Oilfield Trucking Jobs

An oilfield trucking job is one of the highest paid trucking jobs in the industry but also one of the most dangerous. A lot of responsibility comes with these jobs, and you can expect to be paid accordingly. If you're looking for an easy driving job, you'd best steer clear of the oil fields!

When you work as an oilfield trucker you transport both hazardous and non-hazardous materials like sand, water, fuel, and cement to the oil fields and move equipment and supplies around the area to where they need it. Most companies require a minimum of 6 months experience truck driving or operating heavy equipment and you'll need a tank endorsement. A HazMat endorsement helps, too. In most oilfield trucking positions you'll be loading and unloading the materials that you bring in.

At an oilfield, everything has to be hauled in. Pipe, fuel, water, drilling additives, pumpjacks, food, and medicine aren't conveniently located in a store down the street. Oilfields are isolated and usually hours from civilization. One day you might haul water back and forth and the next you'll be moving heavy equipment from one site to another.

As an oilfield truck driver, you'll be moving rigs and heavy equipment, hauling tanks and open top tanks and hauling large equipment. You get to be home nearly every day on most jobs but some require you to stay out in the field for days at a time.

Many isolated oil fields will have "man camps," which are basically like barracks. Most workers use them mainly to sleep when they are not working; you share a bath, living room, and kitchen. Some oilfields have better housing and allow you to bring your family, but that type of housing is not standard.

Oilfield truckers also do winch work and that's one area that's very dangerous. Those lines can snap with no warning and cut a man in two. Experienced oilfield truckers will tell you to always treat a winch line like a rattlesnake—stay as far away as possible!

Oilfield roads are often tricky, especially when it's dark. They are rarely paved roads, and more often are dirt or gravel that can disappear after a hard rain. Traveling those roads can be very tricky even in the best conditions. The hours are not regular and you may be on call for up to three weeks at a time.

Experienced oilfield truck drivers will tell you that you should bring rubber boots that reach at least knee-high because you'll be working in all sorts of weather conditions. The summers are hot and the winters can be brutally cold depending on where the field is located. It's hard, grueling work and you'll be exhausted at the end of every day, but if you like a challenge with high wages, then oilfield trucking jobs may be exactly what you are looking for!