Finally got a Class 1 Job!

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

Im so happy atm, just got off the phone with my new Employer, I will finally get to put my Class 1 Canadian Licence to use. I will be doing Class 1 work for FedEx , Trunking between Edmonton and Calgary.It pays $19.40 an hour to start

Ive just given my notice to my current employer, who is very happy for me that i have been given an opportunity to gain experience as a class 1 driver. He was really good about it all, said he would give me a good reference if i needed one, and also said that i am most welcome to come back to the company if things didnt work out at FedEx for me. Ive given him plenty of notice, that being 2 weeks notice starting from Friday. He has also said if i want to earn some extra money before i leave, thats no problem, just put an extra hour onto my end times when i send my timesheet in at the end of each day.

2

Well done mate, the slippery slope is ahead :laughing:

Have fun on Hwy 2, you’ll know every bump by the end of the second week :open_mouth:

3

Ask any of the “established” OTR truck drivers if they earn anywhere near $19/hour for their first 40 hours WORKING in a normal 70/80 hour week :question: :exclamation: :exclamation: :blush:
BTW,
please don’t reply back with the usual “BUT WE ARE PAID BY THE MILE” :exclamation: :grimacing:

Well done BIG JON. :wink:

4

Big Truck,

I just looked at my wage slips & yes I get $19 an hour, at least, I rarely hit my full 70 & I run my logs straight, I don’t hang around waiting for reloads so that helps, but I do big miles, average 15000 each month, I still do them in my hours though & that’s what matters. Of course I don’t get night out money, but I do get layover if I need to reset on the road, there are some decent jobs about over here, I reckon Wire & BTD will say the same, Pat Hasler will for sure :wink:

5

newmercman:
Big Truck,

I just looked at my wage slips & yes I get $19 an hour, at least, I rarely hit my full 70 & I run my logs straight, I don’t hang around waiting for reloads so that helps, but I do big miles, average 15000 each month, I still do them in my hours though & that’s what matters. Of course I don’t get night out money, but I do get layover if I need to reset on the road, there are some decent jobs about over here, I reckon Wire & BTD will say the same, Pat Hasler will for sure :wink:

NMM,
I believe what you are saying but did Wire/BTD earn $19/hour on average with BFS their first Canadian company :question:
Or do any of the ex-UK guys who go over to drive OTR with the trucking companies who regularly recruit overseas drivers earn $19/hour for the first year or so :question:

6

Personally i am staying out of this discusion altogether other to repeat what i have always maintained…
With all things considered I enjoy a much higher standard of living than i ever had in the UK and that goes for my family even more than me. I can say in total honesty that i have never sat down and calculated my actual hours worked and don’t wish to. Its probably loads but what does it matter anyway? I am away on average for 8 - 14 days each trip and each one pays around $2,500 - $3,000 before tax is deducted. I don’t know if this is $19/hr or not and imagine it often isn’t but the important issues for me are the amount of money i take home and how many days it takes. Mostly i just enjoy the fact of not thinking about time time sheets and all that gubbins but just starting when i like (i do not like starting early and especially before it gets light) and having the freedom to drive on endless open roads until i want to park up again.
I fully understand many people would not like this but in all honesty if your priority is how many $$$'s an hour you can earn you will almost certainly not like Long haul trucking over here. To paraphrase…It is a way of life. I can not fault anyone for not liking this but i would advise them to stay in the UK and do a regular night trunk out of milton Keynes.

7

Simple answer, BT is yes I did. After the first 2 weeks of training in the classroom and getting my class 1, when I actually started driving in other words, I earned more than that. That said, it was long haul so I wasn’t on trunk work which meant I was able to do what I wanted within reason. I posted on here what I earned in the 11 months of the first year, and also in the second year I think.

You going to start on this old chestnut again, Andy? Thought we had been through this about a dozen times.

8

Rob/Wire,
now you guys really have got me confused :exclamation: :exclamation: :confused:
Did you both not leave BFS because among other things they didn’t “give you the miles”,so how was it possible to earn $19/hour if you weren’t driving enough?
$3000^14 days=$214/day^average 12 hour WORKING day =$17.85/hour (in MY OPINION that does not justify being away from home for 14 days :frowning: )
Is $19/hour considered a decent wage in general for any “skilled” manual job in Canada :question:
I 100% agree that your families have a better lifestyle in Canada but in all honesty DO YOU :question:
How many ex-UK guys (on the forums) have had health problems/scares because of the “hard work” and terrible sleep patterns driving long haul in NA since the start of PNP in 2004 :question: :neutral_face:

If it really was true that $19/hour was regularly attainable driving long haul why are there still guys coming back to the UK saying they couldn’t earn enough money :question:
More importantly why do so many give up long haul (or even trucking altogether) as soon as they gain PR :question:

