Diary; Canada / Florida with pix

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EX-PAT BRITISH TRUCKERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi everyone. There often seems to be an unfair proportion of negative stories about emigration to Canada on the internet as far as trucking goes when in fact there is hundreds of untold success stories.
I emigrated to Manitoba along with my wife and kids in 2007 and we are very happy and settled now.
My wife & 3 children enjoy their new lives and my kids are doing very well at school here. We were granted permanent residency status nearly a year ago and i changed employers soon after. It is often the case that the companies that recruit from Europe are not the most competitive to work for. I supose that statement speaks for it’s self, however i left my original employer with no bad feeling towards them and would still recomend them to anyone who was considering leaving the UK.
I work for a small company now on long haul reefer work and mostly run to the southern US. We carry chilled and frozen meat products down to the Mexico border and reload fruit and other produce mostly out of California, Arizona & Texas.
This is a diary of a recent trip and is fairly typical of my job.

Day 1.
My truck and trailer is stored inside a barn as the outside temperature is very cold today (-37 degc). Despite that it is sunny with very still air so being outside is not that unpleasant. I pull my truck outside into the light and have a quick walk around to check everything is ok and let the engine idle warm while i start my logbook. (glad to say theres no tachos here!) I start my reefer motor going to warm up the trailer and its off to a local farm to load seed potatoes.




2 miles out of home and the first problem arises. After i dab the brakes at the end of our road i see that one of the trailer wheels has locked up and is dragging along without turning. D’oh! So now its under the trailer on my hands and knees with a hammer to knock it off again. That is when the extreme temperature is more of an issue. At this point i also pour some alcohol down the airlines as well allthough that wouldn’t of freed an already frozen drum.

I get to the farm and load the potatoes. They are loaded in bulk off a conveyor belt onto the floor with a layer of sawdust spread first to stop them freezing. The reefer is set at plus 10 degc and at this point is protecting the spuds from the cold by warming them up. I will leave it on the same setting and as we travel south and the climate warms up it will stop heating at all. By the time we get to Florida it will have to work hard again to keep them chilled!

After loading and checking axle weights for strict US limits its time to sort out paperwork and customs procedures. Then its time to head down to the border and into North Dakota. Fuel, shower and evening meal at the big Flying J at Fargo, ND then start heading SE through Minnesota. Park for a quiet night at a rest area east of St Cloud. Only 825 kms today but got loaded etc so not so bad really. The temperature here is a much more pleasant -5.

Day 2…

Start at 6.30am and run through Minneapolis and across state line into Wisconsin. Across Wisconsin into Illinois and stop for fuel, shower meal, ect at a truckstop at La salle Il. The major roads in the eastern side of the US are much busier than the west (although not compared to Europe) but despite this i make it to the huge TA truckstop at Mount Vernon in southern Illinois to park. 1,038 kms travelled today. Outside temp above freezing now!

Day 3…

Run over state line into Tennessee and stop at a truckstop at Nashville. US truckstops are fantastic by any European standard and provide all kinds of services as well as the usual things. This one even has a chapel run by a group who provide church services to truckstops throughout the US.

While i was in the truckstop this car transporter pulled in which i thought was quite cool if a bit of a handfull to manouver in a tight space!


Then head south to Chattanooga, cross into Georgia and keep going south with the weather getting warmer and warmer until after 1,130kms park at another Flying J truckstop. No chapel at this one but it is built on land reclaimed from the swamp and is surrounded with lakes inhabited by wild alligators. A guy who works there tells told how a 13 foot long example had to be removed from the weighbridge one morning.

Day 4…

Head down into Florida and run south down I 95 along the atlantic coast towards the farm to unload the potatoes. Next find the farm and back onto a ramp to be unloaded by a bobcat skidsteer. In not much time the trailer is empty and the notes are signed.


