Advantages/disadvantages of moving to Canada

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EX-PAT BRITISH TRUCKERS (INTERACTIVE)
21

anon84679660:
I’m not obsessed with anything, not obsessed with winter driving, just pointing to it being a serious issue for a driver, especially for someone cumming from the UK that has had a chance to face these types of conditions.
Neil didn’t agree with a few things I posted, I didn’t agree with a few things he posted, and we exchanged our views, that’s all it was.
Good thing you’ve mentioned truck reliability, for which, when truck is being taken off the road, you are not getting paid.
If it’s a more serious issue that harsh winter then it is got to be number 15 (cons) on my list.
I’ve seen a video on YT driver complaining his truck was being taken off the road for a whole week and he had no other truck to use, so he was sitting at home with no pay/compensation for time/earnings lost.
It looks to me that truck drivers in Canada, pay for all that goes wrong, be it, poor dispatcher planning, poor truck mechanical conditions.
We don’t have these types of issues in the UK.

Hope someone will post more positives about getting a trucking job in Canada.

I think you’ve summed Canada up exceptionally well, especially for someone who’s not even here. Credit where credit is due.One of the biggest complaints of many on here is that drives come over without doing research and end up going back. You seem to have a very good grasp of the positives here and especially the huge list of negatives and I don’t think I can disagree with anything you’ve said.

22

robinhood_1984:

anon84679660:
I’m not obsessed with anything, not obsessed with winter driving, just pointing to it being a serious issue for a driver, especially for someone cumming from the UK that has had a chance to face these types of conditions.
Neil didn’t agree with a few things I posted, I didn’t agree with a few things he posted, and we exchanged our views, that’s all it was.
Good thing you’ve mentioned truck reliability, for which, when truck is being taken off the road, you are not getting paid.
If it’s a more serious issue that harsh winter then it is got to be number 15 (cons) on my list.
I’ve seen a video on YT driver complaining his truck was being taken off the road for a whole week and he had no other truck to use, so he was sitting at home with no pay/compensation for time/earnings lost.
It looks to me that truck drivers in Canada, pay for all that goes wrong, be it, poor dispatcher planning, poor truck mechanical conditions.
We don’t have these types of issues in the UK.

Hope someone will post more positives about getting a trucking job in Canada.

I think you’ve summed Canada up exceptionally well, especially for someone who’s not even here. Credit where credit is due.One of the biggest complaints of many on here is that drives come over without doing research and end up going back. You seem to have a very good grasp of the positives here and especially the huge list of negatives and I don’t think I can disagree with anything you’ve said.

You don’t half spout some ■■■■■ at times Robin . Your view is based on experience in the Maritimes which we all know that whilst beautiful to observe as a tourist is a dreadful place to earn a coin , hence half the population of New Brunswick working in Western Canada and sending money back East.
Sure you have to do the obligatory PNP route in the West , we all know what that involves , but in the Prairie Provinces there is no reason or excuse for not being able to have a truck driving job which pays a decent wage or hourly compensation for all work done .
Keep your negative waves in the East man :laughing: :laughing: .

23

flat to the mat:
You don’t half spout some [zb] at times Robin . Your view is based on experience in the Maritimes which we all know that whilst beautiful to observe as a tourist is a dreadful place to earn a coin , hence half the population of New Brunswick working in Western Canada and sending money back East.
Sure you have to do the obligatory PNP route in the West , we all know what that involves , but in the Prairie Provinces there is no reason or excuse for not being able to have a truck driving job which pays a decent wage or hourly compensation for all work done .
Keep your negative waves in the East man :laughing: :laughing: .

No negative waves coming from western Canada then? Given that the OP was talking about long haul work, which he will almost certainly be doing for the first few years, a time frame that see’s an awful lot of people burn out and go back, then I think he’s hit the nail on the head for the job, be it in Manitoba, Alberta or New Brunswick.

24

The reason they burn out and go back is because of one reason, they are using truck driving as a method to escape the UK.

To make it work as a truck driver in Canada you need to want to be a truck driver in Canada :bulb:

I was listening to a convoy of Brit supermarket drivers who had moved over to go on Loblaw, moan moan moan, it was embarrassing, they had quite distinctive accents and it turns out, from somebody I know there that they all went back to Britain within a few months.

As for standard of living, as a company driver I lived a lot better than I ever did as an employee back in the UK. Better house, better cars, more money in the bank and more time at home.

Today I left the yard at 9am, done a few hours and stopped for an hour for lunch, did another four hours and had my tea which took another hour, I parked up at just before 11pm and I had covered 1105kms, a complete piece of ■■■■ on straight traffic free roads in the prairies, I chatted with some friends on the phone or had the radio or my iPod on.

Tomorrow I’ll have a couple of easy hours as I travel through the last of the prairies and then I’ll be traveling through the most spectacular scenery to be found in the civilized world.

I’d do the same in winter, it may take a little longer some days, but then the mountains look even more spectacular, so you lose a bit and gain a bit.

Heating my house is reasonable, they are designed for the climate, tbh it costs more to keep it cool with the A/C in our fantastic four month summers than it does to keep it warm in winter, but we all have our crosses to bear :sunglasses:

25

Bare!!!

26

I thought you had gone for the office work Newmercman are you back trucking again…

27

Using truckdriving to escape the UK ,then burn out and return to the uk.
i recon thats a fair comment but for some o us there was nothing left for us in the northern parts o the UK, it was sell up before the job went down and house prices tanked…
We had no other option than make it work in Canada because going back was not an option.
NMM …to make it as a truck driver in Canada you need to want to be a truck driver in Canada sums it all up perfectly!!
jimmy

28

cliffystephens:
I thought you had gone for the office work Newmercman are you back trucking again…

His desk couldn’t take the weight of his lunchbox any longer

29

Oh ha bloody ha.

