How To Get A Trucking Job With The Highest Pay
71The Highest Pay Is Not Out On The Highway
I have been a commercial OTR (over the road) driver. I loved the open road and, in fact, still do. Give me a late model Volvo tractor with a big condo sleeper cab and a 53-foot dry van semi trailer, dispatch me on a three thousand mile run from coast to coast, and I am in hog heaven. Truly.
Trouble is, that is NOT the job that pays the best. Oh, I thought it was when I was doing it. At that time (2001-2002) I believed the only ways to generate a higher paycheck were to run longer hours without sleep...to switch to a flatbed trailer...to move to a state I didn't want to live in...or to buy my own truck and become an owner operator.
I was wrong. Thankfully, I did not find out THEN that I had been mistaken. It would have been hard to take, because may wife and I needed every dollar. Besides, we as a people NEED our OTR truckers. Look at something in your home. Anything. In our case, just at random, it might be the beautiful geode I bought on vacation from a shop in West Yellowstone, Montana, in 1991.
Where The Dollars Are
No, I was not the trucker that delivered the geode to the store where I bought it, but SOME driver surely did. Our economy would crash to a halt without trucks. It is a proud profession and deserves to be.
Thanks to an inheritance from my Mom when she left this world, I got out of the truck in late 2002. My wife and I figured we had enough nest egg to buy a small house in Anaconda, Montana, and retire there. Which we did. For 4 years.
By the end of those four years, we had run out of money, moved to Colorado (long story), overdrawn our bank accounts accidentally, and desperately borrowed a fair amount of transition money to get things back temporarily in balance. At age 63, I needed to get back to work in a hurry...and it needed to be for a lot of money. My wife's medical bills are not going to go down, and the expenses are all out of our own pockets.
One thing led to another, as things tend to do. I knew I wasn't one of America's dumbest truckers, but I did not know just how long it would take to find the right answer. If it were not for a tiny classified ad in a throwaway newspaper, I would not have found it at all: Becoming a water hauler.
For ten months (until getting out of trucking AGAIN to become a webmaster), I drove water tankers for a small but thriving company in the gasfield boom areas of western Colorado. The pay was nearly double what I could make going over the road AND it paid by the hour, not by the mile. If I ever have to go back to driving (and who can say what the future holds), that is EXACTLY where I will go. They have Peterbilt, International, and Kenworth daycab tractors, none of which are exactly chopped liver.
So now you know. A few final points:
1. The word "Colorado" is NOT the secret. "Drilling boom" IS the secret. It could be for gas or oil. It could be in Texas, Montana, North or South Dakota, Wyoming, or anywhere else we humans suck petroleum out of the Earth.
2. The hours are still very long. Any driver knows that: Short hours equals short pay, whether the calculations use miles or hours.
3. It can be hot, cold, dusty, filthy, dirty, hard work. When you are "on location" (where drilling rigs set up) it can be pretty sloppy underfoot. You will be required to drag heavy hoses around, climb up and down slick steel ladders, sling heavy sets of tire chains when the weather is at its worst, and other fun stuff like that.
But if you head for a boom town and simply start tracking down the water hauling companies, and you have a relatively clean CDL (Commercial Driver's License), the money is there. My W-2 for 2007 shows I earned more than $6,000 per month, EVERY MONTH I drove for that small company...and I was NOT their highest earner.
Thanks for reading,
Ghost32
The Life Of A Trucker
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
Big D,
Thanks for the comment! Never thought of the life or the song being sad--well, for my not-cut-out-for-trucking friend, that WOULD have to be the right word. One update: I DID run out of money without "getting rich on the Internet" and returned to my former employer as a full time (60-70 hours per week) water hauler in April '08. But I continue to post a new original song video each week on my days off, and a new Hub every FEW weeks. (The songs can be found on our poetic-humor.com site in the Musical Humor section or on YouTube under my user name of Mogularian.)
In the meantime, it's "trucking as usual"--last night was hauling MUD from one set of upright tanks to another....