Now its just a matter of waiting to find a reload to go back to Canada. Sometimes this can take a day or more but i don’t usually mind as i am ready for a rest after a few hard days graft and anyway it is a good oportunity to reset the logbook and start with a clean sheet again. This time i am informed that the reload will be from Pompano beach near Fort Lauderdale which is on the coast just north of Miami.
As the reload is not ready yet i can park and reset anywhere in between so i decide to run into Orlando and see if i can find Mickey Mouse.
Its just such a shame that i am on my own and not with my family who are bravely enduring the cold at home. Here it is now in the mid 20’s compared to the minus 30’s that i left behind 3,400 kms ago.


If anyone is interested i will post a diary of the trip back north.

2

Great stuff, Mark. Now the return please. Remember the 11th of April.

3

Great diary wire. You have just the job I would like myself. :frowning: Yeah, Please continue.

4

Great post good pic’s
be nice to have more thanks

5

Great story and pictures.Brought memories back to me.Spent a year in Laingsburg,near Lansing,Michigan.Working on a dairy farm,which was bankrupt.Got paid when i left,then spent 3 weeks on an Amtrak train,zig zagging accros the States.Was on a young farmers visa exchange programme,when i was 18.Then offered a job on Copper City,Fort Lauderdale,at National Nurseries ltd,in the large tree department.Owner gave a bungalow for accomodation.Later worked as a steel fixer,on high rise construction in the Broward and Dade areas.Weekends on $99 cruises to the Bahamas,from Port Everglade.Great beaches on Fort Lauderdale coast.Good luck with your vocation.

6

nice 1 mate.
cracking read, and pics, looking forward too the next leg.
how many hours driving can you “legally” do a day out there?
is it similar too uk, where you drive x amount of hours, then have too have a statutory break?

7

Thanks excellent read ,with Fantastic pictures please
lets see the rest of the trip, when you are ready ,
ta very much again,

8

Excellent post and great pics waiting for return leg.

9

Thanks guys, I will continue…

chilistrucker:
how many hours driving can you “legally” do a day out there?
is it similar too uk, where you drive x amount of hours, then have too have a statutory break?

It’s legal to do 13 hours actual driving in Canada and 11 hours in the States. This is in a 14 hour spreadover. The speed limit for trucks is the same as for cars in nearly all US States and Canadian provinces and is as high as 75 mph so it is possible to achieve very high daily mileages. Remember, the roads in the US (outside of the cities) are quiet in comparison to Europe and in the Western States they are nearly deserted. In Canada it’s possible to get lonely!!!
There is no statutory requirement to take breaks but the enforcement authorities would take a very dim view of anybody who didn’t. Personally I like to stop for a rest every 5 hours or so and in anycase you must stop and take a quick check around your truck every now and then, and I like to check my reefer temperature is ok.

Day 6…

After resetting my log book I head south to Pompano Beach near Fort Lauderdale to load with canteloupe melons for Canada. I am slightly disappointed as I missed some relatives by one day. I have had a day off in Orlando and buy a pure coincidence my wife’s sister and brother-in-law are flying over for their holiday. Unfortunately my reload is ready and I must go and collect it now, never mind. I find the forwarding agent that I am loading at down a back street and learn the load is ready to go. The guys who work there are all hispanic and load my trailer quickly. The load gauge on my truck and on my trailer suggest that I better move my trailer axles back a couple of pins to aid weight distribution.
It is a similar operation to moving the bogie on a 40’ container skelly trailer in the UK except there’s a position every 3 or 4 inches. It is easy to do in this climate but not so easy when everything is frozen or when the drive axles cannot find grip on the icy ground during the actual slide. When I get the paperwork I see that my destination is a supermarket distribution centre in Airdrie, Alberta which is in the west of Canada and is well over 5000 kms away!!
Then it’s time to start heading north and I make it to a truck stop where I can use the weighbridge to verify the truck weight and shower, meal, etc. Also here I can fax all my paperwork to the customs broker ready for when I reach the Canadian border in a few days. 1083 kms today.

Day 7…
Push north all day and leave Florida and cross most of Georgia. Park at a truck stop near Rescara, Ga. 1017 kms today.

