shauntel:
Hey Taffy well done with this post very informative & interesting especially to those of us who have got interview in UK in a couple of weeks with HR, mines with Lyndon himself. Knowing what you know now is there anything you wish you had asked him or I should ask him about.
Also have you been paid yet your 1st wage with everything owed? What sort of stoppages and how much do they take. I understand if you don’t want to give your actual figures on here but if you could work out percentage of stoppages from gross pay to give me some idea of actual take home pay on a weekly or fortnightly payday on say 3500 miles per week.
If Lyndon is reading this post about your experience at HR he will be mad to screw you over as you must be his best job promotion tool he’s had for year’s, so if you all of a sudden get a brand new unit with all the bells and whistles on your cover has been blown.
Hope you get tipped tomorrow, cheers.
I’d be interested to know if Taffy gets paid any layover for all the hanging around on this last trip.
shauntel:
Thanks for reply so quick, this tax allowance has it got to be backed up with receipts for everything or automatic because of job title long haul truck driver? Are we working like a self employed driver and having to claim everything back because not got residency and this changes when or if we do become permanment.
You can do your own tax on-line $15.95, or free, if you earned less than $20,000 in the tax year (or part) which you are claiming for.
There is a basic allowance for subsistence, which you just multiply by the nights out, but you must be able to prove it (we run e-logs, so it’s easy).
shauntel:
Thanks for reply so quick, this tax allowance has it got to be backed up with receipts for everything or automatic because of job title long haul truck driver? Are we working like a self employed driver and having to claim everything back because not got residency and this changes when or if we do become permanment.
You work out your night’s out from your log books, so keeping them in case of an audit is a good idea, keeping receipts for electrical equipment is common sense anyway, subscriptions for internet and that are paid online, so you have a receipt there, but I don’t keep shower receipts, you have a shower every night you’re away, they cost a tenner each time, so Revenue Canada is not going to check 250 receipts to check whether you’ve had them over for the odd shower
Got tipped at last but the customer decided they want it in Sioux City IA in the end lol the guys pretty much covered it there. There is a great lady (long as you don’t cross her) in the office that if you slip her $50 she will sort the tax out for you. Its hard to judge the wage atm as you get paid 2 weeks in arrears so waiting for it to trickle through after a couple days on the road here and there but you should be looking at bout $55k year or there abouts. Tbh Lyndon pretty much covers everything neither myself or the wife could think of anything to ask him. If you are offered a job and got the cash waiting in hand you might be able to get out before xmas depends on how busy they are. Good luck with the interview Shaun keep us posted
Bit of a mad one sofar I not stopped lol reloaded sioux city north SD heading for Montreal messed around at customs but more on that after on a flyer lol
Montreal isn’t bad as long as you keep your wits about you. All the signs and such like are in French only but the vast majority of the people there will speak English. Just remember, once you get to Montreal you are not allowed to turn right on a red light like you are in the rest of North America unless otherwise stated. When you cross on to the island Montreal is on you’ll see some little signs with a traffic light with a red light on and a no right turn symbol, thats the point at which you must not do it. There is a Flying J just before Montreal but a much better option now is to stop just inside Ontario on the 401 as there is a brand new Flying J at Lancaster at exit 814. The showers there are absolutely superb. Have fun, I find Montreal to be one of the most interesting cities in North America, though it can be a bar steward to drive a truck around in some parts. Its certainly no worse than any large city in France though.
I have been sitting in this Flying J south of Montreal for an hour and so far have seen 3 H&R trucks
This flying j must be the one you are on about, on the 540, just off the 40 ?
Dam pat one of them was me lol I was gonna pull in there for the night but thought would push my luck n try and tip tonight but no such luck but they let me park in the yard so short walk into town. Not a clue what part I’m in though am bout 15 miles pass you. Flying J in Lancaster has the best showers so far stopped there on the way through just after someone had thought it clever to come down the slip road to fast and turn is truck n trailer on its side blocking the whole west bound carriage way.
