So what is the approximate cost of immigration into Canada and gaining your Canadian license?
Cheers
Only crap companies have high turnovers of drivers as you quite rightly surmise. My present company hasn’t advertised for a driver in the nearly six years I’ve worked here.
Unfortunately for you the crap companies are the ones who have to recruit from Europe.
andyb10:
So what is the approximate cost of immigration into Canada and gaining your Canadian license?Cheers
I reckon you need access to $7500 Cdn. License change over is about $1500. You’ll need a car and will need to insure it. Accomodation will be about $350 a month. Normal living expences [food and fuel] for about 6 weeks.
Plus you will be paid bi-weekly; which means you do two weeks work and get paid for it two weeks after that; so it’s a months work before any money in the bank.
HTH.
$350 a month for rent, I don’t suppose you know anyone with a room for that price do you Chris?
wire:
Only crap companies have high turnovers of drivers as you quite rightly surmise. My present company hasn’t advertised for a driver in the nearly six years I’ve worked here.
Unfortunately for you the crap companies are the ones who have to recruit from Europe.
Yes that would make sense.I guess I would have to start at the bottom.Someone has already mentioned that the jobs they import Drivers for are the ones that the Canadians don’t want!
Kind of Similar to Britains relationship with Eastern Europeans 
I reckon you need access to $7500 Cdn. License change over is about $1500. You’ll need a car and will need to insure it. Accomodation will be about $350 a month. Normal living expences [food and fuel] for about 6 weeks.
Plus you will be paid bi-weekly; which means you do two weeks work and get paid for it two weeks after that; so it’s a months work before any money in the bank.
HTH.
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Again thanks for the info.So best part of £4500 to see me through to my first payday.That is quite a considerable amount! Its something I could afford but Im not 100% at this stage that I want to take the leap into Canada yet but its definitely a strong possibility! Like I said I’ve got a part time job with tge Fire Service and there might be an opportunity to turn that full time next year.
I guess Im a bit stuck in a rutt at the moment and Im thinking of ways to get out of that rut.Canada being one of them.
So what is the quality of life like out there? As a long haul Driver do you have much social life?
Obviously its what you make it but Im a single guy so that’s why I ask?
What are the facilities like when you’re on the road compared to UK?
In your bog standard cab do you have things like Fridges, gas stove, maybe even a TV?
Ive not done a hell of a lot of Tramping in UK cause it doesn’t really appeal to me but Im ex forces and Ive also driven around Europe.
Driving through Canada and the US would appeal to me
$350 a month for accommodation ? I wouldnt know what to do with the other $1550 a month id be saving each time 
andyb10:
So what is the quality of life like out there? As a long haul Driver do you have much social life?
No, not unless you’re working with a good bunch of lads at the firm you’re with and all do very similar work and get to meet up. More often than not you’ll just keep in touch on the phone and as soon as you leave the yard, you wont see your fellow driving mates for weeks, even months because the continent is so vast. As for a life outside of work, you’ll have the same problems you would as a European driver in the UK, doing a few weeks away at a time. You can try and make all the life you want, but when you’re not there 95% of the time, people usually stop bothering with you simply because you are never at home and when you are, its only a day or two.
andyb10:
What are the facilities like when you’re on the road compared to UK?
Quite simple, the UK doesn’t actually have anything you could call “facilities”. In North America the truckstops are in a different universe, nevermind a different world. Most places, esecially the larger chains have showers that wouldn’t be out of place in any 4 star hotel. You do sometimes find the odd craphole, but its very rare. Parking is free at 99% of places too.
andyb10:
In your bog standard cab do you have things like Fridges, gas stove, maybe even a TV?
Most newer trucks will come with a fitted fridge, though many companies do still scrimp on basics like this, and also there is a chance you wont even have a night heater fitted! If so you’ll just be forced to idle the engine when the temperiture is uncomfortable. As for a gas stove and tv, you’ll have them if you put them in yourself.
andyb10:
Ive not done a hell of a lot of Tramping in UK cause it doesn’t really appeal to me but Im ex forces and Ive also driven around Europe.
You will have to be prepared to be away for a week or so at a time and unlike the UK where half of a drivers time is spent pratting about with your tacho on other modes, here you will have to put in huge mileages each and every day to make it pay. Compared to the UK and even European driving, driving a truck here on long haul work is absolutely relentless, if it were less relentless, you’d make no money. It does take some getting used to, especially if you’ve never done anything remotely similar in the UK but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it here. A good friend of mine here came across and he had been doing Wincanton/Woolworths work for donkeys years, now I in my opinion you couldn’t find a more rigid, by the book, jobsworth type company to work for and we were all convinced that he’d be well and truly institutionalised from his years there, but no, he can put us all to shame. Having said that though, I’ve witnessed a lot of other drivers come over from the likes of Wincanton, Stobarts etc and they failed miserably because they couldn’t get their mind out of UK institutionalism when it comes to tacho’s, rules and regs and the way of doing things here, which can be very yee haw to say the least.
