My story of trucking in North America: 8 weeks on and things are great

Thursday, November 15, 2007

8 weeks on and things are great

Hi all,
please bear with me until I get the hang of using this website thingymajig.
Well its been 8 weeks to the day that I left sunny Darlo and flew into Calgary and so far so good.
I did the training that I needed to do and have been out on my own and let loose on the public. God help North America.
I work for H&R Transport who are based in Lethbridge which is in southern Alberta and drive trucks in both Canada and the USA.
Hopefully I will be able to keep this site updated and give you an insight into my life over here.
I hope you enjoy reading my posts and looking at the photos that I take on my travels

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Hi, just a thought here but when you post your blogs could you put the day, date and time? I think we would be able to relate better to it when reading.; November 27, 2007 at 6:16 AM
Montedarlo said...: Will do, point taken. Cheers; November 27, 2007 at 12:22 PM
Anonymous said...: orite uncle phil its matt thought i'd say hi sounds nice over there darlo has had bit of snow but i bet its nowt to over there hope you are well.; December 9, 2007 at 7:19 AM

Your bank, its your choice.

I have already covered a bit about credit here but something has come to light.
When you arrive in Canada you will be taken to a bank and an account will be opened for you.
You are no way obliged to open an account at a branch you dont want.
I have had a few hiccups lately with ATB, the latest being having to wait 2.5hrs to have it authorised for me to be able to but my new laptop as I was going over my daily withdrawl limit.
If you are not happy with your bank then you can always change it, just as I am about to do

Rubbish pic but I have seen it

The Salton Sea is an inland saline lake, occupying the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink, part of the larger Colorado Desert in Southern California, north of the Imperial Valley. The lake covers a surface area of approximately 376 square miles (974 km²), the largest in California. While it varies in dimensions and area due to changes in agricultural runoff and rain, it averages 15 by 35 miles (24 by 56 km), with a maximum depth of 51 feet (15½ m), giving a total volume of about 7.5 million acre-feet (9.3 km³). Sea inflow averages 1.36 million acre-feet per year (53.2 m³/s).

Facts about Canada

Canada invented the baseball glove in 1883
Canada does not own the North Pole.
Santa Claus does !!
Its population equates to 3 people per square Km
Canadians rank 6th in the worlds standard of living
Canada has almost 2 million lakes
Cigarettes and Alcohol are cheaper in the UK
Hockey is the national sport
The word Canada translates as "Village"
it has the longest highway,7604km long
Canada has 42 National parks
25% of the worlds fresh water is in Canada
Second largest country in the world
There are 3 oceans on 3 sides
Canada hs the worlds longest coastline
population is roughly 33 million
6 million of those speak french
It has six time zones

Winter is coming and its serious

A few weeks ago my night heater packed in through the night. I woke at 2am and the temp in the cab was -2. I was freezing in my pants and summer quilt. I told a canadian lad about it and received the biggest bollocking. How was I to survive if I got stuck somewhere for a few days in temps as low as -30 ? Basically I would die so the need for proper winter clothing is essential and needs to be in the front of the mind of lads coming over in the winter time. I have added a list of what I consider essentials and a rough guide to the prices.

Bank accounts and Credit

When you arrive in Canada you will be taken to open a bank account which is easy enough. Unless you can prove your credit worthyness from the UK its unlikely you will be offered a credit card. You will need one in the USA unless you pay cash for everything. The answer is to put cash up front. Mastercard/visa will give you a card if you put say $500 up front so in theory you are spending your own money but it will build you a credit history in Canada. Its worth budgeting for this before you arrive over here.