Are these 100k a year water hauling jobs legit? Which are the better companies?? I would think driving off road would make the equipment junk in a hurry if it was not a top notch company who invested in maintenance. Also are some of the towns better to work out of than others? I am so ready for a change but I can make 80k where I am if I choose to linehaul so I would have to be over a 100k to make it worth it. I am up for a challenge however, I have mastered freight, the thrill is gone (Maybe except on bad roads LOL).
I have worked in the oilfields for 7 years, 2 of which were hauling water. Yes equipment gets beat to hell, especially here in Colorado. The mountain, dirt lease roads are brutal on trucks and men.
CHOOSE linehaul. The money in those areas are legit, but you'll slave for every penny. Turn over is astronomical and in 7 years I have been laid off twice due to companies going under, the bust cycle is a battle you don't want to go through. The work is grinding, to meet that 100K mark you will be married to the mud and job. You won't run even remotely close to legal, and right now in the towns that are paying that kind of money you'll live out of your truck and if you are lucky enough be attached to a man camp or motel you might have time twice a week to get a shower. You'll spend twice as much for a cheese burger, and unless you live like a beggar you'll use the extra cash you'll make on simple commodities and/or rent if you luck out and actually find a vacancy somewhere.
I have been trying to get into anything besides the oilfields in a truck, and the good jobs that have you home at night and a steady livable schedule are a diamond in the rough.
Water hauling isn't a thrill, you'll be exposed on a daily basis to all the lovely chemicals in condensate, most are carcinogenics and probably inadvertently take a bath in the stuff several times by accident. You'll wallow in mud and muck half the year and roast the other half. Don't get me started on frozen valves.. that will make you want to slit your wrists. Make it 10 miles and half your load frozen on the way there, especially in the Dakotas. If you aren't fighting ice covered dog ears with a damn hammer, you'll be trying to get 100 lb stiff frozen hoses out of hose trays and they'll weigh twice as much for the ice and mud on and in them and it typically takes two or three hoses to hook to a tank.
You'll chain up your truck just to make it out of a location, hell I had to hang iron (ice cleat triple rail) three times daily on all drives, a steer and drag throughout the winters here.. EVERY single day for at least 4 months of the year.
If you're not good a math forget it, and you'll haul your butt up a flight of stairs at least twice if not more per load to measure your tanks and the amount of barrels/inches you'll take out of it to stay out of the oil.
You'll sit through classes on safety, OSHA, and Safeland/Safegulf. You'll also have classes required by different oilfield companies for you to be certified in yearly. You'll wear and pay for half of your PPE (personal protective equipment) a list that can include but not limited to: hard hat, safety glasses, fire resistant clothing, chemical gloves, steel toed boots, H2S monitors and air rescue packs.
Some companies will have decent equipment but you'll need to know a lot of in the field fixes and how to accomplish them with limited tools and supplies. Some will have benefits, a large portion will not. You'll really have no hope at career advancement unless you make the right contacts and get OUT of a truck.
So unless your free, single with no hope of a home life, and a masochist I suggest you take something that doesn't require you to use a shovel to scrape the 500lbs mud off your truck so your running legal weight when you hit the highway.. pick the option of linehaul or at the very least something that seems steady, especially an established company.
That's my two cents worth, and if you do go for it I would be here for any questions you may have.
