Hi Robinhood
Haven’t you ever thought about moving west, since there are so many more jobs for truck drivers, and the money is better, and runs are probably better not more east coast US deliveries?
hkloss1:
Hi RobinhoodHaven’t you ever thought about moving west, since there are so many more jobs for truck drivers, and the money is better, and runs are probably better not more east coast US deliveries?
Yes, I’ve thought about it a thousand times but the money isn’t really all that much better, especially when other costs are factored in such as the cost of a house etc. I know many people in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta who are on the same or even less money per mile than I’m on in New Brunswick. I’m on 43cpm, $20 for each pick and drop (some trips are as much as 20-25 picks and drops at certain times of the year) and with all the other little add-ons I averaged 58cpm last year and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I worked on either a Saturday or Sunday. A decent family house in NB is at least half the price here, if not less than the likes of Ontario and Alberta and perhaps Manitoba as well.
Whilst the boys out west in some cases get more miles than I do because they have consistently longer trips, I’m married with a one year old child and don’t wish to go chasing the miles over 7-14 days away down the road as I value my family life so the relatively high pay I’m getting in NB, combined with the relatively low cost of living, especially a cost of a house/mortgage and the working schedule I have with my current company means that I think I’m better off where I am for the time being.
Hi Robinhood
I’ve never been to Canada, so can’t really contribute anything of much value regarding life in Canada, I only know what I have learned from watching various Canadian/ US trucking channels and reading some posts on here and on some Canadian forums, so that’s the disclaimer done.
Wouldn’t you prefer to get a local job in one of the western provinces, so drivers claim they got jobs that allow them to be home every night, and are being paid good hourly rates, which would be ideal for you and your family
Would you be at all allowed to move and live in another province providing you are not yet citizen?
hkloss1:
Wouldn’t you prefer to get a local job in one of the western provinces, so drivers claim they got jobs that allow them to be home every night, and are being paid good hourly rates, which would be ideal for you and your family
Would you be at all allowed to move and live in another province providing you are not yet citizen?
Maybe so but those sorts of jobs don’t pay enough to be starting a life from scratch. Many of those who came from Britain and can afford to do a local hourly paid job in Winnipeg or Calgary came across with a huge amount from a UK house sale. I came here at 25 years old and am starting from scratch and cannot match what some of the older guys can financially. For me, I think I’m in the best place to get things going plus its where my wife is from and we’re settled here so going to Calgary for example to struggle like fark financially to pay for a house that costs $350,000 for what would be $120,000-150,000 in NB doesn’t appeal to me at all to be honest. But that’s just me.
I am able to live wherever I want in Canada, I’m not a citizen but I am a permanent resident and have been for several years. Applying for citizenship is next on the list for me. I’ve been eligible for a couple of years now but just haven’t gotten around to doing it.
Those hourly paid jobs are not what they once were. The bloke that drives my other truck came off city work as he was struggling to pay the bills, the hourly rate was still decent, but work is on its arse since oil prices hit the floor and the western province’s economies took a big hit. My man has doubled his take home wages and his money is close to Robinhood’s set up.
There was an advert for a city owner operator last week for a fair sized firm in Winnipeg, it was paying $37ph and that’s with your own tractor unit which you have to buy, maintain and put diesel in! I have no idea how anybody could make that pay, but I’ve noticed that the company in question seem to have a lot of new owner operators recently and they’re running some proper scruffy plant. I couldn’t possibly comment on their country of origin as it could be construed as bigotry.
Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
“The bloke that drives my other truck”
Hi NMM
Are you an owner operator, or am I confusing things, as you said this: “The bloke that drives my other truck” in your last post?
So, things are not looking rosy for those wanting to be home every night and be paid hourly, then? At least not in Manitoba.
Alberta might be a better place for good hourly paying jobs, but I guess since oil prices collapsed things are not looking good there neither, as all those made unemployed in the oil patch drive south looking for jobs in Edmonton and Calgary.
