Saskatchewan Bound (Photos Added)

[duck]

Flying into Regina, Sask. on Friday night to start my new job. Does anyone know the best cellular network to use for international calls? Rogers?? AT&T etc■■?

[flat_to_the_mat]

Can’t help with the phones,but welcome to Regina.Who are you working for ?

[newmercman]

Duck,

It depends where you’re calling from, if you’re spending a lot of time in the USA then verizon do some good deals, if you’re in Canada then expect some big bills, mobiles are expensive up there

[bobthedog]

Good luck with the move and job.

Sasktel have probably got some deals going by now. You would have to go in and ask. You want a plan with no roaming and long distance included. If Sasktel can’t help then go for Verizon, but try to get it in Montana as they have no taxes on top of the charges. Be very wary of Rogers. I have never known anyone as bad as them for dropping you in it, except for Paypal…

[duck]

@newmercman & bob the dog- Thanks for the info. regarding phones etc., appreciate it.

@ flat to the mat- Thanks, I’ll be working for an agricultural company based
near Saskatoon. They’re involved in dairy, arable and custom cutting operations, as well as haulage and farm consultancy services.

Not quite sure if I’ll be doing the CDL straight away or not as I’ve been hired for maintenance work primarily. My old job involved a lot of vehicle/hydraulic servicing as well as dealing with inverters and CPU’s for industrial apps. The boss is aware that I’ve driven left-hand drive and conventionals before and said we’d talk further about driving opportunities when I arrive.

I’ll probably be starting work South of Regina on Monday, servicing agricultural equipment.
Hope to sample some of Regina’s brew pubs over the weekend (where they cook with ale), heard there’s a decent size British/Irish ex-pat fraternity over there.
Is it true?

Anyway, safe trucking, I’m gonna start packing!!

[duck]

Slight change of plan, now ended up staying in Saskatoon (near Flying J/Westcan) for the weekend, things are going quite smoothly apart from my apparent lack of Canadian English skills. Starting work on Monday, heading down to Regina mid-week. There’s a good chance I’ll be doing some Super-B work in the near future. Now attempting to buy a local sim card after previous efforts in communicating with Sasktel employees proved futile…hehehe.

[brit_in_sask]

Welcome to Sask i’ve been here for just over 4 years now and i’ve been on the Fido network since and they do cheep calls back to the Uk. I’m living down in Regina.

[duck]

Hi there… I should be running down to Fillmore next week with a B-train. After that I’ll be working in the Regina area, at the moment I’m staying near Rosetown, just off highway 7. I like Canada and the way of life but I’m not too sure about my new employer at the moment. Today I’ve been cleaning the cab out of the truck that I will eventually be driving and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Found 3 dead mice in the overhead lockers and a live one near the fuse box!! Yikes!!! Counted 17 disgarded drinks cans as well as a mountain of old crisp/chocolate papers and approx. an inch of dirt above the carpets. The old mattress should be incinerated!! I’ve cleaned out some disgusting vehicles in my time and this one was right up there with the best of ‘em. If I can tolerate my bosses’ attitude long enough I’ll be driving a Freightliner Century with the 70" condo roof, I’ll be posting some photos of my escapades at a later date. Btw, have any other drivers out there ever had a rollicking for checking the oil & water on a truck? That’s what happened to me the other day!!! Apparently the truck hadn’t moved for a few days and therefore I was wasting time by checking the levels. Hmmm■■? Not quite sure what to say about the situation, something will have to give soon, just hope it’s not my temper or else I could be Heathrow bound.

[bigjon]

Checking oil and water levels is a requirement of your pre trip inspection. Failing to do so will get you in deep doo doo with the DOT

Sounds like your employer is not a very good one, from the state of your truck i suspect other drivers felt the same way, and decided to not look after the equipment.

[big_truck]

What type of work visa have you?

[duck]

Seasonal Agricultural Work Visa.

[acd1202]

Duck:
Hi there… I should be running down to Fillmore next week with a B-train. After that I’ll be working in the Regina area, at the moment I’m staying near Rosetown, just off highway 7. I like Canada and the way of life but I’m not too sure about my new employer at the moment. Today I’ve been cleaning the cab out of the truck that I will eventually be driving and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Found 3 dead mice in the overhead lockers and a live one near the fuse box!! Yikes!!! Counted 17 disgarded drinks cans as well as a mountain of old crisp/chocolate papers and approx. an inch of dirt above the carpets. The old mattress should be incinerated!! I’ve cleaned out some disgusting vehicles in my time and this one was right up there with the best of ‘em. If I can tolerate my bosses’ attitude long enough I’ll be driving a Freightliner Century with the 70" condo roof, I’ll be posting some photos of my escapades at a later date. Btw, have any other drivers out there ever had a rollicking for checking the oil & water on a truck? That’s what happened to me the other day!!! Apparently the truck hadn’t moved for a few days and therefore I was wasting time by checking the levels. Hmmm■■? Not quite sure what to say about the situation, something will have to give soon, just hope it’s not my temper or else I could be Heathrow bound.

