JIMBO47:
Had to think about this before i joined in,yes it is a pain and an total insult to sit for days an no get paid a dime and for 99% of newcomers (drivers) its the way it will be.and dont get me started on the 2wks holiday per yr.
and unless you have Permanent residency before you arrive you have to work long haul…yeah i was lucky when i came over i found a good firm ( for a start) and after doing the usa for a while ended up doing SK.AB milk runs/peddle runs .
BUT here is the thing once ya get PR you can do anything you want job wise and yes i know theres no much well paid work on the east .
For Myself local work was the way to go and hourly pay makes the job a good one.
its not the land o milk and honey but for some its 100% better than where they were in the uk.
just my thoughts on things and not intending to start an argument.
jimmy
Dont get me wrong driving in Canada does have its moments. I’m a permanent resident now and could go for citizenship this year if I wanted to and I have done a verity of different work over here from oil rigs to long haul and I just mainly do AB/SK runs now but sometimes its like working in the stone age and to be honest there’s not a lot stopping me from coming back if it does go belly up.
Mick 6527:
Dont get me wrong driving in Canada does have its moments. I’m a permanent resident now and could go for citizenship this year if I wanted to and I have done a verity of different work over here from oil rigs to long haul and I just mainly do AB/SK runs now but sometimes its like working in the stone age and to be honest there’s not a lot stopping me from coming back if it does go belly up.
Thats basically my situation and how I feel on the matter. I’m going to stick it out until atleast early next year when I’ll be eligable for citizenship and then we’ll see. But this long haul lark on milleage pay is like flogging a dead horse and if I do stay in Canada, which is quite likely, it’ll have to be doing something else thats more up to date with this so called better life we hear that Canada offers.
It sounds like over there they’ve run into the perfect storm of not enough work to be able to keep the wheels turning enough to make being paid by the mile work out.Or enough to pay sufficient wages to employ enough drivers to make up a decent rota system so that drivers get to spend sufficient time at home.However the fact is trucks only get paid on the miles they run wherever they are in the world.In the case of Brit type hourly pay insufficient miles probably translates into redundancy because the guvnor can’t make the hourly wage figures work out v the amount of revenues that the truck is earning,which just like over there,is still based on the miles it runs.Whereas a mileage based wage just means effectively taking a pay cut instead of being out of work when work is short.
I think leaving Canada for the UK would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
If you ain’t earning enough to pay the bills your screwed.
Must admit the company I work for its very rarely more than half a day you wait for a reload do not bad. Some of the big Canadian and us players can leave trucks sitting for days. No wages no fuel as they penalize drivers running the truck unless extremely cold they are buying the trucks at rock bottom prices as they buy so many so can afford to sit them how a British firm couldn’t.
At the end of the day that’s one of the reasons there is a shortage of OTR drivers in North America
Carryfast:
It sounds like over there they’ve run into the perfect storm of not enough work to be able to keep the wheels turning enough to make being paid by the mile work out.Or enough to pay sufficient wages to employ enough drivers to make up a decent rota system so that drivers get to spend sufficient time at home.However the fact is trucks only get paid on the miles they run wherever they are in the world.In the case of Brit type hourly pay insufficient miles probably translates into redundancy because the guvnor can’t make the hourly wage figures work out v the amount of revenues that the truck is earning,which just like over there,is still based on the miles it runs.Whereas a mileage based wage just means effectively taking a pay cut instead of being out of work when work is short.
I think leaving Canada for the UK would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
There is a huge over capacity in trucking in North America which is why trucks sit around with no work, but it doesn’t cost the company a single cent in wages to keep us all sitting on standby for those few and far between moments when theres a sudden rush of work. As a result of paying drivers by the mile, companies also willingly sit trucks for hours and often days waiting for a better paying load that loads on Thursday rather than a lesser paying load that loads Tuesday and just pockets the extra profit, while the driver sits there for absolutely nothing. I’d prefere to be paid a day rate like I always got in the UK and then a milleage based bonus to encourage running the miles to prevent a UK style type of driver lazyness that see’s drivers sitting on a bay for 5 hours and then pulling on to the road outside the gate for a 45 minute break, for example.
