New Job with Schneider Dedicated (oil and gas industry south texas)

We've started doing some equipment moves. I went out last night around 4 a.m. and moved a truck to a rig site. The chase car driver drove 4 of us back to Leming. He was concerned that we get our reset because it is going to get real busy.

p.s. My wife had another ultrasound today. They said the baby is already 8 pounds and are moving the due date up to September 1st from the 7th!

 

Okay, so the job is going well. Schneider seems to be ramping up the hiring. We heard advertisements on the radio in Laredo and San Antonio. Observers came from Green Bay(Schneider headquarters) and New York to watch and learn more about this job. They joined us on a mobilization/demobilization trip as well as a cement delivery to a rig site. It is starting to get more busy but I still sometimes have one to three days off at a time. I've been spending a lot of time riding in the "chase" car out to well sites and Schlumberger terminals 2-3 hours away not including an hour or more driving on the lease road. Last week I worked on a job which required me to move two trucks 3.8 miles each from one well site to another. It was at least a 12 hour day. Basically got dispatched to Leming at 7:15 a.m. then were told the trucks wouldn't be ready until 11:30 a.m. The site was about 1.5 hours away near Tilden, Tx. We arrived at the site and didn't get our first truck to move until after 2 p.m.

There tend to be mostly minor issues with a large percentage of the trucks. I would say mostly lights not working. I have moved a couple of flatbeds (i've never driven flatbeds before) and they usually have some loose straps or cargo that isn't secured properly. Sometimes the air conditioning doesn't cool even in brand new trucks with a couple thousand miles on them. It's not that big a deal but it has been 110 degrees last weekend and consistently over 100 here lately. We definitely need to carry lots of water on these runs.

We picked up almost 40 trucks from one hydraulic fracturing operation a couple of weeks ago. They were a big mess. The trucks including windshields and mirrors were covered dirt. Even the inside of the cabs were covered in a thick layer of dust. Trash can be found laying anywhere and everywhere on the truck and trailer including inside the cab. Water and soda(pop) bottles and food wrappers. I found a fuel filter full of diesel laying on the trailer. Sticky contaminated gloves and stuff like that.

We are expected to clean out the cabs and sweep them out. We also wash down and fuel the trucks whenever delivering them to the Schlumberger yards. The Leming yard is closing (i believe) soon and they are opening a new yard in San Antonio(Von Ormy). The wash bay is sometimes out of commission at Leming. Also one of the two fuel pumps is broken or out of diesel and the other pump was pumping so slow the other day a Schlumberger employee said he had been there fueling his trailer for 45 minutes.

I am not trying to be positive or negative about my experience so far. I am just describing what I have seen. This type of work is new to me and very interesting. I am looking forward to milder weather however.

Well I have today and the next three days off. I'll be taking my wife to the hospital in the morning so she can have her baby. It's my first and her third.

 

Sorry it took me a long time to respond. I don't check here regularly.

p.s. I got some cool photos