Day 8…
Run all morning, stop for break at Paducah in Kentucky then make it back to Flying J at La Salle, Illinois at nightime. Left warm climate behind now and back to running in snowy conditions again. For the last few nights I have left my engine running to power the air con but now I am back to using the night heater. 1041 kms today.

Day 9…
Make good time all morning despite the Illinois busy interstates (reminds me of the M62) and experience nothing noteworthy until Wisconsin when I encounter the dreaded ice rain. I think this really is the worst type of weather I have ever come across. I don’t know if it happens in Europe but I certainly don’t ever remember it happening in the UK. This time it’s actually raining at -9 deg C. Very quickly the wipers are overpowered by ice forming on the glass and all kinds of vehicles start sliding off the carriageway. Weird formations start to build up on the mirror arms and my cb aerials bend back and threaten to snap completely due to the weight of ice on them. Worst of all my engine starts to run hot because ice has actually formed a slab over the radiator grill. I have to pull into a rest area and smash off the ice to make a diamond shape in the centre of the winter jacket to restore the air flow.



Despite the problems still make it through Minnesota to the Flying J at Fargo in North Dakota for fuel, shower, meal and park. I have deliberately let the reefer fuel tank run low as I do not want the liability of carrying US fuel into the freezing Canadian climate as it just isn’t good enough and could possibly gel up which would obviously be disastrous as the reefer is now protecting the valuable melons from freezing. Even though this truck stop sells US no. 1 (winter grade diesel) it is still not as good as Canadian grade so I just put enough in to last until tomorrow. 1029 kms today.

Day 10…
Very cold morning, -20 deg C. Run up to Canadian border and cross without incidence.

As I am now in Canada I can now drive for 13 hours a day allbeit in the same 14 hour spreadover. Stop for a break at a truckstop at Headingley near Winnipeg and make it to Swift Current in Saskatchewan. Back to -30 deg c now so i fill the reefer fuel tank right up with Canadian Esso which is good for temperatures below -45. There has been a lot of blowing snow today and it needs clearing from the trailer rear lights. That is a disadvantage of these modern LED light units. It is good that they dont need the bulbs replacing but dont get warm enough to melt the snow buildup and quickly get obscured.


Day 11…
Run across Saskatchewan and Alberta and arrive at the huge Costco distribution centre.

I found this place to be fantastic to deliver to. If only UK RDCs could take note. The procedure was as follows:-

Pull up to gatehouse which had a convenient window at cab height so as to not require driver to get out of cab.
Cheerful gatehouse man takes all delivery docs and after checking on the computer issues driver with a large pager.

Drive to designated loading dock, switch off reefer and open doors. Back on dock and wait for pager to flash and bleep. Then just pull off dock, close doors and exit through gatehouse stopping only to exchange pager for signed delivery documents. (The exit gatehouse window is also at convenient cab height) This distribution centre is as big as the ASDA at Whitwood in the UK, if not bigger so there is no reason why UK RDCs could not be as efficient.

At this point I received details of a reload out of Calgary to go back to Winnipeg near home. This turned out to be a medical supplies company and the destination for the load was 3 city centre hospitals. Found loading point in Calgary and was glad to just make it in time to get loaded.

Day 12…


After receiving paperwork started heading east and parked back in Calgary at a truck stop.

Day 13…
Boring day really. Spent all day running back east across the Trans Canada Highway and parked at a truck stop at Brandon in my home province of Manitoba ready for the hospital deliveries tomorrow.

Day 14…
A bit of a hard work day. Ran the last couple of hours into Winnipeg and started my 3 hospital deliveries. This is when a 53 ft trailer and conventional tractor starts to become a liability. I moved the trailer bogie right to the front which reduced the wheelbase considerably but the huge rear overhang then starts to cause its own problems.
Anyway, to cut the story short got the load off and got the truck back to the workshop for a service and a few days off for me. Total trip length 10,476 kms including 3 provinces of Canada and 8 US States.

The end.