When I had finished loading I asked the shipper to fax the BOL off to the broker so I could sail straight through custome which he assured me he did so you can imagine the ‘shock’ to get to Windsor ON to get turned around back over the bridge to Detriot try and find a fax machine and sort it myself!!! So after $26.75 ea way $5 for faxing and 10 hour lay up in Detroit I made it back to Canada and the look on the customs officer face when told her I had left Canada over a week n half before hand was pricless lol from collection to pick up comes in at just under 1400 miles so not a bad little run thereto go with everything else this week takes me up just over 2k miles plus my drop offs and collections.
Reload just 16 miles round the corner from here for the first part then down to Trenton ON for the rest and see how far back to Calgary I can get before need a reset as I only got 26 hrs work left this week. Mustve lost 6 hrs on my drop off and collections so not best impressed at that might go back through book and see if I missed anything but don’t think I did
Had a reset while waiting to tip last weekend set off monday for sioux city dropped reload and straight up but as I said I wasted bout 6 hrs in sioux reloading etc other wise easy. Got bout 26 hrs left start of today but can’t get my 2nd pick up till 9pm tonight so ill sit and have a 10 while they load my trailer 10 hrs 2moz and sunday takes me to 70 then can start rolling last weeks hrs over
FFS Taffy, I thought I had sent you a PM saying I was there but I sent it to someone else
There were two guys team driving for H&R who went for a shower, one at the pumps (oldish bloke with long grey hair) and this bloke who I never saw parked right next to me.
Lol we gonna take over the world nah I’m in 3425 pat. All loaded and start making my way back see if get reset in Leth wanna go get a few bits for the truck so be nice to have the time
Taffy, you said you wasted 6hrs loading, but if you didn’t physically load the trailer yourself you can put that as off duty or sleeper berth and it’s legal too.
OK … Reading the above coment /\ I have a question.
How does the split break thing work in Canada ? because I tried the 2 hours and 8 hours and it didn’t work, I didn’t break any laws because I had oodles of hours etc. Also I saw that my driving allowance went up to 13 hours and the daily duty was still 14, but on a previous trip after enterin Canada my duty hours were increased so I am confused. I wasn’t really bothered because it was just one trip in and out of Montreal ad the extra time helped me get back to the border where the just vanished and I was left out of time once crossing the border, but if this is gonna be a regular thing I will need to know.
newmercman:
Taffy, you said you wasted 6hrs loading, but if you didn’t physically load the trailer yourself you can put that as off duty or sleeper berth and it’s legal too.
Wasn’t until after I closed book for the day I thought sh*t still used to euro style I guess. You gotta have your hrs made up Pat by min periods of 30 mins in the sleeper but no rememember if was 2 or 3 hrs total, you still have only 14 hrs but yea soon as you cross the border you can drive for total of 13 hrs that day
As I understand it, in Canada you get 70hrs in 7days, you can drive 13hrs a day and you can reduce your break to 8hrs, but you have two days to make that up, or to confuse matters, you could have 12hrs off on one day, and then because you had 2 extra hours you can take an 8hr the next day, or you can do a 13hr driving day and if you have 2hrs off during the day (in minimum 30min segments) you can have 8hrs off that night with no requirement to make the time up. You must have a full 10hr break in the previous rest period before you enter the USA, as Mick will confirm
Ill keep em simple for now I did read bout that rule and that’s more or less right from what I can remember but I done my max driving time for today anyway lol
newmercman:
As I understand it, in Canada you get 70hrs in 7days, you can drive 13hrs a day and you can reduce your break to 8hrs, but you have two days to make that up, or to confuse matters, you could have 12hrs off on one day, and then because you had 2 extra hours you can take an 8hr the next day, or you can do a 13hr driving day and if you have 2hrs off during the day (in minimum 30min segments) you can have 8hrs off that night with no requirement to make the time up. You must have a full 10hr break in the previous rest period before you enter the USA, as Mick will confirm
Yes, if you don’t have a full 10 hrs before crossing south, your elog will go to zero, and you can only fix it by having a full 10 hours off again!
if you don’t have a full 10 hrs before crossing south, your elog will go to zero, and you can only fix it by having a full 10 hours off again!