New Driver Here Looking for advices

I'm gonna be real with you bud, its not going to happen. The industry is still in decline, and like was mentioned above, 3/4 of a million - 1 million drivers are looking for work in Canada, with more and more coming out of driving schools daily. Come October, there will be another round of bankruptcies of large trucking companies, mostly OTR/General Freight. Insurance companies are pulling back HARD, we cannot hire anyone, without 5 years of Class 1 DUMP TRUCK experience now. OTR/Freight/Tanker etc etc doesn't count anymore across industries, it has to be the exact experience for the job they're insuring.

Your best best, as already mentioned, is to get into some kinda of construction/road work/county/city maintenance department, let them know you have a class one, do a good job, and wait for an opportunity that way.

The companies that used to train, are either bankrupt or going into layoffs (TransX, Bison, Challenger, SGT2000, Highlight, Lightspeed, etc etc etc). No one else is training or giving new drivers a shot, because they honestly don't have to, with hundreds of resumes of experienced guys desperate for work; and the insurance pullback I mentioned.

Just a side note, guys I used to work with in OTR/LTL/LCV, who didn't get out in time, and are now stuck going bankrupt in those industries, due to the insurance requirements, have started applying for MAID......let that sink in.

 

Assisted suicide? Really? That bad off huh?

 

It’s not going to die, but until the herd is thinned out, it’s going to be depressed for quite some time. I would look at heavy construction over otr.

 

Yes it is a 750 000-1 Million drivers looking for work/not using their class one. I know this, because at my LTL company, I was in the recruitment/orientation/training/safety side of things near the end. I also dealt with a lot of head hunters and recruiting agencies. One quick example, in 2005 Calgary had 5 trucking schools, in 2025, we now have 35 (and growing), multiply that by every city in Canada, and it doesn't take long to get these numbers (esp when they run 7 days a week, 14 hours a day). Also, people are still coming here as TFW's, LIMA's and under Student Visa's to drive trucks. In May of 2024, my LTL company was receiving 1000 resumes a week for divers, every week. As it stands today, 40% of all trucking companies in Canada would need to shut down/go bankrupt, for rates and volumes to return to 2014 levels.

 

Exactly, even with all the closures and shutdowns, as of today, 40% of all remaining companies would need to cease operations, for things to go back to 2014 levels.

 

Shocked the hell out of me, visited a guy I worked with this summer, and tried to talk him out of it. He did the whole "living in the truck" thing, and now there isn't enough work for him to afford to live, move out of the truck, and he can't find any other kind of job; trucking or otherwise. We did have one laid off driver, off himself in his pickup, after he was unable to find another job, and got evicted.

 

Wow. Maid would never be approved. No choice but to take the last option. But I can understand. 24 years on Linehaul, I watched countless guys show up with new pickups, new Harley’s, buying new homes. Sit one day and the world is coming to an end.

 

Have you applied at GFL. They have plenty of openings across Canada. They hire all classes license depending on equipment