I've been hauling milk for almost 3 years & decided to head to the East Texas oilfield to make all that big money I kept hearing about. I first hired on for short periods with a couple of flakey fly-by-night frac sand outfits that didn't have the equipment or the work they had advertised. I applied for several jobs & have it narrowed down to a couple of rather different job offers.
The first is an equipment operator job on a cement crew with one of the two biggest oilfield service companies. I'm told that the cement crew job is better job than some of the frac crew positions I was considering & the employer is a huge, stable, career oriented company. Starts at $18 an hour & promises a lot of overtime. 15 on, 6 off & housing provided. I'd be driving the equipment to the sites, rigging up, operating the equipment, & then rigging down & driving back. There may be mileage pay & other little perks I forgot.
The other is a sandbox frac hauling job.It's not the usual percentage of the load pay, either. It's for a large trucking company I didn't know was in the oilfield & pays $24.50 an hour with a $1500 guarantee, with a $300 monthly housing allowance. They mentioned having just signed a 3 year contract involving their wells & they're a big enough company that other truck driving jobs will still be available if/when the oilfield tanks again.
Just crunching the numbers makes me lean toward the frac sand hauling job because I'd have to work many more hours with the cement crew to make the same or more money & the work would be truck driving instead of actual labor (I'm 40 & starting to feel my age). And the guarantee sounds attractive after having spent a few hours sitting at loadouts & wells.
My only issue is the fact that several people who've been in the oilfield tell me to take the second job. They seem impressed by the company's name & stress the stability & room to move up that it offers. I would have to work close to 100 hours a week to make roughly what the frac hauling job will pay for 70 & I assume those hours would be easier hours. But if the 100+ hour weeks are common enough & the work is easier than I'm imagining, I don't want to pass it by.
Any wiser heads out there that can add a little clarity to this dilemma? Thanks.
Deciding between 2 job offers
Discussion in 'Oilfield Trucking Forum' started by flatface777, Dec 7, 2017.
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Are you just chasing cash or looking for a career? Also, do you understand that as a service company guy driving is something you won't do very often. You'll use a sledgehammer way more than your CDL. It doesn't matter if your coveralls are red blue or purple, when it gets slow people get laid off. Just how it is. When it's booming a drunk monkey could get hired, when it slows down those people get let go first. Cement is definitely a better place to start than frac, but eventually I think a lot of people move on. I did.
The truck driving job is a truck driving job. Where does it take you? What's the upside? Down a dirt road waiting for payday.
I'd take the cement job, especially if they have international work. There's nothing like an equal time rotation. Oil field professional, or truck driver? Up to you.chalupa, rabbiporkchop and x1Heavy Thank this. -
He's right about frac. It is not a driving job it's a laborer job. And starting out at the bottom you're going to be a green hat, not that that's bad but you are going to have to do a lot of the BS. It all depends on what kind of guys are on your crew seems to be a lot of low-hanging fruit on frac.
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How far does that $300 housing allowance go in that area, have you researched that?
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I'm mostly chasing cash right now. I'm looking to hit this hard for a couple of years at least & then ease out into a more normal schedule. I'm single with no children & am looking to build a house or two. I'm open to a career, but that's not my main priority.
As to that $300 housing allowance, I can find roommate ads on Craigslist asking $600 which is livable for me. Much more than that & I'd be balking.
More random noise added to the mix: I got a random job offer call today for another cement crew. Said it was roughly a 60/40 split between driving & equipment operating. No housing. Claimed they were bringing in $3000+ a week, but paid $18 an hour. My calculator says that even 110 hours at $18 an hour only adds up to $2,610 a week before taxes.
I really just want to drive my truck all day & the slight extra earnings for being out & on my feet don't seem worth it. But I have a feeling I'll be second guessing myself no matter which way I go. It's a nice problem to have, all things considered. I remember a few years ago when I got my CDL because no one in my town was hiring me for rough, low paying jobs I dreaded doing. Thanks for the helpful replies. I'll be checking in here & updating y'all when I finally bite the bullet one way or the other. -
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My 5 cents..... contract or not, promise or not....price of oil dictates whats going on and nothing stops that. Oil goes down, everybody goes home. Being said, 18 is supposed to be a great year....lots of plans and lots of drilling in the works but save every penny and pay cash as you go. No long term debt imo. you want houses? Build for cash or buy rentals.
You want oilfield security ? Haul water or oil from the battery.cuzzin it Thanks this. -
haz-matguru Thanks this.
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