Is oilfield trucking in the Bakken going downhill?

And gazelle got to pay a nice fine to the State of Wyoming for NOT maintaining the equipment... they should have listened to the drivers. That is not entitlement. And the local manager, lost his job. The owner listened to the local manager, instead of the multiple drivers reporting the problems, until the State put 9 of 14 trucks out of service, and all those trucks were less than 6 months old.

do you think requiring a company to maintain their equipment, is an entitlement?

 

The OP was asked by another member what he thought a fair reimbursement was for working in ND , gave his opinion and you disagreed which is fine but you had to add the political name calling---like you didn't know using the 'socialist' bomb was going to earn you points.Evidently you think being paid by the hour is entitlement.Have you even worked in ND? Now your trying to pretend that the main focus of your anti-Gazelle Transportation thread were maintenance issues not the jealousy over newbies making more money than you. Even Gaugeline in post #20 of that now locked thread told you what was up and you thanked him!
I wonder who dropped the10¢ on Gazelle? Not a disgruntled former employee!

 

Ive read recently in oil and gas journal that there is 50,000 new wells to be drilled in ND by 2030.

I am in northwest oklahoma at 22 per hour night shift. If you are not making at least 25 or more in ND you are with the wrong company

I would work percentage as long as the drive and unloading at the disposals was reasonable.

 

You will need OSHA 10 plus H2S training certificate to work in the Bakken Oil Shale in North Dakota. OSHA should be in General Industry or Construction.

For your own health, and the safety of those around you, please get First Aid/CPR/AED training through the American Red Cross. The cost is $70. Classes are held every, single day across America. This isn't required, but I beg you to get the minimum training you need to save a life! You never know? The life that needs saving may be your own, and you will thank the co-worker who shelled out $70 for training that allowed you to go home in one piece (or home, at all , instead of to the morgue). A single breath of H2S is deadly...

 

I agree! Those things are standard throughout the industry. Most companies pay for the training for everything.

The H2S is bad but its the concentration that matters. If you pull onto a well or even pass close by a low concentration of H2S smells like rotten eggs but do not depend on that as a test of concentration! If you smell rotten eggs thenn it stops it is very likely the concentration has increased

 

Yes, Adam, the Bakken opportunity has changed. When I arrived in 2009, the pay was higher and the firms were hungrier for drivers. Also, at least for me, the firms did more to take care of drivers by putting them up in a proper mancamp instead of sticking them in a sleeper or in a 6x8 room with six other guys in a mobile home. Further, in 2009, there were fewer owner-operators consisting of former drivers who themselves started up here in ND. Now that this new breed of owner-operators have become the norm, and the larger firms here have cut pay, the boom-town opportunities are indeed fewer.

If it is spoiled to look back on the good old days, fine. I care not what others think. I am past that.

Be warned, working for an owner-operator is more risky now in terms of tenure and compensation... and a newer risk has arisen, that of not getting paid at all. Yes, I know drivers who worked a month, were told it would be slow and to go home for a few days, then returned to find the trucks gone and their paychecks with them. Lesson learned: Do not work for any owner-operator unwilling to pay you WEEKLY. If they balk at this requirement, they either cannot afford it or don't trust their drivers. Either way, you lose, so just "click next" as they say, and find a boss with enough liquid capital to meet you where you need to be met. Frequency of pay is something they can change, IF they value good drivers. If they just want any two hands holding their wheel, you don't want a job under them. Move on.

All that said, there is still handsome compensation in ND, and only a fool would settle for less. This is still the 2013 gold rush, if you don't settle for less. One friend took a job last month, hauling frac water as many hours as he can stay awake. His first week's take-home was $3,000. The second week was almost $4,000. The o/o paid bi-weekly, but I told him to negotiate weekly pay, or walk. The o/o, apparently more honest than the norm, agreed to weekly pay. I repeat... if an o/o says no to weekly pay over bi-weekly, WALK.

One last thing I hear about more these days but not four years ago... hold-backs. Some o/o with inadequate capital require their drivers agree to have two weeks' pay held by the employer until separation from the o/o. Talk about a recipe for disaster, for the driver. Just say no. A word of explanation as to why more o/o now require this: GREED and DISTRUST. Owner-operators who are undercapitalized should not be in the oil patch at all. They should go back home to the local job or back OTR to wait on dispatch once again. Such o/o do this so the driver winds up financing the o/o operating expenses while waiting for the client to pay up. Unless your driver agreement includes loaning your o/o thousands of dollars interest-free, forget it. Hey, there are finance companies that specialize in loaning money to firms and o/o that cannot make payroll properly. They are called factoring companies, and function by taking the titles of the o/o trucks, trailers, receivables, etc. and loaning that money to the o/o... at interest, and plus fees, of course. So, if you are not getting paid for financing operating capital to your o/o, tell them to kiss your butt crack or sign over their truck to you until the day of your separation from them.

 

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">&nbsp;One friend took a job last month, hauling frac water as many hours as he can stay awake. His first week's take-home was $3,000. The second week was almost $4,000.Where?This is what I am looking for.Performance based pay of course</span>

 

CL... search the jobs by keywords water and cdl.

 

How do you know which CL listings to trust?

 

I have a 94 white/gmc bobtail truck 10 speed 3406e cat. so how hard is it to find a co. to lease on with?