driving canada

Id read it lol

 

On a personal side, Peter is very likeable, but I'm guessing thats because he wants something for his editorial. He did a nice write-up on us in February last year. Its always nice to have your rig in colour in a glossy magazine. But he doesn't like being told that he needs to address Western Issues to gain Western Readers. But it falls on deaf ears.

 

Deregulation killed this industry over 20 years ago. It's been a slow and painful death ever since. You can still make a decent buck in specialty work, like over-dimensional, car haul, oil patch, etc . Being a unionized driver still helps too. Just my opinion. There have been lots of US and Canadian federal gov't's come and go since derugulation began. Again, just my opinion.

 

Back in the 80's I was Consulting for RayDon Motors Ltd. of Vegreville. The owners were Ray and Don Mazankowski.

I was applying to get them Extra Provincial Authorities in Alberta and Saskatchewan and it was a real battle with carriers opposing the application. I did get it granted in both provinces after a couple of rather expensive hearings. (I don't work cheap) LOl. Don made a comment to me one night when we were having supper. He said "Lucien, when WE form the next Government, we will get rid of this Authority BS" end of quote. It wasn't very long after that the Conservatives with Mulroney got in. And guess what? Don Mazankowski was given the Portfolio of Minister of Transport. In 1989 he had the Motor Vehicle Transport Act (1989) amended to bring in deregulation with an effective date for the start of January 1, 1990. There was a 10 years spread for total deregulation except for busses and taxis.

For the next 3 years I was totally swamped filing applications for carriers who had no idea what the paperwork consisted of.

 

I'm old enough to remember wanting to buy a permit to deliver in Saskatchewan. I had to offer it to 3 different carriers and they all had to turn it down before I was able to buy the permit. I just called the scales from Estevan and then Regina, if they didn't answer, the coast was clear. Deregulation was a good thing. But then I think 2.5 years with the a Teamsters were the worst years of my career as well.

 

I guess I shouldn't have been so broad in my post about deregulation.... or about my union comment. I was generalizing about wages mostly. But you guys are right, lots of factors play into the equation as a whole.

 

1st;---- 5000 british pounds=aprox 9000CAD, empty promises, no way to make this kind of gross as a company driver; maybe 5000CAD if you run 12,000 miles paid aprox 40-45 cents/ mile, and with work permit i believe you'll have to pay taxes, aprox 35-40% from this gross.
2. as Runawayscreaming mentioned, H&R is not a good company; they are running mostly heavy reefer loads in and out of western Cananda/USA, if you don't have mountain ,snow driving experience, stay away; driving heavy loads with chains through Alberta, BC,Montana,Washington in winter time is not a joke. This company Challenger http://www.challenger.com/ used to hire drivers from UK also, from what i know is better than H&R.

 

What's wrong with telling the OP how to find out the information he's looking for? He's never done anything to you and he's not to blame for the situation.

And as far as some of the arguments go, it's no different that the migrant workers that come in to pick fruits and vegetables. They come because nobody is willing to work that kind of job for the wage it pays.

If you need money to take care of yourself and your family, you take what is available until something better comes along. Too many people crying about being out of work when the jobs are there. They just think they are too good to do them.

 

And if there were no migrant workers to pick those fruits and vegetables a Canadian citizen would have to be paid a living wage to pick them.

 

Well yes, maybe. But the you couldn't afford the fruit, or you'll pay $5 for a terrible cup TH of coffee.


I've never known anybody who wanted to be a fruit picker or Tim Hortons counter person when they grew up. These are entry level jobs and pay accordingly. Who says that every job has to pay a certain amount? Is there some rule somewhere? Does a greeter at Walmart really deserve a wage that is so frigging lucrative that some level of post secondary training or education isn't worth pursuing?

And just what exactly is a "living wage" anyways, and who decides on the definition?


Oh and H&R isn't known as Half Rate without reason.