Longwayround:
Beats me why they even bother with tacho’s in England.There’s so many camera’s everywhere big brother know’s your location and duty status anyway,and probably who’s in the bunk with you too!
Hi Longwayround, Good to see you back on here. I guess you fixed your ‘Twig’ or ‘Rig’ or whatever is the terminology these days! 
I have sent you a P.M. (hope you don’t mind) Cheers, Big G Unit.
To the driver asking about that H & R company in Canada, all i have to say is after i drove for 10 years in the US before moving to the UK a year ago, i never heard any good things about that company, don’t pay very good and you will never get home with them, best of luck with you mate, if i was you and wanted to drive in the US i will do my reserch and find a better company, there is one i recomend it is in Dallas Texas called Design transport they very good people, excellent equipment and best thing is you are only gone away from home 4-6 days and then off for 4 days and still able to make $1,100 a week, i know because i used to work for them for the last 3 years before moving to England…
TO YANKTRUCKERINUK, Yes mate Id like some more info please. Sorry I havent replied earlier but havent been on the forum for a while. I didnt bother going for the interview with H&R in the end, Ive not heard a good word said about them and to my mind theres no smoke without fire. I may be wrong like but I’m not prepard to take that chance with such a big commitment and move oversea’s, thats assuming I was even offered a job. I know there are no guarantees in anything in life espesically where work is concerned but Ive tried to narrow it down and this forum as well as Bristish Truckers & Expats Forum site H & R have not been spoken about in a good light.
Any info would be most appreciated, how you finding trucking on this little over-crowded Isle?
mattcollin:
TO YANKTRUCKERINUK, Yes mate Id like some more info please. Sorry I havent replied earlier but havent been on the forum for a while. I didnt bother going for the interview with H&R in the end, Ive not heard a good word said about them and to my mind theres no smoke without fire. I may be wrong like but I’m not prepard to take that chance with such a big commitment and move oversea’s, thats assuming I was even offered a job. I know there are no guarantees in anything in life espesically where work is concerned but Ive tried to narrow it down and this forum as well as Bristish Truckers & Expats Forum site H & R have not been spoken about in a good light.Any info would be most appreciated, how you finding trucking on this little over-crowded Isle?
You are wasting your time looking at working/emigrating directly to the USA UNLESS you have one of three things:
1.Your married to an American citizen.
2.You have got a green card.
3.You have a REALLY BIG WAD of cash to invest in a new company overthere 
To YANKTRUCKERINUK, You said in your previous post that you didnt here a good word said about H&R while you were working in US, I presume they are also based there then (I know they run through to the States) because my original post was regarding H&R in CANADA not the US. I already know its difficult to move to the States but that wasnt what my post was about. I dont want to live/work in the US, its Canada Im interested in.
Anybody with any info regarding any decent firms in Canada worth applying to would be gratefully received. 
Sorry this message was ment for “BIG TRUCK” not who orginally replied to my post Yanktruckerinuk. Your obviously getting confused pal, like I said its Canada not the USA, thanks for your words of wisdom, I will take them on board. lol
Mattcolin,
If you want to find a company to employ you, train you, get you on an immigration scheme then there aren’t that many options, you have H&R in Alberta/BC, Siemens in Saskatoon, Yanke in Saskatoon, Big Freight in Manitoba & Midland in Nova Scotia, I too have heard the stories about H&R, Siemens is a Marmite company, you either love it or hate it, Yanke is all team driving for the 1st year or so, I have personal experience of Big Freight, which wasn’t so great & I know absolutely nothing about Midland other than they run green trucks 
My two cents worth is this, companies that need to import foreign workers are crap jobs, if they were any good then the locals would all work there, but & it’s a big but, they are a method of getting over here & getting on the road, you may have to put up with a crappy job for a while, up to a couple of years even, but at the end of it you will hold the relevant licences, have your immigration status sorted & have a bit of experience under your belt, look at it that way & it sheds a whole different light on the subject. My own experience at BFS was not the best, I hated the job, thought that they treated their staff (me) terribly, but here I am 18months down the road, I left BFS after 6 months & I’ve been at my present company just over a year, I have, what I consider to be, a very good job, I like living in Canada blah blah blah…
If you’re serious about it, go for it, but be aware that you may have to put up with a bit of crap until you earn your stripes, then the world is your lobster 
Newmercman
I understand what youre saying and I like your candidness. I get you, you have to put up with the *hite to get get better opportunities later on. I dont mind that, Ive done plenty of crappy jobs in this industry and others, literally. My question to you is is H&R the only start you can get out there coz if it is Ive blown it anyway, didnt go for the interview, stupid of me but with all the bad press on this and British Truckers Abroad I thought whats the point.
You’ve properbly done more miles in reverse than me, Ive only been on artics for seven years so any info is much appreciated especially from somebody who has done it. What would you do if you had to do it all again, how would you go about it today? What companies would you contact?
