Alaskan trucking fleets promise $150K driver salaries amid drilling boom

As extra drilling and mining tasks are authorized in Alaska, native trucking fleets are planning to rent drivers round the US to haul tools, chemical substances and different masses — significantly on its fearsome Dalton Freeway, a distant, 414-mile street that connects Fairbanks to grease fields close to the Arctic Ocean.

The developments, significantly ConocoPhillips Alaska’s Willow undertaking, have been controversial as they might mar a few of Earth’s most distant land. Nevertheless, for the residents of the US’ third-least-populated state, the brand new investments might convey an financial growth that many locals say the state wants. 

The development of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System within the Seventies and oil growth of the Nineteen Eighties remodeled Alaska. The pipeline introduced in some 70,000 employees and sometimes their households. A lot of them stayed; Alaska’s inhabitants grew thrice as quick as the remainder of the nation within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties. As of 2013, greater than half of Alaska’s housing inventory was in-built these many years. 

Josh Norum, the president of Fairbanks-based Sourdough Specific, mentioned the upcoming explosion in mining and drilling might rival these frothy years. 

“We’re calling it our second pipeline,” Norum mentioned. “(The Trans-Alaska Pipeline) was an enormous growth. … We’re evaluating that chance with this subsequent section.”

6-figure salaries for Alaskan truck drivers — however the job isn’t for everybody 

In response, Alaskan trucking firms are looking for truck drivers to haul tools — they usually’re paying them large salaries. 

Drivers who can deal with the so-called haul street, which is filled with ice within the winter and liable to mud and dirt the opposite three seasons, are particularly demand. 

Norum mentioned Sourdough Specific drivers on the haul street earn $95,000 to $120,000, along with well being care, retirement and paid day off advantages. Compensation has elevated by 15% over the previous two years. 

Sourdough Specific at present employs 85 firm drivers along with contractors, Norum mentioned, including that over the following few years the corporate will add 50 to 100 new drivers. 

Gage Schutte, vp of freight operations for Alaska West Specific, additionally mentioned the corporate is wanting so as to add 50 to 100 new drivers to its fleet. In response to a federal database, the corporate at present has 121 drivers.

Alaska West Specific elevated driver compensation by 11% this yr. Every spherical journey between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay on the haul street pays round $1,500, Schutte mentioned. Drivers can anticipate to make 100 to 115 journeys to Prudhoe a yr. Meaning Alaska West Specific drivers can earn round $150,000 to $170,000 a yr, along with advantages.

That is perhaps engaging for truck drivers who’re scuffling with slumping freight volumes and in search of a well-paid gig. 1000’s of trucking authorities have already shut down this yr as gigs obtainable for drivers dry up. In response to federal knowledge, tractor-trailer drivers earn a median annual wage of round $48,000. 

Nevertheless, these aren’t simple jobs. The most effective circumstances on the haul street are within the winter, when temperatures within the unfavourable 20s give the ice-packed freeway its finest traction. Fall and spring make the street slushy, whereas summertime means the haul street is dusty or slick with calcium that’s used to make it much less dusty. 

Robb Christenson, the director of gross sales and pricing at Sourdough Specific, was a truck driver round his native Alaska for practically three many years, together with some 50 runs on the haul street. He mentioned these masses weren’t simple, however hauling chemical substances and heavy tools close to the Arctic Circle was definitely memorable.

“The tools that you just haul you’ve by no means seen earlier than in your life,” Christenson mentioned. “Being part of that and doing that, it means one thing particular as properly.”

Security is crucial characteristic for these trucking executives. These at Alaska West and Sourdough mentioned they like to rent Alaskan residents. Nevertheless, there’s such a requirement for truck drivers now that they’ll possible must recruit from the decrease 48. 

Schutte mentioned few truck drivers who apply to those haul street driving positions have already got haul street expertise. Some are capable of catch on faster — for instance, these with log trucking expertise within the Pacific Northwest.

