Whats the Average pay for o/o's that are hauling crude as opposed to hauling h2o?

 

Hi Justruckin,

Thanks for the information... I like that your straight up with your answers. And I agree... not to worry too much about the starting hourly salary at the beginning. If you're reliable and good driver... I would think your chances of getting raises would increase pretty quick. Plus I would think all the other outfits would probably try to steal good drivers away if they aren't paying them right or giving them enough hours.

I have a question for you... could you tell me what your career path was like when you first came to work in North Dakota? Like what position you started as... how your pay increased... companies you switched over for and why? Are you a manager now or what you current duties are? You don't have to give the names of the companies... but it would be interesting if you did. And where would you steer a newbie like me to start off at. I don't want to work on the rigs as a hand or anything like that... I'm too old for that. Driving a tanker truck is what I want to do... whether it was crude oil or water hauling. As far as experience... do you think it would be a good idea to get some experience in Texas or at least 6 months truck driving experience... before coming up to North Dakota? Or just take my chances and come up anyways?

 

David,

You need some driving experience. Don't come up here with a CDL in hand and no experience, odds are you will not get hired. Get some driving time under your belt somewhere, Texas would be great, may have better odds landing a job down there.

As far as career path, I was doing good until 2007, small trucking company. Like most guys up here, we are just trying to stay above water, get out of debt and bank some money. We have everyone from stock brokers, executives to stock boys driving up here. My path up here was simple, get a job and start networking. Talk to people, do a good job and people do notice. I try to stay clean cut, hard to get a haircut up here at times. I also try to dress the part, look professional, again, people notice. So far so good, my story is pretty much all here starting on page one of this thread. Water, rigs, propane... Its here, you just need to be here and be able to roll with it...

 

TCW,

I have heard numbers from $90 an hour up to $145 an hour, it all depends on who you land with. And most companies will require you to have a working truck AND crude trailer. I do not know of any outfits that have trailers for lease. Last year Deer Valley was leasing water trailers for around $5000 a month. And it is getting tougher for O/O up here, one screw up and the contract is lost. That is what happened to the outfit I was driving for when I first arrived up here over a year ago. Cascade is another company that was big up here, last I heard they were running 8 trucks, 7 of which were O/Ops. They had around 80 trucks running not long ago, but found themselves in a big contract with an oil company up here... One driver basically sunk the company from what I have heard, he would not listen and disregarded orders.

One outfit to call, I don't have their number, would be CHS. I think they are out of Watford ND. They haul Y-Grade (Liquid Natural Gas), and they may have trailers for lease. I don't know the pay there, but the guys I run into seem happy. You will need a wet kit on your truck. They have no housing, you will have to live in the truck, which is normal for most O/Ops up here. Trailers to live in rent for around $3000 to $5000 a month plus you will need a place to park the rig if you go that way, figure another $200 to $500 for a parking spot. Showers, we have two, maybe three truck stops with showers (Williston, Dickinson and Watford have showers) in the western part of the state and one in Stanley off route two, about 150 miles from where I am.

All right, I'm going back to bed, pulled a 22 hour shift yesterday screwing around with the Y-Grade and I'm POOPED! Gotta be back to work in a few more hours... Goodnight!

 

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD IS NO GOOD IF YOUR NOT AROUND TO SPEND IT JUST FOR MY FYI WHAT IS THE Y-GRADE

 

J,

Y-Grade is essentially a mix of liquid natural gas, water and crud. This material is the waste product of Natural Gas from the field. It needs to be pulled out of the compressor stations daily, as it cannot be piped out due to its makeup. It works like this, the natural gas is captured at the oil well head and piped to a compressor station. At the compressor station the y-grade is separated out of the actual natural gas before the good natural gas is pushed to the actual Gas Plant. We truck this nasty concoction out and haul it to the gas plant where it is cleaned and turned into propane, butane or what we call "natural gasoline". And natural gasoline is used to help facilitate the movement of oil in pipelines, it acts as a lubricant and is separated out at the refineries. I hope that made sense.

Mike

 

Justruckin, you are a great wealth of information, and your input and advice is greatly appreciated. ..my two cents

 

Ok guys i got my CDL back with all my endorsements so if someone hears of a good company needing a driver let me know. I could use all the help i can get. And yes i am a qualified driver and not a rookie.

 

zigmnster, look up sanjel, there denver office. get a apt. they have yards in milecity,mt. and wilston,nd. its a fracing outfit. worked for them and got a brother that runs a crew in miles city with them. its a lot of hrs 15 days on-6 off. 70,000 starting wage. u be over 100,000 in no time. its not easy, long days/nights. winter is a bitch - 45 blowing winter storms and you be working in it. ive seen 500,000 gal tank blow ,ive seen wells blow up, ive seen millon daller trks burn, and ive seen ppl burn. every one wants to make that money but few know what there getting into, and fewer stay. they pay good money the oil comp. and they know it, the stress thats every were in ND. you will need to go to classes to get on the oil sites not just one class each oil copny has there own class and you need to be certafed bye them or you dont step foot on there lease. the good compans will take care of that plue see that you have proper wear for the winters, sanjel,halborton,bj's. there the big dogs up there. a lot of fly by night trying to get a pic of the pie companys are there to. good luck, do ur home work.

 

Get on Craig's list and the Williston Shopper classified section...

North Dakota is back in the news... I was listening to Mark Levine on XM today, and the top of the hour news was touting Williston and our 1% unemployment along with the 70 to 100 thousand dollar a year wages for guys and gals willing to come up here, no experience required!