Is there anything else worth mentioning about Alberta industry wise apart from oil extraction and related services?
Nearly all the expats in Manitoba have become owner operators. Nearly all the ones I know anyway. NMM differs from the rest of us in that he has more than one truck.
hkloss1:
“The bloke that drives my other truck”
Hi NMMAre you an owner operator, or am I confusing things, as you said this: “The bloke that drives my other truck” in your last post?
So, things are not looking rosy for those wanting to be home every night and be paid hourly, then? At least not in Manitoba.
Alberta might be a better place for good hourly paying jobs, but I guess since oil prices collapsed things are not looking good there neither, as all those made unemployed in the oil patch drive south looking for jobs in Edmonton and Calgary.Is there anything else worth mentioning about Alberta industry wise apart from oil extraction and related services?
Most of the oil patch guys live in the Edmonton and Calgary region , they fly/drive North for their shifts . Something worth a mention regards the patch is Suncorp , one of the biggest players . When the prices fell they told staff there would be no lay offs , there haven’t been . During the fire at Fort Mac ,camps were opened to any and everybody needing food and shelter , workers were paid full salary whether working or not , plus a cash handout of $2500 repayable at the end of 2017 to help with immediate costs , well done Suncorp .
There are decent paying city jobs but it’s all own account stuff , dead mans shoes etc , no money to be made dragging empty van trailers from one loading dock to another
hkloss1:
“The bloke that drives my other truck”
Hi NMMAre you an owner operator, or am I confusing things, as you said this: “The bloke that drives my other truck” in your last post?
So, things are not looking rosy for those wanting to be home every night and be paid hourly, then? At least not in Manitoba.
Alberta might be a better place for good hourly paying jobs, but I guess since oil prices collapsed things are not looking good there neither, as all those made unemployed in the oil patch drive south looking for jobs in Edmonton and Calgary.Is there anything else worth mentioning about Alberta industry wise apart from oil extraction and related services?
I am an owner operator plus one, I had an opportunity to put another truck on the turnpike fleet at the carrier I’m with, at the same time the salesman I bought the first truck off called me to tell me about this truck that “was too good to miss out on” and that weekend a driver I rate highly told me he was going back OTR, so I bought the other truck. So far the truck and the driver have lived up to and passed my expectations, however the promised spot on the turnpike fleet has not materialised due to the economic downturn, so it hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. It’s early days yet as my driver had to do 6months on the normal fleet to prove he was good enough to go on the turnpike, that has only just passed, so we will see what happens, the way work is at the moment I doubt anything will change in the near future though.
The introduction of elogs will help things pick up I think, a lot of older drivers will hang up the keys for good, the ones running false logs will have to straighten up their act and together this should mean that there are more loads needing to be covered, the industry needs a cull, there are too many trucks out there now, which is hypocritical of me I know, having put an extra truck on the road, but I’m speculating to accumulate, well that’s the plan at least!
As FTTM said, the good jobs are, like anywhere, dead man’s shoes and because they’re good jobs elogs won’t have any effect on them at all, so they will always be dead man’s shoes jobs. In Alberta most transport is oil related or groceries to the big cities, other than that it’s logging, which I imagine is difficult to get into, livestock, again not something anybody can or wants to do. About the best thing you could hope for if you want regular hours is trunking between Calgary and Edmonton or Saskatoon or running groceries up to Ft McMurray for one of the big box carriers.
As an aside, I was in Ft McMurray today, I never saw much evidence of the devastation caused by the fire, but the little I did see was shocking, whole streets of houses are just a pile of ash now.
Sent from my SM-T805W using Tapatalk
So, is there any hiring still going on around Forth McMurray, considering producers need oil at USD 44 / barrel to break even? Is money being paid still roughly the same?
It looks like in not too distant future, if things go well, we are going to be asking NMM to get us LMIAs to fill seats in some of his trucks.
