Alberta oilfield driving jobs

Who/what is Columbia?

 

Columbia Driver Training in Kamloops - I did the airbrakes over a weekend, cost 175, then I took the 104 hour, 1 on 1 greenhorn drivers course, was 9360.00

yeah.... i know..

 

Sanjel sure does, we've got a little redhead here in Edson driving a tridem bulker, she's probably not more than 25 or so.

She's currently training to be a CNA operator, moving up..
Theres no reason a female driver wouldn't be hired, just keep in mind with Sanjel and Trican (and others) its not just driving, you're taking bulk product to a lease site, you're rigging in, you're working on lease, on the derrick floor (or in case of frac or coil, lease only) and then driving home.. it can be long, and is usually in the dark.

Plus, if you're hot in any way, expect -everyone- to look at you like a hungry wolf looks at a wounded elk.. these ' man camps ' are quite devoid of women, and the guys work 3 week rotations.. So if you love being oggled, come on down.

(edit.. not really serious.. everyone is a professional)

 

Feel free to PM me as well and I can give you a lot of info I can't really publically post

 

Very informative, and straight from the horses mouth.

Thanks OneTrack for posting.

Gonna try e-mailing the Trican rep you posted shortly. Kudos!

 

Hey now!
Yup the trican rep would be good, as I say he's hosting that job fair in kamloops tomorrow.

 

Out on location today, after working in the shop for the better part of a month. It was good to get back in the field but boy am I out of shape. 6 man crew should have been a 3 man crew but all equipment had a trainee. Thank god.

 

I was asked by pm for more info on how much a rookie can make in the oilfields. These examples are based on the fluid hauling industry which is all I have any experience in. Thought I'd post it for others to benefit from as well.

In Alberta you are legally allowed to work 15 hours a day, 7 days a week for a provincial carrier, meaning they only operate in Alberta. Often smaller companies will pay you 16 hours a day and you book one hour off duty in your log book, perhaps someone else keeps an eye on your pump while you load and you take a quick meal break once or twice a day or something. This still gives you the 8 consecutive hours between shifts to stay legal.

So 7 days a week times 15 or 16 hours a day, and you start to get some serious hours in, 105 - 112 hours each week. You need to really pay attention when talking wages with an employer to make sure when they start paying overtime. Some start after 8 hours, some after 10, some after a certain number for the week.

Starting overtime after 8 hours instead of 10 gives you an extra hour of pay each day, so it does add up. Sit down with your calculator and figure out how much you'd make at $24/hour working out different scenarios. Overtime after 50 hours for example:

105 total, 50 at base rate, 55 at OT

50 X 24 = $1200
55 X 36 = $1980
Total = $3180 for the week.

In my situation I got overtime after 44 hours a week, and my boss would run me 16 hours a day, 7 days a week if I'd let him, and had an agreement for a $4/hr raise after 3 months when I was trained up. So you see that starting at a rookie at a relatively low hourly rate such as $24/hour can still be very lucrative - if you put in enough hours.

My potential for a week was 112 hours, 44 reg, 68 OT

44 X 24 = $1056
68 X 36 = $2448
Total = $3504 for the week, straight out of driving school. That $9360 investment wasn't such a bad idea was it?

Lots of guys start at higher wages, like nate hauling pipe for example at $28/hour with little driving experience, but ask him if he ever got 100+ hours a week. That's what matters if you want the real money in the patch!

It gets more fun, some of these guys bill out a certain number of hours for a set run, and if you can do the run quicker they'll still pay you the full hours they are billing out for the truck, so now you are making even more. I once billed out 21 hours in a hair under 14 hours! This was a case of the rate being established during extreme conditions, and the customer still getting billed that rate when conditions improved, rather than me driving dangerously fast - just for the record.

 

good analysis of what a rookie can expect. i haven't seen these detailed breakdown in all the threads i av been through. class 1 or 3 definetly gets you a job quicker, than rolling with a 5.

 

Thanks for the post, but you didn't really mention about income tax, and any other deductions. When I was running vac truck, I would cap it at 84 hours a week and still take home $2000.00 per week after deductions. That was doing shutdowns. 12 hours a day was enough for this old man.