Drivers Wanted




Drivers Wanted......Drivers Wanted...... Drivers Wanted...... Drivers Wanted

If you are an experienced Class 1 Truck Driver, and you think you have what it takes to become an hard working North American Truck Driver, capable of doing over 500 miles a day.

Ayr Motor is interested in you.

Email me with you name and I will gladly send you more details. Allow a few days for reply.

Sunday 16 October 2011

The Big Change

Before we came to Canada. Canada was not a dream of ours like most others that move there, we had never even set foot in the country before. From the first time I went to Florida, I always wanted to live in America, but was told it was difficult, so never really looked into it. In the early days of Emma and I, we did look into moving to Australia. Like a lot of people do. Tongue Emoticons I’m a qualified electrician, on paper, even though I never practiced it outside the Navy, which is what we was going to use, but because I had never worked on domestic electrics, I didn’t want to risk it so we shelved it. Then in November 2008, I’m driving my Woolworth’s truck to my next delivery, when a Canadian Expo was advertised on the radio. So I thought we would go and check it out. I left my CV with a couple of people, then in January. I got a call from Ayr Motor, to ask if I wanted to meet up with a English driver that worked for them, that was on vacation in the UK. We jumped at the chance, met with him, and from that we wanted to make the move. Had I been fast to get my paperwork over, I could have been in Canada in the February, the month after, but I owned a company, so needed to sell that off first. By the June I had moved, seeing how different life was in Canada. I adapt to anything, so the transition for me was easy. Emma and the kids joined me in the September. Now for Emma, I knew it was going to be a lot harder. She had never lived anywhere else, other than her home town. She was someone that was always on the go, visiting friends or family. So before any of us got to Canada, I knew it was going to be hard for her. When Emma and the kids arrived, I only got to spend four days with her, then I had to go back on the road. That really hit her hard, been in a strange country, not knowing anyone, and me at the other end of the country. After the first day on her own, she just wanted to pack her bags and go straight back to the UK. The culture shock and loneliness really hit her. It was hard on me too, not been able to be there for her, except on the other end of a phone,Sad Emoticons and I would be gone for two weeks before I could see her and the kids again. After a few days, she realised that we had spent way to much money on getting us over, and that it was silly to give up at the first hurdle. So she said she would stick it out till after Christmas and see how she felt then, but then a spanner was thrown into the works. Two weeks later from her landing. The house we was renting, sold. There is not really a rental market in Canadian towns for houses, only cities, so finding a place to rent suitable for us in Woodstock was hard, so we ended up renting an empty house that was up for sale. With it coming to the winter. The owners had moved back to British Columbia, and with heating cost been so high in the winter, they just wanted someone in there to look after the place till it sold. No sooner was our furniture in, it was sold. So we had two months to find a new place that Emma would like, which proved even more difficult. I call Emma a snob, because average is not good enough. Free Emoticons No rentals where suitable, so we looked to buy. Now buying a house in Canada, is very quick, but we had to guarantee, we could be moved in in time. So we only looked at empty houses. This gave Emma something to do. Finding our beautiful home, kind of settled Emma down a bit.