What type of trailers do you operate NMM, are these refers and products mostly do you haul?
That’s if you don’t mind me asking such questions.
The existing oil wells and the tar sands are still going strong, but there’s a freeze on new exploration and drilling and that’s where a lot of people used to work, that’s the biggest problem regarding unemployment from what I gather. There are a lot of places that used to be rammed out with oilfield trucks and equipment that now stand empty. Kindersley SK used to be chok a blok at nights, all the hotel’s were full, you couldn’t park a smart car along the service roads, even the Walmart parking lot was full of caravans. I went through the other night and there were only a handful of trucks parked there and not one of them was an oilfield truck. There’s a lot of yards in AB and SK that are overflowing with very expensive oilfield trucks and equipment standing idle and others that used to be a thriving business now stand empty and abandoned, it’s a sad state of affairs.
I just pull box vans, the company I pull for is mostly owner operator, there’s around 400 of us and 20 odd company trucks, they’re pretty much a load broker, they get work and use us to do it, they take their cut and then pay us as little as they can get away with, as is usual in the trucking industry lol. We haul all kinds of stuff, sorry but I’m not going into specifics, I doubt they would be happy to hear me telling the world what we cart around and for who, but I can tell you, there’s nothing exciting.
Sent from my SM-T805W using Tapatalk
HI NMM
Is there any money to be made as an owner operator, what sort of money do you guys make with the company you are leased to?
Have you bought a brand new truck or a used one, and if so how old, what mileage?
What truck brand have you chosen, and why?
From what I’ve noticed people praise Freightliner Cascadia as a reliable truck to buy and cheap parts and labour, but complain about too many of them being on the road.
I thought about giving Canada a try a couple of years ago, then gave up, but now I’m giving it a second thought, and looking for ideas what I could do after getting PR and doing my time of 2 years with one of the dodgy LMIAs provider, providing I find one, as their are as rare these days as hens teeth.
Maybe someone else could provide some info regarding being OO in Canada and how are they doing out there.
Thanks
I’m not going to start a willy waving contest about money, but in answer to your question, yes there is decent money to be made as an owner operator. There is also a lot of money to be spent as well though, this year I had a starter issue that was intermittent and it ended up costing me three grand, I had a couple of grand ’ worth of A/C repairs on both recently and I’ve just this week put two new Michelins on the front of the one with a driver and this morning I got a phone call saying a bolt seal had gone through one of them, so there’s another $500 I may have well set fire to!
I bought one truck brand new, it’s a Volvo VNL670, Volvo D13 @455hp with I shift, the other one, which I drive I bought used, it was a year old, it’s a Volvo VNL730, D13 @500hp with a 13spd Fuller. The 730 is a mid roof cab with a roof fairing which can be removed if I ever need to move companies and pull grain hoppers, tankers or completely lose the plot and go on flatbed, this was the main reason I went for the mid roof cab, it gives me a lot more flexibility.
Sent from my SM-T805W using Tapatalk
Thanks for replying NMM
Yes, running a truck is a very costly business from what I gather, a few days ago saw a video of an OO changing all tyres on his truck, and the bill was over CAD 5K
I hope things work out well for you
Yeah 5k sounds about right for a full set. The fronts wear at 250-300,000kms, the rears should do 600-800,000kms depending on the tyre and the operation. When you figure out the cost per mile of tyres they are so cheap that saving a hundred bucks or so per tyre by buying a cheaper brand isn’t worth bothering with. You would save more money by using thin sliced bread for your sarnies rather than thick sliced!
Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
Just skimed through this and as newmercman and pat hasler know I spent a lot of time in freightliner dealers.
From what I can see most us based truckers roam round and round a bit like the flip flops do here.
Many will be away for 4-6 weeks and seem content with a couple of days home.
I know people rattle on about the states but from what I saw life for most working class folks was way worse than the UK.
Canada is very different and seems a good compromise to the good bits of the states but a bit of more liberal European thinking.
