Assuming I worked a few years for a company like Parcelforce via an agency, would that be a problem for the authorities in terms of coming over on a work permit, assuming I had a reference from both Parcelforce and the agency?
The oft mentioned 2 yrs experience class one, is only required for PR and by the time you get PR you would have had the 2 yrs experience. (in Alberta)
mickfly:
The oft mentioned 2 yrs experience class one, is only required for PR and by the time you get PR you would have had the 2 yrs experience. (in Alberta)
But would it be OK if those 2 years were thru an agency (continuous assignment at the one client)? Obviously I’d have references and other proof (bank statements / wage slips etc).
I’m just worried about the agency aspect, you know how awkward govt rules can be.
Two year’s experience is required for all the different schemes as far as I’m aware. I originally came over on the HRSDC two years and ■■■■ off temporary work permit and two year’s experience was necessary to get on that 
If you can get a letter from the TM at the company you were assigned to then you should be fine, even a letter from the Agency that employed you would be sufficient, after all they employed you to drive lorries 
The paperwork you need to fill out for residency doesn’t ask for any references from former employers, you have to have a record of where you worked, but they don’t go into it too much. However employers will check, they have to by law and they go back ten years or until your first job if you’re young enough to have been at school withing the past ten years
newmercman:
Two year’s experience is required for all the different schemes as far as I’m aware. I originally came over on the HRSDC two years and [zb] off temporary work permit and two year’s experience was necessary to get on thatIf you can get a letter from the TM at the company you were assigned to then you should be fine, even a letter from the Agency that employed you would be sufficient, after all they employed you to drive lorries
The paperwork you need to fill out for residency doesn’t ask for any references from former employers, you have to have a record of where you worked, but they don’t go into it too much. However employers will check, they have to by law and they go back ten years or until your first job if you’re young enough to have been at school withing the past ten years
This ^^
It doesn’t matter how you came by your two years experience. Even if you worked for 100 different companies over a two years period for an agency, all you’d need is a letter from that agency accounting for the time/experience you are claiming to have. I did some class 2 work for Best Connection in 2005 before getting my class 1 and they wrote me a letter on company letter headed paper with dates and also included an itemised list of dates and places worked during my time for them.
Think I may be taking on a night trunking job, having done it on agency this week.
It’s 4 runs back & forth, one or two of these will be Class 1 each night. It’s only a 30ft one axle trailer hooked up to a little Volvo unit.
I suppose this will be fine for a Class 1 reference (and the employer is friendly). Does seem a bit too good to be true as a gateway to working abroad(?). I’ll likely never unhook the trailer, and the manouevering isn’t complex. OTOH something like Parcelforce night runs wouldn’t be super challenging either!
What I might do is agency work every other weekend, so I’m still used to big trailers & units.
So I dunno, go for this job?
I wouldn’t worry about the manoeuvring mate. After I week and never having drove lhd I got in to a parking space half a dozen yanks tried and failed to get in to in a truckstop.
kr79:
I wouldn’t worry about the manoeuvring mate. After I week and never having drove lhd I got in to a parking space half a dozen yanks tried and failed to get in to in a truckstop.
i keep seeing this on the expats bit. are they really that bad with the reversing/shunting out there?
chilistrucker:
kr79:
I wouldn’t worry about the manoeuvring mate. After I week and never having drove lhd I got in to a parking space half a dozen yanks tried and failed to get in to in a truckstop.i keep seeing this on the expats bit. are they really that bad with the reversing/shunting out there?
Driving while under the influence of alcohol/drugs is akin to driving while being American. Some American truck drivers are very good, usually the old timers but in recent years the big fleets of churned out tens of thousands of oxygen thiefs and put them behind the wheel and the result is an ever decreasing standard of driving from US trucks. As for American car drivers, they try and manouver their cars with the aggresivness of an Italian, yet they pull it off with the intelligence of the average pet rabbit.
