House Move

When they move house in Canada they move house

spotted near Chipman Alberta today with

three pilot cars

I had to wait while they pulled over for us to pass and when they are on the highway
i have seen them overtaking at 100kph

cattle cattle everywhere

If you read any of the bloggs on the Internet about truck driving in Canada then at some point you will here the term Brooks crop up, well this is a small town in south east Alberta right on the side of highway 1, and if you have driven passed Brooks then you will have noticed the massive Canadian flag flying at a big facility on the outskirts of the city, this is in fact Lakeside packers, one of the largest meat processing plants that i have ever seen or been to, and if you don't notice the huge flag then the smell of the feed lot across the road will have grabbed your attention

search you tube for lakeside packers fly over and watch its just amazing how many cattle you see [i cant seem to get it on here]

The Feed lot holds 78.000 cattle when full

Once passed this point the cattle are put into holding pens and moved when there time has come, they move into smaller pens and then up a walk Way into the pant there they walk then are carried by a conveyor the last few feet,

lakeside packers work two shifts starting at around five in the morning, and can finish in the early hours of the next morning depending how the day goes and or if they have a breakdown and in this time they will process around 5.000 head approx 25.000 a week.
Now that's a lot of Beef


The salt i have taken there is used for treating the hides,[ three to four loads a week] once the hides have been fleshed and trimmed they are cooked in a strong salt solution before being packed by hand onto pallets and then loaded into containers ready for shipment all over north America and the world Hide from here often go to japan and south Korea and can be in containers for three months.
Hides are a commodity just like gold and silver and can change hands and be traded before reaching there final destination.


At the other end of the plant the Beef in packed and shipped all over North America and the company above is just one of many transporting it to customers


if anybody wants to add to this feel free and of course it is the opinion of myself and the information i have gathered
Canadian beef is the best tasting beef i have tasted
and is best served blue with pepper sauce and fries

Geese Geese And more Geese

This time of year the Geese head south for winter and the sky can be full of them if you look closely there are thousands here, these are heading north though cos i had just walked down the the small lake and made them fly off in my hi vis jacket

when they land on the stubble field to feed on the grain left after the combine and your not allowed to shoot them until after 12 noon

as they need to feed for the journey south

This is my office not at all like a European truck and there are gauges for just about everything, this one is a 2008 and comes with a satellite radio which is grate and has just about every type of music on there and even God channels if that's what you need in your life, i have Radio one, a new country channel called highway and NASCAR tuned in on mine it also has a CD, am, and FM too
And the reason i have all this time to take pictures is that its broke down again, i parked up in consort AB to tip salt the next day and when i came to start it next morning it started for 30 seconds then cut out . All electrical power had gone a 400amp fuse had blown in the battery box, so a major short out probably the starter and there are four battery's on here, its 12v but has 24v starting i think,just pleased i don't have to change the battery's as the wiring in there is like wow which one do if you know Wat i mean, anyway i was there all day until another truck was hauled out to me and i could tip and carry on.
The new truck is an automatic and really nice to drive as i don't have to think about
changing gears
this was my second load on my own the first was to Brooks AB and if you read these bloggs this place comes up quite a bit with another company also red trucks, they haul out of hear and we haul salt in but our side aint quite so nice as theres, i think there is another blogg on here that hauls the live cattle in
I will cover this place on anther page as its huge nothing like it in GB or Europe i think.

So Do You Want To Be A North American Truck Driver

So if you fancy joining me and becoming part of the Westcan team.

Professional Truck Drivers

class 1 or equivalent licence

1 year - 7 or 8 Axel experience

Clear driving abstract

Heavy duty Technicians

Journeyman or 3rd/4 year apprentice

Tractor and or trailer experience

Flexible shifts with variable start times- both day and afternoon shifts available

various terminal locations available in

Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia

Please feel free to contact me so i can put you in touch with the appropriate people

markburton36@ hotmail.com

with the subject of jobs @ westcan

Better Let You Know Who I Work For Know

Its been a long time coming and i wanted to keep it quite who i was going to work for for my own personal reasons, and also until i had made up my own mind about Westcan and spoken to the terminal manager about this blogg and got there approval for it, i just used the term

THE COMPANY

But i have and it is

Its taken a long time to get this far and a bloody LONG ROAD has been traveled, and if you have read this from the start then you will know all about it.

I started my follow trip week with one of the oldest Mack Trucks we have in Saskatoon
but it had been cleaned and after spending the summer parked in the back field it was a seasonal truck now and needed it.

so after a pre trip and some air in the tires [i have 32 ]we set off to load salt [salt is a by product from the Saskatchewan potash mines] for Rocky mountain house in Alberta in the foot hills of the Rocky's.

