3C Oilfield Services protects its reputation for safety with Verizon Connect Reveal

When you’re driving a truck in the Bakken Oil Field of rural western North Dakota, there’s potential for danger around every corner.

The rugged roads can be dark and slick, especially during cold and snowy winter months. Remote locations can be poorly marked and hard to find. Weather conditions can change for the worse at a moment’s notice. Traffic alerts are nonexistent. Other large vehicles can be difficult to spot from a distance. Heavy equipment can be hard to maneuver, and after long hours of stressful driving, fatigue can set in.

For 3C Oilfield Services, driver safety is paramount. As a business that supports rig operations in the Bakken Oil Field with trucks and heavy-winch trailers designed for moving oil field equipment, the company’s success and survival hinge on its record for safe operations.

“There’s a safety scoring system that every company uses in the oil patch. So, if your company starts accumulating a lot of accidents and you’re hurting people and damaging equipment, you’ll get a failing grade,” said Andy Maxwell, president of 3C Oilfield Services. “You get an F, and the big companies won’t even touch you. You won’t even be able to get on to their location, and you won’t be allowed to work for them.”

With multiple trucks and equipment supporting oil rig work 24/7, the leaders at 3C Oilfield Services needed a way to know where the company’s equipment was at all times, which employees were operating the trucks and for how long, and whether or not those vehicles were being maintained and operated safely.

After taking a look at available options, the company’s decision-makers settled on an advanced fleet management software solution that could track vehicles in the field, improve fleet operations, increase worker productivity, and prioritize safety—Verizon Connect Reveal.

Rugged, rural locations present safety challenges

In the wide-open spaces of western North Dakota, the towns are few and far between. Based in the tiny city of New Town (estimated population: 2,800), 3C Oilfield Services works the entire expanse of the Bakken Oil Field, one of the largest onshore oil fields in the U.S., covering almost 9,000 square miles across North Dakota and Montana.

The area is remote, and the landscape is severe. Truck operators for 3C Oilfield Services work long hours and travel great distances to assist oil and gas companies with their extraction operations. Driving can be dangerous and can take a heavy toll on drivers and the trucks and equipment they operate.

With a fleet of about 30 vehicles to cover this vast expanse, 3C Oilfield Services faces numerous challenges in maximizing its opportunities and keeping its operation running smoothly. For one, the company needs a way to pinpoint the location of its drivers in the field to understand their movements, keep track of their driving hours and to better schedule the team for peak performance.

The company also needs a way to keep track of the trucks and equipment so they can position gear in the field and locate a truck or piece of heavy equipment should it go missing or be stolen.

“It’s rural North Dakota, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t thieves here,” Maxwell said. “We leave equipment in remote places, and lots of high-dollar equipment likes to walk off. We’ve had some trailers go missing, too.”

Keeping track of the wear and tear on the trucks and equipment is another challenge for the leadership at 3C Oilfield Services. Knowing when a vehicle needs servicing or repairs can help avoid a costly breakdown in the field that can prevent the team from completing a job on time and on budget.

When a driving accident happens in the field, the team at 3C Oilfield Services needs a way to accurately assess what happened, the damage incurred, and how the accident might or could have been prevented. The company also needs proof of liability should a second party claim that the driver from 3C was at fault.

Such was the case when an incident occurred before the company adopted the Verizon Connect Reveal solution. In assessing the incident, Maxwell said the leadership at 3C Oilfield Services was wanting for more information. “It ended up costing us a lot on this year’s insurance.”

And lastly, for its overall operation, 3C Oilfield Services needs accurate data to calculate the cost of doing business to have a better understanding when it comes time to bid for jobs. Man hours, fuel consumption and vehicle and equipment depreciation costs are a big part of that equation.

“That all comes with the territory,” Maxwell said. “You need to provide yourself with that data to be a competitive bidder.”

Tackling the job with a multipurpose tool

3C Oilfield Services leverages the power of Verizon Connect Reveal to address these challenges and gather the data needed to improve operations.

Verizon Connect Reveal is an intuitive, cloud-based fleet-management system that monitors and manages a mobile workforce. It offers a near-real-time, 360-degree view of a fleet’s daily operations and is designed to help reduce costs and increase productivity.

Reveal’s GPS tracking and high-resolution maps allow 3C Oilfield Services managers to keep tabs on company-issued vehicles, mobile assets (such as trailers), and heavy equipment.  Reveal also can provide digital maintenance and fuel consumption records for every vehicle in the fleet.

Having adopted Verizon Connect Reveal recently, the leaders at 3C Oilfield Services already have embraced several of the tools offered by the software, including:

• Fleet management for monitoring vehicles and their use in the field, tracking service hours by drivers and scheduling efficient service routes
• Asset tracking for locating trailers and heavy equipment in the field, and to combat theft or mismanagement through geofencing
• Outward-facing, integrated dashcams to mitigate risk and prove or debunk liability claims in the event of an accident

With solid fleet management data, 3C Oilfield Services' leadership can track the distances traveled by their crews in the field, and also adjust a crew’s schedule on the fly when a nearby opportunity arises. This has proven to be a time saver, a fuel saver and a revenue generator.

“For most jobs, once you leave the shop for the day, you’ll be on three or four different jobs before you get back to the shop,” Maxwell said. “If something comes up that we weren’t planning for, we may have a couple of guys in that area that I can put on it right away. That’s where the tracking and knowing where everybody is with the live maps really helps us.”

And for Maxwell, knowing where his teammates and vehicles are, how they’re being used and how to respond when an incident occurs is invaluable.

“That’s why we took these steps,” he said. “I was tired of asking those questions. I want to know answers.”

Accurate data provides proof of safe operations

Now, with Verizon Connect Reveal, the leaders at 3C Oilfield Services have a better way to track their team in the field, monitor where and how their vehicles and equipment are being used, and assess road incidents.

A recent accident occurred when a 3C Oilfield Services driver went off-road while towing a heavy piece of equipment. As the driver swerved back onto the road, he over-corrected and the trailer tipped on its side. “The driver said he was coming up on a blind corner, and when he came around the corner the sun was in his eyes and he left the road a little bit,” Maxwell said. “He said he wasn’t speeding, he was just blinded for a moment and overcorrected.”

The incident went under review by the 3C Oilfield Services customer, an oil and gas company.  Using data from Verizon Connect Reveal, 3C Oilfield Services was able to prove that the driver wasn’t speeding at the time of the incident.

“The camera even showed the sun coming into view, and it blinded the camera for a moment,” Maxwell said. “No one was hurt. The equipment was damaged a little bit. But it was more or less just an accident. The driver wasn’t at fault. He did the right thing.

“Having that information and being able to give it to those safety hands, that’s big for us.”

With Verizon Connect Reveal now activated, Maxwell said 3C Oilfield Services will use it like a multipurpose tool. Old school, handwritten notes and log books will be replaced by digitized data for accurate and easy-to-access vehicle maintenance records. Mileage and accident reports will be tracked and recorded for insurance purposes. Budgets and estimates will be easier to maintain and submit with accurate data.

But for now, Reveal provides peace of mind for the leaders of 3C Oilfield Services when their crews are driving the dangerous roads of the Bakken Oil Field.

“Just knowing where your people are at in real-time and helping relay that information to customers is hugely beneficial to us,” he said.