A reality check.

About Me

I am a truck driver; I have always been a truck driver and probably always will.
I know my job and very rarely can I have the wool pulled over my eyes.
I have driven trucks in more than 25 countries and have covered what must be millions of miles over a 24 year period.
I consider myself to be a rare breed; I enjoy my job to such an extent that if I did not need the money I would do it as a hobby.
I am not a “dreamer” nor am I a “liar”. Yes I am from this planet and no, I do not pleasure myself too much.
I am not a Mentor, Prophet, God or a Guru. I write about what happens to me, things that affect me, how I handle situations and the way my life is panning out.

About this Blog

This Blog was created with the intention giving my family and friends a way to keep up with my travels and how I am keeping. As far as I am concerned that is the reason why I keep it up to date and post regularly.
However, I now have readers from all over the world who, thanks to the Internet have a portal to virtually travel with me and share my experiences.
This Blog is not a recruitment advertisement for the company I work for, nor is it a stone tablet into which is written the rules of driving and living in Canada.
Everything written is how I see it, if I express an opinion then that’s all it is, an opinion. If I write about my wages, hours I have worked or anything factual then its fact and can be proven.
At times, if asked, I will give advice to drivers looking to come and work in Canada. This is given with the best intentions and is nearly always based on my observations and experiences.
Occasionally, some of the things I say are taken out of context or I express details which may be privy to certain parties. I have no problem with editing or removing part of a post should this situation arise, likewise if a post is deemed to be offensive. However if I express an opinion or a thought then it will most likely not be removed as that’s all it is…an opinion or thought.
Finally I would like to thank you all for reading and taking the time out to log in. As always your comments are appreciated and can be left at the bottom of each post by clicking the “comments link.

Bad start to the week but picking up now.

This is the view I have had pretty much all day driving from Brandon to Edmonton.

Bonjour, well Monday wasnt too bad I suppose, tipped the trailer, ran to where we park our trailers, dropped it and picked up a loaded one ready to go to Regina.
Did two deliveries Tuesday morning and ran to Saskatoon where I dropped the trailer which still had one drop on for the following morning.
Took the truck in for service so Tuesday was a pretty lazy day but things were about to change.
Wednesday saw me pick up a trailer in Saskatoon and run to winnipeg, drop the trailer at the customer and run to the yard to collect a loaded one which I ran with and ended up parking at Brandon Manitoba. Did 1100km that day and was ready for bed but ended up watching a movie called "Taken" which was pretty good.
Left this morning and had another busy day ahead. Started at 7.15am pretipped the truck and ran to Regina where I ate. Set off after an hour and other than stopping for fuel I ran into Edmonton and dropped the trailer again at the customer exactly 14hrs and 1200km later. Phew !!

Thats it....trips over.

Well, the posts regarding this pretty standard trip show how things can go badly wrong.
Rang the customs brokers to confirm I was clear to cross the border and low and behold the customer, who assured me that the papers had been faxed, had failed to do so.....another hour wasted faxing 11 sheets of paperwork.
Eventually left Fargo at 11am after not even setting the alarm clock and reached the Border at Emmerson (a new crossing for me). For a change all went extremely smoothly and within 30 seconds I was in canada. Ran to and parked at the Flying J Headingley which is 13 miles from the customer and thats me, all done for the day at 3pm. The load delivers at 0930 Monday so I will be there an hour early and hopefully, fingers crossed its whipped off the trailer at lightening speed.
So, to summarise both the outbound and inbound trip.

Hrs driving: 46.75
Other work: about 11hrs not including waiting time of 7hrs at shipper
Miles covered: 2700.
Approx wage inc bonus's :$1224 (minus tax)$820
Cash spent on expenses: $55.

This trip could of been so very different had a thing or two gone my way but thats life eh.

Last day of the weeks trip today.

Hi all, well left Romeoville yesterday and ran hard all day. Covered 1044km in 10.5hrs and was parked at Fargo for 8.15pm which leaves me with 229 miles for today.
Had the news which I didnt want to hear that I have to unload the trailer at Winnipeg on Monday morning.
H&R's wage payment structure works from Sunday-Sunday which means that as this load will not be delivered until monday I wont be paid for it until next week, thats 900 miles and a collection gone from this weeks pay.
Will update with some figures when I get chance at Winnipeg.
Cheers,Phil

A week continued...part 3

Thoroughly enjoyed my day off but come Friday morning it was time to set off again.
Left waterloo after fuelling and the pretrip at 6.30am and drove to Romeoville Illinois where I arrived at the shipper an hour early. I was told to report back in a hour which I did and was put on a bay. That was at 2pm local time. I was loaded by 6pm but then had to scale the load to check it was legal before they would give me the bills. Did that and reported back that all was good only to be informed that a USDA inspector (Vet) had to check the load....... so I sat and waited and eventually at 8pm I was ready to go.
I had less than half an hour left for my working day so returned to the truckstop where I had scaled and told that parking was $10 unless I fuelled there or spent $75 in the forecourt shop. Looks like my wallet will be a little lighter.
My earnings for the day topped out before tax at approx $150, thats for a 14hr shift and includes the loading bonus, I have lost count as to how many hours are classed as "other work"

So leaving Romeoville this morning and heading for Winnipeg Manitoba, its around 900miles. I dont know as yet as to whether or not I am unloading it or dropping the trailer in the yard, we will have to wait and see.