Once loaded we set off and was nice not to turn left in Qyen for Brooks AB

We tipped next morning and headed to Edmonton to load salt again for rocky mountain house my next load was for Nordegg about a 100km past RMH and my instructions were, when you turn off the paved road put your inter Axel lock in you will need it as you will be in 2nd gear going up the gravel road hill oh and your on your own i will meet you there

I was met at the bottom by an escort and off we went up the hill and no i didn't make it all the way up i just couldn't change down quick enough and had to start in bull low but after that no problems i was on my second hopper when my trainer turned up.

Why they had to put a salt shed so far off the hi way i will never know!!!!

back to Edmonton for a quick one to Leduc before loading fert back to our own warehouse in Saskatoon.

while we were waiting for our hoppers to dry in the sun after having them washed, i got a can com message to swap trucks [ bloody hell not even a week in the same truck] i was happy with the old girl then i saw the number and it was a fairly new truck only 18 months old so reluctantly i moved my gear over lol.

apparently i had to change because the old truck had a Jack shaft[PTO] and was needed for anhydrous ammonia going up to peace river

So quite, the gear change nice and precise, and i could hear the Mack fitted satellite radio and that's just going out of Westcans Edmonton terminal,

a couple of hours later we were on our way back to Saskatoon arriving later that night, i parked up and went home for the night, then on Friday i unloaded the fertiliser into our own large warehouse whilst being watched by our safety guy just to make sure i did things the right way, i did and i was signed off good to go

so i am a North American trucker with a T

I could get used to this but don't hold you breath mark it cant be assigned to me for too long but i will enjoy it while i can

This trucks got a 495 Volvo engine most of the older Macks have a 460hp mack engines [Renault] we have some automatics but most of the others have 18 speed Eaton Fuller boxes standard in most American trucks

Beaver Creek

Beaver creek is a conservation area 15 minutes from home right by the south Saskatchewan river

looking north toward the city

This is Beaver Creek flowing into the river

all but a few leaves are now gone

There are a number of trails which you can walk its not a huge area but nice for a Sunday afternoon walk, there is plenty of wildlife chipmunk's, deer, birds that feed from you hands
but we didn't see any beavers lol and at 24 degrees hot
Not bad for the 3rd of October.

In Cab Driver Training Finished

well i have just compleated my in cab driver training, this is mainly training you on the Can Com, and is where we get paid from and which it seems every large trucking company in Canada run, and also just to make sure your ok with the weights we carry, as most euopean drivers have not carried 44 tons of product in two trailers with a gross weight of 63.500kg. [super B] [8 axels]

the trucks take a long time to reach 100kph and take a long time to stop too and just keep rolling and you have to use your jake and not your brakes and really think about intersections and turning

Its so nice to have our stuff arrive from England at last

It seems such a long time ago now since the removal company came to pack our belongings to send on to Canada. It was monday July 12th and it has finally arrived, September 15th. I had to be at customs for 9.30 Mark was away working so it was down to myself to take all the relevant paperwork to John G Diefenbaker International Airport and meet our driver Rick. Our container left the port in Liverpool and landed at Montreal in The province of Quebec.Then from there it travelled by train .west across canada to Vancouver in The province of British columbia. Thus passing saskatoon which is in the province of Saskatchewan. WHY??? not really sure. Then from vancouver it came back again by truck via Edmonton ,swift current to finally arrive at our home on Wilson Crescent in Saskatoon . Our stuff had travelled 11,934 km, thats 6.4km to the £. The officer at customs asked me a few simple questions about the stuff we were bringing into the country and took photo copies of passports etc and that was basically it. I didnt even see the truck untill it arrived outside the house. It was one huge artic truck. Within an hour the stuff was checked off and placed in the house in whichever rooms i requested it to go. So now all i have to do is unpack it all. I have started on a couple of boxes and it feels great to have our own stuff at last now the house is starting to feel like our home. and one last thing we had NOT ONE THING BROKEN and marks tool boxes where so well packed he cant decide what to do with the crates.

Canada so far so good

This was our home for 7 weeks, this is the living area before we even had camping chairs.

This is the lovely bathroom
This is the kitchenette.

