Driver Dave Trucking in Canada: Truck 833 again

Well here we are again. Still not got our own truck, but least we not had any old trucks. Not that we really have any. 3 year old is the max Ayr keep them for. This time we had 833. Second time round for me. It was the first highway truck I had. I still prefer these Internationals than the Freightliners. But hay, when we do get our own truck I won't mind which it is, as they are both very comfortable to drive. Pro's and con's with each.

So where we been? Bit of the same old, same old this trip really. Teams are mainly used for the urgent time sensitive loads and we have a lot of those going across Canada everyday. But they usually go the same places too. So we take the same routes, see the same things etc. We cannot complain though a they are the best loads for the miles, and as I get paid for each mile, I get better paydays. I need it having a wife and 3 kids to spend it lol.

So our first load went down to Lakeside Nova Scotia. We immediately switched trailers for one, not sure where it was going, I was asleep lol, but we just took it back to Woodstock. We then switch trailers and high tailed it out of there so we did not have to go through the shop as they shut for 3 hours each morning . between 4am and 7am, and when you are in the shop the wheels are not turning so we are not earning. That load we then took on to Laval Quebec, which put us in the right place for our main load of the week going to Calgary. Again we was too early collect as it was a midnight collection. So we had to wait around for 8 hours, well 9 hours as they was not ready on time, but the roads are fast on that route so we made up for lost time. The more days it takes to get from A-B. the better miles you can do in a day, as the less you stop, the more miles you can do. The most we have done in a day up to date is 1980km (1237.5 miles) that’s not rushing though. We stop for showers, food, fuel, check for free internet at shopping malls etc lol throughout the day. If we did rush we could do a lot more than that. We did deliver more than 24 hours early. Even though Bernie was still really sick and could not drive for as long as he normally did. His sickness started the last few days before our couple of days off and slowly got worse as we went back on the road. But it did not stop him doing his best. I would wake up to find the truck not moving. So I would jump in the driver seat and set off again leaving him to sleep it off more. One of the mornings, I was really struggling to stay awake as I had not had much sleep the day before. Normally the bumpy roads don’t bother me as I sleep straight through them. But there is a really bad stretch that they have not re-laid yet going to Calgary, and I just could not sleep, and then when I did it was only light. I had to stop in the end after about 5 hours and planned to have a power nap in the driver seat before off again. But Bernie woke up and took over. It was the first time he had ever woken up to find the truck not moving. Once we dropped in Calgary it was straight down to our yard to collect a load going back to Winnipeg. We got back to Winnipeg later than we would have liked with Bernie still not at his best having to keep stopping etc but we was only hours later than expected. He was wanting to go to a walk in clinic to see them as he is from Winnipeg. But we did not get there till late at night and already had our reload as usual so off we went into the states. Woo-pee finally going south…yea right...... Very short lived. Bernie had stopped again in the night needing a couple of hours. He set the alarm on the truck radio as he does. That woke me up as the speakers are right next to me. I jumped up to turn it off, see the truck not moving again, but I had not had enough time off between driving so I got back down and went straight back to sleep thinking it had woke him too. I just happen to be the one on the bottom bunk, which was the easiest for me to turn the alarm off. Turned out he did not wake till a while later. Then set off again. Good job really, as we would have had to turn back. They wanted us to switch with another dude and bring his trailer bound for Calgary back to Winnipeg so we would be ready for our usual time sensitive loads collecting in Winnipeg this time going to Toronto. The collection was early though at 7pm. So we thought we would only have to wait a couple of hours. That was till we got to the Canadian border where the fun started. We got to the window, shown our passports, answered the usual questions etc. but then she said “could you please report to x-ray” its not unusual for them to x-ray the truck as you go though. Turned out they seemed to have every truck do the same. We did not think anything of it as our load was packed top to bottom, side to side of the same thing. But they still found and an anomaly. So they opened the back doors to be met by no way of been able to see what it was. So it was “ can you back onto the bay, we are going to have to take some off to see what it was. Because the load was up to the roof of the trailer, we had to wait for the only bay with the big enough door to get the pallets off. 4 hours laterrrrrrrrrr we are told, “we need to take it all off to see what it is and our bay area is not big enough to do that, so this load needs to be taken to a Calgary address where we can inspect this further before you can deliver it.” by this time we was going to be very late for our urgent pickup as we was still over an hour away to dropping this trailer in our yard. But by the time we got there. Someone else had collected our reload and brought it to the yard for us so it was switch and go. Well so I was told. I was asleep. I had politely moaned at the customs officer, as that 4 hours should have been my sleep time as I was planned to drive all night. So Bernie, luckily feeling alittle better had to drive for longer just so I could get enough sleep to drive. It worked well from then on. It got us into a routine. I drive from anytime between 1am and 3am our time (notice I say our time, as we drive over 6 time zones in North America so we always run to our own local time, Atlantic. Its funny delivering in the west at midnight and it is still light ) I normally do 12 hours then Bernie takes over in the afternoon and drives till early morning again. It works well as the time he would normally have to stop to get a couple of hours power nap is when I take over he sleep longer then. It does make me sleep in two stints though. I only sleep for about three hours in the afternoon. Then I get up which is about the time we go for food, shower etc. then I try to get 3-4 hours before I start to drive again. Anyway we managed to get our load to Toronto 20mins early then shoot off to get our reload going back to Edmonton. The first night was hard driving. Really heavy rain, and I mean heavy. I had never seen it rain like this heavy till I moved to Canada. Your wipers are going at top speed but still your screen in covered. I could just see the lights of the truck in front. that’s the only thing I could see, so I just followed him. Eventually we drove out of the rain and straight into thick fog. It was such a relief to finally get daylight that morning. I did not drive for as long that day. It wiped me out.

So now here I am sat in the flying J truck stop after off loading, just up the road from the Biggest shopping mall in North America waiting (for a change) a reload, borrowing the internet of the hotel next to us. If we wait much longer, im going shopping lol. We are not sure what day we get back but will be next week sometime.

Her are some more pics of our journey

Just as the sun as come up

Notice how the colour of the trees are now changing, seeing as it is officially autumn (fall) you would not know that with the temperatures we have been having these last few days. It as broken allsorts of records. 34 degrees in Calgary yesterday 27 degrees in Winnipeg. Looks like summer as come late this year.