Is oilfield trucking in the Bakken going downhill?

Now that is a total somebody else is responsible for your well being attitude...
There is NOTHING free, or supplied to you, without someone else paying the costs.

I have ALWAYS made more money into my pocket on percentage of load pay, than I ever did on hourly pay. It is about working smarter, not harder. Average of $38 per hour for every hour worked on percentage for me. I never worked for free. Waiting, loading, unloading is all part of the job, and the percentage pay reflected that.

Yes the boom is over, the high wages are dropping, due to supply and demand, the oil fields have always been cyclical. Many people hear the inflated high wages of North Dakota, and flock there, don't use their own brains, and then because they put themselves into a no win situation, they take any job, just to survive.

Then they come on here when the company has to decrease their expenses, to survive in the competition, and complain about FAIRNESS.... Life is not fair, never will be, never has been... no matter what socialists preach.

 

Pay in the Bakken will "eventually" level out, but it won't be as low as Texas or Oklahoma because of the bad winter and driving conditions. I haul oil in the bakken and People have already left to go home and stay until around june or so. There are people still here but not like there were in August. Once these towns level out and turn into cities pay will slow down, but until then get it while you can cause it won't be here forever.

 

No one mentions fracing or some of the well service jobs in North Dakota? Are they a good job to have during the winter instead of driving during the winter months?

 

I tried to get one. I only drive on snow and ice when I have to and I figured working for a service company would mean less driving. I didn't get hired, but I also told her emphatically "no", I wouldn't consider moving to North Dakota permanently. Wrong answer, in hindsight. There was a guy on this board who took a job with Baker Hughes who thinks having a permanent residence in North Dakota helped him. This woman I talked to from Cal Frac claimed all the company paid housing will be going away in a year or two.

 

Is there a lot of housing development actually going on there? Whats the ratio of single family homes for purchase to apartments for a transient work force?. I remember N.D. Mayors in the area were concerned about to rapid expansion and the effects the boom bust cycle in the area that oil can cause. I respect their concerns for sensible growth. High cost of living hurts all. So it is best to bring that cost down without cratering the local economy in the slow down phase.

 

I don't know about all that, single family homes v. workforce housing.... I also don't know who can control this thing, the demand for oil being strong. The only thing I can say, they want to hear you'll move up here.

 

Thats what I heard too. My cousin works as a crane operator and They are allways busy. There are 2000 truck events that happen on every well site. And there is a new site going up by the dozens every week .If you add up the numbers. That is alot of trucking going down. Just sayin!

 

Kind of strange you should express sentiments like this!! You started a thread ranting against the Gazelle Transportation crude hauling operation you were working for expressing some of the same things the OP brought up in the thread.When other drivers came on here disagreeing with your assessment it turned into a pissing contest and the thread was locked!---REMEMBER? When it happens to you the complaints are valid but when someone else expresses the same views you think they are socialists demanding entitlements! I think they call that HYPOCRISY!

 

You did not read my thread about Gazelle then.

Gazelle has management problems, won't fix equipment, refused to listen to the drivers... I never insisted that gazelle owed me anything, but to obey federal and state laws. Which they do not.

Then my biggest complaint about Gazelle was and is the socialist attitude of every thing has to be fair and equal, and cutting the senior drivers hours, loads, which cuts their pay, to present a better image to the new hires.

Same as here, to give anything to another person, somebody else has to pay for it.

 

I did read the thread---'new employees getting taken care of over longer term drivers, company must listen to what a long term employee knows or it's mismanagement, failure to take care of truck repair---about summarizes it--! But that's entiltlement not market forces!