Also as it’s still a dominion you can still get a lot of British goodies and the people are great.
kr79:
Just skimed through this and as newmercman and pat hasler know I spent a lot of time in freightliner dealers.
From what I can see most us based truckers roam round and round a bit like the flip flops do here.
Many will be away for 4-6 weeks and seem content with a couple of days home.
I know people rattle on about the states but from what I saw life for most working class folks was way worse than the UK.Canada is very different and seems a good compromise to the good bits of the states but a bit of more liberal European thinking.
Also as it’s still a dominion you can still get a lot of British goodies and the people are great.
A lot of them big fleet wallah’s in the US spend weeks and months away from home but are bumming around from one short run to the next with tons of waiting time and if the ‘truckersreport’ forum is anything to go by, 2000 miles a week (over 7 days!) is good for a lot of them and I’ve seen figures as low as 1200 miles a week. We’ve all noticed that as Canadian trucks we’re often the last to park in a US truckstop at night and the first to leave in the morning. There are obviously lots of small outfits in the US that don’t work that way but life behind the wheel of one of the several tens of thousands of big fleets must be quite grim for a driver just wanting to crack on with the job, make money and go home. But then, when you look at the typical example of American truck driver you come across, they’re bottom dwelling pond life anyway.
Definitely glad Canada had the open door rather than the US. There’s stuff I like about America but after travelling to every corner of the country, I can honestly say I’m well and truly glad I don’t live there and apart from not liking the Canadian winters and the southern US appealing at that time of year, if there was an open door or a green card with my name on it, I’d probably just throw it in the bin and stay put in New Brunswick.
I miss the hourly pay/day rate of the UK and the financial certainty that came with it but apart from that I like living in Canada and as you say, with Canada you get a lot of the good bits about North America, without much of the crud of the US.
I found that I get home more in Canada, I could probably earn more money by running south, even though the pikes are quite lucrative, but it’s not enough extra to justify the time away from home for me. Things have been a bit quiet lately, so the pikes have been thin in the ground and I’ve been running out to BC, I’m still leaving Sunday evening after a nice roast dinner and this week I’ve managed to get home late Thursday night, I haven’t been hanging about this week, but I’ve been running legal, as always and I’ve clocked up 3000miles, so a pretty good week all in all. I ran out light and came back heavy, but still managed 8.9mpg for the trip and because it’s not too hot up here at night, I haven’t had to idle to stop myself melting at night, unlike poor old Wire who has been in Laredo in 40 odd degrees heat burning diesel like it’s going out of fashion.
I don’t have a problem going to the US, destination wise it’s so much better, even though I love BC, it’s bloody hard work getting there in the winter and the caravan club try their best to make the summer a nightmare too with their 60kms through the bends or at the bottom of a hill and 120kms on the straights and passing lanes behavior and the BC runs are not my usual work. Running across the Prairies week in and week out is mind numbing and just pure evil in winter, I don’t enjoy a minute of it to be honest, I turn on the ignition and turn off my brain until I park the truck back in the yard at the end of a trip, there’s no living the dream anymore, it’s just a job now.
Sent from my SM-T805W using Tapatalk
newmercman:
…there’s no living the dream anymore, it’s just a job now…
And THAT is an excellent quote!! Rikki should put that on a banner across the top of the expat page. Proper honesty there Mark! 
bullitt:
newmercman:
…there’s no living the dream anymore, it’s just a job now…And THAT is an excellent quote!! Rikki should put that on a banner across the top of the expat page. Proper honesty there Mark!
Why thank you Rik!
Just remember that it’s only my opinion and more importantly I’m comparing what I do now to punching a blinged up Peterbilt up and down the road to California, Florida, Houston, New York etc like I used to. It may be “just a job” but it’s a whole lot better than sitting in traffic on British motorways or stuck in an RDC waiting room listening to BS from hiviz wearing knuckle draggers lol
Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk