Swift up north?

I ran into Ontario hauling Blue Bird bus chassis when I drove for them on the flatbed side. The downside of it was, we'd have so many loads T-called at the New Boston terminal by people who had past DUIs, missed child support payments, etc. (both are felonies in Canada) that I'd get stuck there, unloading these chassis in Brantford, then running back to New Boston to pick up another load... I spent 12 days straight doing that once. If not that, then loads out of there varied... either deadhead through Toronto to Buffalo or Lackawana, NY, or I'd pick up steel coils out of Nanticoke, or I'd pick up steel extrusions out of Brampton, and there've been a couple times I'd pick up die equipment out of Windsor.. those made for pretty good runs, since they'd be T-called in Laredo to be transported in Mexico.
The autohaul division would go into Ontario a lot via Windsor, as well... but Swift sold that off to Blue Thunder.
Can't really tell you about the van side. If I ever saw a Swift box up there, it wasn't a common enough occurrence for me to remember. Had one run into Victoria, British Columbia, as well.
That was my own experience with them years ago... can't really speak for the company as whole, and who knows how things might have changed since?

 

Canada is one of Swift's best kept secrets. Or at least I've been told many times other swiftys that were jumping the border.

 

The guys I met who run the Calgary loop seem very happy with it. Most of those guys live in Washington, Idaho, Montana -- up north already in other words. So in addition to getting a few days off every 2 weeks, they sometimes can grab a 36 (36 hours in Canada) hour break at home as well.

Some of the drawbacks I found were that when picking up a load out of the US, I'd have to call a number to ensure the load was registered to cross the border, plus ensure they had the right border in the system.
Picking up a Canada load, sometimes the shipper fax's the ACE manifest and bills for you, but you still have to call a number to ensure the American side has it registered otherwise you'll be stuck parking away from the border (qualcomm doesn't work within a few miles of the border) waiting for confirmation. Also you'd have to pay $10.75 just to come back to your own country (Swift reimburses).

So I didn't have Canada on my cell phone plan which cause me to go to the truck stop after getting loaded up there, and use the payphones. It creates a problem with delivery times for me because instead of breaking off miles toward the border I'm sitting waiting for the 'go signal'. It was sort of a catch 22 for me because I didn't want to pay an extra $50 bucks for Canada phone service if they might put me back on 48 states irregular route.

Some loads on Swift trailers I heard are Alaska bound but Swifties don't cover them. We take them as far north as Swift's operating authority allows then some other carrier finishes the load. I don't know if that is a trucker story because I also heard from reliable sources that 53' trailers are not allowed on the route up to Alaska. I've taken other Alaska bound freight into Seattle area and it gets put on a ferry and shipped by water up there. But every once in a while you will run into a bigmouth Swift driver in a terminal somewhere who claims to run the ice roads in the Northwest Territories or Nunavut and Alaska Dalton etc lol pulling Swift 53 foot triple set hazmats.

 

When I ran for Swift I was in Canada all of the time with a flatbed. Mostly Calgary and Vancouver. Never minded doing it as the scenery and Canadians themselves were great. This does not include Quebec where the Frogs were rude and nasty to English speakers. However, since I grew up on the Border in New England and my family on one side spoke french when they were nasty I told them off in Quebecois and after a surprised look that was the end of that. Western Canada, no problems with anyone. The road from Calgary to Vancouver is one of the most spectacular you will ever drive.
Also, Swift experimented with a few Budweiser loads to Alaska but the guys turned the trucks over into ditches so they put a stop to that which was too bad as I wanted to try it in the worst way.

 

53ft triple haz-mats. thats funny...

 

Swift Still has Dry Box loads out of Windsor Hauling For Wiser Whisky and few other accounts as well.

 

Make sure you take the 'Canada class' they offer at some of the terminals. I did it at Lewiston. First you meet the main Canada planner and he gives you a bunch of different paperwork, some of which might already be in the back of your permit book. PARS stickers, ACE manifests. But you need a Pretrip sheet too, it will have to be filled out daily before you drive or cross the border.

The other guy will go over the logs and how to use them properly for Canada as well as proper use of Macro 19, border crossing Y/N and changing your region and switching to kilometers from miles.

Generally once you're dispatched (going into Canada), they send you all the info you need, then call the broker and give them the PARS number and confirm it is in their system and border crossing matches.

Coming back, most of the Canada shippers will take your ACE manifest and the bills and fax them for you. You still have to call the broker to ensure the paperwork is in the computer on their end so they can let the border patrol know you're coming. Usually on the US side, they will run you through the Xray machine ( I had to bring my dog up front so she wouldn't get microwaved in the sleeper) and take $10.75 off you. Both ways ask if you have any weapons or alcohol or tobacco on board. Each time you go through they ask an additional question too lol, like do you have any meat or cheese or food products purchased in Canada or cash totaling $10,000 or more.

 

I will mention too, that the Elogs audit department evidently doesn't recognize Canada hours of service. I got a lot of violations from the time I was running up in Canada because the split second you cross over you'll get 2 more legal hours to drive. One example is a load I had to Brooks Alberta, drop and hook an empty, I left there and jammed back down to Calgary to be in position for my next morning's pickup. I drove about 12.5 hours that day. All legal, but it tipped off the auditing software. When this happens someone will have to manually go in and remove the violations off your record.