I have seen a V4 FH, but it’s a test bed for a CNG or LNG engine, other than that the original batch of V3 XXL FH13s on the Robert fleet out of Quebec are the only euro Volvos I know of out here.
hutpik:
If its a co with green trucks it could be SGT,Saint Germain Transport from ST Germain de Grantham.When i worked for them they had over 1200 trucks.They run all over Canada,USA and down to Mexico[drop trlrs].Remember Quebec is not the easiest of provinces to live and work in.
That’s who I meant.
From everything that I have read I am pretty certain that Hkloss is right in his assertion that he would hate every single aspect of being a truck driver in Canada.
You could think of it like this.
If he were to get the opportunity to immigrate here as a driver it would be on a work permit as a long haul truck driver and in the case of Saint Germain transport as mentioned that would mean potentially driving Canada wide as well as the whole of the USA and that is a big area to run around in.
For the sake of putting things in perspective for a second.
The entire continent of Europe extends to approximately 3.9 million sq miles which is big.
The Australian continent is 3.3 million sq miles.
By contrast the North American continent is 9.5 million sq miles or put another way one third bigger than Europe and Australia combined.
The Trans Canada highway extends to 8,000km and to end FFS,!
The point of all this as far as someone like Hkloss goes is that as a long haul immigrant driver you won’t be doing a four on/ four off shift pattern. You won’t be home every Friday afternoon.
You won’t be averaging 48hrs a week and most of all it won’t be like Eddie Stobarts.
Of course, there are those easier kind of truck driving jobs available in Canada but the companies that do that kind of work don’t generally need to travel to London to recruit Brits and in turn Canada does not offer work permits to foreigners for that kind of work.
Here’s the thing though. Some people actually like the long haul life. In fact many do.
This summer will mark 12yrs since I left the UK and I have been driving long haul for all of it. The last 11yrs hauling mostly to Texas, Arizona and California. Particularly the Mexico border cities.
What’s more, here in Manitoba especially, there are a whole bunch of other Brits who immigrated over here at a similar time to me and are also still happy running long haul.
Of course there has also been quite a few come and gone back again over the years but that is surely what you would expect with such a life changing proposition. Some hated it and couldn’t adjust. Some missed the UK and some just went back for personal or family reasons.
For both me personally and my family it has been mostly all positive .
The winters in Manitoba are brutal so my wife and kids had to adopt to a new lifestyle and I feel like I have worked far harder over the years than I ever would have had to in the UK but then again I also feel like the rewards have been quite a lot higher.
As has been said so many times on this forum over the years it is easily possible to buy a big detached type of house over here in it’s own land for the same price as a 3 bed semi in the UK and no problem to run a muscle car or huge pick up as well as a car for the wife.
Also, certainly here in Manitoba, many of the Brits have become owner drivers over the years which most of us would never have considered or probably even had the opportunity to do back in the UK.
4yrs ago I took the plunge and financed a brand new Volvo VNL 780 after being influenced by other Brits who had already done Similar and now I have to work even harder although I also get a much deeper level of satisfaction out of the work I do. It has all worked out OK so far and last year with the factory warranty starting to run out on my Volvo I was able to custom order a new Peterbilt which took 3 months to build and in October I traded in my Volvo.
For me personally, driving that new Peterbilt away from the dealership was the proudest moment of my career.
Another proud moment was a couple of years ago when me and my family finally obtained Canadian citizenship which was quite an ordeal as procedures go but seemed worth it as we have totally settled here now and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life as a foreigner.
To summarise this whole post. If you want to come over here and have as easy a way of life driving a truck as in the UK then you would do better to forget it.
BUT if you are prepared start from the bottom all over again and put some proper hard work in and endure some hardship for the first few years at least you can potentially end up with a much better job or lifestyle than you had as a driver in the UK.
Very well put wire.
Yup great post Wire ,the opportunities are here if you look for them . Slightly off topic 10 inches of snow in Lloydminster last Thursday , gotta really love this place 
i couldnt face being eaten alive by mossies there any country where you need insect screens on your home isnt for me . i know thats shallow but its amazing how climate and insects can change everything. i know a fellow tried living in the phillipines and was back 2 months later still sweating
Bug screens are definitely compulsory in Manitoba. Lol.
In fact most places in North America.
Heck. Even trucks comes standard with bug screens on all the sleeper windows over here.
Another good example of the difference between Europe and North America.
According to their website, they are looking for flat bed drivers but you must be fluent in French.
They run to 48 American states.
lol…that’s your pete! …I saw it once and the guy I was with tells me its a English guys truck ,did I know him. .anyway a well wrote piece …yup its hard to start at the bottom again but once you do it the Canadian way time flies.Distance work we all did it at the start and yup i enjoyed it but i moved onto local ,then seasonal camp /pipeline now going back on mon-frid northern states "distance "on grain hoppers .For us at least the life is much better than rural Scotland. james