10

That really is inspirational to me as im seriously thinking of having a go when ive got 2 years under my belt on artics. And what a truck im literally drooling onto my phone as Im writing this :smiley: can you post some pics of the inside so we can see the amount of space you have to work in or is that too sad? :laughing:
Also if you dont mind answering questions…
1.how long is your artic total length inc unit?
2.how is it getting the vast unit around the roads there compared with uk?
3.how long are you expected to work in one run and how much time off do you get at the end of it?
4.is the money good when considering cost of living etc?
5.how do the workforce, locals etc view us english going there to work do they accept us or are there problems with peoples views like here with poles etc and an underlying problems with taking their jobs?

Not ask owt else for now as you’ll probably get fed up :stuck_out_tongue:

And one last thing, please post up more pics of your trips there arent enough on here to pay its the ex-pat forum the diaries are one of the best features on here :wink:

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Hi Ollie, thx.
Here are a few pix of the inside although they do not really show the sleeper very well. Basically you will notice that the actual cab is very small and narrow. This is a traditional feature of US trucks and is very difficult to get used to when you are more used to Scanias and Volvo FH’s, etc. Some of the British guys hate them and never get used to them. Because the sleeper and exhaust stacks are so much wider than the cab it is not possible to look back from the drivers seat without using the mirrors so when you back onto a loading dock or into a parking space you are in effect always doing it blind! On the positive side i find my Peterbilt as comfy as any Euro truck to drive and it doesn’t matter how narrow the cab is because if you walk back between the seats it opens up into the sleeper area. This is as big as the cab on my Renault Magnum on its own.




1…
I have never actually measured the length of the whole truck but it must fall between 70’ / 75’.

2…
As the roads are generally bigger and emptier over here, getting around is usually ok despite the truck being less manouverable than a Euro artic although when delivering around cities or into tight premises it becomes a total nuisance to be fair. At these times you have to tell yourself that it is a machine that was designed to be pointed at the the horizen which is, after all, what you do most of the time anyway.

3…
Obviously different destinations take different amounts of time and things can and do go wrong but my average trip length is probably 11/14 days from start to finish. I think my longest was 21 days. Not all work over here is as long as that and i know plenty of guys who have jobs where a trip is usually completed in a week or less.

4…
There is a very good living to be made here if you stick it out and get a good job but if you think the WTD is a good idea and you think 48 hrs is a good weeks work i would say stay in the UK.
If, however, you like the idea of having the freedom to work as hard as you like and having the almost unlimited open road to do it you can have a much better standard of living for yourself and your family than in the UK.
At the present currency exchange rate my weekly take home is actually higher than i ever earned in the UK and almost everything is cheaper here. Houses, fuel, & electricity, etc are around half the price.

5…
In total truth i have found the people here to be the most warm and welcoming that i have ever met anywhere and that is almost without exception. This is also the experience of my wife & kids who have many friends here.
There has been a genuine shortage of long haul drivers here for quite a few years so we are not taking anyones job. Also remember everyone except the native first nations are here via immigration.

12

thanks for answering mine, and others questions, gives a real interesting insight, too the job, over there, as opposed too over here.
thats some amazing distances you can cover in a day, thought i used too think i’d done well on a 10 hour drive in europe, hitting 8-850 kms :smiley:

if you get a chance, keep the diaries and pics coming :wink:

13

Excellent second post, when will the americans and canadians
learn to fit Night heaters,etc, What about a seperate power
system that works with out the engine running,this would save
fuel,wear and tear, and in the long run money for the firm,
as for the difference in fuel try the Finnish fuel they sell through
out the year Summer fuel and winter fuel (-43) IN helsinki,
and as one goes further out,the fuel sold is (-50) ,

14

Thanks a lot for replies, very informative except you forgot to say how long you get off before trips(I like to know :smiley:)
Please keep doing this I am sure there are many of us who would like to keep watching as much as you can be arsed to carry on :wink:
I cant imagine arctic cold to summer heat in the space of one jouney how mad LoL must be some experience to do.

