Mustang Oilfield Services

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A Local, Safety Conscious Option for Oil and Gas Industry

A local company with a country-wide perspective of the oil and gas industry, Mustang Oilfield Services provides several services for leaders in the field. The trucking company hauls water to and from sites, and has a sizeable ancillary business in flatbeds, tractors, and winch trucks to provide value-added services to its clients.

Mustang began business in August of 2013 with 4 water trucks and 12 employees, and has since grown the operation to 19 water trucks, 6 tractors, and 65 employees. This amount of growth in such a short timespan has been made possible by the leadership and guidance of Mustang CEO Greg Cook.

“We strive to create a regional, multifaceted, solutions-based company rooted in the family-based values we were founded on, while not just providing every employee the opportunity to succeed, but to thrive while focusing on customer driven solutions and safety,” he said. “We align all of our projects with this statement in mind by seeing how our services will benefit both our customers and our employees.

“We don’t want Mustang to be just a service company, we want to be a solutions company.”

Cook and his wife Megan—who is Director of Marketing for the company—are from the region, and feel a personal connection to the area and its people. This has allowed Mustang to align its values and mission with the needs of the region, enriching the community by hiring locally, and promoting community involvement and local outreach.

“We’re a family company with family-based values,” shared Greg. “We take every job and employee personally, and make it our mission to exceed the expectations of our customers. At the end of the day, our decisions aren’t getting questioned by shareholders or a board of directors, they are being questioned by our family, so we strive to get it right every time.”

Safe, Local Employees

This family approach to business is evident in Mustang’s safety strategy, which is focused on getting each and every employee home in the same condition in which they came to work. There are several components that contribute to the company’s behavioral-based safety program, including “tailgate talks” before every shift, weekly safety bulletins that cover a particular safety topic related to the oil and gas industry, as well as safety topics that apply outside of work like decorating your house during the holidays and hunting season safety.

“We want our employees to think safe all of the time, not just at work. We want people to do safe things because they are safe people,” said Greg.

We want our employees to think safe all of the time, not just at work. We want people to do safe things because they are safe people.
- Greg Cook, CEO

Safety training starts the first day of an employee’s career with Mustang. He or she spends a full day in a classroom in the main office learning about benefits, policies, and procedures, as well as watching safety training videos. But that’s only the beginning.

Day two kicks off what could be up to four weeks of training in the field. Safe land training is followed by yard training with each employee’s supervisor to become familiar with the equipment they will be operating on a daily basis.

Then in-truck training begins. This can last just a week or up to a month, depending on the new employee’s skill level coming into the company. The minimum one week of training guarantees new workers—even if they have extensive experience—are practicing safe driving techniques that are up to Mustang’s level of standards.

Many of the employees of Mustang Oilfield Services are from the region, a move which Greg says is almost necessary for success in a region like theirs.

“We have heavy winters and good summers here in the Appalachian Mountains, and the terrain is very different from other shale plays. Local employees are familiar with this part of the country, and know the dangers of driving in the region. That’s what makes them some of the best employees in the region,” he said.

Knowing that happy employees are productive and safe employees, Greg makes sure that his employees have strong health insurance packages, good benefits, and a wage that goes beyond base pay.

24/7 Solution

Within the last several months, Mustang has instituted a new 24/7 mechanic shop to maintain the efficiency of its fleet of trucks. It started with an idea the operations manager and business development manager brainstormed after asking the question “What can we do to provide better service for our customers?”

This new shop has a mechanic present at all times of the day, meaning any problem can be addressed almost instantly, and employees aren’t plagued with broken trucks and down time. This helps Mustang maintain quality service to its customers.

What’s Next?

Mustang’s newest location in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania is looking to do big business for one of its bigger customers in the coming years. The area is currently very active in the oil and gas industry, meaning that many of Mustang’s customers are active in the area.

“We make sure our assets are in the best geographic location to provide efficient economic services to our customers,” Greg commented.

The company is also in the process of trading in four older trucks for larger, more efficient vehicles that can deliver more water with fewer units on the road. A plan for diversification into hauling equipment is also in the works, which would help Mustang provide a one-stop solution to existing customers.

“We want to be a top-tier regional solutions company,” Greg said. “I want our customers to rely on us to see, solve, and execute their problems. There’s a lot of area in the region our company doesn’t have a hold in yet. I’m hoping that with this strategy we can successfully increase our footprint in the region.”