Shortage of Drivers in Oilfield

I Made a lot more hauling water. The only time I made good money hauling oil is when I ran for an outlaw outfit check to make sure there's no water in it fudge the numbers and load it.

 

Maybe that's usually the case, but absolutely not always are oil drivers treated better than water drivers.

My first two years ('13–'15) I worked in TX. I don't remember the name but just W. of Karnes City, was the best SWD I have ever knew. When I first walked in there and handed them my disposal ticket I thought I was in a mini 7-Eleven. They had so much food there it was unbelievable: two kinds of catered entrées, many varieties of cereal, 2 kinds of milk, yogurt's, snacks, and all kinds of refrigerated microwavable food The girl said, "help yourself", They always had young attractive girls working counter until night time.

I was the exclusive driver for some wells so I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at that disposal for a few months until the company man told me to go to has buddies disposal where I'm sure he was getting a kickback. They had some food there too, and twice a week they would pull out the barbecue to grill up steaks for the drivers.

Other disposals had decent food, just not the variety. I never thought to ask the question, but do oil haulers get free grub at their unloading stations?

I could do most loads in an hour and a half and I was getting $20 Per hour or 30 in overtime.

I was driving a 2012 Mack truck and had a decent trailer, so I was working with good equipment

A driver I saw often worked for Mission Petroleum, he told me his runs from that particular well, N. of Panna Maria, would give him $45 for the load; mind you it was only 5 miles to his unload terminal in Helena, TX. But still, it would take him about an hour from setting the brakes to pulling out to load, and maybe having to wait to unload.

He told me the money was much much better when they had to deliver in Corpus Christi.

 

My situation was more/less the same when it came to hauling water. Got paid the same. We had a disposal in big lake (High Sierra) and then turned (NGL) that had a chef making breafast/lunch early dinner. (had leftovers for the night guys)

Obviously the crude guys didn't go there and their unloading places didn't have food. What i meant the better treatment was at the site (flowback/well) by the flowback operator/company man. They made us get out of the way before they got there, usually they didn't have to wait just get there it's allready for them, load up and leave. From my perspective their trucks were better (Plains transport) (I didn't see much of the Sunoco trucks, but they were nice also)

I was driving some beat up peterbilts for Select lol. I did like the watergig, i just loved that the oil guys drove better equipment and what not. I know it is more responsibility though

 

From what I saw of the select yard in Kenedy, TX., they had decent trucks.

And by the way, High Sierra was the name of the disposal I couldn't remember. But it was bought by somebody else and changed names after I stopped going there.

 

it was bought out by NGL. There was a new NGL built in Barnhart, Tx, also had a kitchen with chef, but when things started slowing down (early 2015;[) they let them go. they still had some snacks and what not, just not cooked food.

 

First month with elogs I made more than I ever have however the second month has been my worst since I started hauling frack sand

 

If you dont mind, how much was the best month and how much was the worst?
And thanks for the real world updates, means a lot.

 

There are too many companies hauling frac sand, crude, and vac tankers. So it's harder to make good checks on the regular. And it's not super busy like in the past

 

I've worked in the oilfield hauling crude oil now for 6 years. I currently work in the Stack play in Oklahoma. My best advice for anyone looking to haul oil is get with a company that buys their own oil. 3rd party companies are always the first to go when it slows down. I can't speak for the pay in other areas/states. But I have no trouble making $7k + a month gross. I've never made less than $80k a year. Best year was $107k.

 

who's hiring new cdl holders??