If there’s one thing Pieter Bergstein said he’s learned over the years, it’s the importance of working with vendors, like PACCAR Financial, who understand his business.

Bergstein is the owner, founder and CEO of Standard Energy Services, a Lubbock, Texas-based oil and gas servicing company with several divisions serving the oil and gas industry for the Permian Basin, located in West Texas and New Mexico.

“It seems like when I work with banks to finance my trucks, I often have to deal with two people – a sales person, who knows very little about the trucks and equipment we use or even the financing that the bank’s offering, and a loan analyst, who usually asks most of the questions,” he said. “There seems to be a lot of going back and forth on different aspects of the loan.”

Bergstein said that’s not his experience when he finances the purchase of his Peterbilt trucks through PACCAR Financial, PACCAR’s captive finance company for the Peterbilt dealership networks. His company operates more than 1,000 pieces of equipment and a fleet of 187 trucks. The truck fleet includes a variety of Peterbilt Model 388 tractors to pull frac tanks, lowboy trailers and tankers, and truck chassis equipped with a variety of different bodies, including vacuum pumps and water tenders.

“With PACCAR Financial, I find that I’m not wasting my time having to answer a lot of questions about the equipment I choose just so that they can fill out their paperwork,” he said. “I don’t have to explain why I choose high horsepower engines, extra-duty suspensions and extra strong frame rails.”

Generally, Bergstein chooses to equip his Peterbilt Model 388s with high HP Cummins ISX15 engines, 36-inch flat top sleepers, 40,000 pound rear axle suspensions and single or double frame rails.

Standard Energy’s strong financials and the relative short terms of its loans (usually 36 months, but no more than 48 months) make it fairly easy for his company to get the financing it needs regardless of what equipment he wants on the trucks. Still, Bergstein said he prefers to work with knowledgeable people who understand the trucks they finance and understand the business he’s in so he doesn’t have to answer a lot of questions he thinks they should already know.

Bergstein said he also receives added value since his company gets more than the standard warranty coverage by financing with PACCAR Financial. Standard Energy Services takes advantage of PACCAR Financial’s extended warranties, which adds another two years on to Peterbilt’s basic vehicle warranty.

“Our trucks generally don’t put on a lot of miles, but they put in a lot of engine hours because of the kind of the work they do at drilling sites,” he added. “The extended warranties add considerable value to the financing PACCAR Financial offers.”

Bergstein appreciates PACCAR Financial going beyond the standard because with the work he’s put into Standard Energy, he’s never done anything standard.

When he moved to Texas to work in the banking industry in 1980, after being educated and trained in Switzerland, Bergstein quickly found that banking was really not his calling. The lure of making money in the oilfields of Texas through honest hard work was too strong.

Shortages stemming from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) embargo led to the subsequent removal of price controls on oil. Prices for a barrel of oil shot up creating a new oil boom in the Texas oil and gas industry.

“I saw an opportunity to start my own business (Standard Energy Services) with a hot oiler truck,” Bergstein said. “I started with one truck and hired a driver to work during the day, while I worked at night, and added more trucks as business grew. We eventually became the largest hot oiler company in the nation with a strong reputation for safety, service, satisfaction and quality.” Hot oiler trucks heat up water to use in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Heating the water makes the fracking process more efficient.

Bergstein said he made the switch to Peterbilt after his company acquired a trash hauling business in New Mexico and West Texas.

“I got to see firsthand the performance of the Peterbilt cabover (Model 320),” Bergstein said. “I was so impressed with those trucks that when it came time to buy new chassis for our hot oiler and pump trucks, Peterbilt was on the top of my list.”

Peterbilt also seemed to fit well for the hard work required of his company’s trucks and help the company attract and retain good drivers.

“If you put a Peterbilt side by side with any other truck and ask our drivers which they would prefer to drive, they would pick Peterbilt hands down every time,” he said. That’s why the company is replacing all of its units with Peterbilts and expects to be a 100% Peterbilt fleet within two to three years.

Bergstein said he also appreciates the expertise that Rush Peterbilt in Lubbock, Texas, offers in helping to choose the right specifications for his trucks so that they do the job his company needs and make for a comfortable and productive work environment for drivers.

“In fact, they suggested looking at PACCAR Financial for our financing needs, and I am certainly glad I did,” he said.