Lampman – Business has picked up in recent months for Hutt’s Trucking Ltd. of Lampman, and workers who were laid off earlier in the year have been brought back.
Hutt’s is a family outfit, with wife Jody running the office. “She’s the boss,” said husband Travis, who heads up the company. Jody went to school at SIAST in Regina for office education-legal procedures. She worked at a law firm in Estevan as a legal secretary for seven years. She then took time off to be a stay-at-home mom to their two children. She worked a maternity leave with Rocky Mountain Energy Services and was at Confidential Business Services part-time for four years before and during the startup of their own company.
The pair have been married 20 years this past June.
Son Damon, 18, just graduated high school. Travis said, “He’s swamping and helping out for now, until he decides what he wants to do for school.”
Daughter Katelyn, 16, helps in the office and with the home front.
Travis’ father, Clem, helped the first few years when they got going. The company fired up in 2009.
Travis worked 13 years with Carson Energy Services and then six years with Grimes Sales and Service. He took a year off and set up Total Oilfield’s Carlyle yard before setting out on his own. He gave himself a year before buying his first iron, 45-ton picker with a cab and 100-foot stick.
The year they started was a down year for much of the oilpatch, but not so much in southeast Saskatchewan. That year, Travis said, “We never did slow down.”
“I like buying knew. You know what you have,” he said. “With my first truck, a good friend, Todd Cowan from Gainsborough, helped me out. He helped me get going with my first truck. I owe him a lot of credit.”
The most recent unit was picked up in 2015.
“We have five boom trucks. We have five Texas bed winch trucks,” he said. They also have two hotshot units, but those are primarily used within their operation. There’s also one “straight” semi tractor.
While Texas beds, with their winch, bed, live roll and fifth wheel cost more as opposed to a straight truck, they are also a lot more flexible. “We use them for multipurpose. That’s why we go with Texas beds,” said Travis. It’s easier to move a test tank, for example, and yet still use it as a normal semi.
“You can still use it as a straight truck,” he said.
Hutt’s Trucking is keeping relatively active now. “We’re probably running 75 per cent now. Some days it’s 100 per cent, some days it’s 50. The last two months, we’ve been steady,” Travis said.
Last year they did all right, better than some. “We were just happy to break even,” he said.
They did have to lay off four people in January of this year, but they were brought back by June.
“That was the first time we’ve laid people off,” he said. “We couldn’t work shop hours anymore. We were caught up already for road ban. Everything was fixed.”
The company has15, people overall, and with that many people, he couldn’t drive and run the company as well. “I just couldn’t do it anymore,” he said. “So we added a dispatcher to help out.”
During busy times all his trucks plus additional third-party trucks would be at work. But now, they don’t need to bring in third-party units as often.
“Our turnaround of people is very minimal,” he said. They now have six people with boom truck “A” journeyman tickets, two of those recently received their certifications. Each of those six journeymen can have two apprentices under them.
“Hutt’s Trucking wouldn’t be where we are if it wasn’t for the employees we have today,” Travis said.
Travis started on a picker at age 19. In 1992, he got his "B" ticket, allowing him to operate smaller pickers. A few years later, he picked up his “A” ticket.
Hutt’s Trucking is set up with SECOR, ISN Networld and Complyworks. They share a safety co-ordinator with another company.
The company works mostly on the production side of the industry.
“That’s what I’ve always worked,” Travis said.
“We do some construction, too, putting up rafters, etc.,” he said.
Their work area is primarily in southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba, but they do lots of trips into Alberta as needed, picking up equipment and bringing it back. That can be anything from compressors to treaters or tanks.
“We’re moving pump jacks, tanks, vessels, buildings, rig matting…” he said. “We do lots of man basket work for turnarounds.”
They have an office on Lampman’s Main Street, a shop in Lampman and another three miles west of Lampman on their acreage.
Recently Hutts rented two shops on the east side of Estevan. With oil companies cutting costs, and with five workers coming out of Estevan, it made sense to have some people working out of there. That saves a half our drive each way, and reduces mileage costs for clients.
“We had been looking at Weyburn before. Right now, it’s not feasible. When things pick up, maybe,” Travis said.
