Realistic money working legal

this has probably already been addressed in other threads but i think it's worth mentioning for the people who have never experienced it.[burn out] when you look at the oil field jobs most everyone post i have seen first thing they want to know is how much can i make and my opinion is they should be asking how much can i make and do consistently. to me a 70 hour work week is not something you want to do every week and have any kind of life other than work, at that point your work does become your life. to me 60 hrs is a happy medium that one can live with week after week. if you do the 70 hr thing and after a few months you don't like your job and you complain about every little thing, like i hear some guys here do you can say your burnt out. there is no doubt that the oil fields are going to be booming for many years to come. so why not settle in do what you can do and be confrontable and end up with around 60 or 70 thousand a year. i got burnt out in the automotive repair business many years ago and it hurt, i loved working on vehicles and being around the public. a 80 hr week was normal for my first 9 years then it went to between 60 and 70 for several more years finally i got to the point where i didn't want to go to work and didn't want to fix anything. so i sold out and quit it was 2 years after that when i started getting a little involved in working on some cars. i have never regained the love for mechanic work that i had. I'm just saying the oil fields is a life line for a lot of people and it pays excellent money so pace your self so you are there for the long haul and have all your pockets full of money when it's over. i am going back to the oil fields i enjoyed it while i was there, i just got to get rid of a lot of personal property and farm equiptment and the wife and i will be on our way.

 

I work on average about 15 hours a day hauling crude in the iron river oil field in Alberta Canada. 14 of those hours is solid balls to the wall loading , driving and dumping. The other 1 hour is travel time from town to the field. It's not huge hours by any means as far as oil patch work is concerned but I still make very good money. If you're self loading/unloading dragging hoses hooking up/unhooking hoses etc all day it's a long 14 hours. I work in a curfew field so it's 6am to 8pm only. Other non-curfew fields guys are working longer hours. It's a whole lot harder than chaining a load or hand bombing freight. Not saying you don't work hard but oil patch is harder than most anticipate it to be. Plus if you're working in very hot or very cold temps that takes a lot out of you in itself. Doesn't take long to burn yourself out trying to over do it straight out the gate. Plus once you're pushing hard and tired is most likely when you will make a costly/dangerous mistake. Get a job that pays well enough so you don't gave to do the big hours to make good money. Go for well paid quality over average paid quantity.

 

My husband does water hauling near Big Spring TX, what he say's is that his day is 1/2 driving and half pulling hoses loading/unloading. In the Yard at 7am-ish get's back to the yard at 7pm-ish.... the "ish" is because IF someone is driving his truck on the night shift, then he has to wait til they get back in. Plus sometimes if a flowback is producing alot of water he may be out til 10 or 11 pm and expected to be back in the yard no later than 8am.

In general his check ( after taxes ) is $1,200, plus housing ( utilities included). He works 6/1, 6/1, 6/1, 6/5. The Plus housing is a big thing as rent is very very expensive.

Also my husband said to mention, our neighbor get's $20 hr, while my husband only makes $16.50 hr, but we don't pay rent, don't pay lot rent, dont pay any electric.....and my husband is guaranteed pay for 72 hrs our neighbor might not work for a couple days at a time. ( that doesn't happen much ).
So while it doesn't seem like it's a good deal, $20 verses $16.50.... A couple of the guys my husband run's into alot at the disposals pay $2,200 a month for a 3 bedroom apt, they pay all utilities. If you share it isn't so bad, except the lack of privacy.

Do your research, not only on the company and their policies, but on housing in the area you might want to go to. Some companies provide housing, most don't for drivers. ( in this area at least)

 

To give an answer to your original question:
I am a employee (company) driver and I am paid 30 percent of truck revenue. 30 percent is industry standard in my area and what majority of the other drivers are paid as well. Some are paid hourly usually between $28 and $30 per hour. I put in my pocket $6650 for 21 days work in December. That is clear in my pocket after all taxes and deductions are taken out etc, it was closer to $9000 gross pay before deductions. These numbers are going to be different for you as I'm canadian and it's a different tax system here but it's a still a reasonable amount to clear in your pocket per month. Keep in mind I work 21 days of the month, so if you average 6650 over 3 weeks it is $2216 per week in my pocket. Not too bad I think.
I just moved into my own 2 bedroom apartment , it costs me $1700 per month plus power (all other utilities are covered under the rent). I'm living alone not sharing, it's a brand new 8-plex building. Very nice and the cost is reasonable for the area. I live and work in an area that does have a lot of oil related work but doesn't have the high cost of living and over crowding that places like Fort McMurray in Alberta have. I got really lucky getting a job in this area. Living in the truck is very hard to do in oil field work, you need to be able to get a shower and decent meal each night, plus you get real dirty doing this work and so does the truck. It's not like living in a truck doing highway work.

 

I would be interested to find out where these other drivers are paying $2200/mo for 3/2's in that area. My wife and I are renting a very nice 3/2 townhouse on Lake Nasworthy for $925/mo, and we saw many 1/1 apts for $300-$400/mo. Now granted, there are several people out there that are jacking up their rates in an effort to cash in on the oil boom, but there are still good deals to have if you look. My wife and I are also planning on buying a house within the next 6 months or so, and you can find very nice, new 3/2's and 4/2's for less than $150k. Now obviously, buying isn't what I'm suggesting. We are buying because of my wife's job...which will be long term, and it makes more financial sense for us to put our money into an investment instead of throwing it to the wind every month.

 

You can't just rely on Craigslist to find deals. Besides, Craigslist is scam central anymore. Check out realators, newspaper, and other sources. The good deals are all over...not just in the outskirts. Lake Nasworthy is on the SW side of San Angelo, and still within city limits. I've seen 3/2's from $700-$1200, but not $2200. The Concho valley isn't Williston, ND...yet, and that was the point of my post. Bringing a camper down is easy enough, but remember, a lot of people have the same idea, and soon, people will start raising the price of the lots and hook ups to the point where it isn't any cheaper than renting a 1/1.