9

Please forgive me but I thought this was an excellent honest recent post on BTA:

Right lets get down to factual info Ive been here in this country now for over 7 years and I have seen dozens of Brits go home and many absolutely broke and not entirely their own faults, a lot of these companies spice it up so much that the dream overcomes reality and the reality is that trucking in Canada is not gonna make you a fortune. Believe me when I say you will work bloody long hours nodding at the wheel on occasions pushing yourself to the limits because km’s make money, stand and you make nothing. I am old enough to remember similar conditions back in good old Britain in the seventies when we had 2 log books, one for the ministry and one for under the seat to get you out the muck if you know what I mean. The majority of bigger employers out here also treat you like muck just like they did in Britain all those years ago, fortunately for you lot back there in blighty respect for employees has improved a lot but here you are just a number or a immigrant who will do any sh#t job to get your papers, well thats what they like to think of you.

I came here in 2002 with a lot of money earned from trucking in Britain and Europe and thats why I am still here, if I had to start here with nothing I think I would have gone home long ago after all what sort of life would I have given my wife & daughters spending weeks on end away driving endless hours both day and night just to make a living. Leaving them for weeks in a frozen desert on their own because thats the reality of coming to Canada with very little or nothing moneywise. And thats why many have gone home and I know many of you like to call it failure, but is it. Perhaps because we like to call them failures is the very reason we dont see the blogs from these peoples, perhaps they are embarrassed by the very fact they had to come home with nothing. So lets not kid ourselves its all their faults, in many cases its the employers who have dressed it all up to much.

If you are thinking of coming here then I can tell you its a wonderful place but please do not be mislead by some of the recruitment agences and companies out there, you have to remember these companies are desperate for your services.
My personal advise would be if you have not got a minimum backing of £50,000 uk pounds then do not even consider the move here.

Come out here and see the place where you want to live, take the training yourself get a job working for a smaller family type company who will treat you better in general than the big company, remember I think I am right in saying you can still come here for six months anyway on your visitors visa, as I did. And then get yourself a city driving job and anything like mine you could still end up being 200 miles from home LOL.

On another note work is still scarce around here and we are still on a 4 day week but I not worried in fact it suits me fine to be totally honest, the 2 guys who left for the longhaul are still doing OK but missing there kids a bit but they had no choice as with a young familys they couldnt live on 4 days a week working, the boss has promised them both the jobs back if and when things get back to normal.

Please do not let people talk you into coming here with your family and nothing, you will almost certainly fail.
Just my best advice, take it or leave it.

Last edited by britincanada on Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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10

I will answer it here the same as I did there. I arrived with much less than 50k and have done OK. It is nonsense to say that you need that much money to come out here. Some have arrived with far more than that and still haven’t made it work. It is attitude that makes it or breaks it.

11

I will just chip in and say how much money i landed with. Basically i came out here to Canada with £1k in my pocket, and the items i had in my suitcases. Thats it. What I have now, i have worked for. My Dad has loaned me the money for my Class 1 training, which will be paid back as soon as i start earning some decent money (Thanks dad btw :stuck_out_tongue:). When things were tight here and there were absolutely zero jobs available, I was getting some money from my Wife, and my parents. Luckily my brother has let me stay for 4 months rent free. And I am now taking over the lease on the apartment at the end of the month, when he moves out with his GF.

I now have things that are mine. I have worked hard for them, and its really satisfying seeing all these things i have worked hard to obtain.
I got really excited going to IKEA to buy some basic items for the Kitchen, as my brother isnt leaving anything behind. I know it sounds stupid, but it is really quite humbling, moving to a new country with basically very little in the way of worldy goods. I still have no car, which is driving me crazy, as i have driven a car since i passed my test. 4 months of having to rely on public transport… at least we have a semi decent bus network here in Edmonton. However, when im behind the wheel driving, it feels like i have been driving here for years.

As Bob has said, it doesnt really matter how much money you come here with. You have to have the right attitude to adapt to the Canadian way of life, which although similar to English life, Is kind of awkward to fit into at first. Over here if you do well, you get praised for it. If you do badly, its ‘oh well theres always next time, keep your chin up’. I think i have found it easier to adapt to the Canadian lifestyle, partly due to my brother, and also being influenced while growing up by my Dad, who is also Canadian. And its down to him that I am able to live in this beautiful country. I just wish I made the move sooner :smiley:

12

I’m glad I got left out of the BFS argument, I made decent enough money on there, but they made promises about runs to Texas & California, in reality I went to Alberta, that’s one of the reasons why most of us have left there, not over money, but over the lies & more importantly the way they treat you.