Well at last we are starting to feel like canada is our new home. The kids are at school and mark is finally starting work on monday.I am off to the local school to join the monday night yoga class and our house is starting to feel like our home.For the last 7 weeks we have been living in the basement of the house which is very nice with 2 good size bedrooms a kitchenette and a bathroom and living area a very nice space for anyone wishing to visit us. But we have been sitting on camping chairs and sleeping on airbeds and have had no tv so we spent every evening watching dvds on the laptop. we hired them from a little shop on the corner called buddies.Its just like the local shops in England but without the alcohol. In canada if you want that you have to go to a liquor store you cant even buy it in the supermarkets.It is also very expensive to buy so drinking is limited to the weekends only but that is not such a bad thing.I am finding the food shopping quite an experience too everything comes in bulk.I am guessing this is so you can freeze it for the winter months but it also works out alot cheaper to buy it that way.Anyway we have managed nicely one good thing was that the basement didnt take much cleaning i could do it all in half an hour lol.Whilst we were down there we tended to go out alot rather than staying in as it was very dark down there and not alot to do but it gave us a good opportunity to go check out some of the great places in and around where we are living.

At Last I Have My Class 1 A

Today i passed my pre, trip air brake practical and road test,and boy does it feel good,

i can now go out and earn some money.

well that is when i have done my in cab training and follow on time, but at least i will now get a pay cheque every two weeks.

I am not sure what other British drivers do to get there 1 A but here in Saskatchewan it ain't that easy as everybody i have spoken to has taken theirs at least twice and some even more.

Back in July i wrote my computer tests and passed all of them with no problem so i booked the road test pre trip and practical air brake and the test was set for August 27th @1pm bloody hell that's almost a month away, in the meantime i took the company's truck out for a spin,first just round the extensive yard, round and round and round, up and down the gears trying to get the hang of the 18 speed Eaton fuller box, then when a driver brave enough to jump in with me, we went out on the highway first out on the range roads and after a while into the city.

one of the training company's that i saw downtown was Maximum training and they had western stars and a couple of Peterbilts all long wheel base with full length trailers [53ft] and i thought that was just out of order in the city center i just had a lead hopper which was only about 45ft with the axles right on the rear should be a breeze [i thought].

mid month i spent four days down in Moose Jaw at the company school

on returning i carried on with my own training for the road test and pre trip until the Friday of my test.

Test day arrived and we set off for town and parked in the required spot and waited for the examiner to show up, next to me was a Peterbilt number 05 from Maximum training waiting too for a test, the two examiners arrived and we both set about our pre trip and air brake.

just short of two hours later i pulled up back in the bus terminal which i had left earlier

well sir you have a bit of work to do on your pre trip and air and i knew i had ballsed the road test up when i didn't stop at a right turn on red [just creep ed forward] oh well it was good experience but it don't pay the bills.

after a weekend off trying not to get two down hearted i went back in to SGI in Saskatoon to book another test in the next week or so.

Bloody hell September 23rd @1pm i really need to do something now, check for cancellation etc, so i went into work and talked with the safety guy, i had been thinking of taking a course now as i wanted to and needed to start earning, and that's watt he suggested to me .

Maximum training was booked there and then and i started a 5 day course the next day yes and in a Peterbilt too with a 53ft trailer.

Five days later i am sitting in the bus terminal waiting for my test in 05 but this time at the end i knew i had passed the air and pre trip its just the road test and it was a good to go ending

GOOD JOB

Thanks

Gary, Wayne, Brian

Back To School In Moose Jaw

This was a first for me, i had never done a orientation to a company like the one i did this week. Back in the UK when ever i started a new job you probably went in the Saturday before collected the keys to your truck ,ran through a few details with the owner or transport manager, usually just give them your P45 and bank details and pick up a new pair of gloves and a shirt or two if they could be bothered to supply them stow your stuff in a cleaned out truck, pick your trailer up if loaded and head off home , all on a Saturday morning.

This one was just a bit different, last week i was given a itinerary of what were going to do and on the bottom was a phone number of the guy i would be going with , he was on the way over right now and would be arriving in Saskatoon Friday or Saturday morning [it was Tuesday] and he was coming from Ontario.

Terry was his name and i rang him Friday to arrange a pick up on Sunday, as by this time he would be coming from Big River two and a half hours north of Saskatoon, and at the prescribed time of 6 pm he knocked at the door.

I kissed Louise, said buy to the kids and jumped in the chevy and we headed south to Moose Jaw where we had rooms booked in the comfort inn, ready for the 8am start Monday morning.

Tim Hortons must be the busiest place any morning of the week and with coffee in hand we headed for the purpose built training suite above the offices for a quick safety run down we got down to work.

The course content included;

1. Policy & Procedures for the group of companys
2. Transportation of Dangerous goods [TDG]
3. Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System [WHMIS]
4. Hours of Service
5. Payroll
6. In Cab Computer Training
7. Safety Management System
8. Smiths Training
9. Brake Adjustment/inspections
10. Back Basics[practical training in the yard]

As always with a group of people, after a while you realise there are a few characters , and with this bunch there was some.

