I just went through and deleted most of my posts and comments, the ones pertaining to gate guarding companies. After working with 3 different companies since June, we have a pretty good idea of what WE want from a company and the money is not everything. We choose to supplement our income so we don't have to take from our savings/investments. Others of you are fortunate, I suppose, not to have to work at all. It irks me a little to see those people bad mouth gate guarding when they don't have any experience with it or they did it 20 years ago...lol.

Anyways, for those interested, I have prepared and posted, on our blogsite, a FAQ and a current 'where we are' in S. Texas. It's soley up to you where you want to work and for whom. For any further questions, don't hesitate to post them here and myself or someone will help you.

Thanks all and enjoy life!!

Tom,

I ran across your blog a while back (referenced from Jerry and Carol's site), and I will be following you and your experiences.  Sorry to hear about your beloved German Shepherd.

In fact, another couple that frequent the forums here some are gate-guarding down in Texas right now.  They are trying to get used to mud.  They are Doris and Dave Arnold (I think) and they are giving me an insight as to what is being done.

I don't think we would have any problems with gate-guarding, even with the 24/7 circumstances.  Hey, if you aren't in town, you aren't spending money.  If you aren't towing a lot of miles, you aren't spending money.  I would see a winter's job of gate guarding as an opportunity to save up a fair bit of cash for traveling in the summer.

Keep up the good work with describing what you do.  However, I am hoping that you deleted earlier comments because they were no longer relevant.  Some of us use such comments to hone us for asking questions about what interests us.

Terry

Terry,

  Thanks for the condolences for Dieter...he is greatly missed. We still see him laying around or chasing whatever suited him.

I deleted nonsense comments that were not really necessary. The FAQ that Donna and I created was to quickly supply the demand for more information. It is a culmination of dozens of questions from lots of people. The information within obviously is not all of my own brainstorming or experience but rather information from a multitude of RVer sources.

Gate guarding can be extremely fruitful, especially if you are tending a ranch with 4 drilling rigs and bagging over $8K a month. But, it's surely not for everyone, especially if you hate a little dust or occasional muddy conditions...all dirt washes off.

Thanks for your input and your following. Take care and best to all of yours for a safe and wonderful Christmas.

Not that anyone would want to be in N. Dakota in the winter time, there are lots of opportunities up there as well...should be great for summer work.

N. Texas and Louisiana are other options besides S. Texas although the abundance of the work is in S. Texas.

Good luck wherever you go.

Gate guarding can be extremely fruitful, especially if you are tending a ranch with 4 drilling rigs and bagging over $8 a month.

Heck, I know teenagers who make more than that every hour!  What should that number be?

Wow, $8 a month...I got a raise!!  LOL. I corrected that post.

Actually, it comes out $8250.00 a month. Don't think many teenagers make that...well, not all.

Texas TomT wrote:

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Terry,

  Thanks for the condolences for Dieter...he is greatly missed. We still see him laying around or chasing whatever suited him.

I deleted nonsense comments that were not really necessary. The FAQ that Donna and I created was to quickly supply the demand for more information. It is a culmination of dozens of questions from lots of people. The information within obviously is not all of my own brainstorming or experience but rather information from a multitude of RVer sources.

Gate guarding can be extremely fruitful, especially if you are tending a ranch with 4 drilling rigs and bagging over $8K a month. But, it's surely not for everyone, especially if you hate a little dust or occasional muddy conditions...all dirt washes off.

Thanks for your input and your following. Take care and best to all of yours for a safe and wonderful Christmas.

 

-- Edited by Texas TomT on Saturday 17th of December 2011 09:37:02 PM

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Hey, Man.  Jo and I are originally from the Oklahoma Panhandle and were involved with agriculture since childhood.  We can tell you about dirt.  (Now, considering the lack of rain in the Panhandle, I'm not sure about mud.  Would they supply a horse?)

Terry

I don't know but it's a great idea.

Hey Terry thanks for the mention.  I must give credit where credit is due.  Tom was instrumental in us becoming gate guards.  With his information and straight forward answers to inquiries we sought and obtained our gig.

Thanks Tom!!!

It IS everything you said.  Good and Bad.  But we are enjoying it.  We're on a great ranch with a great ranch owner.  We work for a pretty good company and the drilling and fracking crews are a great bunch of guys.

