work boots are realy expensive here ,just normal steel toe boots ,i was wearing dakota steel toed shoes ($120) till reciently and now due to H&S have to wear boots (150$)
I brought over an Aldi bib &brace snow suit,not bad for the price and they keep me warm. and yup ive got me shoe grips on 
look at carboot etc for the guys selling army gear ,had a u s army felt &real fur hat …cost a couple o pounds .
jimmy.
robinhood_1984:
Best of luck Contractdriver! I wish you all the best in Canada and I’m sure all of us on here will give you any help or advice you need along the way. Its good to see that just lately there has been a fresh influx of British drivers to Canada, I thought the industry here was in risk of being left only to the Russians and their ex Warsaw pact comrades.
There’s three more Brits been in touch with me who are going out to Watt and Stewart in AB in January.
I’m okay for the money as i’ve been earning well and saving the past few months, my work dries up in January anyway.
I’ve been Ltd Co Agency for many years and have built up company funds to buy workwear.
Im doing flatbed work same as Mick Fly and Fly Sheet I thought I would ‘push’ the boat out a bit on the gear, so today i’ve just blown about £250 on the basics (shiney new boots, padded gloves, thermal work jacket etc) and got some Dickies waterproof padded overalls (the ones the blokes in fridge warehouses wear pictured below) because I guess i will be doing a bit more than closing the back doors 
I can carry up to 30kg in my case (free) and I will wear the heavy stuff on the plane!! 
(it’s okay, i don’t have any dignity anyway! 
)
My wife has just wrapped all my ‘gear’ for Christmas… lol , I think i’m gonna get more presents than my 8 year old daughter this year! 
fly sheet:
kr79:
Cahart stuff is good I got a couple of bits in the states. Once your rolling if your in billings Montana there is a shop does all there gear very cheap and no sales tax in Montana.
Best tip with clothes is layers. I normally wear a thermal vest t shirt a t shirt a hoddie and a coat. Hat and gloves is a must.& thats just walking to the nearest buffet…
Cabellas in Billings is good big Carhartt section & lorry parking too & as Boxvan Billy with His thermals on ffs says theres no sales tax.
I like the look of those big barbeque grill places, I saw one on Mickflys blog/website… 
robinhood_1984:
kr79:
I was talking about Canada.^^This^^ Which is why every walmart on any main road coming from Canada is usually packed with Canadian trucks doing their shopping.
I once had a meal at Denny’s in the Flying J in New Milford, PA and it cost ten dollars something, less than 11 dollars. Later that same week I had the very same thing in Denny’s in the Flying J at Napanee, Ontario and it cost 18 dollars something. I only live 10 miles from the US border at Houlton, Maine so even when I’m at home, I try and make the most of that. A month ago I needed a new starter motor for my Jeep. It cost just under $200 in Woodstock, NB and $130 in Houlton, ME.
BUFFET = Big Ugly Fat [zb]ers Eating Together
I get a bit of shopping from the US, even things like Heinz Ketchup are so much cheaper that it makes a difference, washing liquid, dishwasher tablets and Coca Cola are significantly cheaper, it’s the same with books and DVDs, clothes are another no brainer, although the choice can be limited, depending on the area, you won’t get much high fashion items in North Dakota, unless you like to look like a farmer but the biggest saving I’ve made is with car parts, I needed new discs and pads and a coupke of tie rods for my car, I got some drilled and slotted upgraded discs, decent pads and all the suspension bits in the US for the same money as just the standard discs in Canada
JIMBO47:
work boots are realy expensive here ,just normal steel toe boots ,i was wearing dakota steel toed shoes ($120) till reciently and now due to H&S have to wear boots (150$)
I brought over an Aldi bib &brace snow suit,not bad for the price and they keep me warm. and yup ive got me shoe grips on
look at carboot etc for the guys selling army gear ,had a u s army felt &real fur hat …cost a couple o pounds .
jimmy.
