Oil field gate guards

[halfwright]

My wife and I wanted to go on an Alaska cruise, but the budget would not allow it. So, we took a gate guard job that was to pay $150/day. We lasted ten days and wimped out. I have never quit a job before because I could not stand it, but this was more than we could bear. We did not have a day when there was less than 150 trucks through the gate. Oil and water tankers ran every one to two hours day and night. They went by about 30 feet from the bedroom window. There was a three cylinder diesel generator running continually about twenty feet from the trailer. The dust was so fine all it took was the shadow of a ghost of a breeze and it would blow. The trucks kept it stirred up terribly. Day time temperature was in the nineties and hundreds. I never got over three continous hours of sleep for ten days and my wife even less. One of us had to be up and awake twenty-four hours a day. When my wife and I got a chance to sit down together, she said she could not take it anymore. At the same time, I was wondering how I was going to tell her the same thing. I am not saying this is an impossible job, because I know there are many people doing it. But, if you are planning on taking a gate guard job, please consider everything.

I did learn something. If on my next job, I have to wrestle three twelve foot long starving crocodiles while standing neck deep in steaming hot human excrement and wearing a barbed wire jockey strap, I can say, "This ain't too bad. At least I ain't a gate guard in Texas."

[K0LCB]

You gotta be one tough dude to wear a barbed wire jock strap

[Fritz7]

If you want another perspective on gate guarding read this blog: www.ourrvadventures.com. This
is their 3rd time around for various times each turn. They have worked out a schedule that
suits them fine. They don't do 12 hr. shifts but split them into 2 shifts each. I learned alot
about how oil wells go up from his detailed description of everything. Very interesting reading.

[DQDick]

It is a job for folks who can work under stressful conditions.

[c214dick]

Did you get paid anything for the ten days or 0 because you broke the contract?

[halfwright]

We got paid because we had signed no contract. We just took a job, no contract invovled.

[JandC]

Well, look at it this way, you probably got about 2/3 of your cruise paid for in just 10 days!

[mazboy]

this is a great example of why you need to get all of the information before you take the job.

[washley1]

quote:Originally posted by JandC

Well, look at it this way, you probably got about 2/3 of your cruise paid for in just 10 days!

Let's see...ten days at $150/day is only $1500. If that's 2/3 of the price of an Alaska cruise, I do not want to see the boat....Just sayin'.

[JandC]

quote:Originally posted by washley1

Let's see...ten days at $150/day is only $1500. If that's 2/3 of the price of an Alaska cruise, I do not want to see the boat....Just sayin'.

This year sailing out of Seattle on Royal Caribbean to Alaska we did the 7 day cruise for under $3,000. An inside room for 2 on that cruise would have been just under $2,500. So maybe "almost 2/3".

[jlb27537]

We have friends working as gate watchers. They get $10 a hour, work 12 hour shifts. They stay in a RV park about 17 miles from the gate that the company pays for.

Only one of them is required to be on duty. 12 noon to midnight. Midnight to noon.

South of San Antonio about 120 miles.

[CORattler]

Ugh! No thanks. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do I suppose but that sounds like a job for "someone else".

[minkid]

we have done the gate guarding,would like to do it again. Do you have ph.# and name of the company?

[jlb27537]

quote:Originally posted by minkid

we have done the gate guarding,would like to do it again. Do you have ph.# and name of the company?

If you are asking me, I'll chase it down.

Jim

[Rob Walters]

I did the gate guard thing a couple years ago. I did it by myself because my wife was not yet retired. I absolutely LOVED every minute of it. Yes, there was a lot of traffic during the drilling and fracking stage of the wells, but I knew what I signed on for when I took the job. Because I was so willing to be abused, my supervisor put me on a gig where I followed a "work over" rig around to all the wells within a 3 or 4 county area. I would follow the work over crew from well site to well site. Always the same crew, and the same hours. Usually 5 am to 7 pm. After that I closed and locked the gate. I did this for about a year. My accountant thought it was the greatest. I got to deduct my RV payments, interest and insurance, mileage, per diem food costs and daily expenses. All repairs and maintenance costs and even the cost of special clothing. Yes, there were short periods of time during that year that my sleep suffered a little but I would do it again in a heartbeat. The only reason I don't is DW threatened to sell everything and move while I was gone. She HATED it! This work is NOT for everyone but it's great for those that can suffer through the rough times.

[jlb27537]

quote:Originally posted by jlb27537

If you are asking me, I'll chase it down.

Jim

Contact:
Overwatch Enterprises
http://www.overwatchent.com/
Lance and Teri Rose are the owners
Office# 1-830-589-3002
Say you were refereed by Tom and Sally Garner. They work for them now and get some sort of referral $$ if you are hired.

Jim

[minkid]

Thanks much Jim,i'll check it out,thanks again

[jlb27537]

Found this link, is a year old info, but one of the guys in our park is doing the guard stuff, just between gates right now. He loves it, we would not. I'd google gate guard and go from there.

http://www.myoldrv.com/?page_id=1884