Jeff Russell, who’s the superintendent of upkeep of operations within the Alaska Division of Transportation’s Dalton district, which incorporates the haul street, can concur that operating on this street isn’t for everybody. Drivers caught in a snowdrift won’t have the ability to get rescued for a day or extra. And so they’ll must know the way to repair their very own vans — tow vans aren’t precisely heading as much as Prudhoe on a whim. 

“Looking for personnel that’s prepared to tackle that problem is exclusive,” Russell mentioned, “not simply for many who want to keep up the street however for the trucking neighborhood who must have folks which can be prepared to drive in these circumstances. They’re not a dime a dozen. I can inform you that.”

Alaska’s longtime dependence on power manufacturing

Alaska has a fancy historical past with power exploration and manufacturing. The state has lengthy been extremely depending on diesel gasoline for heating, transportation and energy era. Gasoline is dear to import. 

Oil manufacturing drove Alaska’s financial progress within the twentieth century. The 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which has a carrying capability of two.1 million barrels per day (bpd), unlocked extra oil manufacturing but additionally depleted Alaska’s oil reserves. Manufacturing on Alaska’s North Slope peaked in 1988 at simply over 2 million bpd and has fallen greater than 75% since then.

Alaska’s oil manufacturing has been slowly declining for the previous 10 years. Earlier than that, there have been two extra punctuated intervals of sharper decline, from 1988 to 1998 when crude oil manufacturing was reduce in half from 2 million bpd to 1 million bpd, and one other decline from 2004 to about 2011. 

At present, the query is whether or not Alaskan oil manufacturing is poised for a rebound that will see it retake the five hundred,000 bpd mark — roughly 25% of the state’s 1988 peak.

Alaska’s oil manufacturing, when multiplied by the value of oil, helps decide the payout quantities for the Alaska Everlasting Fund, the annual oil and fuel dividend that each one that’s lived in Alaska for longer than 12 months is eligible to obtain. That payout has bounced between $1,000 and $2,000 yearly, however might see a resurgence if Alaska pumps extra barrels in a wealthy worth surroundings. 

In response to the U.S. Vitality Data Administration, Alaska North Slope crude fetched $76.62 per barrel in January, a worth that was down from current peaks however nonetheless very excessive in comparison with the Nineteen Eighties to 2000s. 

A neighborhood boon — with worldwide controversy

The $8 billion ConocoPhillips Willow undertaking, authorized by the Biden administration in mid-March, represents the most important funding in Alaska power infrastructure in many years and is projected to provide as a lot as 200,000 bpd over the following 30 years. ConocoPhillips didn’t reply to a FreightWaves request for remark.

Oil manufacturing on the North Slope might develop by 40%, and ConocoPhillips officers have mentioned that the Willow undertaking’s wells may very well be used to develop newly found fields farther west.

One other undertaking on the North Slope, a three way partnership by Australian agency Oil Search and Spain’s Repsol, will make investments $2.6 billion to develop the Pikka undertaking, forecast to provide 120,000 bpd by 2026. 

Whereas that form of manufacturing progress would have a major optimistic influence on the Alaska Everlasting Fund payouts to on a regular basis Alaskans, a  renaissance of Alaska’s oil and fuel trade would instantly spike demand for development, oilfield providers and transportation jobs within the distant, frigid North Slope, possible elevating wages considerably.

Different tasks might contribute to that growth as properly. A proposed gold mine in southwest Alaska would take three to 4 years to assemble and function for about 27 years. It might make use of tons of of employees annually.

Alaskan lawmakers, the oil trade, labor unions, trades, Alaska Native teams and a few North Slope residents have all rallied behind the Willow undertaking, as The New York Instances reported. 

Local weather activists, nonetheless, have slammed it as a “carbon bomb.” Burning the entire oil the Willow undertaking would produce would equal 9.2 million metric tons of carbon air pollution yearly, or 2 million further automobiles. In the meantime, some Alaska Natives say the proposed gold mine might endanger their entry to fish and sport sources.

Are you a truck driver in Alaska? Electronic mail [email protected] together with your expertise.