Its my firm belief that if it cost a company to sit a truck for days on end somewhere, we’d see an immidiate reduction in the number of trucks on the road and those that remained would be run economically and their drivers would actually earn a wage that relates to what they’re doing and the time they’re away from home. By and large, trucking in North America is very amature with half wits in the office who’s only effort at getting trucks a reload is sending a few emails to load brokers, not the day before the truck is due to tip, but AFTER the truck has unloaded, meaning any reload on offer is almost always loading the next day, even though you may be just around the corner from it.
If you’d like to come to Canada and try out this way of working Carryfast, I’d be more than happy for you to get in touch with me and I’ll put you in touch with several companies here who will tear your arm off to get you across the atlantic to babysit their vehicles in between periods of economic activity.
kr79:
If you ain’t earning enough to pay the bills your screwed.
Some of the big Canadian and us players can leave trucks sitting for days. No wages no fuel as they penalize drivers running the truck unless extremely cold they are buying the trucks at rock bottom prices as they buy so many so can afford to sit them how a British firm couldn’t.
At the end of the day that’s one of the reasons there is a shortage of OTR drivers in North America
I think if they’re having to park trucks up for days waiting for loads over there it would point to some serious economic problems stored up in the US/Canadian economies which would/will finish off the British economy if/when they inevitably reach here.Or,at the risk of getting a load of stick,maybe some of the issues are the knock on effects of the loss of road transort work to intermodal rail freight operation over there.Although there were similar stories,concerning truckstops full of parked up wagons,without work,throughout the US during the late 1970’s at least.No surprise what followed here in the early 1980’s.
Carryfast:
It sounds like over there they’ve run into the perfect storm of not enough work to be able to keep the wheels turning enough to make being paid by the mile work out.Or enough to pay sufficient wages to employ enough drivers to make up a decent rota system so that drivers get to spend sufficient time at home.However the fact is trucks only get paid on the miles they run wherever they are in the world.In the case of Brit type hourly pay insufficient miles probably translates into redundancy because the guvnor can’t make the hourly wage figures work out v the amount of revenues that the truck is earning,which just like over there,is still based on the miles it runs.Whereas a mileage based wage just means effectively taking a pay cut instead of being out of work when work is short.
I think leaving Canada for the UK would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
There is a huge over capacity in trucking in North America which is why trucks sit around with no work, but it doesn’t cost the company a single cent in wages to keep us all sitting on standby for those few and far between moments when theres a sudden rush of work. As a result of paying drivers by the mile, companies also willingly sit trucks for hours and often days waiting for a better paying load that loads on Thursday rather than a lesser paying load that loads Tuesday and just pockets the extra profit, while the driver sits there for absolutely nothing. I’d prefere to be paid a day rate like I always got in the UK and then a milleage based bonus to encourage running the miles to prevent a UK style type of driver lazyness that see’s drivers sitting on a bay for 5 hours and then pulling on to the road outside the gate for a 45 minute break, for example.
Its my firm belief that if it cost a company to sit a truck for days on end somewhere, we’d see an immidiate reduction in the number of trucks on the road and those that remained would be run economically and their drivers would actually earn a wage that relates to what they’re doing and the time they’re away from home. By and large, trucking in North America is very amature with half wits in the office who’s only effort at getting trucks a reload is sending a few emails to load brokers, not the day before the truck is due to tip, but AFTER the truck has unloaded, meaning any reload on offer is almost always loading the next day, even though you may be just around the corner from it.
If you’d like to come to Canada and try out this way of working Carryfast, I’d be more than happy for you to get in touch with me and I’ll put you in touch with several companies here who will tear your arm off to get you across the atlantic to babysit their vehicles in between periods of economic activity.
No thanks ( maybe luckily ) it’s too late for me now regardless of the economic situation.But it sounds very like those stories concerning the situation over there that were around during the late 1970’s as I said.But I just think in that case it probably doesn’t make a lot of difference which side of the Atlantic you’re on at the end of the day.With the difference that being paid with a wage based on mileage there during a downturn would probably result in keeping a job for longer than would be the case here with a job that’s stuck with paying a fixed hourly wage with work levels in which the miles aren’t there to pay for it.With the added problems here that even if the miles are there the fuel taxation levels still make it unviable to run them.The reality of the situation here is that there’s at least one example in the news here of an unemployed driver having needed to take the government to court for being made to do unpaid workfare for his dole money pittance.
