mouldy_1

I’ll try and keep this short and sweet. What work experience are Canadian trucking companies look for?

The main reason for asking is that diving hasn’t been my main job for some years. I passed my HGV 1 in March 92 and worked for a transport firm in Northampton for just over 2 years before leaving. I then went back to that company part-time at weekends between 2000 and 2002 and have been driving weekends for another company since the beginning of 2005, with the odd full week now and then. I have asked both companies and they are happy to supply references.

Would this be considered sufficient work experience?

Thanks

Neil

paulburt

depends on the company and how desperate they are i would think, some say that anyone can get a job driving in canada but i've had two companies reply that my experience isn't deemed suitable for the post although i've also had two job offers, some say lie a bit about your experience because they never check but again i've had two companies go to great lenghs to check out my cv!
saying all that a uk license is worthless over there and basically it seems you start from scratch as far as driving goes BUT the real crunch is when it comes to getting on the pnp, you've got to have varifiable experience of the occupation through which your applying, what happens then if you've pumped up your cv a little, is not clear? no pnp and the whole thing becomes a very expensive working holiday!

jamesmc

was told by employer to be not to exagerate on cv and was told when it comes to pr they will dig,
my contract for last 20yrs was as a hgv driver ,no class was specified.
so when they asked for class 1 experience it was a guestimation as from 1 week to another i could be on rigids , drags or artics but since telling work was going to manitoba been stuck on rigids as i am showing no loyalty to firm!!!!!.
james

mouldy_1

Hi,

Some might be tempted to be a bit creative on the resume but with the move to a new country I would think you would be stress enough without worrying about being caught out.
Was planning on a recon trip last two weeks of March so I’d best get that CV sorted and sent out.
Paulburt did you change your CV layout to suit the Canadian way of doing things?

Thanks

Neil

Gremmie

For a Trucking company your experience would probably surfice,as to PNP i'm not sure,may i suggest that you ask on the main Canada forum (Immigration) there's a chap there,David Miller; i think, who knows his way arround this immigration thing far better than most of us here.. No disrespect to Paul intended You will need references that show what sort of work you've done thus far. Good luck

mouldy_1

Thanks for that Gremmie I’ll try that. Both companies I only operated articulated so shouldn’t be a problem showing what sort of work I’ve done.

Neil

paulburt

no, i just did a basic thing but bare in mind this was the first cv i've ever done in my life and i havn't exactly been overwhelmed with job offers!
if companies don't take an interest it's hard to know why? are they not particularly in need of new drivers at the time, have they just started a whole bunch from the uk and aren't looking for anymore at the mo? who knows, think certainly for me, being self employed for virtually all my working life and having no euro experience hasn't gone in my favour.
to be honest, at the moment i'm becoming very sceptical about the whole pnp thing, seems in reality theres very few of those that have gone in the last couple of years that have actually ended up as permenent residence, with many still working on a temp permit, ok, contary to the official line it seems you can renew the permit without leaving the country for four months but the real downside is, the wife/partner,kids can never work and the simple fact is, is that most if not all driving jobs there don't pay a living wage for a family, ok for a single bloke i spose but when you weigh it up the companies just want drivers in seats, it dosn't make any difference to them weather those drivers are on pnp, permanent residence or a temp work permit and then if you consider the fact that should a driver obtain pr, he's then got the option of leaving the company and going to work for anyone he likes, anywhere he likes, is there really any real incentive for that firm to sort out his pnp? i'm not so sure.

Gremmie

Oh Paul why so sceptical and negative??? I can only really speak from my own experiences thus far,and they are 95% possitive. If the wages and conditions are so bad as you say,then how come just about all my work mates have lovely houses,really big campers,houses on the lake,snow mobiles,jet bikes,go golfing at 120$ for 18 holes go to mexico for a month at a time,shall i continue?? And yes i'm single,but i still send allimony every month approx 1300$. Yep their are shit companies out there,but also some good ones, there are also some shit Expat drivers aswell who aren't willing to blend in with the Canadian way of doing things,who have the Bolshi English attitude of "thats not my Job" when told to do something
My working day is 14-16 hrs work 8hr off duty and so no 5 days on the trot no discusions do it. But then i get 3 days off. Yep it's hard,F******g hard. And takes some getting used too!!! So think again Paul,UK or Canada. I think its worth it

mouldy_1

After spending many an hour reading many posts on this and other forums I really think it what are your reason for making the move to another country? Everyone will probably have different reasons and expect different outcomes from there move. Myself I’m looking for a better life style, not only for me but for the rest of the family and although it would be nice to make a nice fortune along the way, it’s not top of my list. If I have to work hard along the way for a fair wage I really don’t mind.

Paul if you do your homework you soon realise which companies are more favourable to work for and I wouldn’t read too much into all the negative posts. Everyone is different and what doesn’t work for someone may well work for another. As for your spouse working I think (anyone correct me if I’m wrong) that you have to wait about 9 months before they are allowed to work. Hopefully this will work well for us as my wife have just finished university and qualified as a radiographer and in the time she is waiting she’ll be able to sit the Canadian exams. Believe or not she been unable to find work here unless we move to London or Liverpool but that could be a entirely different post on a different forum about the NHS. Best thing to do if you haven’t already done it is to get out to Canada and have a good look around and decided for yourself if it’s somewhere you could live. I suspect a lot of the trucking companies are being bombarded with CV’s of which some are just daydreamers.

Gremmie hope you don’t think it’s too much of a cheek but high on that list of companies is Westcan so if you can throw any pointers my way I’d much appreciate it.

Thanks

Neil

CurtNIR

With reguards to the work experience. How many years do the PNP look for in trucking? Is it something like 3 in the last 5 years??

paulburt

just to clear things up, i'm not sceptical about canada in anyway, as far as i'm concerned it's a done deal and thats where we're headed it's just a matter of sorting out the details like where and when, taking a gamble and working hard is what i do, twenty five years of running my own busineses has taught me you only get out what you put in BUT i'm not about to get sold a dream and then realise i've been shafted because i've been blinded by the excitement of the whole thing!
no doubt theres plenty already there that have done well and don't regret it at all and it's not hard to see that their livestyles and general well being have been improved by making the move but theres always going to be things that the recruiters don't tell you, after all it's their job to paint a good picture not only of the job but also the place your going to be living.
i'm sure i'm not alone in thinking that canada is a new start and a new life which to me means emmigrating, not going for a couple of years and then coming back, at the end of the day if thats what your after theres plenty of places around the world where you'll earn vastly more than you ever will in canada so i'd like to see all the paperwork going into the process of me and mine becoming permanent residence, not bothered if it takes a year or more
as long as i can see the wheels turning in the right direction, what i can't see is selling everything here, me and the wife walking away from decent jobs to go on a temp wp and a promise that one day everything will come together!
i can still find no reason why you don't apply for pnp the day you receive a job offer and instead wait six months as it seems is being sugested by some companies, i could be looking at it totally wrong but until i see something to say otherwise i'll remain sceptical about the motives of some of these companies.

DrDeo

Been following a few threads on here but thought this might help.

How long must I be employed with my Alberta employer before the Alberta PNP can nomination me?

If an employer has a probationary period for their employees, a candidate must first successfully complete this probationary period prior to nomination. Otherwise, the Alberta PNP requires that:

* As a Skilled Worker, you must have accepted an offer for permanent, full-time employment with your Alberta employer. You may require a valid work permit for certain occupations.
* As an International Graduate, you must have accepted an offer for permanent, full-time employment with your Alberta employer, have a valid work permit and be employed for at least six (6) months with your Alberta employer.
* As a Semi-Skilled Worker, you must have accepted an offer for permanent, full-time employment with your Alberta employer, have a valid work permit and be employed for at least six (6) months with your Alberta employer.

Heres the addy if you'd like to check it out y'self.

http://www.alberta-canada.com/pnp/nomineeFaq.cfm

Spoke to someone at the immigration fair in Coventry on Sunday and she confirmed this.

paulburt

this is what bothers me, i've read that and all the other provinces guidlines many times, infact i've kept going back and reading them again incase i'd missed something! so the reality is as far as any of the provincial governments are concerned the only truck driving job on offer in any province that is involved in the pnp that requires a six month wait is hoffmans because the job is actually classed as oil field services and falls under a semi skilled catagory, thats fine by me, it's there in black n white so you know the crack before you get there, do your six months apply for pnp, the wife/kids are then entitled to an open wp to go and find a job if thats what they want to do.
what i don't understand is why are so many drivers over there in other provinces who class long haul in their skilled catagory are still on a temp wp after a good few months? they have the fulltime job, the contract of employment etc etc so whats gone wrong?
different people will look at it differently, a family with young kids who'll be at school for a few years perhaps wouldn't be so bothered, the wife would probably consider that she's got enough on looking after the children and settling into a new life to worry about getting a job but my daughter will be 18when we go and like all kids of that age who've studied hard for A levels etc she has big ambitions for her own future plus the wife has always worked and i can't imagine either of them being happy sat at home everyday while i'm down the road.
weather you can have a good life on one wage seems to depend on where you are, theres a huge difference between provinces as regards what a driver can earn, yeah theres also a difference in house prices etc but sit down and do the figures on mortgage repayments compared to potential earnings and so on and even going to such as alberta with high property prices your still vastly better off than say pei or ns, my real problem is i had already made a decision on area,which job etc, but the wife and daughter had also made a decision on the same but the two places were 3000 miles apart!!
the girls are dead set on pei based purely on somewhere to live i was/am set on alberta based purely on money, i can't see how we can live comfortably on the wages i can get on pei (half that of alberta) so basically the wife at least, has got to be able to work even if it's only part time.

CurtNIR

can someone confirm this for me? cheers