I came over here with about $4500 in my pocket. To get my CDL cost me $1600 and took 10 days 2 weeks after that I got my first paycheck. As long as don’t go stupid going out every night I found that to be enough. If you’re going to live in the truck then i wouldnt worry to much about rent car etc it’s all about what sort of life that you want to start with. Some companies pay for your training then you pay them back
When I came across in May 2009 I paid the company $4000 up front. It was a good deal for the single chaps like myself, but not so much for the ones who came over with family. For that $4k I got trained (if you can call it that) by the company and put through the tests, accommodation in the yard which consisted of 4 bedrooms for drivers, a shower room, laundry, full kitchen (shared with the office staff during the day), a computer room and tv room. We also had free use of a company car or the workshop pickup truck. As I said, for the single guys who didn’t want the huge initial expense of training, somewhere to live and buying a car, it was a good deal and I think it saved me a lot of money. I came out with $500 in cash on my person and still have over $200 of that in my document case that I never spent. I had passed all my tests 9 days after arriving and on the evening of the 9th day, turned a wheel and started earning. The guys who came with family, also had to pay the four grand, but also had the huge expense of buying a car and a house, before they started earning and most took about a month to start earning from the time of arrival so it was a very hard time for some.
You paid them , WTF is that all about ? Flights paid , and the $600 for test taken out of 3 pay packets was my limit .They want you , not arse backwards .
flat to the mat:
You paid them , WTF is that all about ? Flights paid , and the $600 for test taken out of 3 pay packets was my limit .They want you , not arse backwards .
Yes I did. Then for the next 19 months working at that company I had free accommodation in the yard and in the early days until I saved up enough money to buy a car with Canadian funds, rather than transfer money from the UK, I had full use of a company vehicle. I think the $4K given to them paid itself back in the long run due to training costs I didn’t have and renting a house/apartment/room costs I didn’t have. Every one I know who’s come out here and paid their own way has laid out more money getting started here by having to go to an independent driving school and renting a place to live and buying a car from day one than it cost me. It was an easy choice for me back then because I had no idea if I’d like it or not and if I’d be staying. I didn’t dislike the UK and came for a bit of an adventure so a fixed rate of re-settlement was a better idea in my mind than having to do it all myself the minute I stepped foot off the plane, which as I’ve said, usually comes to more money in the end than I paid.
BFS paid my flight, put me through the test and gave us the use of a day room, showers, laundry and the use of a Dodge minivan. I bought an old tank for a grand and that was all I spent, I was dossing with relations, but as soon as I passed I was OTR so looks like I saved meself 3 grand and got a car that has helped a few people out over the past 5yrs. Kerrrrching 
robinhood_1984:
flat to the mat:
You paid them , WTF is that all about ? Flights paid , and the $600 for test taken out of 3 pay packets was my limit .They want you , not arse backwards .Yes I did. Then for the next 19 months working at that company I had free accommodation in the yard and in the early days until I saved up enough money to buy a car with Canadian funds, rather than transfer money from the UK, I had full use of a company vehicle. I think the $4K given to them paid itself back in the long run due to training costs I didn’t have and renting a house/apartment/room costs I didn’t have. Every one I know who’s come out here and paid their own way has laid out more money getting started here by having to go to an independent driving school and renting a place to live and buying a car from day one than it cost me. It was an easy choice for me back then because I had no idea if I’d like it or not and if I’d be staying. I didn’t dislike the UK and came for a bit of an adventure so a fixed rate of re-settlement was a better idea in my mind than having to do it all myself the minute I stepped foot off the plane, which as I’ve said, usually comes to more money in the end than I paid.
I’m glad it worked for you , but would you recommend to others that stumping up $4000 in advance to their prospective employers is such a good idea ? Somehow doubt it .
flat to the mat:
I’m glad it worked for you , but would you recommend to others that stumping up $4000 in advance to their prospective employers is such a good idea ? Somehow doubt it .
No, I wouldn’t recommend any one paying $4k to come here. If people are coming with family I wouldn’t recommend NB at all, even if they were to actually get paid to come here.
When I came with H&R in ‘April 07’ we got return flights, all training paid, then taken out of next 9 pay packets, free hotel up till you get truck, 2 X $15 meals a day & taxi’s on account.
It’s different there now, I know.
I came here with 700 quid.
Also I went to a TransX seminar in early '06" in Manchester and they wanted $6K to come work for them, when they mentioned that near the end, about 90% of us started walking, haha.
Who ever you come over for got to supply a round flight
Only if you’re on the PNP
No the terms of an LMO dictate the hiring company pays return flights.
Wow Ive missed a lot since I was last here.So yeah I would be a bit concerned having to front $4 or $5 k up front after all who knows whether it would work out? I guess I would have to any job offer on it’s merit if and when it was offered.
The kind of lifestyle I would like is a work hard play hard lifestyle. It does sound quite relentless work with being paid by the mile.Do you get held up in traffic a lot?I cant imagine it being as bad as the UK.I think it wouldn’t bother me at first to be on the road all that time as it would all be new to me, new truck, new job, new environment, new people, new experiences . Would the novelty wear off maybe? I don’t know until I’ve tried.You guys are all out there for a reason. If it doesn’t work out still better to have tried than to wait here and wonder!!