsements, training or orientation as needed to move up in the ranks. I have talked to two like this and they want their best drivers on crude so it should be easy to move up.

Someone else said they couldn't believe they suggested Craig's List. I can't believe I am going to say what I am about to say. Any of you that have seen many of my posts have probably seen me say I wouldn't go there with your computer, a ten-foot pole and a full latex body suit. I hope I don't wish I had heeded my warnings. I have seen a couple of fools trying to get something for nothing. I have spoken to a couple of flakes that weren't hard to spot. I have also found several companies advertising there. Finally I have found 3 - 4 that I am in discussion with and believe that they are decent legitimate jobs. You can look in North Dakota, Odessa/Midland, TX and Victoria, TX. There are some listings in San Antonio and Corpus Christi too. If nothing else you can get a good feel for wages, benefits, schedules and availability.