As for whether you succeed or fail, well that boils down to a lot more than money, I still have my house in the UK, still got a car in the garage too, I came to Canada with $5000 & 18 months on I’m doing very well, okay I live rent free at my Uncles, but I still pay my UK mortgage each month, bail my kids out all the time & yet I still manage to live very well & save money on my crappy Canadian wage :open_mouth:

As for whether we as drivers have a better life or not? To answer that, sometimes I’ll be driving along, maybe in Chicago or New York or Dallas or Denver, you get my drift, all of a sudden I start grinning like a simpleton, I realise that I’m driving in the USA in a long nosed Pete, that’s me living my dream (sorry Mark, I know it’s your line :laughing: ) you show me a man that’s happier than one that’s living his dream & I’ll show you a liar.

I suffer from being away from my family a lot more than most, the GF comes over every couple of months & I miss my kids a hell of a lot, but I’m doing this so that we can have a life that’s far far better than we could if we stayed in England, so the sacrifice is worth it in my mind.

Anyway, what’s the big deal about $19 an hour, it costs me $600 to insure my car, $45 to fill it up with petrol, a decent meal is around $25 a head, house prices are, well they’re almost giving them away if you’re a Londoner :laughing: my Dollar goes a lot further than my Pound used to so I couldn’t give a toss if I was on a YTS, my standard of living is better whichever way you look at it.

13

I just had a mild dig at BT for his selective copying on here. Personally, I don’t care. There are some of us are doing very well regardless of how much money we had when we came here, and we are living in a place where there is less stress and where the air is clean enough to see traffic lights five miles away. I feel that is enough.

The deal about $19 per hour is nonsensical.

I get 40 cpm, and can easily do my 600 miles a day. That’s $240 for the miles. If it takes me 12 hours then that is $20 per hour anyway. If I load/unload then that boosts it up.

Jon, you are a perfect example of sticking at it and winning out. It is something that some others cannot do. Now you have landed just right and that is excellent. When you were feeling really down I said it would improve and it has now. Good on you.

Mark, what you said is exactly right. It was the lies and idiocy that finished me at BFS, not money.

14

600 miles in 12 hours, what are you stuck in low range Rob :laughing: :laughing:

15

Nah, was being conservative so as not to get the usual lambasters going again. You know me better than that… :laughing:

16

I have never ever posted on any website why i left BF. For the record, it was because i got a chance of this job that i do now. Thats all there is to it.
As i said earlier in the thread i am staying out of this discussion because i am totally biased due to the fact that i love my job and my life and don’t really care that much for how much money i get an hour. (I happen to think that its plenty anyway). I get enough to have a decent life and i relish the time while im earning it. What more could i reasonably ask for?

17

that you continue to be happy and people not out there stop trying to tell you that you are badly off. :slight_smile:

18

Today i ran down a section of the historic route 66 through New Mexico and i am about to run through the White sands nat park and Tularosa valley famous from the opening scene from the movie convoy. I will stop at a truckstop at Lordsburg on the interstate 10 tonight.
These things all thrill me about my job and that is one of the reasons i love it.
I have read about the guys who pioneered the middle east and Europe back before it al went pear shaped for the british trucking industry. Unfortunataly this was mostly before my time but i wonder if the lads doing it at the time where constantly sniped at by people for “not having a very good quality of life” and always questioned about wether they got enough an hour.
At the end of the day we will all have to eventually retire and drive nowhere. I will be an old has been but i tell you one thing. I will have some bloody good memories to entertain myself with (and bore other people).

19

fair play to you, you are out there and doing it ,and for now you are happy. i say long may it continue for you :slight_smile:

20

Big Truck:
Rob/Wire,
now you guys really have got me confused :exclamation: :exclamation: :confused:
Did you both not leave BFS because among other things they didn’t “give you the miles”,so how was it possible to earn $19/hour if you weren’t driving enough?
$3000^14 days=$214/day^average 12 hour WORKING day =$17.85/hour (in MY OPINION that does not justify being away from home for 14 days :frowning: )
Is $19/hour considered a decent wage in general for any “skilled” manual job in Canada :question:
I 100% agree that your families have a better lifestyle in Canada but in all honesty DO YOU :question:
How many ex-UK guys (on the forums) have had health problems/scares because of the “hard work” and terrible sleep patterns driving long haul in NA since the start of PNP in 2004 :question: :neutral_face:

If it really was true that $19/hour was regularly attainable driving long haul why are there still guys coming back to the UK saying they couldn’t earn enough money :question:
More importantly why do so many give up long haul (or even trucking altogether) as soon as they gain PR :question:

Big Truck, how much do you get paid per mile■■?