Nine people in the group three from Europe [Irish, Dutch, British] fresh into the country, one guy from Finland that's been here for years and was the oracle, he knew everything about everything and he did, and one from Bosnia, who also had been in Canada for some time, all the others were Canadians, eight of us were drivers and one was a new safety guy for the group

50 Storys In 15 Months

Now you dont see it April 2009

Now you do July 2010

looking north from the tower there are men working on the top steelwork bolting new steel work in place

Now you dont see it Apiril 2009 looking toward the airport

Now you do July 2010, and there were men on the top of this too, we watched as steel beams were lifted right from ground amazing

Got Our Own Wheels At Last

Saturday Jak and me headed off to PBR auctions, located right at the north side of Saskatoon, we had been before to checkout what was available and see how much cars and trucks were and had decided once our money had arrived that's where we would get a vehicle.

Friday we had checked the stock out and had earmarked two vehicles one was a Chevy Colorado [ Isuzu Rodeo] which there were three but only one that we liked and the other was this

Dodge Dorango

9.30 prompt and the auction began, with our first choice coming through soon after, We had set our self a budget as what to spend so as not to go mad and end up spending to much, as we had to get it licenced the same day too.

Well it went right passed our budget and i didn't even get to bid
so we waited for the others to come and they went passed to, looks like the hire company will be on a winner again this week , then the dodge came along and the bidding started and i was listening to the auctioneer, might as well been in a foreign language cos he was talking so fast, but all of a sudden my right arm jerked up and i was away, no stopping me now Jak keep quite i need to listen and with a couple more nods of the cap and i had bought a Dodge bloody hell i thought lets go and have another look ,not sure why cos we had bought it.

Nice car , black and grey leather three rows of seats and just about every thing on it fully loaded as they say.

got the paperwork and headed to town to get it licenced

Now if i was back in the UK and just bought a car you would have to get it insured [ring round for the best quote] get some tax on it oh sorry sir its Saturday afternoon and they are all shut, not here in Saskatchewan one stop shop get the plates pay the money get the registration with my name and address on [they even had my picture on there computer screen when i gave them my SK licence ] and hey your ready to go which is just what i did

Six Out Of Eight Passed Today

Here is a little light reading i have been doing for the last few days

the Air Brake Manual

Saskatchewan Professional Drivers Handbook

and

Saskatchewan Drivers Handbook

a guide to safe driving

Today was my first lot of tests here in Saskatoon , i passed my

written Basic

written class 4

written class 3

written class 2

written class 1

written air brake

these were all done at SGI here in Saskatoon and are done on the computer so all that's left is the practical air brake, a pre trip test [ circle check] and of course the road test in a truck from my employers.

I decided to challenge the test and not do a course with a trainer and save myself $2000 as most of the other British drivers here have done the same, even met a guy from P C Howard

SGI is the regulatory body that you are tested by here in Saskatchewan they are also the organisation where you register you vehicles and get your plates, when doing so you get your basic insurance at the same time [its all in one]

We Are On Our Way

Today we fly off to Canada to start a new adventure

its the 18th July at 7am outside my mums house where we stopped the night and my good mate Conrad picked us up to take us to Manchester airport where we were flying .
from

we arrived in Calgary cleared immigration and getting my work permit, picked up the hire car and headed for the hotel for the night.

Next day we showed the kids around Calgary and took them up the tower so they could have a good look round, and it was amazing how much building had gone on since the last time we where here, [15 months] there was a building of about 50 floors just sprang up blocking the view toward the airport, then it was time to head east toward Saskatchewan, the company had booked a room for us in a hotel they use as the basement we were going to rent for a while was to say the least a bit bare of sleeping equipment well in Fancy any stuff what so ever
603km later we arrived in Saskatoon headed for the hotel and grabbed some food oh and a couple of beers, next day we headed for the basement to find out what we had got and were pleased to find a smallish basement clean and tidy,[THE HOBBIT HOLE] which would do us for a few weeks so we could find somewhere to live permanently, i had arranged to go into the company on Wednesday to say hi and find out what i had to do

Removal Day today

Today the guys from Anglo Pacific turned up to take our stuff we were expecting at least a small truck with Anglo Pacific on the side but all we got was a old rental luton transit [just don't look right ANGLO PACIFIC] still they came in with military precision and packed everything that was to go and even some things that weren't still we did get them back out the boxes, i had packed 15 boxes with mainly my stuff from the garage and they packed another 24 so in total 197cubic feet but some of this was converted from crating my toolboxes and off it went in to the sunset or was it rain,down to park royal in London

Today We Finished Work

Today we both finished work, What a funny feeling not to have a job, and its your choice that you have not got one, bit different from last time.
Louise finished at hers and will be going out on Monday with the girls, its all top secret as yet to where she is going, and i will be going out with whoever wants to come on Friday the 9th as i was going to finish then but decided to finish now due to the amount of stuff still left to do and i want the last week to be a bit more chilled.
As i went round during the last few days saying goodbye the those i wanted to see, a lot said you got some balls to be doing that, i wish i could do what your doing well you can just do it like all the rest of the people have done.
I made some good friends whilst there [15 years in all] [ I will put a photo on after we meet on the 9th] and its been a laugh at times but now is the time to look forward past the 18th July at our new life in the great white north.