Glad to hear that you got a good gig. We also are very happy with ours and the attention we get from GGS...good people, good company to work with. I say 'with' since we are contractors  and not employees.

Where are you located? or did you tell me before. We are south of Catarina about 12 miles on US-83 and then 6.5 miles SW of there. Our exact location is 28.15708°N and 99.67923° W. if you are into GPS coords.

Tom,

OK.  I've now begun to start reading blogs of gate guarders.  While we aren't at the stage of being ready to do such work, I have a couple of questions, which will probably lead to more questions at your blog.  However, since you made the comments here on the forums, I felt the initial question should start here.

Don't be surprised if you get more of those questions from me.

You mentioned a salary of over $8K per month but that also referred to having 4 rigs.  Does the amount of pay correspond with the number of rigs or other operations that are involved?

Second, you mentioned that you are contractors instead of employees.  Is there a real benefit of that over employee?  Is that part of the pay package of $8K?  Are there any significant disadvantages to being a contractor?

Sorry, that was more than a couple of questions.  However, I would imagine that other forum participants would like the answers to as many questions as possible.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Terry

Terry, if you visited our blog site and read the FAQ then you got the 'lay of the land' type questions answered.

So, for your first question, the base pay for most all gg companies is $125/day. Then they pay an additional $50/day per extra drilling rig that is on location. So, 4 rigs is 125+50+50+50=275/day times 30 days =$8250 gross pay. They do not take out any taxes if you are a contractor. They also provide you with water, electricity (generator and diesel), and some some of septic system or external holding tanks.

The second question is employee versus contractor. Being a contractor has more benefits for sure being that you can write off expenses related to the job. Example: If we drive from wherever to a job site we can write off the mileage (easiest method) or you can deduct actual expenses like gas, oil, insurance, etc., all determined by what amount was personal and what is business. That's too much of a hassle, so mileage is better to use. Rig insurance I pay on an annual basis so if I am on a jobsite for 6 months then I write off that much of the annual premium. Any and all maintenance on the rig is deductible for the period you are working as well. If you have to purchase anything remotely related to the job function, then it is also tax deductible. The company we are with provides Workmans Comp. insurance in case you were injured in a work related accident. They do not provide anything else since you are not an employee.

Since you essentially get full hookups and the only normal expense is food for yourselves, the majority of what you make is yours. Yes, you will have to pay 1/2 of social security premiums on IRS form SE and you will pay income tax (federal), but it will be lower because of the expenses you are able to deduct. How long you work and how much you make is up to you especially if you are still under 66 years of age and have social security limitations (IF you are drawing SS benefits).

Don't hesitate to ask further questions or we can jump on our phones and chat about it. I work noon to midnight and the only best bet for me to talk is like between 9-12pm.

Hey Tom!  I'm not sure about the coordinates but we are 12 miles west of Cotulla off of hwy 468.  Then north 2 miles on a dirt road, then west 1 mile.

We have two pads here and they are presently at the fracking stage on the 2nd pad and they are finishing that tomorrow.  The first one they finished last week.  

I'm loving the wildlife around here.  Red Stag deer, regular ol deer, wild hogs, horses, cows, lots of birds.  

I have the later shift - up until 3 am and then Dave takes over.  We kind of split the middle of the day.  One naps the the other works.

We work for LOMA and they are great to work "with" also.  I am NOT looking forward to doing my taxes this year what with the contracted gig during the summer and then this one.  I can do it, it's just going to be a pain I think.  

Anyway, thanks so much for your help this summer with all my questions.

Doris

Okay, I know the area where you are now. In fact Donna had to drive to Tilden the other day so she was on FM-468 from US85. The wildlife in the valley here is definitely interesting as you know. We have a large family of Javelina's close by as well as a new litter of Coyotes in the thatch about 30 yards from us.

You will get 1099-Misc forms for the income on your working. That is just taxable income and it's easy to enter on IRS forms, especially if you use Turbo Tax on the PC. I us the TT every year and file electronically and get direct deposit for refunds. If I should owe them, I just have to print out a small form and include it with my check to them.

I think we will be here until end of March and then hopefully take some time off to go the RV-Dreams rally in Kerrville and then to our 1st granddaughters HS graduation. Then we are going north somewhere for the summer.

Take care.

