I'm a stone cold rookie, gonna work the texas oil fields

That's a little extreme to follow you around all day long. At my company we would have either sent you home or fired you. It's your responsibility to be rested for work. That's a defense lawyers dream when they are seeking millions after an accident. The best policy is to drive as if the boss is sitting right next to you. It doesn't matter where you are. Sorry, but those eyes are apon you no matter where you're at.

To the OP, I think you're making smart decision. Oilfield work is hard and dirty but you can gain the experience you might want to use to go into tankers. You've got a good attitude and should learn all you can. At least with tankers there's a chain of jobs that can lead to the top. You'll always be in demand with tankers and you'll find it easy to move from one company to another providing there's an opening. You'll need to build your reputation along with your experience. Tanker work, if it's local, is a very close community group and bosses hear names along with experience. Of course one screw up with negate years of good driving. You roll a tanker and you'll have a very hard time working in that field again.

I know a few drivers that started with Oilfields Trucking and they ended up with a major oil company with all the ridiculous pay and benefits. Most of them have retired early in their 50's and living comfortable. So do lose your good attitude and gain as much as you can.

 

Yes but 70 hours would be $1317.50 with 40 @ $15.50 and 30 @ $23.25.

That is 70 hours for 6 days at 11.67 hours and 24 hours off duty gives you a clean slate.

 

The majors are the oil companies that have the oil fields,ships,refineries,trucks,and stores to sell the product. Some are dropping the downstream operations and going to common carriers. Downstream is anything that takes place after the product is refined. Chevron did and a few others are going there too. But you still have ARCO,Shell,Exxon,Sunoco,Hess,Mobil,Unocal,Gulf,BP,and a few others. if you're lucky you'll get paid by the hour, but even if you don't they still make it so you don't have to rush to make money. I left driving back in the late 90's and I was at $23.50 an hour. I still keep in touch with a few other drivers and just like everywhere else times are tough but it's still the best game in town. I know drivers that retired after 30+ years and had 7 figures in their retirement plan. Of course they were smart and invested the most they could to get the max out of the company but those programs were on top of their 401K normal retirement plan. A driver for a major can make anywhere from 70K to 80K a year easy and be home every night. We worked 4-10 hours days. That's how the shifts were set up. So you could take an extra load everyday and an extra day a week and get over $700 a week just in over time.

But it's not all roses, you do have to go through sacrifices to get to the top. For 1 the weekends off day shifts go to the senior drivers. The way most companies do the bidding is for shifts and vacation. So your senior drivers are getting the best shifts and taking vacations in the summer. The gasoline business runs 24 hours a day 365 days a year. At some terminals you may never see the top for many years, it just depends on how many trucks there are at that location. You'll never see less than 4 trucks at a terminal. I never had outwest anyway. The bigger cities of course run more trucks. There's one terminal that's ours that has 11 loading lanes. Plus a terminal with 4 trucks can deliver over 7 millions gallons a week with the super tankers and almost a million with the regular tankers.

It's very hard to get hired on with these companies. Most all the drivers at other companies sooner or later want to drive for a major. There are a few drivers that like to run OTR and will not run like the major wants so the stay were they are. It's almost as bad as who you know. I have never seen a driver come in with a tarnished record. That includes a credit report too.

That's the top. There are a lot of companies that operate just below that mark that are outstanding too. We used to rate them by how they hauled the product. The lowest or starter companies were the common carriers. Those are the companies that haul anyones product. Second you have the dedicated carrier that hauls for one company. You'll see their trucks might have a trailer that has EXXON on the sides but on the tractor it will list the company like Daves Trucking or whatever. They can only pull that trailer into Exxon stations. Then there's the majors.

There are some common carrier companies that will hire drivers right out of school. Plus you learn the business the most from them because they go to everybody. I would not haul any other items except gasoline. I love tankers and I've pulled vans,flats,and triple trailers. Everyday was a challenge and I enjoyed going to work no matter what shift I had. If it were me and you got an offer from a tank company I would go that route. But that's me and you'll have to decide for yourself. I'm just trying to show you where you can end up and have a career. It's not easy but it is a decent goal just like wanting to be an O/O.

 

Nabors is a large drilling and servicing company.

 

That's the attitude you need. You do the best you can for YOURSELF. I don't know Nabors but it sounds like they are big in the upstream operations which includes drilling and selling the crude to the refineries. A good point in your favor is they are hauling their own product. Once you get all the training it takes for you to do the job you become part of system and the company treats you a little better than normal. Of course that goes both ways too because a mistake with a hazmat tanker can get costly and dangerous real fest. That's not to scare you but just to remind you of what's behind you.

The oil companies that haul gasoline to the stations will still take your experience from there and consider it for them. It's because you should learn about unloading and loading fuels (hazmat) or products close to it.

Just a quick note, try to invest in your retirement as soon as you can. I know the 401K plans you take with you but there are others that you can invest it too if the company has them. Good luck and let us know how it goes.