Thinking about jumping in with both feet. Am I crazy ?

I've been giving thought to obtaining my CDL with Hazmat and tanker endorsements. The reason is, I see really good money for crude hauler owner operators in the west Texas area. I have the financial resources to purchase the rig as well as Safeland and H2S certs, but the question remains is this endeavor feasible because of zero semi experience? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

@Chinatown will be along shortly to give his professional opinion.

 

Do you have any contacts out hauling crude in West Texas?

If you do, talk to them, tell them what you want to do. See if they will let you work for them and drive their truck for 6 months to a year.

When there’s stupid money to be made, there is a price to pay. Those areas are ugly. Can you deal with ugly? I can, but I will go live in Hell if you have enough money. Many think they can, but cannot. Make sure you like swimming before you try to swim the English Channel.

Luck in battle.

 

With the current Freight situation my advice is make sure you have steady Freight before you make the plunge.

Yes there is a lot of freight but 90% of that Freight is being covered by contracted carriers.

If you trying to make it on your own in the spot Market it's going to be pretty bloody for you.

 

Click here and communicate with other oil field truckers > Oilfield Trucking Forum

 

You can buy the truck but Will you be able to get insurance since you have zero experience as a CDL driver? Or will you be hiring an experienced driver to run it?

 

I would sure want all my ducks in a row BEFORE I made a big investment.
I would for sure want to have sufficient work lined up, and beware the oilfield can and does just stop work at any given time, so have more than one oppurtunity lined up.
Insurance has been mentioned, and is another big one, insurance companies have tightened up the last few years, big time. A start up if insurable at all, may very well be unaffordable.

 

You sure are crazy, but we're all bozos on this bus,,,

 

You have no driving experience, and no oilfield experience. You have a 99 percent chance of failure, that’s if 285 don’t kill ya first.

Yes there is money to be made here. I do about 2k a week as a company driver. But you need some experience before jumping in with both feet if you want to be successful in the patch.

 

In addition to lack of GENERAL driving experience, the OP will have no experience driving off paved highways. Especially because his plan is to jump right in and purchase his own truck, the stakes are really high. One bad move off road and you can easily break drive trains, suspension parts, or worse.

OP, can you afford to pay for a tow truck or bulldozer operator to come haul you out of a bad situation AND survive a week or more down time while your truck gets repaired? If the answer is NO, then the right course of action is to make your mistakes in someone else's truck.

Sure, there is stupid money to be made as an owner operator in the oil patch. There's also stupid money to be spent.