What a Pipe-Handling Truck Does

Every well needs pipe: drill pipe to drill the hole, casing to line it, and tubing to bring oil or gas to the surface. That pipe has to move between the pipe yard, the road and the wellsite, often many times. On land, much of it moves on pipe-handling trucks.

A pipe-handling truck is a rigid truck with a flat bed and a loader crane mounted behind the cab. The crane is a knuckle-boom crane: its arm folds in the middle like a finger, so it can tuck away for the road and then reach out over the bed and down to the ground. With a pipe grab on the end, the crane picks up one joint of pipe at a time and places it on the bed or on the pipe racks at the well.

The truck is two kinds of equipment at once. It is a road vehicle, with brakes, tyres and lights to check and road rules to follow. It is also lifting equipment, which must be examined, planned and operated by trained people.

The main dangers

• Overturning the truck and crane, from soft ground, stabilisers not set, or overload.
• Struck by a swinging or falling joint of pipe, or by the crane boom.
• Crushed between pipe and the bed, the stanchions, the racks or the truck.
• Electric shock when the boom comes near an overhead power line.
• Load shift on the road, when pipe that is not secured slides forward or falls off.