Have you had to get them green tagged boots JIMBO? I ended up in poxy wellington boots in BC the other month as My $150 boots were’nt acceptable
fly sheet:
Contractdriver clearly stated that He was coming to Canada not The USA & told us it would be a few weeks before He was south of the border, if You read the post & what the rest of us have posted We all know stuff is cheaper in The USA hence us all shopping there, the poster does’nt have that priviledge initially…
He will be running across the border once his test is passed and he can get all the cheap stuff he needs when he does and that is why I said that. It will be two or three weeks at the most, or he can ask another workmate already on the job to buy some warm clothes when down here.
I found food quite reasonable when running in Quebec anyway so I assume that the rest of Canada doesn’t differ that much.
Go south young man… the further the better.
The trash can lid meal, above, contains ribs, pulled pork, chicken, beans, coleslaw, sweetcorn, potato wedges and corn muffins.
We ate in loads of smokehouses in the southern States, usually very good food and almost always had to ask for a box to take some away.
In my opinion the food prices are way higher in Canada.
With regard to the phones question it is becoming increasingly clear to me that pay as you go smart phones are becomming cheaper than any contract. We have 4 family phones with verizon and it costs a staggering $280 a month with a $350 cancelation fee if we pull out… NEVER AGAIN ! I want to just let the contracts expire and get pay as you go.
Buy here or USA, make sure you keep all the receipts…It’s tax deductable but not if bought outside N America.
aye had to get fn *green tagged**boots with ankle protection . H&S are hitting quarries and building sites hard next yr,we got the headsup from boss month or so ago …so we are all doing a WHIS course passed the multi choice section 95% ,still have the H&S interview to go before work starts next yr.
Also MB workers comp,giving us all hearing tests to get a base point construction& quarry first then road haulage starting within 3yrs.
H&S are nowhere as bad as uk BUT i have warned boss what is coming.
British Columbia is getting on the HSE bandwagon, every yard you go in has signs on the gate saying you need to wear a HiViz under Provincial Law 
Looking forward to every company putting gantries & tarp sheds in place to help me through the day, HSE bring them in, I met one over in Ontario earlier this year, Wheres your hard hat says He, I’ll just get it while You nip out & get Me a fall arrester system in place says I, he was from scotland funnily enough, we ended up having a proper fall out & he was such a nice man
Its started here in Alberta too, I see the Purolator couriers all driving with HI-Viz all the time now.
Once had a delivery that insisted i wore a hard hat from the loading dock to the warehouse door, then nothing inside. Wen questioned, its because a guy got crushed between a trailer and the building… not that a hard hat would stop that happening.
BigJon:
Its started here in Alberta too, I see the Purolator couriers all driving with HI-Viz all the time now.Once had a delivery that insisted i wore a hard hat from the loading dock to the warehouse door, then nothing inside. Wen questioned, its because a guy got crushed between a trailer and the building… not that a hard hat would stop that happening.
The coal mines are pretty keen about PPE as well, but I’m sure the hard hat would stop you getting crushed by the massive line haul trucks.
That drop I do in Montreal ‘Christies / Kraft’ will not let drivers on the premesis without a hiviz jacket, on each occasion I have been there I told them ‘you had better bring me one out then if you want this load’ and they did as requested. A few weeks ago I went out and bought one of my own and have never been sent there since
Best to have your own borrowing lice ridden filthy dirty high viz isnt pleasant,
Pat Hasler:
That drop I do in Montreal ‘Christies / Kraft’ will not let drivers on the premesis without a hiviz jacket, on each occasion I have been there I told them ‘you had better bring me one out then if you want this load’ and they did as requested. A few weeks ago I went out and bought one of my own and have never been sent there since
That’s what usually happens, I thought it might work with snow chains, got a full set… and used every bloody one of them
Some of the bigger companies in Quebec are a bit funny about vis-vests and boots so it is slowly creeping in over here but in the past four years I’ve had to wear a vis-vest no more than ten times in all of N America. I’ve noticed most larger sites in the US have signs saying steel toe capped boots and sometimes vests are to be worn but this is not enforced and most people are still walking around in shorts, t shirt and sandals during the summer.
Loaded today at the salt plant in unity sk. Have to hand the keys in like the uk. This is after chocking the trailer and one of them locking things on the back bumper.
You are inside so no super cold temperatures but there is a waiting room if you want.