The first winter was not bad at all. In Woodstock we only had snow from the end of November till the end of march, and in that time, I think it only snowed about ten times. So most of the time, the roads where clear and dry. Emma is not an out door person. So she would stay in most of the time. Her friends would come round and have play dates with her some days, and that was about it. Woodstock is a beautiful town with most things that you need. Not as much as we are used to though. The one thing they don’t really cater for is toddlers. There is a couple of parks, a mum and toddler group once a week and a leisure centre with a swimming pool in it, but one adult taking three kids, two been toddlers swimming, is not really practical, and parks in winter, fat chance. You would have to dig the swings out of the snow first. Free Emoticons So winter was really boring for Emma. The kids where happy enough though. Having a massive long open space house, to play in, riding up and down the house in there cars etc. There would be about ten kids at times, when Emma had play dates round. Kids at one end of the house, and mums at the other, but that didn’t fill seven days a week with me been away for twelve days at a time. So winters where really hard on Emma. Summers where better for them. They would be out and about most days. Either round at friends, or at the parks, or even drive sixty miles to the nearest Town/city where there where more things to do with the kids. But a hundred and twenty mile round trip, just to take the kids to a indoor play structure, was a pain, but its what we had to do. Then this last winter started about mid November with the snow. Which stuck around till the end of May. Six months of snowing most days. Most of the snow storm days, Emma would wait for her friends husband to come round in his Pickup, with a snow plow fastened to the front, just to clear our drive, so she could get out of the garage. So this last winter hit Emma really hard. She got really depressed. Because I was never there, and I could not see this at first, as she wouldn’t tell me. It wasn’t till one time I was at home, we got a baby sitter so me and Emma could go out on our own for a change. We was going to go to the cinema which only had three screens, but when we got there, all three films where for kids. So we decided to go for something to eat. Normally we would go to the truck stop, like most people did, as it was the best food around. But we thought we would try somewhere new. When we got to one place, it was closing early, as there was no-one in. The place we ended up at, had the worst menu ever, everything fried as usual. We just had a snack and called it a night. It was at that point, I realised that Woodstock was not for us as a family. For me, I had never really seen Woodstock. On my two full days off, after working twelve days flat out, my first full day off I would not even get dressed. I would just relax and stay home, then the next day, it was cut the grass in the summer and clear the snow in the winter. Then the next day, I would be back on the road. Emma would just put up with it and not say anything. Once I had realised this and we sat down and had a real good think about our situation. We decided to put our lovely house on the market and move to a city where there was a lot more to do for Emma and the kids while I was away. The cities we looked at where between one and five hours away, from work. Which is nothing as a lot of our drivers live away from Woodstock. When it came to going home and going back to work. That was easy, as we had twenty, thirty trucks a day go past those cities, so you would just get a lift with one of those. We originally settled in Woodstock, because it was close to work. Sometimes I would come back to Woodstock to switch trailers and while I was there, the truck would need to be checked over and serviced etc too. So even though it would only be a couple of hours. It was a couple of hours I could spend with the family. Had we lived in the city. The nearest one is sixty miles away. Emma would have still come up to see me each time I popped back to Woodstock, but it would have been more of a pain driving all that way just to spend an hour or two together.

Anyway the house sold more or less straight away, which I was surprised and not surprised. Not surprised because it was a beautiful house in a well sort after location, priced for a quick sale. I was surprised though because most houses that come up for sale in my part of town, are normally on the market for months and years, because it’s only the well to do people that can afford to live there. There where houses still for sale today, that was on the market when we first moved to Canada, so im glad ours sold straight away. Now you are wondering where we have moved to. Well, after thinking more about our situation, after putting the house on the market. We thought that moving to the city for Emma and the kids to have more to do was still not enough. I would still be away all the time and my visa only allowed me to be a long haul trucker. I began to realise that I felt like a single dad, where I only got to see my family every other weekend, and that Emma was bringing up our kids as a single mum. It was no life for a young family. Had we got our permanent residency, I could do any job I wanted then, but we never got round to applying for it. Our paperwork was ready to go but it takes about nine months to come through and a lot of money for a family of five. So instead of moving to a city and waiting months so I can finally get a job to be home everyday. We decided we could not wait any longer and to do the only other option available to us. Move back to the UK. Back to dinky houses, crap pay, and everyone in a rush all the time. That is something that I never thought I would say again, but these last couple of years has made me realise that family comes before anything else. So if it meant moving back to what we left behind, regardless to what was in store, then that’s what we had to do.