And what kind of work is the crap work you have to do until you are granted residency? I wasnt sure if I would stay for longer then the two year visa although admittedly I dont know enough yet anyway to even think about it on a grand scale. I have a very nice cushty number now and enjoy my job/life in uk but obviously it is getting worse here :unamused: And I am 27 this year so would be looking around age 28-0 for when I actually had a go so by then there may be no jobs over there hence no visa’s :grimacing:

15

when will the americans and canadians
learn to fit Night heaters,etc, What about a seperate power
system that works with out the engine running,this would save
fuel,wear and tear,

The truck does have a night heater. It works by warming the coolant and so also keeps the block warm rather like the type that used to be fitted in the Merc SK and probably the Actros still. It blows warm air from several points around the sleeper so it is quite good. My main issue is the amount of power it might take from the batteries in really cold temperatures where they are working at really low efficiency. One good thing about reefer work is the fact that you can jump start the truck from the reefer as they are the same voltage here.
A lot of trucks here are now fitted with chassis mounted diesel generators now which power the Air con and heating as well as providing A/C mains voltage into the cab but i unfortunately don’t have one. I really would like one especially as the green brigade have now made it illegal to idle your engine in the whole state of California but they are around 6ooo dollars fitted so i don’t think my boss will buy me one but i can stay hopefull perhaps. :laughing:

16

Thanks a lot for replies, very informative except you forgot to say how long you get off before trips(I like to know )
Please keep doing this I am sure there are many of us who would like to keep watching as much as you can be arsed to carry on
I cant imagine arctic cold to summer heat in the space of one jouney how mad LoL must be some experience to do.

And what kind of work is the crap work you have to do until you are granted residency? I wasnt sure if I would stay for longer then the two year visa although admittedly I dont know enough yet anyway to even think about it on a grand scale. I have a very nice cushty number now and enjoy my job/life in uk but obviously it is getting worse here And I am 27 this year so would be looking around age 28-0 for when I actually had a go so by then there may be no jobs over there hence no visa’s

2/4 days on average. I can pretty much have as long i want off after a trip within reason but while my truck is parked i am earning nothing remember. Personally i always say to my boss give me a ring in a couple of days or so. I work for a small company and out of 18 trucks on reefer work, 16 are owner drivers so there are only 2 of us in company trucks.
I do not know if it is like this for everyone at different conpanies in Canada but i originaly used to work for a much larger company on flat deck work here and they were much the same. Sometimes i used to have my truck on my driveway at home for a week or more. As i say, they don’t expect you to turn your truck around and go again straight away or anything but while it’s stood they arn’t paying you either. This doesn’t go for statutory holidays of course.
The guy i work for now would not of given me the job before i got my residency status but that is not to say all companies who recruit from Europe offer crap jobs. I was planning on staying with my original employer when i got the oportunity of this job by pure chance.
You are 10 years younger than me so you do not have any great reason to rush into emmigration especially if you have a good job now in the UK. The Canadian economy is relatively stable compared to most countries and i think the long haul driver shortage will be around pretty much indefinitely.

17

Only 10 years younger■■? Tell the truth, 12 and change years. After all, you are older than me, Wireman!!!

Pete, they have started using the night heaters, identical to in Europe, and they have block heaters that run the same way, which are absolutely amazing. But…

If you run the night heater for more than 8 hours then it will start to drain the batteries and, at -30, it really is a problem. The engine heater is usually on a timer and runs for 2 hours, which is long enough to get the water up to about 130 degrees and will have thinned the oil really well. There is an added advantage. Trucks are generally 12 volt systems here, so you can feed charge into your batteries form any vehicle. Last winter, i managed to start my KW with a pick up truck boosting one battery and a portapack boosting another. But only because I ran the engine heater for its timed amount before.

The heaters are catching on, but below -25 you really need to idle.

18

bobthedog:
Only 10 years younger■■? Tell the truth, 12 and change years. After all, you are older than me, Wireman!!!

Damm :exclamation: :exclamation: :exclamation: I ought to have known you would pick up on that one Bobthedogman!!!

19

TRY getting one of ARTIC-FOX

20

Nice read wire.Have to agree,freezing rain is by far the worst for driving in.Could do with a trip to FL myself,this winter has been the worst in years down here in NY.