British Truckers Abroad

H&R accepted my notice, so it's goodbye Canada, at least for the time being, and hello again to the UK.

My advice regarding Canadian trucking in general and H&R in particular is:

If you are single, go for it.

If you have a family, go for it, but, be very very careful.

If you want paying for all the time you are detained by the customer or made to wait by the company, then forget about H&R, as it is like getting blood from a stone.

I realise that the people reading this who are already going over (or even just planning to) will just see another whinging Brit post, but bear in mind, I do not have to post anything here at all, as most of the critics of companies are usually flamed outright, even when they ask the recruiter (on here) a simple question, and I assure you, I have much better things to do with my time than field insults on the internet.

The final straw for me was when I read what the recruiter posted here... viewtopic.php?f=18&t=821 and here... viewtopic.php?f=9&t=817&st=365&sk=t&sd=a&start=30

There was no excuse for the insulting posts, and he didn't answer the question which had been asked of him as a recruiter for the company, which made me change my opinion of him, from believing he was honest, to believing nothing from him.

It would be interesting if all the people who originally came onto the forum and posted about their plans to join H&R, would return here to relate their experiences (good or bad), as I have had plenty of e-mails from ex-drivers who have either returned to the UK, or have moved companies (not always for the better) within Canada.

I will remind you of one thing.
You are NOT emigrating to Canada when you get an LMO, the LMO simply allows you to enter Canada as a TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKER if you are granted a TEMPORARY work permit.
PR can not be guaranteed by ANY company, and Canada has also been effected by the global downturn.

Having posted all that, we would love to return to Canada and trucking, with a view to PR, but not just yet as we have other fish to fry first.

Good luck with everything Mick and hope it all works out for you and Cath. Sorry it didn't work out for you here but better luck next time eh
Keep in touch and don't eat too many of those fish you are frying, doesn't do your figure any good look what happened to me

Thanks Dave, I'm sure we will do ok, but obviously I couldn't go back to H&R after criticising the recruiter on here, so the 'next time' will be elsewhere.



At least you can get the weight off chasing the new puppies around!

Mick,

Thanks for making this post and updating us. More than anything, 'thanks' from those who are at the research phase of their plans to emigrate to Canada. The fact that you have 'been there, done that' (and got the t-shirt, I guess) ensures that your info is honest and accurate, not hearsay.

Good luck to you and Cath for whatever your next plans are. Take care.

M.

I'm sorry it didn't work out Mick. It's a sad state of affairs when a company (not only H&R) doesn't want to treat it's drivers with fairness and respect.

After what was posted on here and PM's, is it any wonder so many drivers leave or are not happy with the company?

Best of luck for the future to you both, I hope things get sorted soon. What are you planning to do now your back in the UK?

Thanks for the good wishes guys, and I will still be hanging around this excellent forum as I may be going back to Canada at some point, so it will be useful to keep up to date with what's happening.

Calgary got 10cm of snow over the weekend, here its just peeing down Just keeping you up to date

Lol, I had already been told, and I saw the pics on Daves blog.

The snow and ice never put me off mate, and I certainly saw plenty!

Censorship?, what censorship?
One regular (and popular) blog has been shut down, and a new Uk to Canada blogger has gone private, but I had a bet with Cath that he would remove or change his posts within 2 days, so I lost, as he chose to go private, seems he didn't heed the warning I sent to his old blog!
I now know of six drivers who are either back, or on their way back from H&R, so, boys, if you are going, please heed all the warnings, which I and others have given.

It is getting TOTALLY stupid now and H+R are without doubt losing ANY kind of credibility they had faster then they can recruit UK based drivers.
The management of H+R must be totally paranoid surely

Why would they be paranoid ??? not every one is like you
So six have returned, big deal, hundreds stay, its about time some of you found a new subject to BS about.

Hello Spirit8,
BS? About something else?

I think H&R are probably the biggest recruiter of UK drivers? So therefore create alot of interest & discussion. I feel it is important for drivers with or without families who are considering moving to Canada to know as big a picture as possible. That means as much feedback as possible. Occasionally drivers defend H&R, often many do not. Lyndon has made a success of his move to Canada, the best of luck to him, it must have taken some hard work. Conversely MickFly had a bad experience with them for reasons that are unclear. Others have been critical on their blogs of various aspects of working for them.

As the system of payment in Canada is dependent on drivers acheiving good mileage they are very much at the mercy of the company they work for. Particularly the traffic planners (despatchers). While on an LMO, without PR, the company very much has the upper hand. Too much so, IMO.

Prospective migrant drivers need ALL the information they can get, good & bad on prospective employers. This is not BS, it may be to you, but you have PR (I assume) & are settled in Canada. To others it can be the difference between going or staying in the UK.

