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Forsyth Hauling maintains a diverse fleet of equipment to service SW Manitoba petroleum industry

Monthly Oilfield Feature

What Drives Us – We are fuelled by a desire to provide great service to our clients, serve our community and strive to be an example to our industry.

Ken Forsyth of Pierson established Forsyth Hauling in 1982. It was sold to Tony and Dennis Day in 2010, who continued to operate from the headquarters in Pierson. Three years later, expansion came with the acquisition of Jet Hauling Ltd. of Tilston. In 2017, Dennis purchased the assets of Morris' Fracturing and Acidizing, a local firm. The two businesses were merged in 2019, prompting the establishment of a permanent location in Virden.

“After purchasing the assets of Morris' Fracturing and Acidizing, we started in Morris' shop and moved out of it into the former Fontana's Trucking location on the Service Road in 2019 – larger shop, more workspace,” said Virden-based Operations Manager Darcy Skayman.

Forsyth Hauling maintains a diverse fleet of equipment to service the petroleum industry in Southwestern Manitoba and Southeastern Saskatchewan. This includes fracturing units, hot oil tankers, pressure trucks, vacuum trucks, steamers, boilers and a specialized truck for transporting acid.

“We pretty much do anything you can do with fluid,” Skayman said. “We haul fluid, pump fluid, heat fluid.”

According to their website, Forsyth Hauling aims to get every job, every day, done safely and efficiently. Doing that involves a staff of 10 in Virden, and “at least" 20 in Pierson. Skayman said that the number of employees has fluctuated according to industry activity levels, oil prices and COVID-19.

“90% of our business is oilfield related,” he said. “The combination of low oil prices and COVID all hitting last year in March, it really affected us a lot. There were some people that took significant pay cuts and still came to work every day. We weathered the storm and kept pushing forward - always looking for new ventures, new ways of doing things and new technology for our equipment. Due to COVID, we dropped our numbers a lot but we always tried to keep everyone working, even through a road ban. We really try not to lay anyone off… . We'd rather keep our employees than try to find new ones. However, probably within the last month we've hired at least five new employees and have also acquired several additional trucks. Most of our employees live in the Virden or Pierson areas. Not many come from further than an hour away.”

Skayman said it can be a challenge to locate qualified staff.

“We had ads on Indeed, and we did get a pile of resumes,” he said. “Everyone always wants experience, but we have taken on some employees who have had no experience and sent them for training with our senior people. We're hoping that this will reduce our incidents and downtime because no one wants to see anyone get hurt out there.”

Skayman said the company’s willingness to embrace change sets it apart from its competition.

“We're always willing to adapt to new ways [of doing our business] and technologies that are out there [and] not just have our blinders on. “That's the way we did it for 30 years and that's the way it has to be done.” We're always willing to try new things and grow that way.”

Forsyth Hauling supports communities it does business in and where its staff call home.

“We always give back to such things as minor hockey and golf courses, not just in Virden but in other locations also,” Skayman said. “It doesn't always have to be our choice (which organization or event to support). We like to listen to what they (employees) have to tell us.”

Skayman said as far as the future goes, the pre-COVID normalcy has not returned yet, nor are there signs of boom time in the oil patch.

“Oil's back up to $70 to $75 a barrel, which is a good number,” he said. “Everyone hopes for another (oil) boom, but I think there is some hesitation with other companies being leery about spending money yet. If things keep going there should be another boom cycle, probably.” 

 

The monthly Oilfield Report is made possible by the following sponsors

Virden Meter  |  Forsyth Hauling  |   KayElle Industrial  |  Scotsmun Steel & The Nuthouse

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