Driver Dave Trucking in Canada: Tax Return Season

So its that time of year again, Tax season. Here the Tax year runs January through December and its not just self employed and companies that file taxes. There is a lot of things that you get tax breaks with here, so most people file a tax return to get a refund back from the tax you have been paying throughout the year. One of the main things a truck driver gets to claim back, is a meal allowance for every night you spend out on the road. So for 2010 I spent 256 nights out, of which I will be able to claim for my meals. Over that time, I got paid for 160,250 miles. I actually covered more miles than that, but you get paid for the miles the company says it should take you to get from A-B and not what you do. The reason I sometimes drive more miles is to save the company money in tolls and me some time. The main route I drive more miles is when I deliver down parts of eastern US, but its not always cost affective to go my way. Now most companies have a transponder fixed on their windshield, so when they come to toll roads, they just carry on through the fast lanes and don’t have to stop. The sensor picks up the transponder and charges the company credit card. So most of the time the drivers do not have a clue on what its costing the company in tolls, so they just drive through them all and don’t worry about it. With Ayr Motor, us drivers have to pay cash at each toll out of our own pocket first, so some drivers, rather than pay the toll may take a different route if its cost affective. It still costs the company, we just pay for them first then get it back in our wages, or we get an advance on our wages and use that to pay the tolls. If its cost affective, I always avoid tolls that I can, but the other reason I may go another way, is to save time. Because we get paid per mile, the slower you are driving, the less money you are earning per hour. So some of the places we go, the route I take is about 20 miles more, but because I don’t come across any cities on my way, travelling at 65mph all the way, I save myself about an hour and half in time, because I don’t have to slow down driving though New York and New Jersey, I also save the company about $100 in tolls, so for that reason Ayr never complain that I go that way. don’t forget, our trucks are satellite tracked, so they know where I am all the time.

So back to my last trip out. I got my truck back a day late again. They had a team in it again and the minimum team load will take them out to Winnipeg, probably then down to the States somewhere, then back to Toronto then back to Woodstock. So they don’t normally do that in the time I want off, so I don’t get the truck back in time making me loose out on money. A days pay for every day late. The company don’t loose out as the truck is always rolling, earning. So this time off, I’m only having two full days instead of three, to make up for lost wages.

I got my truck back in the afternoon. My first load was going to Trenton, New Jersey, Lovely…..Not. The load had to be there by 7am the next morning. I got there at 3am. Parked outside their gate. I then got up to move the truck onto the bay. Got off loaded pretty fast then I asked if it was ok to stay in the yard till I had finished my break and get the rest of my sleep, which they said yes it was ok. Not that dispatch where going to allow me to sleep. It does my head in when they don’t check old messages I send or the activity of the truck etc. Because I had moved the truck round the yard at my drop off, and it showed up on the satellite that I had. Each time I was dropping of to sleep, I would get a message, which goes off like an alarm clock. The more I ignored them with me not due to go for a few hours, the more messages they sent. I gave up in the end. Good job im really laid back, or I would have danced on some heads along time ago. Dispatch can be really annoying sometimes, like when three different people ask you the same question, and my pet hate is when they send you a message about ten hours after you park up for the night, asking if you are going to be rolling soon. I like my sleep and don’t rush in a morning to get going, but once im going, I don’t stop. Where as other divers may set off bang on 10hrs but then an hour down the road, they stop for a two hour breakfast, then lunch, then coffee. You get what I mean

I may have an extra two hours rest, but I still get there before the other driver does.

My reload was from Hanover, Pennsylvania. That went to St Cesaire, Quebec. I thought great. Hopefully from there I would get a load back to Woodstock getting me back Friday morning which is when some of the better warmer destination loads leave for delivery on the Monday like Florida…..yea right.

I had to drop my empty in our Montreal yard and bobtail round to my midnight collection going to the one place I hate going, especially this time of year. Winnipeg, what a bummer. Luckily, even though the temps where between -20 and -30 degrees C, the roads where mainly clear. No ice roads. Going over there is the only time my jumper comes out my bag. it’s the coldest part of southern Canada. Personally I think you have to be nuts to live over there.

Its funny when you see all the cars parked outside work places, all plugged into the electricity to keep them warm in the cold. Most cars are fitted with engine block heaters to keep the engines warm when they are parked outside for any length of time. We have one fitted to ours and an auto start so you can start the car by remote button to warm it up before going and getting in it, but we don’t really use our block heater as the car is always in the garage at night plus its not that cold this side of Canada anyway, but in Winnipeg they are essential if you want to be able to start your car after been parked up all day.

One of the common faults with the International trucks is there build quality. They let cold drafts in all over. Freightliners can be just as bad. Mine lets the cold in through my door handle. So when its -30 out side going out west, the draft is very cold coming through the door. This is how I keep my left arm warm.

If its really windy too and the wind comes from the right side of the truck, my door makes a real loud wind noise. Luckily I don’t come across that very often except on the prairies out west. It can get that windy on the prairies, on the way back from Calgary, there was a brand New house on its roof in the ditch at the side of the road. I would have took a picture but by the time I had come round from the shock, I had passed it. It looked like it had been blown off the back of a truck. One like this.

The wind was that bad at one point, I thought my CB aerials was going to snap off. Once I reached Winnipeg, I expected to go into the States from there, but nope, I get an urgent load to Calgary. The last time I went there was when I used to team in 09. The weather there can be 11 degrees one day then -20 the next. It had snowed the day before I arrived, so I had clear roads again, four lane highway all the way, so it was foot flat to the floor. As expected, my reload was back to Winnipeg. From there because I was short of US driving hours with using them up fast getting the Calgary load there on time, plus I had requested to be back on the Saturday for a party we had been invited to, so I expected my reload to bring me back across Canada so I could be home Saturday afternoon, which to my surprise I get a load to St Paul, Minnesota. Which meant the second I crossed the border into the States at Pembina, North Dakota, I had to park up till early hours the next day. Then set off at 2am local time to get to my delivery on time. The product I carried was stored outside covered in snow, so once I was off loaded, I was still left with an inch of ice and snow on the floor, walls and ceiling of the trailer. The worst part was my reload in Owatonna, Minnesota, needed a perfectly clean and very dry trailer, so it was round to a place to have it cleaned and dried out which took two and half hours. Then it was back to the pick up to wait hours to be loaded. It was midnight before I was done. A very long day, so I stayed in their yard till I could move in the morning. I had to call Joe that morning, he realised I was not going to be back on the Saturday when I wanted so he apologised for that. I thought that was nice of him. I took my load to Toronto, then switched for a load I brought back to Woodstock. I got back Sunday afternoon. I was aiming for lunch time, but trying to get out of bed after 7hrs following driving for 13hrs straight was not going to happen.

it was a good job really. Emma went to the party on her own and was not in a fit state to come and get me any earlier than I got there.

you cant find decent chauffeurs these days

plus Woodstock was in the middle of a real bad snow storm again that morning, but by the time I got home, it had stopped and roads had been cleared. The truck stop I parked at that night before got a foot of snow in just a few hours. I knew it was going to be bad, as it just started as I was pulling in, and by the time I had fuelled, my tracks had already been covered.

Anyways its back on the road tomorrow, so till next time, laters people.

This is how high the snow is at the side of our house now.