Oil field for rookies?

Beware of frac sand outfits offering to pay 25%. My first couple of job prospects in the EagleFord dealt with these. I grilled one of the guys about what 25% meant, how that was calculated, who got to view the invoices, ... I asked the question from every angle I could imagine. Wasn't until I went to work for him that other drivers told me we got 25% of what was left after the company took their commission. This really meant something closer to 20%. So I quit.

The next guy specified 25% of gross. Not true. Didn't find out until weeks into the job, though, because of a delay between pulling first load and receiving first check and then weeks of delays in finally getting to take a look at my employer's documentation (invoices, etc.) I'm not particularly fond of dishonesty. The work is hard--blowing sand in summer heat with FR coveralls, respirator, hard had, etc.--and the hours are awful, unpredictable, illegal. I worked hard for the money, way too hard for dirty tricks.

Frac sand / pneumatic trailers is a hustle. I've had better luck with production crude. Wish I'd skipped driving school and OTR and gone straight to work for one of these frac outfits (Haliburton, BH, Performance Technologies, ...) who'll train new drivers while paying wayyyy better than the OTR sweatshops.

 

Here's a thread about frac companies. Should be better resource for current lists of companies hiring drivers, new and experienced. Many will help you become a driver while you labor. Alternatively, you can pay $3,000-4,000 for driving school and make $500/wk driving OTR.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...-anybody-know-what-frac-companies-hiring.html

 

Thanks for the info, but.... how much were you actually getting paid? 20% of what amount and how many loads could you do in a 6 day period? thanks

 

The job was quasi-OTR. I had to sleep in the truck. I received roughly 5 loads per week. I earned around $750 per week before taxes. The best crude jobs pay closer to $2,000 per week and a good job in frac or drilling will pay even more.

 

You could also go to work on a pipeline. Laborers there can start out earning $2,000 per week. I've never heard of a driver making much more and the money only goes up from there.

 

Help.......ok, so I moved to Colorado 3 weeks ago and i'll be living in my car starting monday3/18 ......i been applying at all those big name oil field company websites (Rigzone, Halliburton, Weatherford, Cal Frac, Baker Hughes, Clean Harbors, Key Energy, Freeport McMoran, Superior Energy, WFS Corp, Schlumber,Trican,Frac Tech,Anadarko, GetHired.com, Indeed.com, Trcukingjobs.com, Colorado Workforce, North Dakota Workforce, Alaska Workforce, Bart Larsen, Groendyke, Trimac,Kag, Kenan Adv, etc.)....next is other crude haulers and smaller outfits, problem is.... i have an interview with McLane tomorrow, though i know the job is not all that - they do guarantee $50k first year unlike regular OTR and have 401k match after 90days. They need 10 drivers ASAP, US FOOD SERVICES and MBM are also hiring, and so are Stevens, US Xpress, GTI, Werner,Covenan, CRST, Swift, Knight, Crete, Core-Mark, I have a very good chance of getting on, but.... should i keep waiting for the oil fields to call me? or start making money? Crude haulers advertise "guaranteed $60K" and oil fields $65k, but no interviews/no phone calls and seems they prefer experienced tankers....-----I definitely can not lift 100 lbs over my shoulder, not for 1 hour much less a whole shift - but i really want at least $70 grand (that's $42,000 take home!....I could retire in 11 years! 3 years local oil field, 3 years international oil field-3years OTR-2years LTL), what should i do?

 

You should go to work. If you need money, having employment in hand will make you much less desperate and much less likely to starve or freeze to death. Take a job, any job, then get to a better job ASAP until you land your ideal job.

 

What the ---- has a driller job got to do with CDL driving, they only drive a work over rig but spend most their time Drilling

 

I am looking to get into the oil "Drivers" position as well. It sounds to me that one would make much better $$$ doing the manual labor jobs in the oil fields. Please, those of you who are experienced...do you agree?

 

Compared to a water hauler that's currently true, winch truck oilfield service / rig moving should gross $100 - $135k with 2 yrs experience