Experienced trucker, new to oilfields. What should I know?

I'll be pulling tanks and sometimes a can. Good friend of mine has been in the oilfields for years and has given me pointers on how to setup my sand can. But i'll still have to learn.

I have housing provided through the employer, it's decent, and free of charge. No internet, but I'm going to buy one of those little 4G hotspot things from Verizon. Have a 125gal tank in the back of my pickup I fill when I find cheap fuel. Guess I'll try to stock up on food that I can store easily.

 

Well first report,

I went up there yesterday and today to get all of my paperwork and such done. It was pretty cold, we hit -25 before windchill last night, and it was -16 most of the day. With windchill is was about -20 to -30 in Williston.

During my hour or so in the truck today, I nearly had 3 accidents.

1) Driving down the highway doing 65mph, a ladder in the back of the pickup in front of me blows out on to the highway. I managed to maneuver around the ladder without issue.

2) Driving down the same highway about 65mph, a car is pulled onto the shoulder with it's flashers on. I put on my blinker to move over, but no one ever gives me room. I am about 30-50 yds from the car, and it moves into the slow lane before gaining any speed on the shoulder. By this point I have slowed down to approximately 45 mph. Still packed traffic in passing lane, unable to move over during the duration of this incident. Required a fair amount of braking, but not terrible. Still made you sit up in your chair though.

3) Going through an intersection that has been green for a solid 5-7 seconds (rolling along ~40 mph) and a pickup blows the RED left turn through the intersection and cuts across in front of me. This required near panic breaking to avoid T-boning him as he went through the intersection. No locked up tires, but definitely hard braking.

I've determined this; Everyone up here drives like crazy - be prepared to drive defensively.

I'll be headed up Monday/Tuesday to start full time.

I'm going to be keeping track of everything on Twitter, if you guys would like to follow, or know anyone wanting to see what it's like in ND. I will be posting pictures and videos (I run a Dash Cam).


Oh yeah: My twitter is: https://twitter.com/majorgunhoe

or @majorgunhoe

Just started it. So nothing there yet. But I will be updating it soon.

 

I think "everyone" covers them also.