Thanks
Hi Matt,
I agree with all that Newmercman writes. We both started with BF and to be fair it was a good place to learn the job here. I worked there for nearly a year and i only got the job that i do now on the strength of that experiance.
The main consideration for you is the fact that recently it has been very difficult for any companys to get LMO’s which is the authorization from the Canadian government to employ a foriegn worker. In fact as far as i know the only company to be granted LMO’s in any significant number this year was H&R. Otherwise i would have said to you that if you didn’t fancy flatdeck work at BF try Bison out of Winnipeg. They insist on you using an immigration company for your paperwork which might be considered an otherwise unecessary expense but on the other hand they are a good enough company to attract drivers from other companys once they gain their Permanent residency status working elsewhere.
Hi Wire
Thanks for your response. Do you know what sort of dough these paperwork people charge mate? I suppose you have to have an offer or contract of employment before you approach them? Like I said to Newmercman I had an interview lined up over here with H&R but didnt go because of all the crap that was being banded about on this and other forums, may be I should have gone for it and if I was lucky enough to have been offered a job put up and shut up for a stretch?
Given all thats been said about the company I dont think anybody over here reading the stuff on these forums could genuinely say they could have a start out there not thinkin what am I letting myself in for.Not to mention the cost, giving up a job here etc etc. May be sometimes you just have to bite the bullet but when your the wrong side of 40 you’ve bitten enough of them sometimes and Ive no teeth anymore! 
With hindsight you probably did the right thing avoiding H&R. It would seem that they hold immigrants to ransom and threaten them with the fear of not getting nominated for PR at all if they don’t stay in line. Not a very Canadian attitude at all and certainly unethical if not illegal. Perhaps it is a result of drivers using them to gain PR and then leaving again but surely it would be better for all concerned if they just improved the working enviroment there in the first place.
I should say your first course of action should be look on the internet and contact trucking companys to see who is considering or even able to take on foreign workers next year. Most probably only large companys will be able to help you. I should think it would be worth contacting Bison as they would be a company that you could make a career with but as i say i don’t know if they will be able to get an LMO for you.
From what i understand they use one particular immigration company and it would cost you personaly a few grand for things that you could of otherwise done yourself but on the other hand if it gets you where you want to be it might be worth it.
If it was me in your position i would contact Big Freight also. There are plenty of guys who are still there from when i was there and they seem happy enough. Flatdeck work is hard but it is very varied and i never once got bored when i was there.
When i was first looking at coming over here i think it was 7500 cant remember if that was $ or £ for the immigration agent for my family of 4 with H&R, so that was the end of that for me :laughing: I came over with BF who ask you to sign that youll stay for 3 yrs, you can do all the paperwork yourself all these agents are doing is basically checking you`ve filled the right boxes in not a bad job to be in for 7500
A couple of brit lads have just started at BF in the last few weeks not sure if there in any immigration program yet or just on temp work permits.
Mattcolin,
Personally I think Manitoba is the place to be, it’s located so that you can get almost anywhere in Canada or the USA & back within your 70hrs. It’s location, smack bang in the middle of Canada means it’s kind of a hub & therefore also has a high concentration of trucking companies, this means that there is competition for drivers, which means they look after you a bit better, there is also more variety in the destinations that these firms cover, most companies concentrate on one particular area, e.g. mine covers the East Coast of the USA from Boston to Miami & over as far as Texas, our Canadian work is all to Alberta or BC, others do the Western USA States or the Mid West/Prairies/Eastern Canada & some go anywhere & everywhere. Wire, another ex BFS man, goes mainly to Southern Texas & California, Bob the Dog & dave-lol66 go anywhere, you could even do day work or short haul where you’re only out for 2 or 3 days, there is something to keep everyone happy here.
Manitoba also has lower housing & related costs than Alberta/BC/Ontario. You have a choice of living in the city (Winnipeg) as I do, or living in one of the smaller towns with a population of 20000 or so, or living out in the bush, everyone has their preference & there is something to suit every taste.
You hear lot’s of people saying how good it is in Alberta/BC, but I don’t see it myself, sure BC is beautiful & parts of Alberta are too, but if you have a run to, say, North Carolina then you will need to have a 36hr break during the trip & if you’re paying an absolute fortune for your house the last place you want to be spending your day off is in a truckstop somewhere a 1000miles away, there are also not as many companies there so your choice is more limited, the wages are, in some cases, higher, but the extra is more than swallowed up in the higher cost of living.