Later,
Ghost32
I dream of living out west.I want to buy land and do what you did,just a little bigger of a cabin.I have a cdl and have had many different types of trucking jobs.All I do is look at land online,I just cant figure out where I want to buy land.southern colorado or northern new mexico is starting to look good cause its probably not as cold as montana,thats were I really like but I dont think my girlfriend and I could handle the winters.this summer we took a 3 week camping road trip to utah,nevada,redwoods,oregon,washington,montana,yellowstone,tetons.glacier park was my favorite.starry nights.well my point is,I have saved money to do this I just dont know if it would be easy to find a job after I built my cabin.Ghost32 maybe you can give some advice .
i
i
Cosmic Cowboy, thanks for the Comment. As for advice, I'm not sure how much help I can be but will list a few points to consider:
1. Gasfield driving jobs are still plentiful in the Rifle-Parachute-DeBeque area of western Colorado, even extending to Vernal, Utah, and up into Wyoming. But here (we live in Parachute; I drive out of a DeBeque yard) the winters are still cold, for sure. Not as much so as Montana, though, if you stick to the valleys and stay out of the mountains except for work requirements--those might well do you in!
2. Land in the southern Colorado or northern New Mexico area could make sense. In fact, we're buying an acreage in southeastern Colorado where we hope one day to build a dream house--not a low-end cabin like we had, unfortunately, because of the covenants; we really DO prefer "cheap cabin" living.
3. Unfortunately, we do not presently know of any area that combines low priced land with high priced oilpatch or gasfield driving jobs. It may be years yet before we can retire me (again) and build where we actually want to be. (I just turned 65.)
4. If you go for OTR (Over The Road) driving--a term I'm sure you know but which some readers might not--you should be able to do it. Before I got THIS job, we did live in southeastern Colorado for a brief time, and I got an OTR job with a big national trucking firm, my home terminal being Denver. If you don't mind being on the road 4 weeks at a time and only home a few days a month, that can be a workable compromise...especially if your girlfriend would like to ride with you during the work month. Some carriers will allow that. WE had a problem in that our cabin was at risk from scavenging neighbors is we did not have anyone home to defend it. The new land is in a better neighborhood, so to speak.
5. There are quite a few major trucking firms that have terminals in Denver: Watkins Shepard, Navajo, Swift, Knight, and probably others (those simply came to mind as I typed). Plus you might be able to hire on with a smaller, "Mom and Pop" trucking firm that was based nearer to the land you eventually selected.
As to finding a way to "live the way you want", we'll never say it's an easy process...but it is definitely worth it! Good luck with your search.
Ghost32
Ghost32 ,we really enjoyed your stories about living in the Montana wilderness and how you dug your well by hand.I also liked the rattlesnake story you wrote.When we took our camping roadtrip out west,I kept thinking I was gonna find one under my tent .When we were hiking in central Nevada we entered this area with a lot of sagebrush and these scary buzzing sounds started going off.I also liked the reincarnation story about the rattlesnake and the alligator.I sometimes get strange feelings of reincarnation or deja vue that I cant explain.Anyway,is there alot of wildlife in Parachute,is it wilderness,moutain land or does it start to get desert like in that area?I looked it up on the map and it looks like a good area,north of the san jauns and east of the Colorado national monument.Well like I said in my other comment Im still dreaming of living out west but our families are here in northwest Indiana.Im 36 and my girlfriend is 27 ,so we better get started soon.
' Morning, Cosmic Cowboy! Got a little time before heading back out on my regular work week of night shifts, so to respond to your latest Comment: (1) You think the worry about finding a rattler under your tent will keep you awake, try camping in the open (no tent) and then having Nature call in the middle of a moonless, starless (cloudy) pitch black night. Nothing like relieving yourself on a patch of "unknown" ground to perk up your adrenaline!
About Parachute: Yes, plenty of wildlife around here. Parachute and most of the other towns from Denver to Grand Junction are situated in the Grand Valley, close to I-70. The Colorado River also follows that route. Towering mesas and ridges, including the Roan Plateau, flank us to both the south and north. There are concentrated populations of black bears, deer, elk, jackrabbits, and a noticeable number of cougars (mountain lions). A few weeks back, crossing a back (gas patch) dirt road in my truck's headlights, I saw a critter make a quick dash--and realized it was the first bobcat I've ever actually seen in the wild. You can also hear coyote hunting packs calling at times.
As to your age, sure, no time like the present...but no age has to stop you. I'm 65, my wife is 57 (similar to your age differences, I note), and we've only been in Colorado for a little more than 2 years. My current "game plan" includes (a) driving for another 2 to 20 years, (b) becoming the World's Oldest Newly Discovered Music Superstar (I post a new song to the Net every week), (c) following that with resurrecting and making successful the anti-drug cartoon strip CLUCKERS, which I drew during 2003-2004, followed by (d) re-resurrecting a career as a science fiction / fantasy novelist (my first novel, Ptolia, was written in 1975 and published in 1982). And in the meantime, find TIME to get back to writing a new Hub now and then.
That should cover the next fifty to 100 years....
