Westcan Bulk Transport Canada - What A Nightmare !
(This is a Story From BritishExpats.com, It was just put up a few Days Ago.)
A big thank you to all the expat members who tried to help me out Last Year.
I’m back home in the UK now and working again.
It will take me many years now to replace the financial losses I sustained going to work for Westcan Bulk Transport in Alberta, at least that nightmare has finally ended for me, and I can get back to feeling like a decent human being again.
However, even though I am home now and on the up, I can’t help but worry for you lads who might follow me down that same Path … only to find yourselves in exactly the same nightmare I did … and like so many of the lads before me. So this thread is for you British Truckers thinking of going to work for Westcan Bulk Transport in Edmonton Alberta, I only wish I had found something like this prior to me making my decision to move to Canada and work for them … Nevermind.
I cannot stress to you enough right now the nightmare your opening yourself up to … Seriously … I went in 2013, full of enthusiasm and excitement to take on a new challenge after reaching the top of my profession back in the UK. I think if I’m honest … I made too many decisions with my heart instead of my head not investigating it properly prior to coming out here, don’t do what I done.
So I’ll start from the beginning … and please read it for your own sakes !
To get to Canada, I had to invest hundreds and hundreds pounds back in the UK, getting all the necessary certificates, Medicals and various other documentation needed to enter Canada. However the costs didn’t end when I arrived, another 3 Thousand dollars was spent in a Truck Driving school sitting my Canadian class 1 Licence, as your British Class 1 isn’t valid, and then Hundreds more dollars spent on the Air brake endorsement you have to have added to that class 1 Licence so you can drive trucks. Many hundreds of dollars more taking a theory and driving road exams and then more dollars again swapping over your UK Licences at the Registry Office for a new Canadian Licence.
Then hundreds more dollars on a pre-employment medical and drug and alcohol tests etc … You pay for all this … and you haven’t even started work yet ! Also during these weeks your living costs are piling up hotel bills or rent if you have sorted out accommodation. Car hire costs, transport and all the other general day to day living expenses are now mounting up fast ! So eventually if you succeed to overcome all this, and you only will if you’ve the financial means at hand. (I regrettably sold everything I owned back in the UK, just to fund this move to Canada, which in retrospect sadly just allowed me to continue with it).
At this stage you’ve probably invested between $15,000 to $20,000 CAD on your move depending, if your here by yourself or with your family like I was.
So if you successfully negotiate the above obstacles you’ll get a start date with Westcan Bulk Transport Edmonton and you haven’t lost your investment yet.
I arrived as instructed for my classroom training program, what “utter garbage” served to you by a training department only interested in selling Westcan to you, in an attempt to brainwash into not quitting once you finally get out in a truck on your own … If you can last that long. The OTP classroom is a minimum of 2wks of 8 hrs a day power points, presented to you by guys who either have no idea or don’t really care anymore what safety is or what it really means. Remember you will be driving Super “B” (two trailers) Road Tankers of Hazardous Materials on ice and snow for up to six months a year once your out on your own. These guys keep telling you they are the best … But never teach how to be the best
If their safety record is anything to go by … I’d hate to see the rest (
Anyway this is also the time when you find out that contract of employment you have in your back pocket, isn’t worth the paper it’s typed up on … It’s already served its purpose … which was two fold …
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To falsely give you a feeling of guarantee that your about to be treated fairly by people, so you commit the effort & investment to actually making the move.
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To get you through Canada Immigration with your LMIA, so you can obtain a Work Permit at yet another cost of $155 each … Which again you pay for (
- You also find out at this stage that your on a “B” Rate of Pay for the next 12 months … which is a much lower rate than their own Canadian Drivers ( Ask them why … And Kassab the trainer will openly tell you in the classroom. This is how the company recouperates the cost of your airfare and training … 30 times over which is actually illegal under Canadian Immigration Law, but no one polices it or ever does anything about it. So this is the point you realize that your not paid by salary or by the hour as mentioned in your contract of employment.
Your paid by the load … and again this is really really bad and I’ll explain why a little further on so I don’t go off track now.
So you get your 7hrs @ $18 training pay … That’s $120 a day for the next 2 / 3 or even 4 weeks depending on how switched on you are at this side of things, or when they have a slot for you with a driver trainer to push you out into, so at least now you have your first dollars hitting your bank account even though you will not be covering your costs or anywhere near it yet … If ever !
Now the next hurdle is … The Driver Trainers … These guys get paid a lot of money to babysit you … around $120 a day on top of their wages … and when they get you, they don’t wanna let you go … you are now their cash cow ( You cannot go solo, until a driver trainer has signed you off as good to go, but if they sign you off, their money drops and then they have to get out in the cold and do the job by themselves. You decide who’s interests that’s in. Meanwhile your still on training pay and unable to make ends meet while they are milking sitting in the seat next to you and believe me they continue to keep you next to them long after your ready to go it alone and do the job competently … This again is really a bad situation for you I’ve seen drivers still with their driver trainers after eight weeks and they make no apology for Screwing you like this … It’s brutal.
So if your still with Westcan at this stage … meaning you haven’t quit and gone home because your broke or worse still broken, it’s only because you are locked in … because of the terms and conditions on your Work Permit which say you can “only work in Canada as a Truck Driver” which in itself is fine because thats what your there to do. However your Work Permit will also say you can only work for “Westcan” and that is the really bad bit because your very existence in Canada now depends on you being handcuffed to Westcan Bulk Transport … they have you by the proverbials … and boy they know it !
