Information Discussion for Gate Guards

Don/Shar wrote:
Okay.... this week I have called our service man 3 times, he told me he would be here tomorrow each time. Well here it is Friday I am down to a little under 10 gal of desiel. He told me yesterday he would be here this morning early with desiel, water and weed eat the weeds to keep snakes out. So far no one has showed up, I am really getting tired of being way out here in nowhere land and not being taken care of. I am about ready to call Jay and let him know the type of service we get.

I have been reading each and every message and thought it was time to chime in since we now have quite a bit of time on the books with GGS.

We have not met a service guy yet that does not work his butt off 6-7 days a week sometimes trying to satisfy all of our 'demands'. Just by the nature of the business, their whole schedule can be thrown off by one phone call. Something like an emergency with a down generator, a rush-rush new set up or somebody suddenly discovering they are completely out of water or fuel is enough to disrupt their whole day. A phone call like that will push everyone else back in the schedule. Sure, some guys are better than others but they all work HARD from what I have observed.....

We always seem to get assignments that are a good ways from the closest yard ( We are 335 miles west of Carrizo Springs on this assignment) -- maybe Roger doesn't like us so much???? :) Being this far from the yard comes with some additional considerations as far as service. I think they would probably apply in most cases even if you are 5 miles from the yard.

When fluids are getting low, I call 48 hours prior to entering the critical zone just to give them a heads up.

I insist on spare fuel lines, belts, filters being available for the generator. I do not mind doing an emergency minor repair. If you are not mechanically inclined, just skip this step.

I keep 2 5 gallon fuel cans full of diesel on the generator trailer which belong to me. In a pinch, they will extend my generator run time 1 day+ and the service guy can refill them his next time out. If I don't need them, I can dump them in the MH tank when we move locations and re-fill them at some point to keep the fuel fresh.

I make contact with every vendor delivering supplies to the rig as I am sure everyone else does. It takes ONE extra step to ask them if I had an emergency where my service guy could not make it out for several days --could they help out? All of them said a splash of diesel or some potable water would not be a problem.

The rig has adequate supplies of both diesel and water. In a real pinch, I am sure the Company many would send someone down with 50 gal of diesel or 100 gal of water. This is NOT something I would ask for unless we were really in a bind as it reflects poorly on the way I (and GGS) do business.

I joke with the service guy and my supervisor about me calling them... I tell them if they ever get a call from me outside of the normal service window heads up type call, they better be dialing 911 for me next because it is a serious emergency! :)

Face it, many of us are in fairly remote locations and the logistics of supplying all of our needs must be formidable. Just by the nature of our jobs, I think some resilience and resourcefulness is called for on our parts as part of the job.

Just remember-- this job doesn't suit everybody.