are vacuum trucks tractor trailers?

The have both "bobtail" meaning straight trucks (class B) and tractor trailer vac trucks, it depends on the company and what they have you doing. As for going back OTR, most companies do not count local driving towards your experience, which is stupid. I have 20+ years driving car carriers (day cab tractors and 53' trailers) and heavy duty tow trucks yet most OTR companies will not even talk to me, they want me to go back to school, heck I never went to school I learned from my dad and uncles.

 

The majority of vacuum trucks in the oilfield are combination vehicles. You see very few bobtail vacuum trucks.

 

I can't speak for Texas, I answered from my experience in Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia where we use almost a 50/50 split of bobtail and trailers due to the narrow mountain roads and weight laws. We have a lot of weight restricted roads in Pennsylvania and it is only a 20 to 30 barrel difference between bobtail and trailer so it isn't worth the cost of posting a bond to exceed the weight limit, a lot of our roads are restricted to 10 or 30 tons, some as low as 10 tons in the shale formation areas. Most of our fresh water haulers are bobtails, the trailers are used mostly for mud, base oil, and production water disposal.

 

If you want to get into hauling local such as fuel delivery then yes the oil field work may help. Typical OTR companies do not count anything other than OTR work, vocational work such as oil field, local p&d, etc is over looked. In my opinion this is stupid of them, no offence to OTR drivers but local usually requires a higher degree of skill since you are bumping docks several times a day, maneuvering in and around tight spots, heavier traffic, etc but the big OTR carriers do not see it this way.

In my personal situation I am burned out of towing and want to do something easier, take my wife and head OTR with a dry van but the companies that will pay me what I want and treat me right don't want to accept my towing experience even though I tow some of their own tractor trailer units as a combination with my wrecker all over New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, heck I even tow doubles with their tractor still attached behind my wrecker but they don't care, nor do they care that I am the guy they call to get their drivers out of sticky situations, I am good for that but not good enough to drive their truck without going back to school, WTF!

 

If you can't run OTR with the big dogs then stay home on the porch. Sorry, just kidding! I couldn't resist. I hear what you're saying. With all that towing and car carrier experience you should be able to get an OTR job. I drove OTR for 15 years b4 switching to hauling crude oil locally in Texas for one year. It really depends on the company. Some companies want that 1-2 years of OTR experience b4 they'll even look at you. Sometimes for insurance reasons. You might have better luck looking at companies outside of NM if you haven't already.

 

Here is one of my tow trucks. Hope it brightens your day a bit.

 

Since you want to be qualified to haul fuel you should sign on with a regular tanker company that hires new CDL drivers then after 12 months you can go to almost any fuel hauler doing gasoline or diesel to truck stops or freight train yards. If you have tanker/hazmat you can land a good job right there in Texas with SVTN, CTL, Superior Carriers, Schneider tanker, or even FFE in the oilfields.

 

Why don't you go with a company like Western Express dry van division. Sometimes they hire drivers with no recent OTR experience. After 6 months you can go anywhere and probably make good money then. Many, many dry van companies will hire you after 6 months.