Question about Crude hauling

Hi all, new to the forum here. nice to see a place where I can come and vent from time to time....

I have a question that maybe someone knows the answer to (hopefully)...

I been hauling water for about 12 years in the Barnett Shale West of Fort Worth. About 2 1/2 years ago our county experienced an oil bust and my company laid off about 150 employees including myself and was bought out by another company.. Rock haulers, water haulers, rig hands etc. Most companies around us were shutting the doors and letting people go. I at the time didn't have my Hazmat and didn't have time to wait for it. No one else was hiring locally so I ended up losing my house and a couple of vehicles. It was really rough on me and the family. The company that bought us out happens to be the largest producer in the Permian Basin. They offered all of us jobs as part of the buyout. I decided to take it because of how good that would look on my resume, plus id get some good experience while there. After serving two years in Midland and in an RV, I finally broke down emotionally. My credit is ruined, my rv was falling apart at the ceiling and in other spots due to the harsh west texas summers, and I had no money to fix it. I decided to come back to the Fort Worth area where im from originally to see if anything has picked back up. To my luck, the town due north of me is having a small boom at the moment and the local oil companies are popping holes left and right. Luckily I was able to land me a job on day 1 of being back. This time around, I decided it would be a wise move to go ahead and get my Hazmat before things go downhill again. I finally got it about a month or two ago, and as soon as I could, I was hitting these crude companies up pretty hard. I found one good prospective employer. They went as far as doing the background check on me and everything, and then they emailed to tell me there was a problem. They wanted some info about an accident I was involved in back in '09 (4 years ago.) I was shown to NOT be at fault, and I was NOT cited for anything. It did go through remediation for a settlement for the Plaintiff and their injuries and fixing their car etc, but still, I was not "at fault". They called my current employer for a background check while im right in the middle of getting a promotion to being a dispatcher the very next day. So now I have my current boss asking me questions as to why im leaving after I told him I would stay and help dispatch, and I told him I had no intentions of messing anyone over. Really im hoping all along that this oil hauling job came through because hauling water all of these years has taken its toll on me and im ready for a change and wanting to get to use my new endorsement as a means to opening new opportunities for me. On this oil companies' application it clearly stated "List all accidents for the last 3 year period". I didn't list anything because it has been 4 years since I was involved in mine. I explained this to the terminal clerk. She then requested that I send her a copy of the police report from the accident, and from that point it would be up to their Safety Manager as to whether or not I get the job. I have never had someone ask me for this. I had to do some hunting for this report, but once I found it, I paid the $10 for it & I emailed it to her the next day along with my original statement that I had handwritten the day of the accident (which I had to get from my ex employer). I waited for a couple of days to hear something back from them but I never did so I decided to email her to check status on everything. While assuring me my background check was spotless and my MVR was fine, I just knew I had this job. She finally emails me back and said "I sent your application to our Safety Director, and he has decided to turn down your application..." I emailed her back and asked her for this safety guys email address. I emailed him basically asking why I was turned down for. He told me " Upon looking at your application we decided that it does not meet our qualifications..". So basically he didn't bother telling me what it was that got me turned me down. I'm thinking it was the wreck (even though it wasn't my fault), then I thought maybe its my credit score? Sorry this is so long but I want to explain everything in detail so that maybe it would make more sense to the reader. If I am disqualified because I have no oil hauling experience then how in the heck do I get experience? This is as frustrating to me as trying to get a job as a Pumper is (not likely to happen). Over all my years as a water hauler I cant believe I got turned down to haul oil.. I have a perfect record, and a lot of great references and I just fell slapped in the face by this company for getting me into hot water with my current employer by doing a background check and then deciding not to hire me. I emailed the Safety Director back and told him that his company has left a horrible taste in my mouth and im no longer interested in working for him or his crappy company (while I still have my dignity left hehe.) Long story short, what does it sound like? Do companies really use the old credit score as a means to pick candidates for hire? If so why on earth would they ever do that to those who work in the 'ol oil patch with all the ups and downs it frequently experiences? I don't know too many people who have great credit in this industry anyways. Or would it appear that my little mishap back in '09 is still haunting me to this day? If so, how can I get back to a hirable state with a company requiring a Hazmat endorsement? I know they are probably a bit more picky with our ever changing laws and such but my record really is good and im just not understanding what might have happened. Maybe they just didn't want to train me to do the job I don't know... I also don't think it was smart on the employer to be doing background checks out of the blue without first interviewing me to see if I was still available or interested in a job, seeing as how it was a few weeks back that I had applied there. I almost forgot I did apply there.... Anyhow, thanks for having me, and I hope someone can make sense of this for me as right now I see no Crude hauling in my immediate future

 

Thanks for the response. Being a former hiring manager, I can see where they will not tell you info regarding the hiring process but it sure is annoying. I got another prospect today that emailed me about a similar job so I just gotta keep pressing on and something will surely come my way. On my MVR the accident says "Accident-not at fault-possible injuries." Im glad it has the "not at fault part", but im wondering how long this is going to pull up everytime someone does a search on me. Until then, im glad I have a job, and I get to work in the office for 2 days a week while driving the other 3, so im lucky...
As far as preventing what happened to me, it was deemed that the only way I could've prevented the wreck from happening was to not even leave the yard that morning. I was in a bad situation in adverse weather conditions following all limits and rules and was simply cut off at the last minute. Since im driving the truck though, im not hauling anything, im actually dragging a billboard around saying "sue me , sue me!!"... I hope no one ever has to go through this as it has been a long 4 years.... god bless.

 

Yea im thinking you are right on that one 100%. I read over their list of criteria you have to meet in order to meet their "qualifications", and I did. They just went back further than the application said they did because of an ex employer mentioning the accident. I think they are just really picky and probably have an insurance agent who doesnt allow any blemishes on a driving record period. All is fine and I will find something better soon.