Canada hasn’t really suffered from the economic downturn, or so they say and believe me, there is plenty of work here but as it costs them nothing to keep you sitting, the companies fish around for a better paying load. There is an over capacity here but as most companies have 10-25% of their trucks empty and are constantly recruiting drivers to replace those leaving (many companies have a driver turnover exceeding 100% annually!). Paying drivers a day rate would encourage much greater economic usage of their trucks and any reduction in the fleet of surplus vehicles they couldn’t find work for would in most cases just get rid of the already empty trucks sitting in the yard. If the driver is being paid to sit, not some British hourly rate, but a day rate similar to what continental drivers get, which is then boosted by pick and drop money and milleage bases bonuses, the companies would have to put a far greater importance on keeping trucks moving and finding loads, rather than the lazy half arses effort of sending a few emails to their prefered load brokers and drivers wouldn’t be sitting in truckstops all the time getting frusted with messages on the satellite like “No load yet, we’re working on it”!
kr79:
If you ain’t earning enough to pay the bills your screwed.
Some of the big Canadian and us players can leave trucks sitting for days. No wages no fuel as they penalize drivers running the truck unless extremely cold they are buying the trucks at rock bottom prices as they buy so many so can afford to sit them how a British firm couldn’t.
At the end of the day that’s one of the reasons there is a shortage of OTR drivers in North America
I think if they’re having to park trucks up for days waiting for loads over there it would point to some serious economic problems stored up in the US/Canadian economies which would/will finish off the British economy if/when they inevitably reach here.Or,at the risk of getting a load of stick,maybe some of the issues are the knock on effects of the loss of road transort work to intermodal rail freight operation over there.Although there were similar stories,concerning truckstops full of parked up wagons,without work,throughout the US during the late 1970’s at least.No surprise what followed here in the early 1980’s.
Most of the North American trucking industry is stuck in the 70s that’s half the problem.
robinhood_1984:
Canada hasn’t really suffered from the economic downturn, or so they say and believe me, there is plenty of work here but as it costs them nothing to keep you sitting, the companies fish around for a better paying load. There is an over capacity here but as most companies have 10-25% of their trucks empty and are constantly recruiting drivers to replace those leaving (many companies have a driver turnover exceeding 100% annually!). Paying drivers a day rate would encourage much greater economic usage of their trucks and any reduction in the fleet of surplus vehicles they couldn’t find work for would in most cases just get rid of the already empty trucks sitting in the yard. If the driver is being paid to sit, not some British hourly rate, but a day rate similar to what continental drivers get, which is then boosted by pick and drop money and milleage bases bonuses, the companies would have to put a far greater importance on keeping trucks moving and finding loads, rather than the lazy half arses effort of sending a few emails to their prefered load brokers and drivers wouldn’t be sitting in truckstops all the time getting frusted with messages on the satellite like “No load yet, we’re working on it”!
Going by nmm’s and some others’ comments,concerning the difference in opportunities,for new entrants into Canada, compared to those who’ve got long term citizen rights,maybe getting rid of the Canadian work permits and immigration controls,in the case of British nationals,so they could pick and choose more might help to drive up terms and conditions in the industry.Which would benefit both the employers by slowing up the rate of driver turnover and the new entrants in the case of making it easier to get income stability etc sorted out.
newmercman:
Canada is the same as any country, there are good jobs and there are bad jobs
You know I like Canada, but I’m not here just because of the job, if that’s all I came here for I would be back in the UK now as it’s the same poop, just a different continent [
These two statements sum it up for me yeah there are decent jobs out there especaly once you are a resident. And Canada is a nice place to live. If you choose to live in one of the big city’s you are probably going to see the things that may have prompted you to leave the UK but get away from that and to the smaller towns it can be a great place to bring up a family and without the problem you face if you move to a nice rural part of the UK of finding decent paying work.