We arrived back at the end of July. that’s why you have not heard from me in a while. We have been busy trying to get settled. I didn’t think the UK could get any worse, but it has. We arrived having no house, no jobs and no cars. Well we do have two houses, but one has tenants, and the other is in the middle of renovation. So they where out of the question. So five of us stayed in a two birth Caravan on my mothers drive for a couple of weeks. What fun Free Emoticons Things started to fall into place. We found a house. We went back to needing and having two cars again. Then it was find a job. What a nightmare. This country is really going down the pan. I cant believe what crap pay companies our offering now days. Before we moved over to Canada, I was on reasonable money, but companies now are only willing to offer two and three pound an hour less. Its ridicules, but it’s the way things our now, so I have had to put up with it, to allow me to see the family a lot more. I joined an agency that I once worked for, just so I had got money coming in while I could find a permanent position. They did keep me flat out every week, but on crap pay, and it was one day I was starting at 1am then the next it was 3pm. So it was all over the place. Im more of a routine person, so I only put up with it for as long as I needed to. It took two months of sending my CV out to any company name I seen driving down the road. All the companies close to me either had no positions, not willing to pay me enough, or a hundred drivers would apply for one position. I only picked on the larger companies that I seen their trucks everyday. The company that I work for now, was the first one I had a driver assessment with. After the drive, they offered me the job on the spot. The pay is still not great but average. I also got my own truck after only a few days, but the down side is a one hundred mile round trip to work and back. Luckily when I bought my car, I anticipated having to travel, as I have always had to in the past. So instead of getting my usual big 4x4’s, I got a little eco car. My family did think it was funny me driving a little roller skate, Free Emoticons but with the fuel cost and car tax prices here in the UK. It was the best thing to do. I do have two or three nights out a week also, which does help cut down my travel costs. That does mean I don’t get to see my family every day still, but loads more than I ever did in Canada. Had there been no nights out, it would have been another job offer I would have turned down, as the wage alone, was not worth the travel. The advantage of working for the agency when I first got back, was I could see the variety of work out there, and even though I came home every day, I still didn’t always see my family, because of the length of time I would have to work, or the times I would get in etc. so having some nights out is only like the times I would roll in at 10pm only to set off back out at 6am or something. So there isn’t that much difference really, except the UK could not care a monkeys about truck drivers. The facilities are absolute pants. That’s when you find some. There are no toilets in lay-bys. Truck stops, in less you know where they are, you would not find them. Showers are disgusting and you have to pay for them in places. You have to pay to park more than two hours, which is a fortune, and that’s only if your hours allows you to get to a truck stop/services in the first place, instead of some lay-by at the side of the road where everyone passes you at 80mph rocking the truck from side to side. Other truckers pinch your light lenses. Others will steel your fuel and what ever you have in the trailer. What joys of a UK trucker. Free Emoticons I do so miss trucking in America, but its worth putting up with the crap of the UK, to be with my family again. Its just a pity I could not find a job same as my old one I had before we moved to Canada. I only worked about nine hours a day, home early afternoon four out of five days. One night out a week, and went to the same set places for good money. But those jobs are one in a million, so a fat chance of finding that again. Free Emoticons A little part of me wished I never gave that up, but then we would have never moved to Canada.

So the North American adventure is over, and we are back to reality. Looking back, it feels like it was just a working holiday. A great time we got to experience. I got to see most of North America. The shaded part of the map, shows where I have been.

A lot of people don’t last two seconds over there as it is way different than what you are used to. We can say we made it and we gave it a real good go, but the job and family life just don’t go together. I was on an excellent wage. More than I have ever earned before in my working life, but what’s the point if I could not spend it with my family. Had the kids been teenagers, Woodstock would have been a much more suitable place to live. Had I had a job that allowed me to be home every night, again, things would have been a lot more suitable. Ayr Motor asked me when I will be coming back. I just said ‘Never’ Free Emoticons trucking in North America is a single persons life, or where your partner rides round with you all the time. Its no life for a family, but everyone is different. Some might want to get away from the wife. Free Emoticons So my advice to anyone thinking about making the move. Think hard and long. Do you want to be on the road seven days a week, working flat out every day. Do you want to provide well for your family, but not have time to enjoy it for yourself. If you are single, or all your kids have grown up and you and your partner want to go round with you, or even drive team. Then I would go for it, as it’s a great job. But if you are married with kids, its no life been apart all the time, but that’s up to you.

So there it is in a nut shell. We are back for good. No more plans to move anywhere in the world. There is so much to do and see on our doorstep. People take it all for granted, till its not there anymore. The UK certainly has its bad points and some good points, but so does Canada, they are just different good and bad. For instants entertainment, the UK wins hands down. For a quiet laid back life style, Canada wins all the way. Its just what you want out of life determines where its best for you. Kids in Canada cant start school till they are a year older than in the UK. So mine would have had to wait another year if we had stayed over there, but here they started in September. Which meant Emma could go back to work again, so it not all bad moving back here Free Emoticons

Ayr Motor have asked me if I don’t mind still finding recruits for them. I have said yes, so the advert will stay on the blog, and I will help and advise anyone that still have questions. So you will still be able to get hold of me.

