First and foremost, if you are afraid to die, this is not the job for you. You will experience loooong periods of boredom marked by many brief periods of sheer terror. Not a day goes buy where you are in a situation where you wonder if its your last. I was caught in a freak electrical storm filling up with crude oil at a well that was the highest point around for many miles, watching lightning strike a mere hundred of yards away. Crude oil fumes everywhere leading to 4,000 barrels of oil ready to ignite. Nowhere to run or hide. Then you have to worry about the drunk drivers. Lots of them. Or the fog so thick you can't even see the nose of your truck, much less the road. Or the crazy people who like to beat up truckers. I was a victim of a failed attack a little more than a week ago where two guys in two pickup trucks tried to jack me. I ended up ripping a door off of one and busting the rear bumper off the other after they tried to block my truck and slow me down. Cops said I had every right to kill them. Or the tornadoes that spawn right over you after you hook up to a lact. No place to run or hide. I rolled up on a well once where the backfire preventer blew out of the ground leaving a small crater. And it was still on fire. If it continued, it would have blown up the treater, then onto the tanks. That would have been a huge crater. Anyway, in the two months I've been working, I've already seen a handful of guys quit after the first day because they are scared ######## even on the ride along.

All roads are pretty much 7% grades on mostly obliterated asphalt roads, with sharp curves at the bottom that you can't see around. The best road I drive on is Highway 23, which is also the deadliest highway in North Dakota. That should give you an idea. Sometimes you can drive faster on the gravel roads than the paved roads. Some parts of asphalt roads are missing altogether, and even when you hit them at less than 20 mph (while you're still in a 65 zone), you are now riding a 50-ton double-bottom bucking bronco on a road where both sides drop straight down to the bottom of the badlands. All roads seem to be two-lanes, and no shoulders. Anywhere.

Most of the time you are driving from one side of the middle of nowhere to the other side of nowhere. This means you are on your own. Bring your own food and WATER (at least a gallon at all times). MRE's are ideal, especially if you want a hot meal. No open flames for cooking, that's why the flameless ration heaters are a good thing.

When you are going to the wells, you are on your own. There are no truck stops, or even little gas stations you can pull into to get some crappy nuclear burrito.

You will lose weight. I've lost 20 lbs since I started and often look like Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway at the end of my two week tours.

Cell phone service is a luxury. Most of the time (95%) you have no service, even with a Wilson SignalBoost. Learn smoke signals.

Bring a roll of toilet paper in a ziplock baggy. Most of the time the nearest toilet is 50+ miles away.

Bring a full change of clothes. Sooner or later every crude oil hauler gets a crude oil shower.

Protect yourself and watch your back at all times. There are people out there that *really* hate truckers. Always lock your doors, carry Mace, and have a hammer or crowbar on hand with you. Most of the time cops are 30 miles away. And you have no signal so you can't call them anyway.

Make sure to ask the company for living arrangements if you are from out of town. All hotels and apartments on the oil field are booked solid into eternity.

There's a lot more than this, but it's a good start.