I only have experience at BFS, as I said I think it’s a crap job, but they will get you over here, train you, assist you with your immigration etc etc. They also pay a reasonable wage, my problem there wasn’t about money, I just didn’t like it after the novelty of it all wore off, the US had started to suffer with the recession so most of my trips were what I called the Alberta trunk & it wasn’t what I signed up for, at the interview I was promised trips all over Canada & the USA, at the time of the interview those promises were probably accurate but because of circumstances they never happened. To me the destinations were as important as the money so I left, things are a little different there now, they’re still a strange bunch though (the management) & in my opinion it will never be a good job, no matter where they send you, but it will get you the experience you need & it will pay the bills in the meantime, I therefore wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them as a stepping stone, just don’t mention my name, or Bob the Dog’s, or dave-lol66
I think any of us who post on here would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have, the others may have a slightly different perspective too, which is always useful, although none of them will tell you that BFS is a good job
newmercman:
I think any of us who post on here would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have, the others may have a slightly different perspective too, which is always useful, although none of them will tell you that BFS is a good job
As newmercman says any help you need please just ask
newmercman:
just don’t mention my name, or Bob the Dog’s, or dave-lol66
I would also make sure you dont mention anything about truckers forums, and dont mnetion anything on any forums that could link your onlince presence to you in reality. Ive been burnt twice by this, but now Im kinda laughing at H&R and BFS, im working for a much better company than they will ever be Class 1 pay for Class 5 work, with the occasional class 1 run on Overtime rate 
One other thing that just popped into my head.
Dont just look at the big players in the foreign worker market over here. There are a lot of smaller trucking companies who hire on foreign drivers. If you are able to figure out where in Canada you are wanting to settle down, crack open the yellow pages and start ringing every single truck company. Make a list of who you have rung, and what their reply was. Keep the list safe and try again in a few weeks, email off some resumes (bit like a CV but less formal) if you can get their email addresses. Quite a few places i rang when i got here had just received a fresh batch of LMO’s from the govt. Only problem I had was my 1 year experience in Class 1 driving :S
BigJon:
newmercman:
just don’t mention my name, or Bob the Dog’s, or dave-lol66I would also make sure you dont mention anything about truckers forums, and dont mnetion anything on any forums that could link your onlince presence to you in reality. Ive been burnt twice by this, but now Im kinda laughing at H&R and BFS, im working for a much better company than they will ever be
Your last post came up as I was writing this Jon so I can’t quote you, but ringing around is fine, I doubt they would take you on though, not until you had a bit of winter experience & your training costs would all be payable up front too, that could make a difference, but you never know until you ask so it’s worth a try
With regard to the forums, I know H&R are not keen, I wasn’t aware that BFS had the same opinions, but it wouldn’t surprise me. The funny thing is, these are open forums & they have the right to reply, if the complaints are unfair in their eyes why do they not dispute them? I can’t see why it automatically disqualifies you from a job when all that’s needed to be taken on is a pulse
BFS may have changed, but they knew I had contact with Bob the Dog via the forums from when I first considered making the move. I also do some freelance writing for Truck & Driver, which they knew about & they knew I previously worked at TRUCK magazine as a writer/tester as it was on my cv. After my last piece appeared in T&D they used to tread very carefully around me, I could’ve used it to my advantage, but once I’ve had enough of something it’s too late, as many broken hearted ladies will testify
seems kinda petty to blacklist people just because they use forums and speak to other drivers. But it did happen, BFS were making all the right noises as to taking me on, I had enough experience for them and they seemed to like that i wasnt after PR as i dont need it and that i already had my licence. I sent the paperwork off along with my references that i had to get in writing on company letterhead etc. But somewhere after handing in my application with supporting documents, they turned round and said i didnt meet their criteria… The only thing i can think of is on the part where it asked you how you heard of the company, i foolishly put BTA . So DP gave some BS excuse to me on the phone about me not having enough experience, this a week after i explained my circumstances and him saying that my experience is good and i met all their criteria for hiring.
mattcollin:
TO YANKTRUCKERINUK, Yes mate Id like some more info please.Any info would be most appreciated,
“Pal”
going by your above two quotes I wrongly thought you wanted info on the American trucking company in Dallas after you read what Yanktrucker had posted.
I don’t think any of the other posters have suggested it but in my opinion most guys seem to make a better go of it in Canada IF they go over on a “fact finding” holiday or recce first.
I think I’m right in saying the Trucking companies look very favourably on guys who have made the effort to go over and be interviewed face to face.
Thanks to all of you guys for the replies you have given me they have been most helpful. Its nice to speak to people who have actually gone through the system so to speak to achieve their goals and who know what they are talking about. I have taken on board what you guys have said and am going to be sending some CV’s off and see how I get on. Sometimes you get tunnel vision and I thought Id blown any chances of getting out there when I didnt go to the H&R interview but reading all of your posts has given me a new perspective on it all.
Thanks again, I will keep you all informed of any replies I get and will hopefully be intouch again to ask more questions if I get any sort of opportunity of a move out there, cheers guys.
For once i have to agree with what big truck has just said, that’s what i did 7 yrs ago, once that i decided on manitoba a few phone calls were made a job offer was made and a flight was booked for a recce trip, only i waited in the uk for the pr and then made the move as i wanted security for my family and we knew the move was to be permanent so did not want to go on the work permit route, was a bit of a wait in the uk but well worth it in the end, as for training i had a two hour trip with the boss then on my own for the full 90 days on the uk class 1 then took the canadian class 1.
but all the previous post make good sense and lots of good advice.
steve