I have nearly finished the process of getting an IEC working holiday visa for Canada and am planning on moving to either Calgary or Edmonton in September. I got my Class 1 in the UK December last year and have had my Class 2 since late 2019.
It costs a lot to do Class 1 MELT training (£5000 ) and that’s without the initial outlay that going over there will set me back. What sort of prospects would I have considering by the time I go over I’ll only have 9 months of Class 1 experience? Am I going to struggle to get a job after getting my licence in Alberta? Are employers going to take the year and a half of commercial driving experience I’ll have had in the UK into consideration?
I would say your prospects would be pretty good.
The MELT course is a big investment as you say but that actually makes a person who is in possession of a CDL class one all the more valuable.
If you were landed in Canada with a valid work permit and a full license a I would suggest that you would have a pretty reasonable choice of job offers despite only having limited experience in the UK.
There’s plenty of work in Alberta right now, lots will have you believe that since covid there’s even less than there was before with the decimated oil industry but it’s not true, there is quite a lot of work and lots of people unwilling to do it due to generous and easy to get covid benefits, same problem the USA has. I’ve had more work offers and opportunities since covid with minimal effort than in the last 6 years of trying hard to move industries.
If you want trucking then you’ll not get anything without your Canadian class 1 so you’ll have to pay for MELT, not aware of any companies funding it currently. However once you get that you should have no issues finding work, especially if you can already drive a semi and back it up, but because you’ll be unproven as a new licence holder you’ll like need an employer with a training program which may lock you into a contract, if you came over and got your class 1 yourself and aren’t a clown I could get you into a company on a new driver programme, you’d be with an in cab instructor for a while but with past experience it may be reduced, you’d be running USA long haul out of Calgary.
^^^ if he has class 1 experience and references to back that up then I would think he would get into a company without much issue, I did my class 1 again over here in December and by the end of January/early February, the company I got in with had me running up and down the ice roads in the NWT (although I probably shouldn’t have been right away) and luckily got through that without any problems apart from a touch of frostbite which was a very real personality learning experience
Company can’t get enough drivers at the moment to haul fuel, I guess the fuel market went through the roof after the Rona hit, although some of that is probably getting back the drivers they laid off when lockdowns hit.
I was lucky enough to get my class 1 before the whole MELT program came in but I would imagine the cost of doing it will be claimable on taxes the following year as I was able to claim the cost of my class 1 training when I did mine!
I hope things go well though OP when you do get over here and hopefully you can get your training and into work quickly!
Just saw I got a couple more replies on this. Thanks for the info guys!
I made it over to Alberta in late August, leaving the UK at the worst time possible as far as money goes in driving Currently living it up in Jasper working in tourism and honestly unsure if I’m going to get my licence here. If I do it’ll be in the new year so that I can claim it on taxes, but at the moment I’m enjoying not working 70 hour weeks living on the road haha. Certainly miss earning a good amount of money though!
OwlMan:
Just saw I got a couple more replies on this. Thanks for the info guys!
I made it over to Alberta in late August, leaving the UK at the worst time possible as far as money goes in driving Currently living it up in Jasper working in tourism and honestly unsure if I’m going to get my licence here. If I do it’ll be in the new year so that I can claim it on taxes, but at the moment I’m enjoying not working 70 hour weeks living on the road haha. Certainly miss earning a good amount of money though!
Good man!!!
Nice to hear you got over here buddy, I hope it all works out well for you man!
At least you are working too, hopefully you can get your class 1 pretty easily when you do go for it, doesn’t matter when in the year you do it, I believe the window of claiming for your years tax is Jan 1 to dec 31 and you claim at “tax season” in February to April, I’m just not sure how much of the total cost of driver training you can claim back so may be worth looking into if you want to know.
At least working and living in jasper will get you a good idea of how winter can be over here, jasper is a beautiful place too and they do get quite a bit of snow too from what I understand, I don’t really go through there much through winter as I’m usually trucking across highway1 from Calgary over to Kamloops or Surrey or anywhere in between.
Wish you luck for your first winter buddy, layer up, be safe and enjoy your time here and take note of how things run in winter to give you an idea on how to prepare for the next ones!
) and that’s without the initial outlay that going over there will set me back. What sort of prospects would I have considering by the time I go over I’ll only have 9 months of Class 1 experience? Am I going to struggle to get a job after getting my licence in Alberta? Are employers going to take the year and a half of commercial driving experience I’ll have had in the UK into consideration?
Currently living it up in Jasper working in tourism and honestly unsure if I’m going to get my licence here. If I do it’ll be in the new year so that I can claim it on taxes, but at the moment I’m enjoying not working 70 hour weeks living on the road haha. Certainly miss earning a good amount of money though!