Originally Posted by loafy

In years past it was illegal to do this in Europe it was called cabotage, same sort of thing in the states. Now most of Europe is in the EU you can do it but not outside of it.

LOAFY...

Originally Posted by Big Truck

Davie,
If your taking a load out of Canada to the USA you MUST after you have delivered that said load take the next one you are loaded with directly back to Canada.
You are NOT allowed to pick up and deliver within continental USA that is called "interstating" and is totally illegal,not only that but you CANNOT even drop your empty trailer,pick up another one and deliver it to some terminal for a load to be taken by someone else!!!!
This is something I think potential drivers don't realise that its not going to be down to the USA and drive about for a week or two "tramping",its down to the USA tip the load,go get loaded again and back to somewhere in Canada!!

Originally Posted by Gremmie

Not quite true that loafy,dont you remember the " old" Pink and Blue permit Books of years gone -by. I used to Tramp arround Europe for up to 3 months on end with a Pink Book + the non EU countries. Aaaaahhh the good old days

Originally Posted by Lyndon001

Ok i'll get the ball rolling

We are the Lomanovskis family, the name origionates in Latvia. There are 4 of us moving to Lethbridge at the end of July.

My name is Lyndon, thats me in the avatar and i am going to be driving OTR (Over The Road) for H & R Transport based in Lethbridge, there is also my wife Janice, my son Luke (13) and our dog Gizmo who is a black Spangador (Spaniel/Labrador cross).

The reason i have introdced the whole family is because when i answer questions, it is usually in relation to our circumstancies, for example if you want to know how much it costs to ship a dog over and i tell you its about £1300 then you know its for our big black bundle of dogginess who weighs in at 27 kilos, if you have a little rat on alead then it wont cost you so much. By the way no offence to owners of liitle dogs, they are lovely, couldnt eat a whole one though !!

We hail from Swindon in Wiltshire and i presently work for Wincanton Chilled in Gloucester, I work nights and the monies pretty good, i say that because i am taking a pay drop (if you think in ££££) so we are not doing it for the money.

We have been planning this since January 2007 when i overheared 2 colleagues talking about it in the Transport Office and thought "Oooo that sounds nice", i came home, we discussed it as a family then decided to do it.

Since then i have spent countless hours trawling the 'net finding answers, made countless phone calls and sent countless emails to countless people in Canada about countless things, to be quite honest it became quite an obsession, but we think its paid off. We managed to get an interview in UK for a Canadian job which was successful and we have also completed all the paperwork for the temp workers permit and put together our immigration folder so we are set to go.

The only thing holding us back was the sale of the house, we are now ready to exchange contracts over the next couple of days and the new people want to be in here on 20th July so i wold say that is about done.

We came over to Alberta in May for a 2 week recce and got most of our new lives sorted out, these included:

Bank Accounts
Schooling
A place to live
Cell phone
Met the new Boss
Home utilities
Food shopping
Furniture shopping
Car shopping

We also visited Calgary and Edmonton as H & R also have depots there and when you join the company you do have the choice which depot you want to work from, we also took around 650 photos of just about everything.

We are no experts and i dont work for the company yet but we do have a "goldmine" of info to share.

My weblog "Trucking Life" logs how the immigration has affected our lives since the middle of Feb.

Originally Posted by Gremmie

I am going back a few years on this,like 23 or so.and i do seem to remember Salvesen drivers running with Blue Permits; ie, load UK tip France Load France Tip Germany Load germany Tip Italy Load Italy Tip Uk for instance. With the Pinks the same but non EU countries were allowed and of course with T1,T2,TIR Carnet custom papers. As a young lad of 24 this was great work Scania142 with a Cheraeu alu chassis fridge.Hanging meat and fruit & Veg to all corners of Europe and N.Affrica. Lets see what Canada has to offer
Just an other thought what if any prepartion have you and or others made to take truck test,i know H&R send driving test books,and ive got the same from Westcan sent over for BC. Whats with the rest of you ???? Doing any revising ??
And do any of you other guy's find the female Canadian accent sexy ??? its like vocal viagra for me

Originally Posted by loafy

Ahhh the luxury of a V8 to pull you up all those big long hills, i used to have a 112 which was good to an extent. Salvesen dont do Europe from the uk they have there own depots out there thou they did used to, a fella asked me once if they still did the whaleing but he was an old boy so going back a bit there .
I have got the two books to learn from, one cars and the other for trucks but not a thing from Yanke by the way, they must have confidence with there recruiting.

LOAFY...

Originally Posted by DAVIE_MAC

Is there a set test criteria laid down for a Canadian test.

I am LGV driving instructor qualified thru the military and we do the usual reversing test / uphill start / downhill start / emergency stop etc etc etc.....

But when I have asked any Canadian companies or on some of the other forums (even the ones where the guys have been there for quite a long time) NOBODY answers the question:

I turn up at the designated time and date to take my Canadian Driving test....WHAT WILL I HAVE TO DO?????

All I ever am told is ahh don't worry the company will take you through it
AAAAAAHHHHHHHH

But there must be certain objectives you must pass...aint there???

I know about the airbrake questions but there must be othere things your expected to know and be able to do.

Please Help anyone

Originally Posted by loafy

Hi Davie,
All i have been told is that you go out with an instructor and it is more like a assement drive as they know you have a LGV class 1 UK licence so they just need to see that you are capable of controlling the vehicle. I have not heard from any of the people i have spoken to that you have to do the reverse test and this was confirmed to me by Chris at Yanke. He did tell me of one guy who on his test the instructor asked him which country he was in and then he realised he was driving up the wrong side of the road, he failed but took his test again and passed no problem. I guess this could be different in other Provinces of course.

LOAFY...

Originally Posted by DAVIE_MAC

Is there a set test criteria laid down for a Canadian test.

Originally Posted by Steve_P

Which province are you headed for?

I'll see if I can dig up some of the provincial professional driver handbooks that might be a start.

Cheers
Steve

Originally Posted by Gremmie

http://www.icbc.com/Licensing/lic_ut...commercial.asp
Take a look at the BC driving test in,its all there to be read

Originally Posted by Lyndon001

Well its all good so far with H & R.

We flew back into Canada today and it looks as though everything they told me was spot on:

• They offered me a job
• They organised our immigration paperwork (& paid for it)
• They organised and paid for my flight over here
• They picked us up from the airport.
• They put us in a hotel

Tomorrow we are being collected from the hotel to go and sort out all the medicals, social security numbers and medicare.

So far we are very happy teddies