Carryfast:
It sounds like over there they’ve run into the perfect storm of not enough work to be able to keep the wheels turning enough to make being paid by the mile work out.Or enough to pay sufficient wages to employ enough drivers to make up a decent rota system so that drivers get to spend sufficient time at home.However the fact is trucks only get paid on the miles they run wherever they are in the world.In the case of Brit type hourly pay insufficient miles probably translates into redundancy because the guvnor can’t make the hourly wage figures work out v the amount of revenues that the truck is earning,which just like over there,is still based on the miles it runs.Whereas a mileage based wage just means effectively taking a pay cut instead of being out of work when work is short.
I think leaving Canada for the UK would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
blah blah blah
My wheels dont stop unless im on a reset. Yes sometimes i have to wait a day for reload details but i get lay over pay and use the time to do washing or tidy the inside of the truck. I do about 3k miles a week and away for 7 - 12 days at a time and earn more then enough to have a comfy lifestyle and send money back to the UK to tidy up the last few bits n bobs . Atm im on my way back from Laredo TX and its bout the 4th time ive had to roll my hrs back in order to do the trip. I hope to get back thursday sometime put truck in the shops for a few small jobs to be done and hope to pull out sunday.
robinhood_1984:
Canada hasn’t really suffered from the economic downturn, or so they say and believe me, there is plenty of work here but as it costs them nothing to keep you sitting, the companies fish around for a better paying load. There is an over capacity here but as most companies have 10-25% of their trucks empty and are constantly recruiting drivers to replace those leaving (many companies have a driver turnover exceeding 100% annually!). Paying drivers a day rate would encourage much greater economic usage of their trucks and any reduction in the fleet of surplus vehicles they couldn’t find work for would in most cases just get rid of the already empty trucks sitting in the yard. If the driver is being paid to sit, not some British hourly rate, but a day rate similar to what continental drivers get, which is then boosted by pick and drop money and milleage bases bonuses, the companies would have to put a far greater importance on keeping trucks moving and finding loads, rather than the lazy half arses effort of sending a few emails to their prefered load brokers and drivers wouldn’t be sitting in truckstops all the time getting frusted with messages on the satellite like “No load yet, we’re working on it”!
Going by nmm’s and some others’ comments,concerning the difference in opportunities,for new entrants into Canada, compared to those who’ve got long term citizen rights,maybe getting rid of the Canadian work permits and immigration controls,in the case of British nationals,so they could pick and choose more might help to drive up terms and conditions in the industry.Which would benefit both the employers by slowing up the rate of driver turnover and the new entrants in the case of making it easier to get income stability etc sorted out.
The reason they opened up to Brits and numerous nations the last few years is they couldn’t get drivers to put up with the terms and conditions and there wasn’t the will and possibly money in the job to change them. Same as in the UK when they alowed the eastern euros in to work en masse.
In the UK there was a driver shortage as looking at it logically unless you realy want to be a lorry driver it doesn’t realy sell it self as a great job.
kr79:
If you ain’t earning enough to pay the bills your screwed.
Some of the big Canadian and us players can leave trucks sitting for days. No wages no fuel as they penalize drivers running the truck unless extremely cold they are buying the trucks at rock bottom prices as they buy so many so can afford to sit them how a British firm couldn’t.
At the end of the day that’s one of the reasons there is a shortage of OTR drivers in North America
I think if they’re having to park trucks up for days waiting for loads over there it would point to some serious economic problems stored up in the US/Canadian economies which would/will finish off the British economy if/when they inevitably reach here.Or,at the risk of getting a load of stick,maybe some of the issues are the knock on effects of the loss of road transort work to intermodal rail freight operation over there.Although there were similar stories,concerning truckstops full of parked up wagons,without work,throughout the US during the late 1970’s at least.No surprise what followed here in the early 1980’s.
Most of the North American trucking industry is stuck in the 70s that’s half the problem.
There’s probably some advantages concerning the amount of regulation in that but it’s doubtful that they’d want to leave trucks parked up not earning anyone money,not just the drivers,if they could avoid the situation.It seems obvious that the only way to deal with that from the drivers’ point of view would be to ask for an increase in the mileage based wage rate while still leaving it based on mileage.It’s my bet that you’d probably then see just how much of the problem is based on unavoidable economic conditions regarding demand for transport there or just inefficient management and planning.Because the demand for drivers wouldn’t change in the event that it’s the latter issue that’s causing the problem.Unlike if it was the former.
