Originally Posted by Angry Jew Cat

I'd say most are just workers for the big companies. NAOSC, Syncrude, these companies employ huge work forces up north. There are subcontractors, but even they are big companies and they majority of their workforce is just hired labor too. A lot of the little guys you find subcontracting are on the trucking and welding ends of things in the oil field, and even there they are often subcontracted under another contractor, and are just leasing their own equipment out and getting a bonus fee for the daily contract on their trucks and tools. A guy with his own truck can make good money, well over $1k/day...

Take the tong truck example for instance. A tong truck makes approx $1500/call. On good days you can get as many as 3-4 calls in. Depends entirely on well depth, and proximity between leases you get called to. A shallow well you can run all the casing pipe down in under an hour and walk away with $1500. Get yourself in a nice area where they are drilling shallow wells close together, and you can really rack up the bucks...