North Dakota oil field no experience ?

Gillette HAS become a very busy place.

 

Just applied with MBI today with my 4 months of OTR experience. Applied for Crude, Water and Frac hauling positions in different parts of the state. Sounds like water hauling is getting the most hours at this point? I have Doubles/Triples and Tanker on my card and I finished my finger printing for hazmat finally so I should have that in 2-3 weeks.

 

I pull a flatbed for myself and go up to Minot and Williston all the time. I'm just amazed at everything I see up there. Once I unloaded super bags of absorbent material at an active drilling site once. The wind and snow was so wicked I had my mad bomber hat on and ski goggles. I took my first strap off and tossed it over the other side and it just kept going flying through the air until it was gone.

I always make it a plan to deliver first thing in the morning then dead head out to Jamestown or some other place. There's no place that you would want to park at. Even though I deliver early the truck stops suck and make you want to leave. One of the Loves there has those hog dog cookers. They have like 6 of them and maybe 200 hot dogs always ready to go.

The last time I asked a few weeks ago McDonald's was paying $20 an hour to start. For people who already lived there before the boom they are the ones making out big time. You can start any business you want and make a killing. Many residents cook meals then deliver them. Good meals like meat loaf with mashed potatoes, bread and vegetables. Doing laundry. Pumping out trailer septic tanks with pickup truck honey wagons. You name it. I saw one person with a home built chair high up selling hot dogs like a drive up window for truckers.

The last time I went up all the campers and RV's were gone from the truck stops. They finally started kicking them out. Wal-Mart has security now and no trucks allowed unless your going in to buy something then get out.

I also delivered white marble bagged rocks to Wal-Mart. One of their hottest sellers. For what? Grey water trailer leaching holes. I called ahead of time and spoke to the manager because she wanted the rock that day and I wouldn't have time to get out. She said I could park there for the night. It's a 24 hour store but they can't stay open for 24 hours anymore. They can't keep the shelves stocked so they close from like midnight until 7 in the morning. During that time they stock the shelves then they line the isles with pallets also. The pallets get picked clean then the shelves.

The barber shop has 3 chairs and opens at 7am so I figured I would stay until they opened and get a haircut. I walked in at like 7:10 and there was maybe 20 people already waiting. I left.

Everyone I talked to up there have a goal. As soon as they make X amount of money, their gone. One person I met was from Maine and banked $90,000 over a 2 year period and was just getting ready to leave, go home and put a down payment on his first house.

 

There's always jobs here in Nodak. Winter kills it for many people and as soon as the snow starts flying people leave in droves. CDL A Drivers are still a heavy demand.

 

Any advice to a fit guy 60+ who wants to become a trucker, has no CDL, and wants to go to N.D. for a couple of years to get out of debt

 

Yes I would wait and come this way in the spring . WINTERS HERE ARE NOT A GOOD PLACE FOR NEWBEES.

 

i made a trip to orla texas yesterday...MAN new rigs going up EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!

 

so my point is...why go freeze if you dont havta.... HEWHO

 

I dropped a tank off west of Orla today-busy place for sure!

 

Funny that an actual ghost town is humming with activity again lol. For real though, with all the trucks and traffic it routinely takes us 10-15 minutes just to get through the 285/652 intersection in the middle of town.