Carryfast:
It sounds like over there they’ve run into the perfect storm of not enough work to be able to keep the wheels turning enough to make being paid by the mile work out.Or enough to pay sufficient wages to employ enough drivers to make up a decent rota system so that drivers get to spend sufficient time at home.However the fact is trucks only get paid on the miles they run wherever they are in the world.In the case of Brit type hourly pay insufficient miles probably translates into redundancy because the guvnor can’t make the hourly wage figures work out v the amount of revenues that the truck is earning,which just like over there,is still based on the miles it runs.Whereas a mileage based wage just means effectively taking a pay cut instead of being out of work when work is short.
I think leaving Canada for the UK would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
blah blah blah
My wheels dont stop unless im on a reset. Yes sometimes i have to wait a day for reload details but i get lay over pay and use the time to do washing or tidy the inside of the truck. I do about 3k miles a week and away for 7 - 12 days at a time and earn more then enough to have a comfy lifestyle and send money back to the UK to tidy up the last few bits n bobs . Atm im on my way back from Laredo TX and its bout the 4th time ive had to roll my hrs back in order to do the trip. I hope to get back thursday sometime put truck in the shops for a few small jobs to be done and hope to pull out sunday.
I think that was the point which I was making.If someone has gone to all the trouble of getting there then don’t throw the opportunity away just because not every job might not be as good as others.Give it a chance because things aren’t exactly great over here.
Carryfast:
It sounds like over there they’ve run into the perfect storm of not enough work to be able to keep the wheels turning enough to make being paid by the mile work out.Or enough to pay sufficient wages to employ enough drivers to make up a decent rota system so that drivers get to spend sufficient time at home.However the fact is trucks only get paid on the miles they run wherever they are in the world.In the case of Brit type hourly pay insufficient miles probably translates into redundancy because the guvnor can’t make the hourly wage figures work out v the amount of revenues that the truck is earning,which just like over there,is still based on the miles it runs.Whereas a mileage based wage just means effectively taking a pay cut instead of being out of work when work is short.
I think leaving Canada for the UK would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
blah blah blah
My wheels dont stop unless im on a reset. Yes sometimes i have to wait a day for reload details but i get lay over pay and use the time to do washing or tidy the inside of the truck. I do about 3k miles a week and away for 7 - 12 days at a time and earn more then enough to have a comfy lifestyle and send money back to the UK to tidy up the last few bits n bobs . Atm im on my way back from Laredo TX and its bout the 4th time ive had to roll my hrs back in order to do the trip. I hope to get back thursday sometime put truck in the shops for a few small jobs to be done and hope to pull out sunday.
I think that was the point which I was making.If someone has gone to all the trouble of getting there then don’t throw the opportunity away just because not every job might not be as good as others.Give it a chance because things aren’t exactly great over here.
To be fair we don’t know the op’s circumstances. I like it here and although the jobs not perfect I can see the long term picture and who knows if it all works out go doing local tipper work like I did back home.
But it’s only a job if family reasons dictated it to be back in the UK I would be. Yeah I like it here but family comes first.
robinhood_1984:
People always say Britain is on its knee’s and what a terrible place it is etc and anyone would be mad for wanting to return. I’ve now been in Canada for four years and been on the verge of returning to England on more than one occasion. Canada is all well and good, until you get past the novelty of a big bonneted truck and the long distances sometimes driven and realise that you spend an awful lot of your life sitting on loading docks or truckstops earning absolutely nothing because we get paid purely on milleage. For example, its a half measure bank holiday here in the US right now and as such I’ve done 10 miles driving today, from the truckstop I parked in last night, 5 miles down the road to unload, and 5 miles back to the truckstop and I’ll be here until at least tomorrow morning. For that 36 hours of being 2000km away from home in the truck I’ll earn the grand total of $3.40 / £2.17. My current job isn’t usually too bad with waiting times, I’m normally only an hour on a bay getting tipped or loaded and usually have something to head to once I’m empty but many jobs here are absolutely dire, you’ll do a full days driving, then a full days unpaid waiting, then drive a day, then wait a day, often re-writing log books so you can lose the unpaid delay and just try and scrape a wage together. Those are the jobs that usually go to the foreign workers because those companies can’t get local drivers but when you get paid by the mile in any job, the slightest delay out of your control costs you an awful lot potentially. Yes the job in England is horrible now with all the bureaucracy and H&S b/s but if nothing else at last you know that when you go to work on a Monday morning or Sunday evening for a week away in the truck you’ll be bringing home a consistent wage and at least you know that once you park at night, you’ll be getting a guarunteed 9 or 11 hours off. None of that can be said about Canada. I do like Canada overall but lets not pretend its a uptopian dream compared to the UK because it most certainly isn’t. You’ll work a darn sight harder and longer here for the same or less money as in the UK and as a truck driver your social/family life will be non-existant in comparison to what you’d get in the UK. If anyone back in the UK wants to experience what it’d be like to be a Canadian long haul trucker, go and work for a few months at a Polish or Lithuanian firm that tramp all over Europe and get paid by the kilometer not by the day or hour and never get to go home unless they just happen to be passing close to their home town with a non-urgent load. I’ve done Sunday/Monday to Friday/Saturday tramping in the UK, I’ve done continental work to Germany and Swiss and turned around a few times on the trot to be away for 3 weeks or so on many occasions but thats nothing compared to what this job usually is.
