Got my first job...and it sucks

Hey all, just thought I'd post (been gone for a while) and let people know what it was like to start out hauling water in the oilfields. Not really a warning, just a "hey, here's my story" kind of thing.

Before I got my CDL everyone was hiring and paying big bucks. Then the market flooded with new CDL holders and even though the oilfield work is picking up there is just not enough good work to go round, so those of us with no experience are left working the less-than-stellar companies. My desired work is hauling water, I like the tankers, I like the weight, and I like the overtime pay. However, it hasn't really worked out as I imagined.

The company that hired this student does not pay true hourly wages (something they chose not to explain until I got my first check) and what they pay is a flat X hours per load. Doesn't matter what it takes to haul, that is all you get. That wouldn't be so bad (lot's of people work by the load) but I also don't get paid while waiting in the office for a dispatch, or waiting on a truck, or shuttling the trucks and trailers around, or driving to and from the location, or driving to the fuel supplier we use, or while broken down on the side of the road, or even for the time I have to spend washing the truck. In the end I'm "clocked in" for 14-17 hours a day (we don't run logs so there is no worry about keeping us legal) and getting paid for 12 or 13. My paycheck is about $1,700 when water haulers pulling these hours (I was able to bill for 140'ish hours after working 160 in just over 2 weeks) used to make $3,000 to $4,000 paydays. Also, the trucks are not legal, pure and simple, and there is no motivation on the part of the operators to make them legal. So that age-old problem hasn't changed.

So there you go. Really hoping that I can pay my dues for a few months and then move on.

 

It's about $16/hr for the hours I do get paid for with no benefits at all.

Getting a little rough, worked until 11pm the night before, got 5 hours of sleep and get told when I get there in the morning that when I finish the next day's run I have to go to the shop and pull out the ratty pressure washer and wash my rig. Exhausted and not even getting paid for it. Hard to be positive.

 

Hauling production water from the well site to the disposal - in Utah.

 

Is that good character or bad character?

 

Getting stopped in these trucks makes it impossible to keep the record clean.