Ghost32, I just watched your music video," divorce is so exspensive , cause it's worth it". You jam on the guitar and your a great folk singer.The story about getting through a breakup with music was good to. Ghost32, I know your a busy guy with all the stuff you got going on and I just wanted to say thank's for taking time and writing back. I hope you dont mind if I have more questions to ask? Is there affordable wilderness land in that area? When I searched for land in Colorado I found land in the SAn De Cristo Mountain area, but like you said it doesn't seem like there is alot of jobs in that area. I really like local trucking so I can get home and spend time with Rebecca. Our dream is to both work and run a mini homestead with a garden and some animals. Is it hard to get electricity to these types of places? Is there strict zoning rules of what you can and cant do? If I build a small to medium cabin and it's not perfect , will they make me knock it down? If I buy heavily wooded land , will They let me cut down tree's for my cabin? I know your not a zoning inspector , but you seem to know alot about these type's of things. Well Im gonna read a couple more of your story's and go to bed.
Hi, Cosmic Cowboy--
A lot of your questions might fit my "survival cabin" Hub better than they do this one, but you DO truck for a living, so let's continue here for now: It's a real PROBLEM finding the BEST JOB and the BEST LAND DEAL anywhere near each other. In fact, they just plain aren't. My job keeps us here on Colorado's west slope, but our "dream land" is 400 miles to the east, just sitting there getting payments made on it and literally nothing else.
About zoning rules: It depends on where you buy, and who from. In the Ghost River Ranch development (Colorado) where we are currently buying, there are, not zoning rules, but a lot of COVENANTS that prevent you from building anything less than "pretty nearly perfect". We won't build there until we have enough money saved to both build and (once again) retire...and that may be a long way into the future due to my wife's expensive medical needs (especially the natural supplements, which add up to even more than the prescription drugs). Also, there are hardly any trees on that entire land mass. Building permits are required.
However, on the Missouri River Ranch development in Montana, the only tricky covenants we encountered were against raising goats or pigs--and one of the neighbors fought the Homeowners' Association on the goat issue and won. Nobody's tried fighting on behalf of pigs, or at least had not when we were there. Most of the homeowners in that development did a lot of their own building. They'll even allow an outhouse, but only for a maximum of two years--unless of course you get all cagey and hide one where no one can find it. In that development, there are lots of trees (mostly pine), and yes, you can cut your own. Building permits are not required out in the counties.
The place I'd LOVE to build would actually be South Dakota, at least if their rules have not changed. You can find cheaper land in certain parts of that state, and building permits (out in the counties, that is) are not required.
One exception in ALL states is that electrical inspections are ALWAYS required if you're going to hook up to a power company for electricity. But if you go "off grid", that is, ALL of your electrical power is pulled from wind power or solar power or portable generators and none from the area utility company, that can be avoided as well. Obviously, it helps to know enough not to electrocute yourself or your loved ones, or to set up something that might short out and start a fire. But there are good basic texts available on the topic.
HOWEVER, we know of NO cheap land which is close to a high paying job. Which kind of figures: If you have the sort of boom that skyrockets trucking wages, that same boom is going to drive land prices up. Dirty rotten shame for us homestead-loving types, but there it is. Not that you can't find a "regular pay" local trucking job. There are some. Just not the top pay types. Or, if YOU find one, please let ME know!!
Oh, I missed your "is it hard to get electricity" to these places question. Um, yes and no. Our Colorado land already has a buried power line run right to the edge of our property. In the Montana case, it would have cost a fortune to get commercial electricity run in there, so we all used gasoline or diesel powered generators. Our favorite was a little Yamaha that was really quiet, would run for about 8 hours on a gallon of gas, and produced enough electricity to run the TV and lights. The refrigerator, stovetop, and heater were all powered by propane.
MERRY CHRISTMAS , GHOST32. Thanks for taking time to answer all my questions. With all these blizzard condition's we have been getting across the country, I was wondering how it was driving a big truck in your area? In the Chicagoland area we have lots of snow and ice with limited salt due to over pricing. I know hauling water has to be dangerous on icy,hilly conditions.Hit the brakes and your a rocket sled on wheels.
Hi, Cosmic Cowboy! Yes, we've got plenty of snow and ice in the hills around here. In fact, I spent 3.5 hours in the ditch on Christmas night--coming down with a loaded transport, went to turn left on Rulison Road (a county road) and did a Dukes of Hazzard. That is, "straightened the curve", slid ACROSS the road and into the ditch. Another driver who had to wait until I got pulled out told me that he'd been there 2 hours earlier and the road was fine, but it was one greasy skillet at THAT moment.
On the other hand, did not (quite) high center, missed the fence, so all I had to do was wait for a buddy of mine to get dispatched with a bobtail to pull me out. Gave me time to eat my lunch and finish a book, so that was pretty cool!
Hi Ghost32! I read your comments above about becoming a Colorado water hauler. I've been a long haul driver for years. I'm 57 and still don't have enough money for retirement. I've searched all over the Internet for "oilfield water hauler" jobs. You mentioned Colorado, Texas, Montana, North or South Dakota and Wyoming. I found two companies in Vernal, Utah but they both went out of business this month. My wife would move with me to any of these places and we could see each other more often than now. You mentioned that one day you saw a newspaper ad for a water hauler. You never mentioned any of the companies doing business in Colorado. Can you tell me some names of Colorado newspapers or Colorado water hauling companies? Is there a government web page online or some other web site that lists water hauling companies? With this economy and businesses suffering, I figure there aren't any openings, but I need to try. Do you know if there's a web site that lists water hauler job openings? Thanks in advance!
Big J, I thoroughly understand and sympathize with the difficulty you find in locating Colorado water haulers. The problem is simple: THEY DON'T USUALLY ADVERTISE OR EVEN GET LISTED MUCH OF ANYWHERE. As in, ouch! My good fortune in spotting an actual ad was huge...and yes, it's true that in the current climate, the openings are unquestionably fewer. But not nonexistent.
Starting with my current employer: Production Transport of Clifton, Colorado, office telephone number (970) 424-5002. The gentleman you want to check with is Jim Madsen, the General Manager. Whether he'll say yes or no, I don't know, but it's a place to start.
Then there's Hyland Enterprises, with a Rifle, Colorado, number of (970) 625-8270. They're a pretty sizeable outfit and might even have a truck yard in Vernal, though I don't actually know about that one way or the other. I do know they're not out of business.
I don't have time to do a lot of digging at the moment, but if you try a search website such as 411.com, punching in various towns (such as Vernal, Utah, or Grand Junction, Colorado (I know quite a few outfits have truck yards in Grand Junction), you could try searching for any of the following water haulers: Nabors...RNI...Avalon...oh, and before I forget, Golden West (smaller company) yards at DeBeque, CO, and Dalbo (big company) at Rifle, CO. There are dozens of REALLY small companies (1 to 10 employee drivers), but you'd probably have to meander out this way and wear out a bit of shoe leather tracking those down.
And then there's Tryad Transport--wait, that's MY company I set up Oct. 1, which is literally a Truckless Trucking Company at the moment. No joke. Ever since funding fell through that same month on an APPROVED loan to get my own truck, I've been beating my head against the economic-meltdown wall. But even without Tryad, seriously, there are a LOT of companies still in business IF you can find them. Not all of them will hire an OTR guy who's never been in the oilpatch before--it's a bit of a different breed of cat, for sure--so you might have to sell yourself a little harder than some drivers at first. But I do believe it still CAN be done.
Haven't seen any recent ads for drivers in the papers, and I'm honestly blank on the names of them right at the moment (and must sack out a few hours before tonight's shift), but if you (once again) use 411.com, and pick a town (like Grand Junction or Glenwood springs) and punch in "newspaper" for the type of business you seek, you'll find 'em.
I don't know of any website that lists water haulers as such. We're kind of the po' folk of the trucking trade in a way...but that's okay. We're still laughing all the way to the bank.
Best of luck with your search, and let me know if this helps.
iam into water hauling i worked in farington nm looking for a water hauling company in wyoming or montana
Native American Water Hauler: I'm out of the water hauling business entirely as of this writing (June '09), as work got slow enough in Colorado to spook us, so my wife and I now live off grid in southeastern Arizona...where I'm LOOKING for work, but not at the moment finding.
With that said, I don't know about water haulers in Montana but do know that Hyland Enterprises has long had a major presence in Wyoming. They're headquartered in Rawlins, phone number (307) 328-0668. Big outfit (in case you don't know them), some drivers seemed to like them, some not, about par for the course. A place to start looking, at least. Another biggie, Dalbo, is based in Vernal, Utah, but was planning to expand into Wyoming in 2007, so if that did happen they may be another option. Their Colorado trucks had a reputation for less than stellar maintenance, but whether that was a company wide situation or a local thing, I've no idea. I do know that when every other Colorado company was going into survival mode in early 2009, Dalbo seemed to be more than simply staying busy.
Big D says:
16 months ago
This is a sad song and video but it is the life of a truck driver.