Might want to steer clear of Power Fuels in ND.

They are hiring an excessive amount of drivers and the new guys are sitting. They charge 1,000+ for housing and guys are getting negative paychecks. The HR guys line was "the guys not making any money hang out at the truck stop and quit early." I loved how I didn't get thru the HR interview without a driver being blamed for his low pay. Anyone out bere knows there is nothing to do so work is actually a fun activity. They have a small clique of drivers who run and get paid but there is no reason to have to sit around groveling out here in the patch. New guys be warned that you should keep looking. Bad companies can be large or small and the same goes for good ones.

 

I have no knowledge of the situation but I wonder if they make it a numbers game. Like, they expect a lot of winter attrition and they figure by February they'll still have all the drivers they need.

 

Yep, welcome to ND oil field. Some companies up there do some crappy things and a lot of the companies treat drivers, especially O/O's like crap.

 

You may be in the wrong district. Watford City has a full plate and is turning away work.

 

Anything to do with water I would steer clear from unless you are on the reservation in New Town.

 

I've worked for 3 years now in the Bakken hauling Sand, Dirt and Gravel, Fresh and Production water for a few different companies and none of them were as bad as my experience with Powerfuels. A few of things I personally encountered working for them are:

Complete Mis management of the district I was in by the District manager and Dispatcher/supervisors.

On 4 different occassions I was accused of doing things I didnt do and was threatened that I was going to lose my safety bonus over. (They will do anything they can to not pay you your safety bonuses.)

First time I was accused of causing a major spill on a flowback operation which cost the company quite a bit of money to clean up from what I was told. Without getting all the facts first, my NIGHT dispatcher (I worked from 6pm to 6am) called me one night and told I was going have to file an incident report for the spill I caused the day before on that location. I told him I didnt know what he was talking about, and he accused me of overflowing an upright on location and spilling flowback all over the ground. I told him that the night before I had done no on site transfers to uprights and again told him it wasn't me. He then asked me to get the PIC on location to call him which I did. When the dispatcher talked to the PIC he found out that the spill had been caused by the day shift driver in my truck at 1030am, 4 and a half hours after my shift ended. I got no apology from dispatch. Clearly a lack of management skills by not having all the facts before making an accusation.

The second time, I was accused of a no call show for work one night when I had in fact called in and spoke to the day shift dispatcher who does the night scheduling. This time it was by the District manager. I told him maybe he should talk to the dispatcher who remembered me calling in that day and the dispatchers response was, I wonder why the manager didnt talk to me first..... YA THINK! Oh yeah by the way the District manager told me I was going to lose my quartery safety bonus for the alleged no call no show.

The third time my District Manager again made the accusation without having all the facts, and told me I was going to lose my safety bonus that quarter because my truck was overdue on hours to be serviced. I explained to him that within the specified time, I scheduled the truck for service in Stanley but my day shift partner didnt want to drive the POS they were going to put him in that day while my truck was being serviced so he took it out of the line up for service and used it that day. I couldn't get another appt to have it serviced for about 4-5 more days because the shop was booked and in the mean time, the truck was sent to WIlliston the help out over there and it remained there for 3 weeks. I told the District Manager he cant hold me responsible for the actions of another driver when I am at home sleeping and his response to me was to roll his eyes shrug his his shoulders and say OH Well.... Oh Well my butt... thats $2000 out of my pocket.

The fourth time was a day shift dispatcher accusing me of refusing to go to a location when asked by the night dispatcher to get a load. I did in fact go to the site twice, or so I thought, Turned out I went to the wrong site, a site with the same name but different legals and didnt get a load because it was a new site and there was no water in the tanks. They were brand new and had never had a drop in them. They had the qualcomm reports and knew I went to that site twice but still accused me of refusing to take a load which was a total lie. That was the last straw for me I quit that day on the spot.

That was on October 2, 2014. I worked the entire third quarter of 2014 for them, never got dinged by safety for anything, and yet they refused to pay me the bonus that I earned that quarter stating that "because I quit before the actual check was written I'm not entitled to the money". I wont even go into their double billing practices etc here but I am going to be writing a nice letter to Oasis Petroleum telling them all about it.

This is not to mention how the company is constantly losing money for the drivers by limiting the disposals drivers can take loads to which costs them loads everyday and revenue in the long run, and of course they blame the consistent lowering of prices per barrel they have to charge companies to keep contracts on the drivers.

I'd stay clear of these guys if I was a new driver coming into the Bakken.

 

All I can add to this is that their stock price has been gradually declining, but they are quite busy. I don't know if it is from a lack of work force or just too much work but in the last few weeks I've had to service quite a few flowbacks/rigs that they simply could not handle. I know a few guys who left us to go to Power Fuels and are still there and happy to my knowledge.

 

I would never go back to the Minot/Stanley district. I worked from Dec 2009 to April 2014 for them and I am surprised that I made it that long. If you like watching the good old boy network collect a pay check and watch you work, this the place for you.

 

truer words never spoken ...i worked out of the watford area till oct hauling rock ...if ya like living like a bum and working with a bunch of greedy crooks that would hose their own mama then the nd oilfield is for you !

 

I had always heard great things about PowerFuels, but it sounds like things may be changing. Does it have anything to do with Nuverra buying them?