How is it with canadian runs?

Its cold. There's a bit of extra paperwork, sometimes customs is difficult or the broker is a ding dong. A lot of the roads suck butt. You have to get another phone to make calls.
The people are friendly, they have Tim Hortons, the scenery is beautiful. Highways are a bit less crowded.
I take Canada runs when they come up, I like the travel and the extra pay is nice.

 

What company do you drive for?

 

I've been to Canada many times, wasn't that much of a hassle. Actually, let me rephrase that... Getting INTO Canada was easy. Getting back into the US was trickier. They're not the joking types LOL. And they love their random searches. The biggest hassle was the wait time at the border - I've waited three hours before to get back to the US, and you have to log all of that as Driving time.

Aside from the big cities, Canada traffic is practically nonexistent. Wintertime sucks bad though... Way worse than most places in the US.

 

Canada has really nice free ways. Just depends on what you want to haul up in Canada. Its cold the trucking industry is decent.

 

You have extra paperwork/stopping to fax, you can get hung up at the border for hours and hours, everything costs more, certain provinces have draconian truck inspection procedures (25% Out of service quota), another is entirely in French, etc.


On the other hand, the people are nice, the roads in better condition than most of the US, the HOS rules are more flexible, and you can get sometimes get nice long runs coming out.

 

I've been running into Canada practically once a week for the past two years. I love it.

It all depends on your perspective.

I talk to guys all the time who refuse to go into Canada. When pressed they usually relate some story about getting inspected at the border or fined at a weigh station for some violation... the same stuff you'd encounter anywhere.

I guess it's more of an insult if it happens on "foreign" soil.

As far as driving conditions go... you can run into some nasty weather and some challenging roads, but I have not had to chain up yet.

You'll definitely see your fair share of cars and trucks laying in the ditch during the winter months.

 

you will love canada if you did Elog,once you xing the border into canada,you can do 13hrs on drving and 16hrs on duty.I m company driver now,and I did more than 20 canada load per year.few hrs b4 you xing,attn pars on your paperwork and fax to your broker or whoever clear the load at custom,then call them make sure they got everything you send ,gave them 1hrs they'll let you know your ld good to crossing,or you can go on http://www.truckstopquebec.com/pars.htm find your broker and click it type your pars#,you'll see your ld status.samething when you back into US,make sureO NOT SET BREAK when you stp at custom and say hi to agent.I never wait more than 5mins to into canada,becuz I always xing at nite,when back into US ,they will Xray scaning your truck and trl ,even you hook an empty trl.winter time in saka and MB very very cold,-25F.be sure you check your brige lengh if you r in BC.one thing you need to know keep some food in trk if you plan drving in night,becuz not much 24hrs food service there.if you are smoker,keep eough pack b4 into canada $10/pack there.most fuel stop at night s selfservice,and you cant fill both tank at sametime,done one 1st then go other side.small business take US$ as same rate,large store still take US$ but $1=0.95canada cent.like "madman118"said,you have find the way to make cheap call ,and my XM radio signal wont stay in saka and MB.I know I missed somthing but I couldnt tell you all in one post.

 

I'd prefer to not disclose my company just for the sake of staying out of hot water so to speak. Not that there's anything wrong with my company but still. Here's a hint though, I drive a red and yellow Peterbilt 386.

 

Canada isn't bad depending what customs you cross.Some don't like it because of all the paper work that has to be perfect and it could be hrs before you're approved or only a few minutes.Going into Canada from Detroit can be a hassle.