Laid off. I have no CDL, no driving experience, want to work in oil fields. Help!!

Many of the wire line, well service companies will send you to a short school to get your CDL... then you drive the short distance to the job site, and go to work. Check into that route also.

Can't help with Texas companies, as I live in Wyoming.

 

Midland Odessa area. I know for a fact cement and frac are hiring at trican and probably anywhere else. All you need to do is have the license and go there. If you can find a temporary room to rent that will make the process much easier and faster. I would push you towards cement just because of your age and its something you could do for another fifteen or twenty years. There's lots of opportunity to move up in the service side and after a few year you may not even be working in the field anymore. You may be in the office pulling a 100k a year working a nine to five.
You need to try to learn about the different service lines and figure out what you want to do then get somewhere to stay and get after it.

 

If you are receiving unemployment, you have a good chance at qualifying for the WIA money. This could pay for your CDL training with an accredited school. However, you probably need to reside in an area for a given time to qualify. If you have the moxie, you could pick up a CDL manual from the DPS, take the knowledge test, rent a truck and take the skills test, then get a oil field service job. You will have to have you Texas license to then get you Texas CDL. Where ever you go, good luck.

 

I'm new here but am currently living in Odessa. I am temporarily back home in Del Rio going to cdl school. While I was in Odessa there was and is a whole lot of companies hiring for drivers out there. Frac companies are probably the best to get in without a cdl. Unfortunately I couldn't get in without my cdl. I know some will hire without but if you can get it prior to getting to Texas it would be best. If going to Midland/ Odessa, you might wanna consider taking a rv with u if at all possible. A crappy 1 bedroom apartment is gonna run u about 800+ if u can find one. RV parks are opening up everywhere with lot rents running anywhere from 350-500 all inclusive ( light, water, trash) u just need to provide your own propane and tv service if you want it.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what is a typical day like in frac? Im in NYC and considering a move to Texas for oilfield work. 29 years old with a wife and 3 children. I've read through some of the threads and the pay seems really good starting out. Thanks in advance.

 

Texas is a good choice; no personal income taxes.
You could go to Swift CDL school, then leave for a tanker job with another company. They will bill you for the school. Tanker drivers make over $60K per year.

For example, move to Houston and you can probably land a good job with SVTN, CTL, Schneider Bulk which all hire new CDL graduates.

FFE has a CDL school in Texas. They were just purchased by KLLM. FFE has oil field tankers in Texas and now plans to expand their water hauling tanker work, since they are better off financially after being purchased by KLLM.

Austin is a good city; lots of nerdy geeks with high degrees living there.

 

I don't know too much about frac but that's what I'm gonna try to get into once I get my cdl and I'm back in Odessa. My friend works as a field mechanic for Halliburton and says that frac doesn't seem too hard. He says the only time u are really working is when u are rigging up or down. Other than that its just monitoring the equipment and waiting once a stage ends. Lots of hours though. Halliburton doesnt pay alot for frac hands but the benefits are great.

 

A day in frac really depends on what position you work who you work for and what kind of job your doin. The company I'm with now is very easy. The only days that are remotely hard are rig up and rig down. I sit in front of a computer screen and run a program all day so my job is very easy but when you start out it will be a little tougher. The company I worked at before was much harder on a day to day basis. We were working constantly. If not working on pumps or checking our equipment we were cleaning and the hours were much longer. Most guys say the hardest part about frac is waking up which is usually true. We're I'm at now I get a good 6 hrs of sleep everyday but before I came here I was really lucky to get 4 and the norm was more like 3-3.5.
If you start with the right company you can make 80000 your first year and the benifits are usually good. I think I pay about 250 a month for family medical and I gross between 7000-8000 a month.

 

WIA is a good way to go. One thing you have to have though is a notice of layoff from your employer (pink slip). Texas, or at least the Corpus Christi office requires it. You need a hard-copy to present to them.

If you have that, and there is funding for driving schools when you apply, then you willl likely qualify for full tuition. The trick is to be there when the funding is available for a specific field. My understanding is that one week there may be funding for CDL schools, and the next there may be funding for something like barber college, or computer aided drafting school.

It just depends on the region you apply in, and the specific job needs in that region. For example, I was speaking with the unemployment folks in PA (where I collect my unemployment) and they told me that they were not funding for truck driving school, even though PA has a huge fracing field and a large trucking industry. According to them, employment needs were being met in that specific industry so there was no need to train more drivers.

When I spoke to the folks in Corpus Christi, they told me that yes there was funding for drivng school but that it was the same hit-or-miss scenario. Matter-of-fact, they would not even tell me what they were currently funding for. Apparently, you have to attend weekly meetings at the local Workforce office to find out, and once funding pops up for your desired choice, you can apply.

One good thing about WIA: If you are collecting unemployment, and you qualify for WIA funding, then you will not lose your unemployment while attending school. That way you can concentrate on studies and not have to worry about quitting due to economic hardship.

WIA is a good thing, but it seems to have a few hoops that can be tough to jump through. It is well worth checking out, though.

One program that my local Community College uses is called FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). They convert that into 75% of the needed tuition for the CDL school. And if WIA is funding, they will cover the other 25%, so long as you meet their qualifications. I pre-applied for FAFSA and was approved pretty much instantly. Takes about ten minutes, on-line. I don't know if what my local CC does is the way all schools handle this type of funding, but that's the way they do it and it suits me fine.

Of course there are a bunch of other programs like Pell Grants and such that people can take advantage of. It's just a matter of doing some research and finding out what you qualify for.