This article was written by one of our staff on his experience with Trucking Compliance and Safety (or lack there of) in the Bakken Oil Fields. Have anyone else experienced crazy compliance/safety issues while on the road?
During my first couple of months of driving water trucks in the Bakken, I saw all manner of unsafe, and frankly, crazy, driving. The sight of over-turned trucks was a regular occurrence, roughnecks and roustabouts would pass each other on blind hills and turns to meet each other in on-coming traffic as they rushed to a job site, and commercial drivers would fall asleep at the wheel due to the fatigue of working beyond the Hours of Service limits. It did not take long to realize that if I wanted to make it as a truck driver in North Dakota – and stay alive – I would have to be 100% focused on safety and my level of awareness would need to be extraordinarily sharp.
Here are some examples of the negligence and lack of safety I saw during my time in the Bakken:
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One night, at about 3:00 in the morning, I was woken by the ground-shaking thunder of a large explosion. I ran outside to see flames ascending the giant fir tree of my next door neighbor. There was a small motor home parked in front of their house that was fully engulfed in flames. Kaboom! Another huge explosion sends the neighbors and me scurrying to a safe distance while waiting for the fire department. It was later determined by the fire marshal that the explosion was caused by a careless driver lighting a cigarette while sitting in his parked truck. The truck was carrying were six compressed oxygen bottles and a propane bottle – you can figure out the rest!
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Another example of this carrier’s negligence, beyond its poor driver qualification process, was when a new overnight driver destroyed a contamination barrier his first night on the job! He loaded his trailer with production water, drove off, and then failed to negotiate a tight corner to get out of the lot, destroying a contamination barrier with his trailer. To make matters worse, he didn’t even report the accident! This event was the straw that broke the camel’s back – the regulators came and put the carrier out of service, on account of this accident and many others within the previous year. Within only a few months of employment, myself and twelve other drivers were out of a job and the company lost millions in potential revenue due to lost contracts.
During my first couple of months of driving water trucks in the Bakken, I saw all manner of unsafe, and frankly, crazy, driving. The sight of over-turned trucks was a regular occurrence, roughnecks and roustabouts would pass each other on blind hills and turns to meet each other in on-coming traffic as they rushed to a job site, and commercial drivers would fall asleep at the wheel due to the fatigue of working beyond the Hours of Service limits. It did not take long to realize that if I wanted to make it as a truck driver in North Dakota – and stay alive – I would have to be 100% focused on safety and my level of awareness would need to be extraordinarily sharp.
Here are some examples of the negligence and lack of safety I saw during my time in the Bakken:
_______________
One night, at about 3:00 in the morning, I was woken by the ground-shaking thunder of a large explosion. I ran outside to see flames ascending the giant fir tree of my next door neighbor. There was a small motor home parked in front of their house that was fully engulfed in flames. Kaboom! Another huge explosion sends the neighbors and me scurrying to a safe distance while waiting for the fire department. It was later determined by the fire marshal that the explosion was caused by a careless driver lighting a cigarette while sitting in his parked truck. The truck was carrying were six compressed oxygen bottles and a propane bottle – you can figure out the rest!
_______________
Another example of this carrier’s negligence, beyond its poor driver qualification process, was when a new overnight driver destroyed a contamination barrier his first night on the job! He loaded his trailer with production water, drove off, and then failed to negotiate a tight corner to get out of the lot, destroying a contamination barrier with his trailer. To make matters worse, he didn’t even report the accident! This event was the straw that broke the camel’s back – the regulators came and put the carrier out of service, on account of this accident and many others within the previous year. Within only a few months of employment, myself and twelve other drivers were out of a job and the company lost millions in potential revenue due to lost contracts.
