Any UK truckers here that moved to Canada?

Harry, is that you?

 

Why do you want to leave the UK?
How will you adapt to sitting on the left side of a vehicle and driving on the right side of the road?

 

This post may be totally irrelevant to you or might not!

I’m Canadian but have a good friend who is Romanian who came to Canada 5 years ago on a visa from Westcan. For the 3 years he worked under Westcan he was treated like #### and under paid ( little did he know he thought it was amazing and was being treated like a god )
After finishing up that part of his life gave him the opportunity to apply for Canadian citizenship, which he did and he received it last year.
Now fast forward to today, he is an owner operator who wishes he never bought a truck because how depressingly slow it is in Canada.

 

You watched the Weather Channel show, "....HIGHWAY THRU HELL...." and you still want to drive in Canada????

 

Best driver that ever worked for me and one of the best I've ever seen was from England. He could back up a b-train on a construction site better than most guys could drive forward.

He had been here a few years when he came to work for us, but I don't recall how long. I know he came here with H&R when they were aggressively recruiting in England. I would consider them a bottom-feeder, but a way to get one's foot in the door. I believe he drove dumps locally after that.

He quit us at one point because we were away from home the entire time we were driving (not team, but oilfield/heavy haul and not based near home), so only home when not driving. He did come back though because he was making stupid-good money and the driving was far more interesting.

Based on that experience, I wouldn't hesitate to look at another UK driver (if I still had trucks, which I don't). However, because we were a small company and not able to train, the concern would be sufficient mountain and off road driving experience. I expect other carriers would be similar.

Coincidentally, the worst driver we had was also an import, from Eastern Europe... and the whiniest was from Ireland, but he grew up here.

 

Rarely, unless they're in the mountains themselves. Some give it a bit of theoretical coverage. There are a couple of schools in BC that are located in the mountains. I believe the one in Cranbrook is well regarded.

That's a pretty big issue here in western Canada. There are a significant number of drivers who have immigrated to the lower mainland (Fraser Valley area encompassing Vancouver and area). Typically they do not have the necessary experience, but are hired to drive between the coast and the prairies. Some do okay, most do the best they can, but their experience is lacking and in some cases borders on negligent. Some shouldn't be behind the wheel of any powered vehicle.

 

Are you currently driving an automatic transmission? The manual transmissions here are only partially synchronized so you will need to double clutch.