Bye for now.

Detention

Just a quick one. I am at the customer loading for Winnipeg and in the Despatch office there is a sign which states "Detention paid 2hrs after booking time"
At the minute I have been on the bay for 1hr and nothing has happened so in an hours time H&R can in theory can start to claim from the customer.
I might sit here all day but as the load is not Carghills I only receive the $30 loading fee, somehow that doesnt seem fair !

The week continued...

19 November

Ok, so I left you on the last post in Fargo North Dakota but that morning had left Bismark. Started at 07.45 with the standard pretrip then ran into Fargo for fuel and some brunch. Updated the blog and had a chat with another one of our drivers then punched it straight through for 7.5hrs and dropped the trailer into waterloo for them to unload. Didnt finish until late as spent so much time in Fargo but was all done for 21.30 so it was time to watch a movie then hit the sack. Other work only accounted for 30mins and all in all it was a good day, covered 1046km and it took 10.5hrs.

20 November

Was up and about by 0700 so sent in my daily macro's (messages) and waited for my next job. This came through pretty quickly and was to load from Chicago area the following afternoon. The collection was 280miles away so what do I do, I had all the time in the world to get there plus I could easily make the delivery. I made up my mind and would take the day off and leave in the morning.
So, I tidied the truck up, did a bit of shopping, bought a new game for the Xbox then proceeded to hammer that for the rest of the day and night.

A week in the life of me.

Ok,I have done this before and have documented a round trip but its been a while so as this trip to Waterloo Iowa is pretty standard its time to do it again.
"OW" defines Other Work. This is stuff that is done for free but has to be entered on the logbook.

Monday 17th Nov
Received notice that load was ready for collection at 10.15am so ran to the yard, picked up an empty trailer and pretripped it (OW), put it through the wash which took 45mins (OW)then ran to High River. Dropped the trailer, collected and checked the documents for the load then picked up the new trailer, pretripped and scaled it (all OW).
Ran to Lethbridge and collected the Ace (electronic manifest) then ran to the border. Joined the queue waiting to get into the states, cleared my paperwork and set off for meat inspection.Total time for the above was 1.5hrs (OW)
Cleared meat inspection and ran to Havre Montana where I called it a day.

Started the day at 10.15am and worked until 9pm. During the day I took 15 mins off, drove for 550km. "Other work" accounted for over 3hrs of the day.

Tuesday 18th Nov.
Started the day at 0730 and spent 15mins pretripping the truck (OW) then left Havre. Drove 6hrs straight to Beach North Dakota where I fuelled the truck and trailer (OW) and had a break of 2.5hrs. Drove a further 2.75hrs and ended the day at Bismark.
Worked from 0730 until 1930, drove 810kms and other work accounted for 30mins of the day.

Presently parked at Fargo North Dakota having some lunch. Have 453 miles to go to reach Waterloo Iowa so in theory I will be there tonight.
Bye for now...

Layovers made clear.....at last.

The following is an extract from a letter received in drivers wages...

A layover is defined as: a period of driver idle time caused by H&R due to lack of a load or other work.

Detention is defined as: a period of driver idle time caused by the customer,i.e waiting for loading or unloading. There are no plans to pay drivers for detention time, other than for Carghill.

Now, get a load of this.
A new system has been introduced which will virtually fully automate layover eligibility and will require no human input other than the final authorization for payment to be made. So does this new system have a cool acronym for a name.....no...its....

.........................."Removed by request".........................

So basically if you are sat in Calgary waiting for a load, once the 12hrs period which will qualify you for a layover payment is nearly up, the system will alert despatch that they need to do something with you. You will be offered a job of some kind, lets for arguments sake say that they want you to check all the trailers in the yard that are empty and you will be paid hourly for it. If you say no then you wont be paid a layover as you have refused work, if you do the trailer check you have sat all day for $16. Clever system eh.

Not being paid while under "Detention" is a pain, customers see you as mobile storage and will gladly leave you sitting all day long.
"Demurrage" (an hourly rate charged to the customer by the haulier for periods of excess waiting time) has been charged in Europe for god knows how long and i dont believe for one second that companies over this side of the pond dont charge it.

To summarize, you have more chance of .............Removed by request..........than you do of qualifying for a layover.

Speed limiters tightened

H&R go green....the policies, not the trucks.

Speed limiters on trucks are in the process of being turned down as and when trucks go near the workshops. Speeds originally limited to 65mph are being set at 62mph in a bid to help with enviromental issues.
This in my opinion is all well and good, I do my bit and recycle when I can but the limiting of trucks affects me personally and I am not too chuffed with that.

The main reason is that I am paid by the mile, limit my speed and you limit the distance I can drive in a set period of time, for an example 10hrs x 65mph = 650miles......10hrs x 62mph = 620miles so I need to work for an extra 30mins to cover the same distance.