The bottom line is that for all of its many problems, Britain isn’t a bad place, especially to be a truck driver in. Yes theres too much regulation and paperwork in the job there now but at least you’ll be getting a consistent wage every week and unless you do one of the very few continental jobs, you’ll be home every weekend with your family. Whereas here you might leave on a Monday and be gone 2 and a half weeks, have a part of a Wednesday and a Thursday off and go again on a Friday and be gone another three weeks and then spend a day of two waiting for loads for no pay or run out of hours and need to take a 36 hour reset, again for no pay away from home, so that when you do get home a few days later you have to keep going as you cant afford too many unpaid days so close together. I personally know quite a few British drivers here who came across with families who are litterally living paycheck to paycheck here and totally at the mercy of how many miles they get, or dont get as to wether they can even pay their bills, let alone live life.
Both countries have their numerous problems, but in my opinion Britain certainly isn’t worse than Canada, just a totally different kettle of fish.
You could always change jobs . On days off at the moment but got an extra $250 in the bank for staying home today as it’s a long weekend in SK . Sure I do miles but you won’t see any unpaid work on my 14 hr shift , some of our guys get paid 24/7 by the hour , even on layovers FFS . If you fancy Edmonton send me a pm .
You have PR so what’s keeping you on the long haul ?
Carryfast:
It sounds like over there they’ve run into the perfect storm of not enough work to be able to keep the wheels turning enough to make being paid by the mile work out.Or enough to pay sufficient wages to employ enough drivers to make up a decent rota system so that drivers get to spend sufficient time at home.However the fact is trucks only get paid on the miles they run wherever they are in the world.In the case of Brit type hourly pay insufficient miles probably translates into redundancy because the guvnor can’t make the hourly wage figures work out v the amount of revenues that the truck is earning,which just like over there,is still based on the miles it runs.Whereas a mileage based wage just means effectively taking a pay cut instead of being out of work when work is short.
I think leaving Canada for the UK would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
blah blah blah
My wheels dont stop unless im on a reset. Yes sometimes i have to wait a day for reload details but i get lay over pay and use the time to do washing or tidy the inside of the truck. I do about 3k miles a week and away for 7 - 12 days at a time and earn more then enough to have a comfy lifestyle and send money back to the UK to tidy up the last few bits n bobs . Atm im on my way back from Laredo TX and its bout the 4th time ive had to roll my hrs back in order to do the trip. I hope to get back thursday sometime put truck in the shops for a few small jobs to be done and hope to pull out sunday.
I think that was the point which I was making.If someone has gone to all the trouble of getting there then don’t throw the opportunity away just because not every job might not be as good as others.Give it a chance because things aren’t exactly great over here.
dont look that way
I’ll try again then.It might not be perfect over there with some jobs obviously being better than others,just like anywhere else.But that’s no reason to jump out of what is overall a probably better situation to come back into what is overall probably a much worse one.
Yeah were starting to go a little off topic here. I AM going back to the UK and it is mainly for family reasons. Because I have never driven truck in the UK as civvie I am looking for advice for euro fridge work and cpc ect
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