30

“to make it as a truck driver in Canada you need to want to be a truck driver in Canada sums it all up perfectly!!
jimmy”

I do want to be a truck driver in Canada, but what’s available there for a truck driver that wants to be home every night?
Providing I survive the first 2-3 years (if everything goes well) of slave labour, otherwise called OTR or long haul trucking, what’s there available realistically.
I’m pretty sure every lorry driver moving to Canada wants to continue working as a truck driver after they gain their PR, but I suspect they come back when they realise there is very little there apart from long haul trucking, and not everyone wants to spend their lives living in a tin box.
Some of you guys have mentioned some rates for local work, but they do not seem much better than what’s in the UK, and when you consider higher cost of living in Canada (food, clothes, heating) and general discomfort of having to deal with snow and frost for 6 months every year, just doesn’t appeal to me.
If I every consider moving I would definitely not want to live in the prairies, and would only want to live in a large city, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton.
Only 2 weeks paid holidays per year is a real bummer.
I do enjoy taking a week of holidays every 3 months (which is actualy 9 days each time as I go away saturday morning and come back sunday night next week), book sub 100 quid return flights to Mallorca or Ibiza, which take 2 hours one way plus 30 - 40 quid per night for a couple, hotels with half board in those places.
There has to be a life - work balance , otherwise what’s the point working and not enjoying your life?

31

If it don’t appeal then do it. Going by your last post looks like you’re not set in the idea and if that’s the case then can’t see it working out

32

Are you referring to me saying there is nothing there worthwhile doing other then long haul?

33

Long haul is slave labour? Really?

You have no experience of driving lorries over here, so what do you base that opinion on?

Seriously, give it up, you are looking at moving to Canada for all the wrong reasons, doing it to escape England is not a good reason to come here.

Apart from pure city work, even locals will have you doing 600 miles a day, it’s the second largest country on the planet.

Maybe you should consider the Isle of Wight, you’ll get home every night down there.

34

Over the last 1 year I’ve spend hours watching videos on YT that various vbloggers post daily, on weekly basis trying to get the real picture of what life of a long haul truck driver looks like and it looks grim to me.
I’ve already posted the reasons, why in my view it is a slave labour, low pay when you divide it all per hour of your time being away from home, from the time you start your work to the time you finish, including all hours spent not driving, for various reasons.
It would drive me mad knowing I’m not getting paid while being away at work.
Long haul trucking as a life in a tin box doesn’t appeal to me at all.
Don’t want to wake up at the age of 60 knowing my life was spend on the road, away from friends and family and civilized life.

“Seriously, give it up, you are looking at moving to Canada for all the wrong reasons, doing it to escape England is not a good reason to come here.”

I’m not trying to escape anything, not running from anything, want to improve my life, but if moving to Canada is not going to be improvement, than what’s the point. That’s the reason I’m here asking questions.

What are the wrong reasons, in your view, please explain?

“Apart from pure city work, even locals will have you doing 600 miles a day, it’s the second largest country on the planet”

I don’t mind doing 600 miles a day as long as I can sleep in my own bed, I wouldn’t even mind a couple of nights away in the truck, per week, but that’s all I would be prepared to do.

“Maybe you should consider the Isle of Wight, you’ll get home every night down there”

Don’t need to be moving to Isle Wight to be home every night, I am home home every night and I’m not even working on Isle of Wight and believe it or now I am working as a lorry driver.

35

I get paid for everything I do I don’t sit around waiting for loads I don’t live in a tin box and get home every weekend. You are talking yourself out of it so as someone else. Give it up!!!

36

“I get paid for everything I do I don’t sit around waiting for loads I don’t live in a tin box and get home every weekend. You are talking yourself out of it so as someone else. Give it up!!!”

Hi Taffy

So, are you really home every weekend?
What company are you working for that allows you to be regularly home every weekend?
Are we talking here Saturday and Sunday home every week?
All drivers working for your company are home every weekend or are you the exception to the rule?

I’m not trying to talk myself out of it, I’m trying to find the truth, hard facts, numbers talk to me, I like analyzing numbers, they never lie and help to understand the whole picture, so if there was someone brave enough to divide his/her wages by the number of hours spend from starting his/her work to finishing, that would help a lot of people understand the conditions offered there?

Why do you want me to give it up?

37

Yes we are home at weekends might get back on a Saturday or pull out on a Sunday. I said give it up because you are talking yourself out of it. Go back and read your posts.

38

I would love to hear honest opinions from those that did go to Canada and came back because they didn’t enjoy it.
Pity they never post here.
After all it is a forum where truck drivers exchange their experiences and opinions, isn’t it?

What is this guy talking in this video about, since it is so good being on the road?
He appears to me like a very reasonable guy, got 125 positive votes to 2 negative ones, so he must be right in what he’s saying. Isn’t he?

youtube.com/watch?v=eagHzjUs1bs

I’m trying to stimulate an open discussion here, lets see what we get from it.

39

Got bored of his drooling on. Used to a 40 hour week now have to do 70 welcome to trucking what does he think it is a holiday

40

But if you listen to taffy he aint spouting you no ■■■■■■■■ …Been following him since he got there and he always says it like it is …Theres a few desperate looking sheep about here now though wonder what they are missing… :wink: