shelly1

No i don't mind your questions or take any offence to them

2 years on i can't make up my mind what i want or where i want to be,
i yearn daily for the home i lost in the uk, the home we could never afford now, instead we're paying £625 a month for a house thats not ours or a real home.

Tony applied to an advertisement in a magazine for british truck drivers, we were interviewed as a family tony myself and the girls in london by yanke, kindersley and westcan he was offered a job with all three at the interviews, we decided to go with westcan because they appeared to have a whole family package on offer, support and help for wives and families while tony was away.

No we didn't visit Moosejaw before we moved out, we where given loads of info and contacts to answer any questions or worries, we e-mail them on a regular basis and had no worries, i'm sure if we had gone out there first, we would have loved the place, what is there not to like about moosejaw, the place was never an issue

We were told by all three companies from other drivers experience that it was cheaper to buy furniture out there than it was to ship your furniture so we never even looked into shipping, after all this was straight from the horses mouth so to speak, we thought we would make quite a bit selling what we had and then buy new with the money we made, but as you find out people want everything for nothing.

Our savings were more or less gone before we knew it on 3 months rent upfront, replacing furniture, hotels before we moved into the house, a car, we were also ssubsidizing wages, but the money didn't go half as far as we had anticipated.

I'm sure if most people are truthful this would be a similar reoccurrence in their case but because iv'e been truthful it makes me a target,
some would rather just keep quiet and jump on the band wagon with everyone else

but hey oh such is life
I had that gut feeling,
I thought it was just nerves with selling the house and the big move who knows
hindsight is a wonderful thing

shelly1

I didn't know about expats before we went out
if only... who knows.. i'm sure we would have still gone but i would have put my foot down with tony and never have agreed to selling the house, thats my biggest regret, but its easy for me to say that now, iv'e come out of the other side

Gremmie

I was deply moved by your last 2 posts,and must admit,i admire you honesty and courage in firstly sharing your expeirance,and admiting that you both didn't research your emigration to the full. And converying those errors to us,openly. Others here just try to shoot us down. I take my hat of to you.
The laws have changed here on drivers hours,the controlls on companies importing drivers are a lot tougher,.
Just hope you and your family manage too get back on your feet.
Best Regards Gremmie

citicat

I am over in lethbridge in alberta at the moment on a reccie and yes the food isnt as cheap as usa or the uk,
The locals are really polite and talkative we have stopped at a few so called truck stops and spoke to drivers and they say hours are long and pay is rubbish, this opened my eyes, 2 drivers said you can earn really good money if you are single driver and live in the truck all year you can earn $70k, Or owner operator $120k

electrical equipment televisions and tools are cheaper than uk but most other thigs are same price as uk,

Wife thought i was daft going to walmart this morning to price a pretend shopping check up this shop was just local items and offer items shop NOT looking only for uk foods, and price for 2 adults 1 child was $163 for 1 week shop, Clothing and trainer/shoes where cheaper,

And i have just had a cheese hotdog $2.69 and 50oz diet code $1.79 and a cheese & chives lays crisps $1.79 from 7eleven,

Just thought i would let you all know who havent been for a reccie yet,


mick

DAVIE_MAC

Shelly,

Many Many Thanks first of all for replying so honestly to my fairly direct questions.

I think what you have shown unfortunately for you and the family is the tragic circumstances which can arise if you do not research things fully and through no fault of your own believed what the companies had told you as gospel as you really back then had no reason to doubt them after all you should have been a valuable resource to them as even to this day drivers are in demand.

As has been said rules have now changed in the hiring and welfare of drivers BUT this is only I suppose if the companies implement it and really when it comes down to it the company will always come first and we are really expendable to them.

From what you were told it seems you were grossly miss advised and to put it another way shafted by them which has obviously had a devastating affect on the family, as you said once you sold the house trying to get back onto the ladder is fairly difficult I suppose the only thing in your favour was it was a short period of time so the prices shouldn’t have risen that much, BUT when you have used your savings going then coming back your pretty well screwed I would imagine & this has to be one of the most important decisions people must make prior to gaining PR status…sell or not……us included.

Hopefully things have moved on for you all now and there is light at the end of the tunnel….however you still seem unsettled and I feel for you all after all this is peoples lives some of these companies are playing with but I doubt they will lose much sleep over it.

Lorna_D

Shelly, this is the most constructive post I have read. I do feel for you in your position and we who are going out now can take head of these issues and hopefully not make the same mistakes.

We are not selling our house, or taking anything with us exept a goods to follow list until PR is approved. We are only two so will not have as many overheads or the responsibility to ensure our children are looked after well. We will rent a property which we haven'd done since we were first married but we are not prepared at this moment to buy until we know the area well.

As a few of the poster have stated the rules have been tighten by the government and each company has to have a robust business plan which clearly identifies salary, taxes, times of work, etc etc or they cannot employ overseas drivers. As to whether they live up to these rules, that is to be seen in our case.

When we get to Regina, I will ensure that I let people know what is happening in our case. I hope you put your life back on track soon.

DAVIE_MAC

I think this is very very important. As if people go out and experience things good or bad have hints and tips good or bad and have constructive info for families which are following so as to enable them to avoid pitfalls and make them more aware to "DIRTY" practices by unscrupelous companies then it can only be of a benefit to future Drivers or immigrants.

The immigrants following on will be more aware of things and ask more questions about the companies and they will not be able to Bullsh*t people and will have to tidy themselves up or lose their PNP employment status.

Unfortunately some won't share that info for fear of looking silly or not admitting to things that have happened to them or sometimes they just want to see people fall into the same trap and have a snigger at them so if it wasn't for famillies like Shelly posting on here then it could be a whole lot worse it's just unfortunate they had to suffer t tell the story......Thanks Shelly.

shelly1

Well my god i was waiting for the backlash and flaming arrow's
maybe i'll get them next week...

Thank you for your support and good wishes,
we still take a day at a time,
My own emotions are up and down daily, the girls have never looked back, tony just gets on with life (maybe thats his infantry training)
maybe it will always be like this, iv'e no idea i can't answer that, i'll tell you in a few more years.
We're doing ok, yes we lost a lot more than a lot of people will lose in a life time,
I'm so busy with work it keeps my mind off everything else, and i cope with that until i stop, its then that things get hard to cope with.

Iv'e spoken to many others that have been through the same as us, and its the loss of everything that you've worked hard for that gets to you most of all, so if you do have a choice keep all you've worked for especially your home.

It's made me realise what matters in life, and i'll fight tooth and nail for that, its not houses or mortgages or property ladders, furniture or material things although life would have been less stressful if we had kept our house
Its tony and the kids that matter and thats why i keep fighting.
I wish you all well
good luck to you all in whatever you decide to do
Michelle x

Big Truck

Probably the best post in this record breaking thread,
GO GIRL

chris12

Just to let you all know this link was sent to me by Robin Roach. from Seafood express. May be worth taking a look and a re think if your deciding on working in Canada in the main states. Exelent link i must say. http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/fea...kers070820.wmv

DAVIE_MAC

Excellent Thanks.

Been offered work with them and off to meet the company in a few weeks. Met the guy Dave's OH at the Expo last year eveyone seems great people and never heard a bad word said about PEI

Big Truck

Yes I agree very good video there, PEI is also quite a bit handier for flights back and forward to the UK,hope your Recce goes better than "Citicats" (so far) Davie-Mac!!!!

ejbsom

ive been watching this post for a couple of months now as my husband and i are hoping to go to alberta in feb 08 with H and R. Dont need telling how crap they are, i already know but o/h willing to give it a go any way. beats living in this country, and i am speaking from experiance as i used to live there. cant wait to go back.
I was just wondering why you post on this thread, ive only ever heard you say REPEATEDLY bad things about the whole canadian trucking experience. I cant understand, that is if you arent looking to go back, why you would spend all your spare time on here. Is it that since coming back you have nothing better to do. wouldnt your time be best spent doing some volunteer work? Not been funny, just genuinely curious!

Gremmie

We've tried this approach with him it doesn't work

ejbsom

maybe we should just all ignore him. thats what i tell my kids to do if one of the other kids are being mean of saying stupid things. my eldest used to get bullied at school coz he has freckles so one day he started saying to the bully "you're boring" after a while he didnt bother any more. We can live in hope cant we