So this is it. Probably my last post. Thank you so much for all my loyal followers. It has been a pleasure, and I hope this blog from start to finish helps many others decided whether to make the leap or not. So from me, Emma and the kids, take care, and good luck in what ever you do. I leave you with a four part video of driving round Woodstock, and the interior of my truck, which reminds me of the space I no longer have. Free Emoticons Have a nice Dayyyyy
Driving round Woodstock from Home to Ayr Motor and back
in 4 parts
What my truck looks like inside

Sunday 11 September 2011

Update Soon

Hey people


Well im still here. Sorry I have not up dated you lately. I have been very very busy, making some big changes which I will tell you about very soon. I will be writing it so I need to find a few hours to bring you up to date. Till then, here are a few more video’s I have taken.

My Garden after cutting the glass
Trucking trough North Carolina
More North Carolina
In the hills of PA

Monday 27 June 2011

The Great Lakes


Trucking across Northern Ontario towards Winnipeg

Part 2 in Cape Breton Nova Scotia
I made a mistake on this clip. I said I went to Streetsboro, and Canton Ohio
That was the first week but it should have been St Paul and Owatonna, Minnesota

I would have had some pictures too, but the battery on my Blackberry that I use to take all my pictures finally gave up after over three years. So I may have to take my big camera out with me this time round. I was due out today, but the slip seater has been hanging it out abit and getting delays on loading bays, so he may get back late tonight, or early in the morning. Im down for a load to North Carolina, but that could change between now and then.

Total mile over 9.5 days 5750 miles
I have put a poll to vote on which way you like me blogging, either by Video, or Written so please take the time to vote and let me know what you think. Thanks in advance, till next time, Have a great Dayyyyyy

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Texas Express


On the Trans Canada in New Brunswick
Driving through Houston, Texas
Tornado clean up on going in Glade Spring, Virgina
I think thats taking it too far just to go fishing
They dont just have golf clubs here
A warm 37 today
Nova Scotia

Sunday 29 May 2011

Tornado season

Trucking Down the east coast of New Brunswick
Coming into Dallas Texas
Compilation of clips I have taken
including a bit of tornado damage near Glade Spring, Virginia
The bit I managed to get once I realised what I was seeing 

Total miles in 13 days 7550 miles
More of the tornado damage that I missed on video
alot of the damage had been cleaned up by this time
as it had been a couple of weeks since it came through
This was a truck stop it went straight through
Self storage units just ripped apart
Pump stations in the middle of Texas
Small town in Texas
Just one of many Ranches I passed along the way
Wish I could take advantage of the day time speed limit
I guess I will have to make do with the night speed limit
The truck stop i stayed at in down town Nashville, Tennesse
You can see the football stadium in the middle
There was about 10 of these RV's in convoy

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Video Blogging

A better way of blogging


Total Miles for both 6600miles

Saturday 30 April 2011

Shattered

Heyyy, I need to go back to bed and catch up on a lot of sleep. Free Emoticons I though my last trip out was busy. This time was just as busy in miles, like always, but in order to keep up the miles, I had to do long days every day, between fourteen and sixteen hour days, parking up after each day not before 1am and 4am each morning. It was all urgent short trips, which meant driving flat out for nine and eleven, even thirteen hours on the last day, then sit on two loading bays for hours (one for unloading and one for loading) before off to the next delivery point by the next day. I don’t mind short trips, as long as I get long ones in the mix too. Its because of the time it takes to unload and load that is the problem. If it only took 45mins each time, it would not be a problem, but that only happens one in ten times. Any longer than 45mins and im working for free. Normally it takes two hours or more for each load and off load, so then drive for nine hours on top of that makes your days thirteen plus hours. Having that every day soon catches up on you. Not only that, I usually get to my customers the night before, and sometimes, you may only be there a few hours before they are getting you up to back onto a bay so they can off load you. So your sleep gets broken up too. Its good if there are no red and green lights on the loading bays, as the only way you know they have finished is when they come and bash on the side of the cab to get you, so if you wanted to go back to sleep, you could, but if there are lights, you have to stay up and keep checking for the green light, then pull off the bay when they have done to go back to sleep, but that’s only if you still have any hours out of your ten you need to take off left. So this job can be really tiring most of the time, then other times it can be a breeze. The breeze loads are the ones where it takes three or four days to get there. The tiring ones only take one and two days.