How Much Crap

I cant believe that there is so much crap to get rid of when you sort your house out, i mean if you move within the UK or your own country ,you just take it with you !!!!! But if your moving overseas and not taking anything except personal stuff what the hell do you do with it as its not worth jack to anybody else, but you have spent years collecting things you need so its worth more to you and i hate just dumping stuff and when you do car boots you just want to smack them when they say i give you 50p for it its second hand

we booked out flights to canada

well its happened ,we booked our flights to Canada, we will be flying out of great Britain on the 18th of July at 13.30 from Manchester to Calgary to start my new job in Saskatoon, and its the kids first ever flight and will be stopping in Calgary overnight then driving to Saskatoon the next day so we have one or two things to sort out before so i had better get on .

Its here my LMO

Exactly one year to the day after being told we wont be going to Canada, my LMO landed in my in box, as i have said before in the blog i have been patient and kept in touch through the tough times and now the company has come good for us

So now they want to know when we will be arriving in Canada to book my air brake test and class 1 A test, and that decision will be made this week.

We will be using Anglo pacific for our move [Sean Treacy 07921057245] as they gave us the best deal on our personal items, we will not be taking any furniture with us and are going as group age and you only pay for space you use pro rata and is a door to door service.

386 days

Can you believe its 386 days since i had my interview with the company in Saskatoon and what drops into the in box of my e mail but a contract of employment, and to be honest all i wanted was my dinner.

Its been a long time coming but at no point did i, sorry we, ever think that it would not come, from that point last June when we got the e mail saying that they would not be hiring any foreign drivers we had hope, and i dont think that i have ever worked so hard on something that i wanted out of life, a dream of becoming a North American or even a Canadian trucker

Had a Canadian Ring today

Well i had a Canadian ring me today and ask if i was still interested in a trucking job in New Brunswick?
I have spent the last 12 months with no canadian job now i could have two!!!!!

police checks are back from ACPO

At last, the two police checks that we have been waiting for have returned, so over a cuppa they were scanned and sent on their way to Saskatoon, along with our pre employment medical forms and my D4,

D4 and pre employment medical @ £114
Louises medical @ £80
police checks x 2 @ £70

now we have to wait and see what happens next

July, August and beyond

Where do we go from here, our dream of making a new life in Canada has been shattered and with no other plans for our future i didn't know what to do ,so i just got on with my life, our life.

I of course checked the Internet searching for another position in Canada, applying on line to some and just sending e mails to others, flat decks, hopper bottoms and even cattle liners these would be right up my street as i am from a farming family, but the thing i hate most is when people don't reply to you , i realise that people are busy and maybe getting numerous job applications but a quick reply saying [sorry we cant help at this time ] is all that's needed you just know where you stand then.

I was even given the numbers for a couple of company's that were looking for drivers but even these could not help as they had no LMOs or were not in the program anyway, if i had landed status then no problem

Then one day i noticed that H&R Transport of Lethbridge were coming over in September to the UK looking for drivers again, and were having interviews up in the north east should i mail them and have another go, na i had been there before and it didn't end well so i told a mate of mine [Mark Bowdin] that they were coming and suggested to him to have a go, what had he got to lose, at least he didn't have to go to Canada for his interview ,just a couple of hours up the A1, he did and he got one.

Meanwhile as they say i had been doing just as i was told , too keep in touch with the company i had had the interview with in Saskatoon, normally on a Friday afternoon just as he was about to go home, so as not to interfere with his work to much and i must say that at no time did i feel he did not want to talk to me

September was coming and my thoughts were back to H & R and getting an interview with them, so i decided to send a E mail right to the heart of the company, David Foder and ask him to see me up in Newcastle , this i thought would cut out the agent and give me a better chance, so i sat down and compiled a good letter i thought, not begging either well if you don't ask ya don't get.

And i didn't get , not a thing not even a sorry we cant help at this time thing either, i wont try again or put people i know and respect in that sort of position again !