H&R say that the Blue Chip companies we haul for have asked them to show how they are committing to enviromental issues and this is one step in an ongoing cause.

I believe that the drivers should be compensated and a payrise should be in order which reflects the percentage of the cut in top speed (approx 5%). The savings in fuel should easily compensate for this alone and in return would not only prove to the Blue Chip companies that H&R is doing its bit but also that it is looking after its drivers....the very people who are delivering the loads to them.

Winnipeg.

Hi all, sat in the Flying J at winnipeg having quick hours break then going to clash on and try to get a few more miles under my belt.
Winter is closing in, temps are just above freezing and patches of black ice have caught out a few unwary truckers. Its hard driving big hours when you are constantly monitoring the road conditions and watching for stray animals on the road as the nights are drawing in and its normally dark by early tea-time (especially in Ontario and Quebec because of the time difference).
If all goes well I should be in Calgary tomorrow afternoon which is Saturday and going to reset before picking up a load to Iowa which is due to be ready Monday morning.
I must apologise for the lack of pictures as in all honesty there has been nothing to photograph which is driving me mad as I need some new stuff not only to post on here but also to play with on Photoshop.
Come tomorrow afternoon I will have more time to update you on stuff including H&R's move to help save the enviroment...!

HDR pictures

Before, an over exposed picture.
After, the finished result
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range.
Basically the same picture is taken 3 times, under-exposed, normal and over-exposed.
The highlights and shadows are taken from them all and blended into one picture.

Montreal bound

How do. Enroute to Montreal, weather is terrible,very cold but thankfully no snow in this neck of the woods.
Just about to fuel at Nipigon then that will leave me 915 miles to go to reach my destination.
Switched trailers with a lad last night who will arrive in Calgary later than I would of if I had delivered the load, go figure eh......
Posts on here might be a bit thin on the ground for a while, its difficult to get a connection to the internet but dont panic, I will update as soon as I can with hopefully some good news as things have been a little grim lately.
Nanoo Nanoo

The last week or so...

Hello. If I remember rightly I was at Gary when I last posted and on my way to Montreal.
I crossed the border at Windsor where a very obnoxious female customs official allowed me into the country.
As I was bringing meat into the country I was hauled in for a full inspect but thankfully I was in and out within a few hours. Ran to the other side of Toronto ready for the final leg of the journey into Anjou Quebec.
The following morning I was advised the load had been rebooked for 0400 in the morning and if I liked I could drop the trailer and city would deliver it, so thats what I did.
At this point I was told that I wouldnt be paid for sitting in Storm Lake, was given the reasons and am waiting for this to be sorted as we speak.
So, was preplanned to go to Calgary, city would load the first drop at 13hr and then I was off to Trenton Ontario to load the second at 2000hr. It all went wrong from the start with the trailer not arriving in the yard until 1700hr, then dispatch didnt know which yard the trailer was at so a lap around Montreal airport at rush hour cost another hour. I arrived at Trenton at 2230hr and was loaded in an hour and a half.
Because of time lost I will be late for the delivery which had very tight parameters in the first place and of course.....its my fault as I shouldnt of accepted the preplan !!!
So, as far as I know I am switching trailers with someone who can make the ontime delivery and I am heading back to Montreal which I am looking forward to !!!

Happy Halloween....sorry its a bit late

This was written on the 31st so excuse everything being in past tense.


The delivery wasnt too bad this morning, arrived at the wrong gate last night but it wasnt a problem. Had the internet courtesy of the company having an unlocked signal which is very good of them.
Sent the "empty" call to despatch and horror of horrors its back to Storm lake Iowa, the place I sat for two days only a few weeks ago. The load is going to Quebec which isnt too bad as at the minute I have plenty of time to get there plus its good miles.
So, have dropped the trailer and will check on it in the morning, have been shopping in Walmart and bought some photo paper so I can check to see how my efforts look in print......yes I have a printer in the truck. Initially I bought it to scan paperwork so if there ever was any dispute over the work I had done then I had it in print. Due to lack of use, not because I didnt do any work but I was to lazy to scan everything the black ink cartridge has dried up but as of today there is a fresh one in there.
Its Halloween tonight, people over here love it. Everyone I have spoken to are taken there kids "trick or treating", staff in the shops are dressed up, even the security girls at Carghills joined in the spirit of things.
Its nice to see the kids enjoying themselves, unlike the UK where all the kids (teenagers) scrounge for money with the threat of wrecking your property if you dont cough up some dough.

Back to the present time now....

Carghills screwed me again. I arrived at Storm Lake Iowa 1400hrs on Friday 31st, dropped the trailer and went back for it bright and early the following morning. It was loaded which was good, I had to scale it to confirm it was legal, ok so far, then I had to wait until 1930hrs for the paperwork which is exactly the same problem I had the last time I was here. In my eyes there is no excuse for this, I understand that the load has to be inspected by a vet but the trailer was sealed and all of this had been done. Its a massive waste of my time.
So an easy trip has gone wrong again courtesy of someone screwing up or just not doing there job. Its arse !!!!!!!!!!
Parked at Gary Indiana, could of done a few more hours but whats the point, will just do a big day tomorrow and make up time.