Ayr Motor are what I would call and aggressive company. They don’t like it if you take your time, they expect you to be hard working, as we have that much work on all the time, they need you to get your deliveries off ASAP just so you can get onto the next. For every tractor we have on the road, including owner operators, we have two trailers, and most of them are full all the time. That’s over five hundred trailers. Not including the load of brand new ones we have just got. If drivers start slowing down and not getting deliveries off on time, it can cause a back log, which makes it hard for us to catch up. I work hard and fast anyway, as it makes my pay packets better, so in less I make a boob or something, they stay off my back, but this last month, I have felt a little like, the more I gave them, the more they expected from me, or maybe it was just the way the loads fell, you just never know, but at the end of the day, with the knowledge I have of some of the other trucking companies out there. Im so glad I work for Ayr, as it is much better having to bust a gut to get everywhere and having your reload waiting for you, than making your deliveries, then having to wait hours or even days for reloads like a lot of the other companies out there. One of the things some companies do to their drivers is make them reset their hours, (once they have reached 70hrs prematurely) by having 36hrs off, but they don’t get them home for that. They end up parked in a truck stop somewhere in North America instead of spending that time at home with their families. To me that is very wrong and im so glad Ayr Motor never do that. We have to send our hours in every day, so dispatch know what hours we have left, so they can give us loads we can cover and still get back for our home time within our hours. Don’t worry, he doesn’t do it for us, he just wants to make sure he can get another driver in the truck while we are off, so the truck is not sat about doing nothing. Free Emoticons but what works for him, works in our favour too. Tongue Emoticons the only times our trucks are allowed to stand is Christmas day and if we want to stay out more than fourteen days, Canadian driving laws require us to have a 24hr period off either before or immediately after the fourteenth day. So the way we fit it in is say we started that morning of the fourteenth day at 6am, maybe drive for eight hours till 2pm, then we would park up till 2pm the following day and set off again driving till when ever, therefore fitting in the 24hrs but not having a day off. Trust me though, if we are near Woodstock at the time, Joe would kick you out the truck for the 24hr just so he could get another driver in to do a quick load to somewhere and back in that time. Free Emoticons I may have covered over 161,000 miles last year, but including all the miles other drivers did while I was off, my truck covered 250,000 miles, but Joe really only runs the trucks like most of the companies in the UK do. Like when I worked for Woolworth. I would use my truck in the day to do store deliveries, then the night shift would come in and use my truck to do the trunking runs, so again the trucks where always on the go. I do go on a bit don’t I? Tongue Emoticons but what set me off, besides been tired Tongue Emoticons was the other day when I was on my way back to Woodstock with a load. After ten hours driving I decided to stop at a truckstop three hours west of Woodstock, where when I pulled in, I noticed a truck from a company that one of my fellow bloggers work for. I usually take note just in case it is one of my fellow bloggers and I get to meet them. Anyway I went to sleep then set off the next morning back to Woodstock noticing that truck was still there not thinking anything of it. At Woodstock I went home for a few hours to have a shower and lunch with the family while my truck was been serviced. Then I was suppose to take a US load, but Joe changed it at the last second giving me a Canadian load, which meant I had to pass the same truck stop I had left that morning, over ten hours earlier to find the same truck still parked up. So it looked like he was either taking the 36hr reset, or waiting for a reload. Personally I wouldn’t put up with that crap. I guess its ok working for those companies that make you do that if you are single and it doesn’t matter where you take your time off, but not if you have family here and are missing out on spending that time with them. Anyway rant over Tongue Emoticons now I can go relax ready for my next trip out on Sunday. The map is a little confusing this time as a lot of the time I had to go back the way I came so its best to follow the numbers to see where I went. So till next time, have a great day. Free Emoticons
You can just see the Deer on our drive in front of the house 
They roam our land most evenings
Still alot of snow in Quebec, everywhere else is clear now
Leamington, Ontario
Bus Fire that shut the road on the other side for a long time
You will recognise this house from christmas and one other time.
They always go overboard for occasions.
This time easter
Border Crossing at Buffalo/Fort Erie
Cool Truck
Down town Pittsburg
The roads where very narrow and the only way out of the customer with a sleeper cab truck was down a one way road the wrong way.
My truck was too long to go any other way, so I was told