November

For the first time since June the job situation was brought up in the conversation and i didn't bring it up either, he said that in there conference call the requirements for 2010 had been discussed and that they were aware that they would need to hire drivers and these drivers would have to come from abroad, as the pool of domestic drivers were heading back to there original haunts

January 2010

I had spoken to the company since November just to wish him a happy Christmas etc and to find out any more on the job front, but it was the end of the month that was the start of things to come.

Yes they were starting the process of taking on foreign workers again and yes they are going to hire me and yes i was at the top or very near the top of the list BUT there LMOs had run out and that meant they would have to apply for them and that would take a few weeks and there was no guarantee that they would get them.

April 2010

10 long weeks later

At last they had got the LMOs that they required, but far fewer than they had in previous years, but a least they had them. so what was next for us, well i was now in contact with the Driver Relations and admin assistant, They asked for a couple of documents that were on file and i duly sent them over by email, next came the police checks and they asked us to have medicals one for me as a driver and one for Louise just to make sure we arnt going to drop dead anytime.

Mine was the D4 driving licence medical that all drivers have to take when they apply for a licence or get to their 45th birthday and as this was creeping up on me i had to do it anyway, i also had their company medical that they sent over for pre employment, this was done at the same time as the D4.

Louise just did the pe employment medical that would be sufficient for now as we knew that once over there we would have to do a big one for the sinp. As i have said before this company likes to have all documentation sorted before you go over, or even get a job offer and Louise and i have said that when it all starts to happen we will be here one day and gone the next

so its May the 9th and we are still waiting for the police checks to come back,[ just over 15 working days] so we can scan them and send them off

June 2009 Is This The End Of Our Dream

Well we have finally got all the required documents that the company have asked us to get

so i put them all in a zipped file and sent them off to Saskatoon.

Our house was still on the market but we hadn't had many people come to view over the last few weeks, so we lowered the price by a good chunk hoping to get some interest,I also changed the agent to see if that made any difference, as we needed to sell to be able to take the capital out to set up in Canada

Then on the June 4th 2009 we received a Email from the company stating that

Due to the economic situation and the workload of the company they would not be offering me or any other foreign worker a position within the company and that they realise that this would be a huge disappointment to Louise and myself, and if we would like to keep in touch then when things get better the situation can be reevaluated!!!!!!!!!

Well i don't think anybody could really understand how gutted, disappointed we felt after reading that e mail.

To say the world had imploded on us was a understatement, we had worked so hard to get the interview in the first place its not just one of those jobs where i just sent a few e mails to company's and ended up getting a interview over the phone, nor was it a quick thing where it looks a good idea i will give it a try type of thing, i had worked hours and hours on my resume to get it looking just right and had a lot of help from people in Canada [thanks to them they know who they are] we had researched and researched so we knew just what we were letting ourselves in for, and just what we wanted and where we wanted to be and that was,

Saskatoon Saskatchewan

A few days later i just had to ring and speak to the company to find out just what was happening ,one thing for sure we weren't going to Canada and i needed to find out for myself man to man so to spake.

Well it was a long conversation and on my mobile, but that didn't matter i had asked the questions i wanted and got the answers i needed to try and rebuild our lives we weren't going to Canada but at least i knew the reasons why.

When we came out of the interview in Saskatoon we both felt that this company was the right trucking company for us and that they certainly thought more of us and me ,i mean i wasn't just a Brit bloke that wanted to be a north American trucker, i had a pulse and two legs and could drive a truck and never mind about the rest of the family tagging along, we felt that they wanted the whole package and for us to be a secure family unit in a secure job long term as they would be going to be investing their money in us too, and we would be using our money to settle in the area.

When you enter the world of a Provincial nominee you are really tied to the one company until you become a landed immigrant, and if you jack or get fired or get laid off due to the economic position of the country or world in this case, then its very difficult to get another position its not impossible but very difficult, so this was one of the reasons he said to me that it would probably financially ruin us if they brought us over then in a few months had to let us go as when any company lays off they have to layoff foreign workers first and really the only place to go would be home back to the UK

I DON'T THINK ANYBODY THOUGHT THAT THIS WORLD RECESSION WOULD HIT SO HARD

We talked for some time then when all avenues had been talked over we said goodbye and i had decided to take his advise and keep in touch.

over the next few weeks i thought about what we had talked about and the more i knew he had made the right decision not to take us on at that time, we took the house off the market and got on with our lives

May 2009 Find Scan Save

The best thing about working for an agency is that the start times gives you plenty of time to do what you want, and this month i have used that time to gather a lot of the information that i require for the move we plan to Saskatoon Saskatchewan and my new career as a long haul truck driver

Some of the things that the Saskatchewan's government require for permanent residency

Birth certificates for all family

where everybody over the age of 18 has lived since they were 18

where everybody over 18 has worked since they were 18

and not to have any gaps in dates, although these last two are from a Federal form

boy am i pleased i got a scanner printer

Back Home April 2009

We landed back in the UK early morning and it was grey damp and cold, and by the time we got through customs we were starting to feel tired as you never get much sleep on these flights and anyway had spent the last couple of hours talking to two people in front of us [Bob and Jean].

we jumped on the coach to the car park and back to the Trooper which was covered in jet fuel from the aircraft flying overhead.

