Craig Copeland, Senior Bed Truck Operator, DC Energy Services, Crossfield, AB
"Hi. I'm Craig Copeland and I'm a Senior Bed Truck Operator for DC Energy Services in Crossfield, AB.
What that means is that I drive a flatbed truck equipped with a winch for loading and unloading oilfield equipment. I can haul just about anything that is used in the oil patch, from drilling and service rigs to tanks and testing equipment. If it's skid mounted, I can haul it.
When I graduated from high school, I drove truck for a courier company and then a bottled water company making customer deliveries. I didn't know anything about the oil patch, but I had heard it was a good place to work. I took a series of safety related courses at the Petroleum Industry Training centre in Leduc that are required if you want to work in the petroleum industry. There I got all the training and certification I needed, and started as a swamper-the guy who helps the driver-with a trucking company in northern Alberta. I realized pretty quickly that I would get paid more if I drove, so I got my Class One licence and started driving truck seven years ago.
I have kept at it because I like the sense of freedom it gives me. At DC we work as a team with other employees and customers to accomplish results.
There's a lot more to my job than driving; in fact, driving is only about 50% of what I do. The rest of my time is spent loading and unloading equipment and "spotting" or positioning equipment at the rig site. I couldn't handle just driving over the highway all day. It would be boring to me. This job is always different, always challenging.
If somebody asked me what they need to be good at this job, I'd say a passion for trucks is a great thing. I would also tell them they had to be willing to work long hours, because when it's busy, I can work 60 to 70 hours a week. But the money is good, and the harder you work, the more you can make."
Base salary: $80,000 to $110,000 a year depending on seniority
Education: Grade 12 preferred. Class One licence with training from an accredited driving school
Advancement: Dispatcher, Field Supervisor, Field Superintendent
Salary, education and advancement may vary from company to company.
06:30 -- My day usually starts early. When it's very busy I can be called out in the middle of the night and sent on a job, but usually the dispatcher tells us the day before what we'll be doing. Every job starts with an inspection of the truck. I walk around checking the tires and the lights, and looking at the belts and fluid levels under the hood. We do this every morning before we go out and every night when we come back in.
07:15 -- The next thing I do is pin my trailer at the yard. The kind of trailer we use depends on what we're hauling.
08:00 -- With a trailer attached, I'm driving a vehicle that's around 60 to 70 ft. long that can weigh up to 51,000 kg. fully loaded. It sounds difficult, but once you learn how to drive it, it's like driving your own car. You know exactly where everything is. That's a good thing, because the conditions we drive in are often severe, snow and ice in the winter and mud in the spring. But this truck will go anywhere. Sometimes I have even had to ford a river through three or four feet of water because the truck is too heavy for the bridge.
08:45 -- We use the winch to load equipment on the trailer. Today I'm moving two 400-barrel storage tanks. The winch isn't that difficult to work, but you have to be comfortable with it or you could cause problems. It's a 50-ton winch, so it can create a lot of torque and cause a lot of damage if it gets loose.
09:00 -- Usually when I go out to pick up equipment I have my swamper with me. He's the guy who tells me when to back up or move forward, and he supervises the loading. As a driver you have to be very careful. Your swamper's out there with all the heavy equipment and if you make a wrong move he could get hurt. That's why safety is really important on this job. I have to be aware of where he is every minute.
09:40 -- We rarely load a drilling or service rig, if we do, I help take it apart. It's kind of like a big puzzle, getting it apart to load it and then unloading it and putting it back together. It can also be quite exciting because you might have five trucks, each of them with a driver and swamper, all working together in a tight area. It's all about teamwork. However, on most jobs I stay inside the truck, although I help my swamper chain down the load and put on all the safety flags. A fully loaded truck and trailer can be worth $500,000 and that's a lot of responsibility.
10:20 -- We don't generally drive more than four hours in one direction, although sometimes in the winter we'll do longer drives up north. Usually we stay close to base, so I see home pretty well every night. It's still hard to join any organized activity that's scheduled, like a ball team or a hockey league.
10:45 -- It's my job to "spot" the equipment. Everything on a rig site has to be a legally specified safe distance from the rig, so we have to be very exact when we unload. I check with the rig boss or the safety supervisor and find out exactly where they want us to put it.
11:15 -- You need patience in this job because sometimes there are a lot of trucks unloading and you have to wait your turn. That's a good time for catching up on my paperwork, like my log book, bills of lading and work orders.
12:30 -- Today we're moving a service rig and its equipment from one site to another one just down the road, so we're doing two hauls right after each other. My hours vary from day to day and month to month, but I'm usually busier in the winter and slower in the summer. Although it's paid hourly, it's full-time work and I get three weeks holidays.