To work for another company in Canada as a truck driver, you need a new work permit, and to get one of these you need to successfully obtain a new LMIA, this takes time and money and restarting this process from the beginning yourself is a complete nightmare. However the likelihood is you will never get a 2nd LMIA, Because Westcan tell CIC that you quit and that you didn’t follow proper protocol despite at this stage you will have spoken to everyone and anyone you can get to listen. Westcan do this to everyone to cover their own backsides from being reprimanded by the government for being utterly brutal to normal human-beings
CIC now think it’s you that’s a problem … and not Westcan and are therefore a little reluctant to say the least, to issue another company with an LMIA for you.
Westcan really know this system to the point they probably know it better than CIC itself. Westcan’s entire business model has been built on decades exploiting Tempoary Foreign Workers to breaking point … Indeed every driver I met coiled away at the mention of their name and that includes the Canadian Drivers. They have everything sewn up in such away that you have no alternative other than to put up with their terrible treatment and working conditions or go home !
So if your still around at this stage and hoping for Permanent Residency to break the Westcan Shackles then be prepared for a long wait … Drivers are taking well over 4 years to get PR and as much as 5 years in some cases. Westcan won’t tell you this, but as you start talking to drivers they tell you how long they’ve been waiting and its a lot longer at Westcan than anywhere else. Drivers as soon as they get PR simply leave Westcan at the first available opportunity even driver trainers get out as quickly as they can that’s how shocking this company is as an employer.
So you finally get to go solo and the next few months you are either chasing up Westcan to arrange rack tests at the refineries to get your loaders badges or you are sitting around outside refineries waiting for a loader to come load your truck for you … Which you don’t get paid for … Because officially you didn’t load it (
Westcan may decide to put you on a 5 on 2 off 5 on 3 off shift pattern which now puts three drivers on a rolling shift pattern sharing two trucks. The truck handed over to you is invariably broken when you come to it … So usually your first shift is spent in the shop getting it fixed … If you defect it and leave it … It will still be broken then next day … You literally have to stand over the mechanics to get them to do anything, meanwhile your not earning any trip money. I spent nearly every first day on shift in the shop or in the canteen waiting for a truck to return that was stuck out from the day before … This is unpaid work … your in work but not going anywhere because of other people and therefore earning no pay.
If you dare to speak up … for anything and I mean anything, if you try to give a solution to an operational problems in an attempt to get the job moving along so you can become more productive for both yourself the company. You risk what is known internally as “The Treatment” … This is a systematic breaking down of the driver in such away that hes literally starved into submission. He’ll be given the run around for months … Broken trucks, bogus loads, then told to reset hours at home until next needed then left there for weeks on end. All the time he has to pay rent, eat, etc but with no pay coming into his bank … and this is deliberate !
I watched a decent grown mature man bullied by the office staff to the point he broke down in front of me like a sobbing child … It was utterly heartbreaking to witness and this was a man just trying to work, a few days later he was gone he just packed up and pulled out clearly a broken man. There were others too, this was by no means an isolated incident one by one the lads are picked off and put on the “treatment table” I was no different, one day from right out of nowhere it was my turn and they made it impossible for me to function. My one day a week in the shop became everyday in the shop, I was taken off my shift pattern and asked to take scrappers everyday. Trucks that were old and literally falling apart inside resembling the inside of a skip you wouldn’t want to sit in let alone live in for a week ( … If you don’t take it … you don’t get any pay … and because it’s illegal to earn money anywhere else because of terms of entry on your work visa you now have some very tough decisions to make.
If you do take them trucks you risk your safety and the safety of everybody else you may come in contact with in your day, not to mention the risk to personal health because of the nature of some of the diseases out here. You also run the risk of being pulled over for inspection by Transport Canada at the weigh-bridges which are mandatory stops on the highways. If you do get checked and they find a problem the fines are huge, trying to pay them on Westcan wages would be a horrendous blow, also you get demerit points on your licence abstract and these would go against you if you apply for a good job, and if you apply for Permanent Residency … Everything works against you at Westcan, if you take a flyer and get caught out breaking the law your days in Canada are numbered. If you keep your head and stay legal Westcan punishes you financially. I’ve kept Bi-Monthly payslips of $700 and that’s for 140 hours worked over two weeks most of them spent frustrated stood in the mechanics shop just trying to get the a truck legal and I don’t mean replacing windshield washer fluid, I’m talking brakes, running gear, ABS and Air system defects. I won’t mention about the type of tyres they use or how bald they have to be before they replace them (smh).
Remember this is a company that transports Liquid Hazardous Materials in Super “B” road tankers (two trailer combinations) across Canada, for half the year road conditions are appalling, the other half of the year you face different challenges. Needless to say, if you are the one who is going to be held responsible if things go wrong out here, then is it too much to ask to be given a fighting chance to do the job professionally, safely and cleanly with properly maintained equipment.
Westcan Bulk Transport business model is built on exploiting Temporary Foreign Workers by paying them the industries lowest wages, dropping that even further in the first year while they illegally recouperate their costs and much more. They use financial hardship like a management tool on the TFW drivers with the view to forcing them into doing literally anything to avoid management conflict or as they call it …“The Treatment Table” This is a merciless bully employer the likes of which I have never experienced before and hopefully never ever see again. So I hope Transport Canada has a close look at this operation soon, In my opinion it’s an major accident waiting to happen … Guys seriously don’t invest in this !