Ah the M 25 at rush hour

anyway two and half hours later we got home.

After we had had a real cup of tea,we fetched the dog and the kids not necessarily in that order, and the same day, we settled down to make a list of things that we needed to do and get so as to be out in Canada before the cut off time of October.As this company will not take new foreign drivers on after this due to the fact that they like some miles under your belts before the ice comes, as the weights are up to 62 tons and they will park you up if their not confident with your driving.

The company we had seen in Saskatoon had asked us to compile all the documents that would be needed to be put forward for Saskatchewan immigrant nominee program [sinp] there are several reasons for this, but two are that they will be spending a lot of money bringing me over training and getting us set up in Saskatoon ,and not to mention our own expense setting up home, and one of the others is that its easier to get most of these documents whilst we are still in the UK

From Canmore to the airport in calgary and home

The problem with Canada is you just keep taking pictures thinking when i get home i will sort them out and delete the ones we don't need, thing is you just don't

Somewhere that Louise wanted to visit was Lake Louise we can only imagine watt the place looks like in the summer, hopefully soon we will find out as the interview went well and we only had to get some paperwork sorted , we could be out here by October


This is Lake Louise all frozen over

As you can see from this the standard of some vehicles is questionable , no rear bumper ,exhaust dragging on the highway and only one rear brake light, i would say a prime candidate for a tug from Mr highway patrol

Now this is something to aim for, I just love these trucks

Not a cloud in the sky as we drove out of the Rocky Mountains toward Calgary

A perfect ending to a recce trip, an interview with a prospective employer and our first holiday abroad together oh and 2500 km in the Dodge

CALGARY

The last view of Calgary we had but soon we would be returning to start a new exciting life as a long haul truck driver in the big white north.

We left Canada with heavy hearts i for one did not want to go home i felt this just meant to be our new home

OH CANADA

Banff and sulpher Mountain

We came off the high way again to explore Banff the ski resort

This is a Monster Bus and was parked at the bottom of Sulphur mountain cable car, it is from the ice fields parkway ideal for commuting on the M 25



The town of Banff

At the top of sulphur mountain there is a restaurant and gift shop usual tourist stuff but also there is a bit of Canadian history with the highest weather station located at the top of the next peak ,i think this is the top of sulphur mountain ,and you get to it by walking along the raised walkway you can see in the picture.

The station is a stone hut about 10ft square with a window and door , and is still fitted out as it would have been years ago, and was manned 24/7 no cable car in those days
this is where our profile picture was taken

Loads of livestock in Canada they just stand by the road with not a care in the world

Two Jacks in April 2009

silence is golden

Banff and lake Louise

We set out into the mountains on high way one and into the Banff National park, after paying at the booth, and after days in the prairies we just loved the mountains and trees, although the weather was not bright and sunny it still looked brilliant

As we came to the entrance to the park we realised we had to pay,it was only a few dollars so we didn't mind paying as it goes toward animal crossings and the rangers
it didn't take long before we turned off the high way and followed the signs we just had to have a look at everything, most of the signs were for the summer months as the lake was frozen and the camp ground shut

the picture below is of the lake called Two Jacks

The Road to Canmore

The miles ticked by and the scenery didn't really change much just flattish rolling fields all brown and frost burnt, we stopped for food in a small town that was just made up of fuel stations and burger joints.

As it got dark i had to then keep an eye out for deer as we had seen plenty since we left Saskatoon, and the last thing i wanted is a white tailed deer as a bonnet mascot.

At one point on the trip i had sat there with the Dodge in cruise control and no hands on the steering wheel for maybe 30 miles , this road was as strait as if someone had just drawn it with a ruler, maybe they had.

