canada first time

Do not use the phone's data package up there and try to limit the calls. Very expensive.

 

Bring a birth certificate with you if you do not have a passport/FAST entry card. Canada is not very picky about who/what is going in but you have to be able to prove your citizenship with the U.S to get back there is also a charge of $10.75 (USD) unless you have a transponder. ALSO MAKE CERTAIN you have taken 24 continuous hours off in the past 2 weeks before your entry or else you will be in violation Of MoT. Otherwise US rules are good to follow for the most part but i would make sure you stop in at the first scale and tell them your new they will give you all kinds of goodies and other information.

 

You are going to have to go to Immigration. It's when you park your truck, and go inside of this little ' interrogation' room. They will ask a few questions, tell the truth.

Food is pretty expensive, so I normally stop on this side of the border and stock up on groceries and junk food. Double check with your financial institution and make sure your bank cards will work. Write down you tag numbers truck and trailer in your notepad and have $10.75 in cash on hand for the US Customs flunkies. And you had better double check with whatever broker that the load clears...don't leave this up to the office people...otherwise, you get held in customs.

one more thing: if your phone plan doesn't cover international roaming, turn your phone off. That phone bill can wipe out everything you will make on that run and then some. Tell the family that you will call when you get back to the States and owner down your phone before you get near the border.

 

Has your company been to canada before and back with loads?

Make sure your loads are registered by brokers and the shippers AT LEAST 2 HOURS BEFORE you hit the border crossing.

There are ways around that, but that's another topic for another place.

 

I remember my first time going up there commercial. Sent me to immigration. They have no sense of humor. I told them I was not immigrating.

 

Did they turn you back?

 

No. I have been going up there about 15 times a year since.

 

Me too. They asked me if I had ever been arrested and fingerprinted. Yes, but I was 16! I didn't think the stupid stuff I did as a kid would come back and haunt me, it didn't stop me in law enforcement. Now, THEY bring it up?...

the interrogator told me that he just wanted to see if I would tell the truth.

Got stuck up in Canada for a number of days. Found out that my debit card didn't work. Used the cellphone to get the debit card activated in Canada and got hit with a huuuuge phone bill. Got stuck on a load (Genie Man Lift) going into Montreal. Apparently, a man lift is considered a vehicle and requires a vehicle title. I didn't have one. Got stuck in customs for the weekend. Had to use my phone to call my company. The international roaming bill was $618!!!! Crossed back over stateside at Thousand Islands. US Customs asked if I had my logbook handy. I looked puzzled because I'd never had the border patrol ask about my logs. Then I noticed a guy standing behind him, n orange coveralls with NYDOT printed on. Great...gonna be one of those days.

 

Your record must be spotless. I have seen them turn back a driver because he had an arrest from the 70's for writing a bad check. You can't make this stuff up.