Yep, in the UK many years ago worked for somebody who took a VERY dim view of drivers investigating under the front flap. “Its new, its well maintained, keep your nose out” was the attitude.

[oatcake1967]

Bloody ell Duck,
How are you gonna deal with the cold.
Let me know if you need anything hot or spicy.

Of course I mean food.

[duck]

Your café doesn’t serve special “Ayam” upstairs does it?? Hehehe. Actually wouldn’t mind a teh tarik, doubt there’s much chance of that here though.

I’ve been in hot water again with the boss, asked if the truck could be equipped with spare bulbs, fuel filter, wheel brace, first aid kit etc. His response was not fit for public consumption!

Been out on a couple of “dry” runs as a passenger to get used to the procedure at the regular grain elevator drops. The way the man speaks to people makes me feel sick, I doubt I’ll be able to stand him much longer.

Apparently he has employed Brits in the past, nobody has lasted that long which is of no great suprise.

I’d like to point out that he himself is British and has lived in Sask. for approx. 10 years, which is about the same number of years as his mental age…

I’ve heard a few horror stories about Yanke, BFS, H+R, Kindersley etc. but nothing like this.

Watch this space… One can sense fireworks on the horizon.

[duck]

Here’s a few photos from Saskatchewan. If anyone’s interested I’ll upload some more at a later date.

[flat_to_the_mat]

Glad to see you’re settling in .Where is your base ?

[duck]

I was based at Milden near Rosetown, unfortunately the proverbial well and truly hit the fan as expected. I flew back to the U.K. this morning, pretty depressed with the situation. However, I’ve tried to view it in a positive light, you could say that it was a good recce trip, I learned a lot about how things are done over there and I got my 1A license (which is only valid untill the end of the visa but can be renewed), plus a few days of driving experience in Canada.

Also got to meet a lot of decent people and have been offered full time employment in 2011 with some more reputable companies.

I would have loved to stay untill November but there’s only so much abuse and threatening behaviour that one can take before retaliating.

I’m not prepared to elaborate on a public forum but let’s just say that my employer was a joke and is now trying to run the entire operation by himself.

First of all he wanted me to drive without a license, when I refused we almost got into a punch-up.
The charges at SGI were $10 for the written tests and about $55 for the road test if I remember correctly.

The morning of my first run the truck wouldn’t start due to damage to the starter motor.
I lifted the hood to see what the problem was and he came running across the yard screaming, shouting, punching the cab and hurling abuse.

How does that work??

Anyway, ran over to Hanley and dropped off the B-train before bobtailing on to Lumsden in order to collect a combine trailer. On the way back to Milden I stopped off at Penny’s restaurant in Chamberlain where I cheered up a bit.

Upon arrival at the yard he starts with the attitude again for no apparent reason. I would have understood if I’d done something out of order but everything was ship-shape.

I wasn’t expecting any easy ride and knew not to expect too much as I wasn’t working for a professional trucking company but I found the situation unacceptable.

Decided to give it a few more days and see if things improved (obviously they didn’t).

I left without being paid a single dollar before moving on to another harvest crew near Kindersley.

The boss was a pretty cool guy but he had just taken on 2-3 new workers and there weren’t enough jobs to go around.
He was good enough to put me up for a couple of nights and gave me $200 for a day’s work, plus a bus ticket to Regina with the option of employment next spring.

That’s life I guess, you’ve gotta take the rough with the smooth…

I tried to stick around for a bit longer and sent my CV out to a few firms but in the end I had to admit defeat and fly home as I was getting short on funds.

All in all I still enjoyed the trip and it’s not the end of the world, Canada’s a great place and it was a priviledge to be there for the most part.

I don’t believe that Sask. has seen the end of Duck-man just yet!!

Btw, I’ve still got loads more photos if anyone’s interested.

[steve-o]

Jeeso! That’s such a shame that things didn’t work out so far from home

I’d love to go over there and see what it’s like to work as a Long Haul driver in Canada/USA. I’m too much of a wimp though, would have to be box vans for me, none of that flat deck work lol

What was the process for your CDL over there?

PS More pics the better

[daleyboy]

Nice pics mate. Looks like a really interesting job, getting to see the countryside. More pics would be good.

P.S I’m glad you didnt go into why you didnt like your boss on the open forum

[duck]

If you go to sgi.sk.ca you should be able to get most of the answers you need regarding licenses etc. It’s pretty similar to the U.K. with a driver medical and written tests before the actual road test. As a foreigner you’ll need your passport plus another immigration document such as a valid work permit or temporary/permanent residence card etc. I also had to take in proof of employment in Saskatchewan and they wanted to see something like a local utility bill or a Canadian bank statement. This is in order to apply for a Saskatchewan license, the staff were very helpful at SGI, unlike the the DVLA in Nottingham where one often feels like a convict upon arrival.

Here’s a few more photos.