As we got nearer Calgary the road system started to have some bends and turns, we bypassed Calgary to the north via Airdrie and on to some very small roads with cattle grids,it was pitch black now as we were heading for 1 am but in the dark i could see mountains rising up above us then we dropped on to high way 1 for the last few miles pulling up outside the hotel at 1.45 am

Louise had said to me that she had never seen real mountains, i mean not really high ones and that when she opened the curtains in the morning she would like to see mountains

This is watt she saw from our window

The three sisters

The hotel from the front

Leaving Saskatoon mission accomplished

We fueled up before we left Saskatoon as we had been told that after Kindersley there only a few petrol stations open and as our next hotel was 753km away it was going to be a long night, we were heading for Canmore in the Rockies for a couple of days of trees and mountains

going green meant another thing near Kindersley when we came across these John Deer combines i have never seen so many in one place and watt you see here is only a small number, also near here was a lot with hundreds of Chevy pick ups row after row all new ,i suppose it was the economic downturn that had slowed sales

When we in the UK set our sat navs its very rare that we get a strait road let alone when it tells you that the next turn is 300 miles


this is a very common sight in Saskatchewan in fact there are more of these than trees on the prairies

Tuesday 14th April 2009 interview day

We have been waiting for this day to come for such along time, and our entire future could depend on this interview.

The meeting would be at their main terminal in Saskatoon at 2pm ,we had already checked the location out so all we had to do is turn up and walk in.

As Saskatoon is the largest city in Saskatchewan it also has a number of transportation company's that have there head office or at least a large terminal, here are some of which you may have heard of,

The Yanke group

The Siemens group have there head office in Saskatoon

which include

Edge transportation

HWT

Quill transport

Kindersley transport

and also

Westcan bulk transport

Titan transport

The day started as usual with breakfast and coffee, and as Louise didn't drink much coffee before we came to Canada she sure has got in to the Canadian way and whilst another top up we got talking to our waitress Heather who told us all about the town she lived in [ Warman ] Which is located just outside the city to the north east of Saskatoon she also said she would get us a list of Brits living in Warman ,which she did before we left ,including phone numbers.

The rest of the morning was spent looking round Saskatoon anything that would take my mind off the interview there are some great shopping malls .

But the best shop we went in was wholesale sports ,they had everything you could want for the outdoor life camping, shooting, fishing, and i mean everything.

We jumped back in the Dodge and headed up the road for our meeting, pulling into the car park we sat there thinking about what was about to happen, probably the most important interview we would ever have ,we had come all this way to convince them that they wanted to hire me as a long haul truck driver !

lets do it

At 2pm we went in and found the office, as they were undergoing a major refit of all the offices the person we wanted was out in the yard in a porta cabin, once in we were made very welcome and just had to wait for the terminal manager to finish what he was doing then we went up to his office overlooking the yard and workshops.

Two and a half hours later we came out, wow that was some interview , we were told that we had to go home to the UK and collate all the required documents for the Saskatchewan immigrant nominee program [SINP] as they like to make sure all the documents can be found as its a lot easier to get some while you are still in the UK and as long as we can then we would be OK.

I then had the opportunity to take a truck out on a road test with the safety manager just to make sure i could drive, so after doing a quick pre trip type check over i jumped in and we set off out the yard and on to the highway for a few miles and back as i had driven a Eaton twin splitter before i soon got the hang of this fuller 18 speed without losing too mean teeth from the gearbox as most Canadian and American trucks still have a crash box.

I pulled back in the yard and parked up ,walking back to the porta cabin with a grin a mile wide once in finding the girls looking at houses to rent in nearby Warman and Martensville, a thumbs up from the safety guy we said our good buys and left.

Well looks like we could be heading for Canada fairly soon we said as we sat in the Dodge but lets go and have a look round Warman before we head off to our next hotel.

Saskatoon

After we had found our hotel and booked in etc we headed off to downtown Saskatoon, we had seen a video of the city on a web site but it looked nothing like that now, the cold Saskatchewan winter had taken its toll.

so we parked the Dodge and head off on foot, the walkways meanders along the banks of the south Saskatchewan river which is quite wide at this point, the whole setting was of a parkland type with wide footpaths that joggers and cyclist's use even now in the very early spring and you could imagine cross country skiers using them in the mid winter when snow lay on the ground.
The bridge you can see in the picture above is one of Severn that cross this river in Saskatoon allowing the 250,000 people that live here to move freely from one side to the other.

The river had been totally frozen over during winter but parts of it had now broken up and was floating downstream revealing large sandbanks with fast flowing water, a far cry from when pelicans swim and fish in the river.

The city of Saskatoon has a four season year with temperatures ranging from +30 in the summer months to -30 in the winter it also has the most recorded hours of sunshine than any other major city in Canada.

Over 6000 years of first nations history has been recorded in this area and this is celebrated at the Wansukewin heritage park nearby, Saskatoon also has the Ukrainian museum of Canada the Diefenbaker Canada centre, and the western development museum.

We spotted this critter as we walked along on the side of the river it is about 14inches long without the tail.

What a lovely sunset to end the day, as we walked back to the Dodge along 20th street east down by the bandstand
Tomorrow we go to see about a new life here in Canada and in this great city of Saskatoon.