starting fresh - what would you do

im an OTR driver and if I was to start all over again thats hard to say. I have enjoyed seeing the country and being to places I would never get to see otherwise.

On another note I would go into oilfields now that I have done my OTR, most of those jobs are paid hourly and you make more money.

 

Depends who you work for. Working out there isn't like OTR. The roads get nasty, you get stuck, dirty, live like an animal. If I was to go back out there, work for someone that runs 24 hours. Unless you want to spend half your day at a mancamp. There are plenty of companies to try if you want to run around the clock. There are plenty of tricks to make your time more enjoyable for lack of a better term.

 

I would go straight to a service company. Probably one that would train me to get my cdl. I wouldn't have wasted four years hauling water when I could have been learning a skill and gaining valuable knowledge. I was also 22 when I got into the oilfield so my opinions and experience would be different from someone getting into the oilfield in their forties or fifties.

 

sounds like OTR at times
I know there has been times where I was getting a trailer out of a muddy dirt lot, I have had to use my offroad and traction control a few times and still spin tires. Yeah it might be more often in the oilfields during the winter but I have had some nasty nights out on the road too.

 

It depends on what type of life you want to lead while you're out here. If your goal is to work constantly and bank as much cash as possible, go into fracking. Get with a busy yard and you won't have time to spend all the money you make, but remember fracking has a very high turnover rate for a reason.

If you want to tempt fate, fake your logs and drive 20 hours a day, you can hire on with a mom and pop vacuum truck service that doesn't care much about DOT regs. You'll make a lot of money, but may wind up spending it all on legal services if you fall asleep at the wheel.

If you prefer to run legal and desire a somewhat predictable schedule, you can hire on with one of the larger well service companies. You'll end up in a vacuum truck, winch truck, hot oiler, or a kill truck. They won't tolerate over logging, but in the right yard you'll get 60-70 hours in five days. I run a kill truck for Nabors at the moment. I'm averaging 65 hours per week with every weekend off and I'm home every night. I won't pull in $80-90 K like a lot of the frac crews, but I'm not willing to completely turn my life over to the oil patch. I have a wife and young son that I value spending time with, so 12-14 hour days are all I'm willing to give.

It really depends on what your goals are and how you want to spend your time.

 

When I hauled water I was home by 7pm everyday. I made 18 per hr and could get 60-70 hrs every week. I was a truck pusher so my job was really easy. I drive around all day in a pickup. Saying that I would never go back to hauling water. I frac now and I really enjoy my week off with enough money to go do things. I also get to learn something new everyday and I'm not sitting on my butt. I get to do physical labor and I feel so much better than I did when I drove. My benefits are way better than they were and I have a future in this line of work. There really isn't a future in hauling water. I was one step from an operations manager and that would have been a paycut with the same hours and way more responsibilities.