Advice for a potential immigrant trucker

Besides working for a scabby Brampton or Surrey company, Bison is about the worst in Canada. Low/No Pay, Contracts, Constant Dispatch/Safety harassment and blame. Constant Slip Seating, sometimes in the middle or multiple times during a trip. Zero cleaning of slip seated trucks, hard fuel solutions, driver facing camera's, dedicated camera watchers (20-30 calls a day over "safety") Total dispatch and planning confusion, trashed trailers, etc etc etc. If you search my name, I have lots of posts about Bison, and all that info is out of date by 4-5 years now. Just before I went dump in July 2024, I road tested 5 Bison drivers for my last outfit. 2 of them showed up in the Bison tractors, cause they couldn't afford a car/uber. They all had a novel of horror stories, and all 5 said they were close to bankruptcy working there, even basically living in the truck 26+ days a month.

People say Bison is Canada's version of Swift, but I think Swift is a way better company. No Bison is Canada's version of CRST, Western Express, CR England IE Newbie Rape Companies lol.

Fun fact, all the English drivers Bison brought in 1998-2018, who put in their time, made it to management or operations. ALL of them quit, and the ones who didn't get citizenship on their own dime, Bison pulled their PR/LIMA/Work Visa's and they got deported.

 

Unfortunately a lot of the large companies are going to driver facing cameras especially Garbage and the fuel hauling industry. It’s getting to the point you just have to deal with it or leave the industry altogether which at this point doesn’t sound like a bad idea .

 

Honestly, you should either just stay in the UK, or move to the US. Was making some inquires today, since we had this discussion. I guess AG and farm work in Sask is just as bad as freight right now. I know there is something like 400 000 Canadians with Class 1A Lisc, who are not in driving jobs; so the market is completely saturated. Also the Liberals today, said they will not secure the border, but want to bring in UBI instead to offset the tariffs. That's pretty much the end for Canada, so no point in coming here, spending 12-17K CAD on MELT, and not being able to find a job/afford to live. Not what you wanna hear I know, but that's the long and short of it. I myself might be leaving for Texas soon, starting to make inquires with friends/co workers who are already there, and already working in construction; or who have started construction companies.

Also got a bunch of bad news about the housing/commercial construction market in Calgary today, I guess the word is out you can't just move here and find a job.

 

Not required, most operators start as labour's, skid steer, packer or scarper. If you can pick it up, and stick with it, they will promote you to haul truck/loader/excavator/dozer etc etc. Grader, Finished Dozer and Mainline Excavator are the senior operator jobs. But no formal training or licenses required.

 

Prob, the more you can do day 1, without much direction, the more they will want you.

 

I hauled grain in Saskatchewan, retired now. I drove with a small family run trucking company based out of Saskatoon. You can make up to $100k per year and be home every weekend, sometimes during the week.
Housing in the region has gotten more expensive in the last ten years, plenty in the $300-400k range in the cities, Some under $200k in near by rural towns, some under $100k in farther away villages that may need to be worked on.
Company I was at had a couple of guys from South Africa.
I can give you some contact info. They stay steady all year around, but are extra busy in spring and fall for fertilizer and harvest.