Hi,
Anyone any experience in employement / truck driving agencies in Canada?
Jak.
In Calgary there are a fair few agencies.
I work on the same job as two other blokes that are agency drivers and they’re on $5 an hour less than me and they get time & a half after 12 hrs and I get it after 8 hrs.
I don’t know what other agencies are like but this one pays crap money for Calgary area.
hi,
and how many days work on average do you get out of them?>■■
Jak
Dont bother. You’ll earn more working for the company directly. In places like Calgary or Toronto there are loads of agencies but in the Maritimes they are few and far between and tend to be simply be places that hire you for a particular job and after 3 months the company takes you on directly. I’d be very surprised if there was anything like that down near Cape Sable any way. Woodstock, NB is has a large amount of trucking companies, one of the largest, if not the largest in the Maritimes and we have no agencies at all.
Day and Ross are from there and they are the largest carrier in Canada. Useful if you’re Russian or wear a wraparound stetson.
I’d rather go and work for Ayr Motors then have anything to do with Day and Ross, and thats saying something. When a company often has drivers waiting 48 hours in its terminals waiting for a trailer to do a shunt along to the next terminal and they pay a mere 39cpm for A trains, all you can do is shake your head and laugh. Other companies in the Woodstock area pay 42cpm for one trailer and can easily give you 2800-3000 miles per week with a fraction of the waiting time.
Don’t get me started on the calibre of “drivers” employed by Day and Ross 
Hi,
Thanks for the info, I was just weighing my options and one idea i had was 3 months Canada 3 months UK, or even 6 months / 6 months, and agency would have worked for that but you guys dont seem to have alot of nice things to say aboot them.
Any further ideas■■?
Jak/Ernie
Day & Ross AKA Dazed & Lost. 
If you’re coming across on a work permit you wont find many companies who’ll let you have 6 months of the year off as its tying up a work permit. Work permits in the Maritimes are getting much harder to come by these days as the provincial governments have cracked down a lot in the past year or two. Once you have your residence you can do as you wish and as truckers in Canada are only casual labour, paid by the mile and only given those miles as and when, then you can come and go as you please in any job.
Did you say that your partner is from Bradford, or a Canadian you met living in Bradford? If you’re both English then you’ll be coming here via a Temporary Work Permit, followed by PNP (Provincial Nominee Program) which is the first step in your PR (Permanent residence) application, provided you’re younger than 55 at the time of application. Thats the age limit in New Brunswick any way. If this is the route you’ll be taking, you’ll probably have to find a long haul job with a company thats willing to obtain an LMO to get you a Work Permit, and this wont be that easy in Nova Scotia as they dont have as many transport companies to begin with and foreigners driving NS trucks are exceptionally rare compared to New Brunswick trucks. I doubt you’ll find anything even close to Cape Sable Island so your best bet would be to try someone like Clarke in Halifax and put up with the commute once every couple of weeks when you get round and back to base. They may even have some regular work down that way which would allow you to take the truck home etc, no harm in asking. I know they have some British drivers but there are other options in Nova Scotia. GTL in Dartmouth have some Europeans, though as far as I know, they were inherited from a New Brunswick company they took over near Woodstock a few years ago. Then theres the likes of Eassons near Kentville, they have had a few non-Canadians on them as far as I know. They had some Jamaicans a while back, dont know if they still do. There is also King Freight out of Pictou, NS. I met an English driver on for them a few weeks ago, I dont know if he already had his residence though so whether or not they do LMO’s I couldn’t tell you. There are a few small companies kicking around NS that I dont know where they’re based, but as NS companies dont usually need to employ foreigners as they have enough of their own out of work, opportunities at the smaller firms for non-Canadians may not exist.
Any way, below are the websites to the companies I’ve mentioned.
http://www.eassons.com/
http://www.clarkelink.com/
http://www.gtltransportation.com/index.html
Hope this helps.
Hi again Robinhood, thankyou for your last post, its pretty much as i thought it might be, your info is invaluble and i appreciate it, i dont really expect i will find a job near the south of NS if im being honest so travelling to and fro is part of the list.
I do have a question you will know, how much is the average to pay to gain my licence to drive long haulers, i have seen quotes of around $10k cdn, wow, any info on this??
Jak
jakdaniels1966:
Hi again Robinhood, thankyou for your last post, its pretty much as i thought it might be, your info is invaluble and i appreciate it, i dont really expect i will find a job near the south of NS if im being honest so travelling to and fro is part of the list.I do have a question you will know, how much is the average to pay to gain my licence to drive long haulers, i have seen quotes of around $10k cdn, wow, any info on this??
Jak
If you’re been driving in the UK for a couple of years at least, you wont need to do that expensive full length course costing several thousand dollars as you already have verifiable driving experience, all you’ll need is enough training to be able to drive the junk here and pass the test. I paid my first company here $3 or $4k (cant remember now) up front and that included everything from getting my licence, to accommodation to use of a company car etc so it wasn’t something I had to worry about. I know some guys who came across for other companies and had to sort out their own training/licences and its just a guess but I’m sure they said it cost a couple of grand at most. Basically all you’ll need to do is spend a few hours getting used to the vehicle and gearbox, learn the pre-trip nonsense and then go for your test.
I’m not sure what driving schools exist in Halifax/Dartmouth or other areas of NS but if you can find out and phone them and tell them you already have X amount of years driving experience from Europe and only need assistance with in passing the test itself they’ll be able to give you a price and it will be far less than $10k. The full length course is for new starters so that they can get a documented X amount of driving hours in under supervision to satisfy company insurance policies. Your driving experience outside of Canada counts so is not a problem.