We have just finished 10 weeks of very hard work at Amazon in Coffeyville. We don't think we want to do it again! The gateguarding sounds very interesting to us. 

It sounds like several of you have worked for different companies. Any suggestions as to which one of the companies is the best to work for. Also, how far have you been from civilization for grocery shopping, laundry, etc.

How far in advance do they let you know that you have a job. We'd hate to wait until the last minute and then not have a position for next year.

All of the information you all are sharing is very valuable. Thanks!!

Yeah, I have been using TT for years and will use it this year.  I haven't made any estimated payments so will owe the whole kit and kaboodle at once.  Won't make that mistake next year!

We will also be here until the end of March and then head to Arizona for our first summer gig.  We'll be stopping somewhere in Texas for a few days to get everything cleaned up and cleaned out.

We WANT to go to the rally, but won't know if we will be able to until we get our festival schedule for the summer.  Hopefully we'll be able to.  We've been trying to make one for 2 years but our schedule has never meshed.

IMHO, Gate Guard Services (Corpus) is the best of the 3 GG companies we have worked for (LOMA and Timekeepers were the other 2). We have been on this same location since 9/15 and we are planning on staying until the end of March or maybe into April. By then we will have accumulated sufficient cash to take care of us thru next Sept. or Oct. We want to get out of Texas for the summer.

I thought that 4 rigs was a lot of work but right now we have a fracking job going on a 3-well pad and then next is a 4-well pad. WOW, you talk about a lot traffic, all day and all night. I am glad that we are down to only one rig at the moment so that helps some.

Good luck to you all.

p.s. I wanted to mention, that because of hunting season a lot of ranches don't allow drilling operations. So, about mid-January there should be a lot of openings for gate guards. Make sure you get on their waiting list if January is a good time for you.

Thanks for the responses and information. We're thinking we'd like to work for 2 months next year mid-October to mid-December. Would that be a bad time because of hunting? Also, have you been able to get cell and internet reception at the sites you've been assigned to? Thanks!

There is no such thing as a bad time to GG. Not all ranches shut down for deer season, especially one like ours with production facilities, etc. Just make sure that you let the company know the dates that you want and let them find one available. People who do GG'ing year around sometimes want a couple of months off so you could sub in for them.

Internet and cell phone can be good, bad or both depending on where you are located relative to the closest tower. We have usually 3+ bars on our AT&T cell phone and we usually always have good connection with our Verizon MiFi 2200 device for internet.

Not Tom but I'll help answer a couple of your questions waiting on him to log back on.

The generator we have is a large diesel unit with a large external fuel tank. The generator runs 24/7 and is only shut down by our service person when he changes the oil in it every couple of weeks.

The water is delivered (in our case) by a large tanker truck into a large black tank sitting on the same trailer as the generator. The water is "potable" but after seeing them drag the hose ends through the mud and then hoist it up to the tank to fill ..... well you get the idea, we don't drink the water.

For drinking water we purchased 20 one gallon jugs of drinking water at Wal Mart prior to deploying. We make a run to town once per week to get groceries, mail etc. The grocery has a water kiosk so we take the empty jugs and refill them for .25 cents each. We go through 10-11 gallons per week (we drink lots and lots of iced tea).

I do make sure our on board tank is full of water as well. The pump on our utility trailer went out one night and they couldn't get us a new one until the next day. We just used our on board tank until they got it fixed.

For TV we use Dish Network but Direct would be fine too. We have the Dish "pay as you go" plan with no contract. Since our summer work camping gig normaly provides cable as part of the compensation we can cancel the Dish programing and pick it up again when we start traveling again.

GGS provides the lights, cords, utilities, reflective vests, clipboard and sign in logs. They will also come out to service your equipment and bring water and fuel. The rig we are on now provides the water and fuel so we only see our service guy when he comes to service the generator.

Hope this helps some, keep us informed on your progress.

Workinrvers wrote:

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...The water is delivered (in our case) by a large tanker truck into a large black tank sitting on the same trailer as the generator. The water is "potable" but after seeing them drag the hose ends through the mud and then hoist it up to the tank to fill ..... well you get the idea, we don't drink the water.

-- Edited by Workinrvers on Thursday 22nd of December 2011 07:54:51 PM

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 Our water is also delivered by tanker which is Potable water. Despite the fact that the end his hose might have a little dirt on it has not discouraged us a bit. The driver always wipes the hose end before inserting it into the big black tank (but don't know where that rag has been, LOL). I have a large canister filter outside at the water input to the coach and change it out every month or so. We having been drinking the water for months now with no problems. And, I have a second water filtering unit at the kitchen sink if we want double filtered drinking water.

 I also keep my 100-gallon coach tank full at all times because a 12-volt pump (demand style) can crap out at will.

Other than that, he said it better than me probably.

Absolutely, since that's what we do. Wife just got HER 1099 with all the income earned---nothing for me. Just tell the company that you work for that you want to be listed as the Main contractor and all income attributed to you.

Don't rely on email or message to get this done. Keep trying to get someone to answer the phone there and ask for the Payroll person and then ask for confirmation via email.

Good luck.

We were told by someone in one of the gate guarding companies that it's difficult to transfer the licenses from one company to another. Tom you have done it a couple of times, what does it take? I think he was just blowing sunshine up our skirts. We have taken the test with one company and got our fingerprinting done, but we have been sitting for the last 3 weeks. We plan on taking whatever job come first at this point.

Sue

Hi, Tom!

We are wanting to get into gate guarding but have no idea where to start.  We live in Indiana and will not be available for work until 8/8/12.  Would you mind "walking" us through the steps to get started or pointing us to someone who will be able to help us?

Thank you!

Waynevic,

We just came off our first "season" of gate guarding. We are going to be work camping at the KOA in Terre Haute starting April 1st if you want some first hand experience and are nearby we would be more than happy to share our experiences with you guys (or any others for that matter).

Phil and Rudee

Texas Tom T

I spoke with Patti at GG a few minutes ago and she told me the base pay is $125/day.  I asked her about the additional $50 and she told me that it would be up to the "service man" at our gate whether they paid us more or not????  How can we know for sure what we will be making?  We will need more than $125/day for it to be worth our while to make that trip and stay that long!

Wayne & Vickie

-- Edited by waynevic on Tuesday 13th of March 2012 01:03:14 PM

To Waynevic:

That sounds like crapola to me. I cannot believe that Patti said that. The guarding rate has nothing to do with the service man?? for the gate. There is an area manager in charge of ALL the gates in his/her given area, like Carrizo Springs. They (GGS) have a sales person (in an area) that negotiates the contracts with the oil companies. So, it might be best to ask the area manager what the contract does for YOU, the actual gate guarder. According to Sid and Patti, last year when we started working for them, the same rules applied everywhere...I don't understand what she is saying now.

"lunch, did someone say lunch?"

You are more than welcome to come by. We should be arriving there in a couple of weeks. We are in jamestown Indiana at a small campground near our daughters house until then if that is any closer for you and thanks for the offer but don't feel like you have  to buy our lunch, we are more than happy to help you guys any way we can.

Phil

I apologize to any/all that are waiting for a response from me. We have been traveling around visiting family since we left the Valley and not much time for the PC.

GGS paid us $125/day when there was NO rig on site or the same with ONE rig on the site. Then they paid us an additional $50/day for each additional drilling rig on the ranch. At one time, we had 4, yes FOUR rigs drilling on the ranch and we made $125+50+50+50=$275/day for over a month. That was a very good pay month (about $8250). Little by little the rigs left until there were none and pay was back to $125. When we left there were 2 rigs so that was $175/day.

You just DO NOT know what will happen on any gate guarding gig so always plan on the lowest and if you can live with that then all else is gravy. You just cannot be guaranteed, by GGS or anyone else, what will happen on a ranch. It mostly depends on the Oil company and their plans for that lease. While we had 4 rigs and better than 400 vehicles in and then out again a DAY other gate guarders had ONE vehicle a day. You never know.

We are going back to the same ranch that we left at the end of February. We were gate guards then but this time the ranch owner has hired me/us to be his ranch manager for a few weeks while he travels out of the country on business (I know more about the operations with the oil company than he does). We will live in his home while he is away and be paid $200/day with everything provided. You never know what kind of an opportunity will arise IF you do your job real well and meet the right people. Always be nice to everyone...Everyone.

Good luck to you all.

If anyone is currently GG'ing in the Carrizo Springs/Asherton/Catarina/Encinal/Laredo areas, let us know. We would like to drive to you and meet some of you hard working folks.