Yes they really are that bad, I’ve seen them hanging out of the door looking at which way the front wheels are pointing as they begin to reverse 
They have to jacknife in everywhere, they don’t ever position themself so they have an easy reverse in, it’s all drama with them, except the old boys who were around in the days before power steering, they can do it, because they had to do it right the first time to avoid a lot of hard work, other than that they couldn’t drive a nail into a block of wood with a sledgehammer 
They’re just as bad going forwards too, most of them are convinced that a lorry is a big evil machine that will kill them at the first opportunity, but looking on the bright side, even when we’re having a bad day, they make us look good
newmercman:
but looking on the bright side, even when we’re having a bad day, they make us look good
Are you sure youtube.com/watch?v=bA1KgPaqlBg
nianiamh:
newmercman:
but looking on the bright side, even when we’re having a bad day, they make us look goodAre you sure
Didn’t realise you lot were being paid by the mile in reverse too, Martyn must be on a fortune
newmercman:
nianiamh:
newmercman:
but looking on the bright side, even when we’re having a bad day, they make us look goodAre you sure
Didn’t realise you lot were being paid by the mile in reverse too, Martyn must be on a fortune
nice reversing 
vid that, they look well those flying eagle wagons.
foresttrucker:
Think I may be taking on a night trunking job, having done it on agency this week.It’s 4 runs back & forth, one or two of these will be Class 1 each night. It’s only a 30ft one axle trailer hooked up to a little Volvo unit.
I suppose this will be fine for a Class 1 reference (and the employer is friendly). Does seem a bit too good to be true as a gateway to working abroad(?). I’ll likely never unhook the trailer, and the manouevering isn’t complex. OTOH something like Parcelforce night runs wouldn’t be super challenging either!
What I might do is agency work every other weekend, so I’m still used to big trailers & units.
So I dunno, go for this job?
These ‘little’ 30ft trailers with a single axle strike fear into the most experienced drivers, they are a bugger to reverse… honest!.. If you can reverse a 30ft single axle trailer onto a bay… you will easily be able to reverse anything.
There was a newly built place I delivered to recently with no white line markings to mark the loading bays or any ground lines etc, and all the drivers (including me 
) were all over the place trying to get on the bays, 3 and 4 shunts just to get lined up and on the bay (and that was with regular sized trailers).
Reversing comes with plenty of practice, no one can show you how to do it, it’s something you learn over time… we were all rubbish at it when we started out on Class 1.
contractdriver:
Reversing comes with plenty of practice, no one can show you how to do it, it’s something you learn over time… we were all rubbish at it when we started out on Class 1.
And just when you think you’ve got it nailed, you get given a completely different truck to drive with different mirrors that throw everything out of the window. You look like you’re straight against the loading dock in the new mirrors and then get out to check and find you’re several degree’s out, with one corner of the rear end touching and several inches of fresh air at the other side!
robinhood_1984:
contractdriver:
Reversing comes with plenty of practice, no one can show you how to do it, it’s something you learn over time… we were all rubbish at it when we started out on Class 1.And just when you think you’ve got it nailed, you get given a completely different truck to drive with different mirrors that throw everything out of the window. You look like you’re straight against the loading dock in the new mirrors and then get out to check and find you’re several degree’s out, with one corner of the rear end touching and several inches of fresh air at the other side!
Exactly right!..
Well… me being agency means I do drive a different truck / trailer every day… and usually balls up the first revers also… as the drivers say in the earlier posts, its about using all the space available and setting yourself up to reverse onto a bay with the truck n trailer as straight and inline as possible to the bay, rather than attacking it at a 90 degree angle.
The only other real factor is ‘feeling’ the load react as you navigate your truck and ‘feeling’ the weight of a load through the seat, steering, suspension and brakes… that comes with time also.
The English lad in the reversing video above these posts susses out where he needs to be to set his tractor/trailer up, spins round to get set up, then waits for the lowloader to move before reversing into the bay, he’s a paitent and professional driver…
contractdriver:
Exactly right!..
Well… me being agency means I do drive a different truck / trailer every day… and usually balls up the first revers also… as the drivers say in the earlier posts, its about using all the space available and setting yourself up to reverse onto a bay with the truck n trailer as straight and inline as possible to the bay, rather than attacking it at a 90 degree angle.The only other real factor is ‘feeling’ the load react as you navigate your truck and ‘feeling’ the weight of a load through the seat, steering, suspension and brakes… that comes with time also.
The English lad in the reversing video above these posts susses out where he needs to be to set his tractor/trailer up, spins round to get set up, then waits for the lowloader to move before reversing into the bay, he’s a paitent and professional driver…
If you’re anything like me, you’ll screw up a reverse when you’ve got all the room in the world. I hate nothing more than having to back on to a bay that has no painted lines and there being no trailers anywhere near by. 5 or 10 bays either side can be empty and I’ll end up shunting backwards and forwards trying to get it on. Yet if its a tight spot and you think “hmm, thats gonna be tricky” you usually end up getting it in first time square.
I am the best in the world at reversing, can get a trailer into any hole first time every time…until there’s other drivers around watching, then I couldn’t back into a football field without a few shunts