In this basin most heavy haul rides on a winch truck. It is also the hardest seat to find on a job board, because half these outfits title the ad by the license instead of the load. Here is what it pays, how to spot one hiding behind a generic CDL ad, and what North Dakota requires to move an oversize load.
| Company | Where | Posted pay | Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buck's Hotshot Services | Williston | From $32/hr | Winch and/or slick |
| Hovland Hot Oil Service | Arnegard | $28–35/hr | Winch truck |
| Basin Trucking & Rental | Williston | $25–35/hr | Winch, permitted loads |
| Dacotah West Crane | Williston | $28–32/hr | Crane counterweights, rig-up |
| JLC | Arnegard | $28–30/hr | Hotshot, cross-trains winch |
| Black Hills Trucking | Williston | Not posted | Winch haul |
Five of the six printed a figure. We opened and read all six. Earlier in the year our board carried other North Dakota heavy haul listings, but where the full description was no longer available we left them out rather than count a posting we had not read.
One of these postings says from $32 an hour. That is a floor, not a wage, and it is worth understanding why before you read it as good news.
That same ad covers two different seats...winch and slick truck...in one posting. Those are two different trucks and two different skillsets, and almost nobody pays them the same. So a single number on a two seat ad tells you where the range starts, not what either job actually pays.
Ask which truck you are being hired on before you take the number at face value. It is a fair question and any straight outfit will answer it.
Search heavy haul or rig move in North Dakota and you get close to nothing back. That is not because the work is not there.
Two real examples off this basin:
If you filter by title you will miss both. Read the duties, every time.
Skip the title. Go to the duties and look for these.
And the counter-tell that means it is not this job: tanker endorsement required. Tanker means liquid...crude, water or hot oil. Different job, different page. Heavy haul almost never asks for tanker.
That tell is about as reliable as it gets. We found one field services company advertising a vac seat and a winch seat in the same ad, side by side...tanker endorsement listed on the vac, nothing on the winch. The endorsement is the line between hauling liquid and hauling iron, and employers draw it themselves.
You move the things too big or too heavy to go down the road without paperwork. Straight from these six descriptions:
The part outsiders miss is how much happens before the truck rolls. Route, permit, escort, bridge weights and clearances. Anybody can drive a loaded truck down a straight highway. What you get paid for is knowing the load fits before you commit to the turn.
They get bundled in job ads constantly, so it is worth being clear.
Small North Dakota outfits will run one driver across all three depending on what the day needs, and a couple of these postings say so plainly...one offers cross training for winch and slick deck right in the ad. That is a real way up. A hotshot seat with cross training available is how a lot of hands got onto a winch truck.
Every one of the six Bakken postings on this page pays hourly. That is worth knowing, because winch work is not priced that way everywhere.
In other basins it is common to see winch and vac seats paid as a percentage of the ticket instead...you get a cut of what the job bills, so a busy week pays and a slow one does not. We have not found a Bakken winch posting priced that way, but you will run into it if you look outside the state or talk to an outfit that works several basins.
If you are ever comparing the two, do not compare the headline numbers. A percentage is not an hourly rate. Ask what an average week actually paid the last guy in that seat, and ask who eats the slow weeks.
NDDOT issues the permits. The Highway Patrol decides on escorts. Know these before an interview and you will sound like you have done this.
Legal without a permit: 8 feet 6 inches wide, 14 feet high, 53 foot trailer, 75 feet overall. Past that you need paper.
Routine permit ceilings: up to about 18 feet wide, 17 to 18 feet high, roughly 200 feet long. Axle groups run 12,100 lb steer, 24,000 single, 45,000 tandem, 60,000 tridem, 68,000 quad.
Superload is roughly past 18 feet wide or high, or in the 150,000 to 250,000 lb range. Different process, longer lead time.
Escorts: over 14 feet 6 inches up to 16 feet on a two lane needs one pilot car. Over 16 feet needs two on a two lane, one on a four lane. Past 18 feet wide the Highway Patrol may require a trooper at the regional commander's call, billed hourly plus mileage. Pilot cars hold 300 to 700 feet off the load and stay on the radio.
Timing: permits generally run two to three days. Spring thaw restrictions hit non-interstate highways roughly February through May, and that is the one that quietly wrecks a load plan if you did not know it was coming.
Worth knowing on the benefits side, because these postings are unusually specific about it: one Williston outfit lists a housing allowance after 30 days, 80% employer paid health after 60, plus cell phone and FR clothing allowances. One Arnegard company advertises 100% paid medical and dental and home every night. Another calls out stable year round work, which in this basin is not nothing.
Most hands get here sideways. Swamping, then a truck, then permitted loads. If you are not carded yet, the swamper seat is the fastest legal route into a truck in this basin.
How Swampers Get Into A Truck →Six North Dakota postings, every one opened and read in full, live between April and August 2026. Company and town printed next to each number.
This role is the hardest in the basin to count honestly, because the postings hide behind generic CDL titles. We classified every one of these on the load the employer described, not on the job title. Two only turned out to be heavy haul once we read the body.
We report what a company posted. We do not grade it.
No estimated or modeled salaries appear here. Job sites generate their own guesses and they are not real...we checked one Williston listing where the site showed a confident annual range while the posting body contained no pay at all.
Government baseline for context: BLS puts heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers at a national median of $57,440/yr and mean of $58,240/yr (May 2024, OEWS). That is every truck driver in the country in every trailer type, which is exactly why the national number is not much use to you.
We post a fresh North Dakota board every week, and we read the descriptions so you do not have to. Free.
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