I got a new truck this week which motivated me to find my camera and take a few shots so I thought I’d share some on here.
After spending two and a half years on long haul work between Canada and the US I decided that I’ll try my luck at working a bit more locally so I’m home more which would in theory enable me to enjoy actually living in Canada, rather than just visiting home once every two or three weeks for a day before heading off again.
So, I started with a company based in Moncton, New Brunswick called Armour and I work out of their depot in Fredericton, which is where I currently live. After doing two months on day cabs doing night trunks or super market deliveries they finally took delivery of a brand new Volvo VNL670 so I could start the job I was initially taken on for, which is to work on a 4 on 4 off rota and be away for those four days tramping around the Atlantic provinces.
As we generally get paid by the mile over here and I had a very slow first two days my wages will probably be quite bad so it remains to be seen wether or not I’ll stay doing this job but it definetely made for an interesting week with a wide variety of trailers and work.
switchlogic:
Great stuff, love seeing pics from over there. Maybe I’ll take the plunge one day and give Canada a go.
Funnily enough I recently came across your youtube videos quite by chance and they have made me reminice about driving back in Europe again. I used to do Swiss every week and a trip to the former east Germany about once a month and watching your antics has made me miss all that in a strange sort of way. Plus I never got to places like Spain or Italy so that is something I still want to do. So far I have done 39 of the 48 lower US states and I only need one more Canadian province. Once I’ve done all that who knows, I may go back to the UK/Europe, even if only temporarily.
Betz:
Great photos & interesting to hear about your work, are you miss driving in Europe or not?
I do miss European driving, not driving in the UK though. The roads can be long and boring here but you can always get parked, get a shower and something to eat without a problem and the place is not full of jobsworths jumping up and down if you go one minute over your time. Its harder work but less stressful because you dont need to worry yourself with all the trivial things that make driving in the UK such a ball ache.
I had a full level one inspection at the NS scale on my first trip out that way, my weights were all good and I was in a brand new truck, coincidentally a Volvo the same as yours, quite funny really as there were some real heaps of junk pulling containers just rolling through, but they did have NS plates, whereas I was a foreigner from MB
switchlogic:
Great stuff, love seeing pics from over there. Maybe I’ll take the plunge one day and give Canada a go.
Funnily enough I recently came across your youtube videos quite by chance and they have made me reminice about driving back in Europe again. I used to do Swiss every week and a trip to the former east Germany about once a month and watching your antics has made me miss all that in a strange sort of way. Plus I never got to places like Spain or Italy so that is something I still want to do. So far I have done 39 of the 48 lower US states and I only need one more Canadian province. Once I’ve done all that who knows, I may go back to the UK/Europe, even if only temporarily.
Hiya …i’ve driven around canada many times albeit in a car(i have close friends in High river /Calgary and Vancouver) you say your coming back to our traffic jams you must be MAD… you can no longer drive within the M25 without a EURO 5 engine if you use a lesser engine its £200 per day…last year there was high winds on the QE2 bridge so it was use the tunnel both ways… the queue was from the bridge round to Heathrow on the north side of the M25…60 miles!!!
your’e comeing back to that…hhhmmmmmmm I’d stay in beautiful british coloumbia…beauty ounce seen is never forgotten…
John
I had a full level one inspection at the NS scale on my first trip out that way, my weights were all good and I was in a brand new truck, coincidentally a Volvo the same as yours, quite funny really as there were some real heaps of junk pulling containers just rolling through, but they did have NS plates, whereas I was a foreigner from MB
Haha serves you Manitobans right for coming across here! I think you were right though, if its the first time the vehicle has been there they’ll probably pull ya. When I used to go out west with Donnelly Farms we were far more likely to get pulled for an inspection than any where over this way.
switchlogic:
Great stuff, love seeing pics from over there. Maybe I’ll take the plunge one day and give Canada a go.
Funnily enough I recently came across your youtube videos quite by chance and they have made me reminice about driving back in Europe again. I used to do Swiss every week and a trip to the former east Germany about once a month and watching your antics has made me miss all that in a strange sort of way. Plus I never got to places like Spain or Italy so that is something I still want to do. So far I have done 39 of the 48 lower US states and I only need one more Canadian province. Once I’ve done all that who knows, I may go back to the UK/Europe, even if only temporarily.
Hiya …i’ve driven around canada many times albeit in a car(i have close friends in High river /Calgary and Vancouver) you say your coming back to our traffic jams you must be MAD… you can no longer drive within the M25 without a EURO 5 engine if you use a lesser engine its £200 per day…last year there was high winds on the QE2 bridge so it was use the tunnel both ways… the queue was from the bridge round to Heathrow on the north side of the M25…60 miles!!!
your’e comeing back to that…hhhmmmmmmm I’d stay in beautiful british coloumbia…beauty ounce seen is never forgotten…
John
I definetely miss very little about driving in the UK, I just always strive to go places I’ve never been and I do still want to drive a truck to the European countries I’ve not yet visited, but I’d just as happily do it in an Irish, Dutch or Hungarian truck for that matter as I would in a UK one.
As for British Columbia, thats the one Canadian province I have yet to visit, never got past Calgary yet!
Suffolk ReeferBoy:
robinhood_1984 thanks for posting , nice read and good photos
Neigh bother, glad you liked it. I’ll have to make more of an effort and do some more. The only problem with the current job is that a lot of it is night driving so nothing to see!
glenman:
robinhood, is the curtainsider unusual out in canada ?
Yes they are quite rare. They are basically used soley as a flat bed trailer and anything that would go on a flat would go in one of those, lumber, machinery, that sort of stuff. In the UK / Europe we obviously use curtainsiders for just about everything but over here you’d never load groupage or pallets of food inside one of those, that’d go in a box van or a fridge and be tipped and loaded out of the back on a loading bay.
hope there will be many more of them 
