Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/71813
Fuel's gold OIL AND GAS HAULS CARGO Oil Sand/cement Water/Waste fluid Heavy equip Fracking fluid in totes TRAILER* Liquid bulk crude tank DEMAND High Pneumatic tank, dump Very high Liquid bulk tank Platform Platform High Empty totes outbound Dry van Sporadic, moderate/high Sporadic, moderate/high Moderate/high * Most oil and gas service fleets leasing owner-operators can provide trailers. All liquid hauls, including both full and empty totes, require hazmat/tanker CDL endorsements. same level with the same group of guys" day in, day out, he says of his current operation. "You have your CB on, you talk to them – the communication is just unbelievable." Kristin Stump echoes that sentiment. "This is the most fun I've had in 11 years' driving," she says. "It's a good old-fashioned trucking team and you get to know so many more people." The attraction isn't all about teamwork, of course. "I think I was up around $140,000 before expenses" last year, Mace says, on just 41,000 miles, for an average $3.41 per mile. Reed books its loads through the KSM Brokerage, with rates adjusting weekly with fuel prices, Mace says. Owner-operator Bixler entered the business following Mace, also finding a diamond in the rough. "For the first time in 12 years as an owner-operator, I'm really making money," he told Overdrive as part of our reporting on high-paying niches in the January issue. "The industry's getting a lot more competitive," he said in May. "We have a lot more people coming and trying to get into it – they're cutting rates." Companies also "scaled back a little bit as natural gas prices have gone way down," Bixler says. As reported in January, Bixler at one point could expect up to $6 per mile gross, but in May, after 12 months in the business, he'd banked $170,000 gross on 45,000 miles, or 36 OVERDRIVE JULY 2012 $3.78 a mile. Mark Kathrein and Wendy Wing moved their 2006 Freightliner Classic (with an 84-inch sleeper) to hauling crude with the Lessley's small fleet after having leased to FedEx Custom Critical for years. Similar opportunities exist there in Texas, but with crude oil a bigger part of a gas/oil mix. Kathrein and Wing got their start in crude briefly working the Bakken Shale area in North Dakota, where they'd heard a team might gross $300,000 yearly take- home on low miles. That proved to be an inflated number, and the ultra-rugged climes didn't make for many pleasurable days. So they plunked down close to $100,000 for a brand-new Tytal 8,400-gal./200-barrel 407-code- compliant crude tanker to get in on Lessley's operation (though Lessley does own some tanks). "We run from Corpus Christi to the ranch" in the Eagle Ford Shale area, he says, referring to a well situated equidistant between Laredo and San Antonio on the old "King Ranch." On a really good day, says Kathrein, "we can get in three loads in 24 hours. That's a huge payday – we can make up to $4,000 a day doing that, but we typically make about $2,500 to $2,600 a day seven days a week." They're paid an 80/20 split with the carrier, and the rate is computed per-barrel. "And the further the haul, the higher the barrel rate," Kathrein Buying what you haul Mark Kathrein and Wendy Wing's crude- hauling operation, leased to Lessley Services, is unusual in that the operators and their carrier are testers and buyers of the product they're hauling. "I buy a tanker of oil and I have a guaranteed buyer [who sells it] to other outfits," says Kathrein. But it's up to Kathein and Wing to ensure the oil is not too contaminated or the buyer will reject it, so they take samples. A centrifuge on their truck separates water and sediment, says Kathrein, "and we have to report that level to decide if we're going to buy that oil." A $3,200 centrifuge separates oil from impurities. Mark Kathrein loads crude oil after they have tested it. says. For example, 190 barrels hauled 200 miles might be priced $6 a barrel, a 30-mile run at $3 a barrel. "This is where the money's at as far as I can tell," he adds. "We're making twice what we were making" hauling expedited. Courtesy of Mark Kathrein Courtesy of Mark Kathrein