I personally know of six recently...many more besides and I was told 27 went VERY recently (but I try not to deal in hearsay), but are you really sure 'hundreds' stay?
I think not!

Sorry Alan, I thought I had made my reasons clear...in a nutshell, refusing to bum-lick, being annoyed about blog censorship (Caths blog, first week there), refusing to sit for on 'live loads' and then, 'for some reason', being given low mileage or too many stand downs (unpaid), hence, not earning the promised amount.

Dave Foder refused my notice and said he was happy with my work, and that all problems could be fixed, then I was given the exact same crap on the day before my vacation was to start!

Now would be a good time to go back over George Andersons blog posts and read between the lines, as well as calculating all his unpaid downtime (although that is not why he left).

BTW: I know of 2 people who won't post here because of Gremmie (spirit8) as they are afraid they will be sacked if their identities are guessed, and passed on, although Lyndon is supposedly still visiting here anyway.

Mickfly wrote:
BTW: I know of 2 people who won't post here because of Gremmie (spirit8) as they are afraid they will be sacked if their identities are guessed, and passed on, although Lyndon is supposedly still visiting here anyway.

What a nice bloke.

Looks like I was wrong about the new blogger who went private, he's back.

well i am quite happy at H&R i dont think i can report any stitching up in my case,i have been lied to i do know but not as much by any means that i have been lied to in europe,i have been lied to had the pee taken out of me many many times in europe,it dont happen here,what happens is its the north american/canadian way its done.
i do have a very good Driver Manager(dispatcher)not many complain about my driver manager,most of us working with our DM are happy to get on with the job and do it,if it goes wrong it gets sorted,simple as that.
i have looked around for other jobs but it seems as i may aswell stay here,we are paid more than most other companies.
as for dave foder i have allways found him a decent straight forward man doing his job,i have not asked him for much but what i have asked for he has allways done what he could with very good results for me.

my blog was off until i sorted a few things out.
at the moment i am very happy with the way things are going.i know its still early days,but im happy.
i am just not willing to get involved in the petty squabbling about a company.obviously i take in some of the things said,but lets face it,if we listened to eveybody's negative points here or the uk,surely we would all be out of work,because every company would be the pits.
i have come over to canada to make it work one way or another.if all you on here want to slag h&r off,then thats your business,i will find out myself.
things are done differently over here and to a lot of us it takes some getting used to
h&r maybe bad for some people and good for others.
i have spoken to a few drivers here at the lodge and i havent had one negative comment.
oh,and one last thing.if i want to make my blog private,thats my choice.it is purely for my friends and family to keep up with me.
lets try and stop all the bitching and let people get on with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andy, when we arrived we didn't hear negative comments either, that's why they put us in the Lodge and not the Sandman LOL, and I am not engaged in petty squabbling, just posting the true facts as they happened to us.
I have NEVER said people can't make it at H&R, jut to be careful if you are with a family, as you may not get the miles, and the money.


I guarantee you will be asked to change your blog when Foder sees the posts about the bar, and especially the pictures, but if you can't take a friendly warning it's not a problem.

You say you have been lied to, but not as much as in Europe, well that don't make it right mate.
Mike mentions on his blog about someone waiting all day for a load and then the dispatcher going home and leaving them hanging, and that happened 4 times with me...I could have killed the dispatcher (Andy) after being available to roll from around 06:00 and being promised..."the trailer is nearly ready" all day untill he just fooked off home and left us in the lurch!

You are lucky to have a good dispatcher.

Happened to me several times at Kindersley. Dispatcher went home & left me hanging!!
It ain't right but also it ain't polite!!
The final straw for me came when I was told to call in for work at 9am, then midday, then 4pm then finally being told to take a combination to Winnipeg at 8pm. They wanted it to go overnight along with the fact I had never driven combination before!
They didn't care that I had been up calling in all day!
I was told to take it or take a walk....... I walked!!
Seems to be the norm wherever you go in Canada. You are expected to swallow it. It's dangerous in my humble opinion!!

Paul

...and in your humble opinion, you are exactly right!
There is no place in 2009 for mavericks (sorry Bob)

Must say, after reading Mikes post today, Im extremely infuriated with someone thinking they can play God...and mess with peoples lives.

My outlook on life is that, yes I might work for you, but I dont care what business you own/run/manage - youre no better than any of the rest of us, and you drop your bags and sh#t the same way as me.

How dare someone dictate what you cant have because of such a pittifull excuse as that... go fu*k yourself is my answer.

I can foresee a queue forming outside the Marriott Hotel, Gateshead on Sept 14th. Don't know that they will all be looking for jobs/interviews though! LOL.

Trev