really need advise

[cheech]

Hey There
I,m in Montreal,have been working at the same company for 23 years now(CanPar Transport) as a city p&d Driver with a 5 ton straight body on the same route for about 18 years.So last year I decided I wanted to start driving on the highway(no more delivering and picking up 200-350 parcels a day)
At the time I had class 3 license with air and manual,with this license I could drive anything except a coach or tracter-trailer.So I decided to upgrade my license to a class 1,so off to driving school I go.And oh man what a shock I got going from 6 speed to 10-13 speed and 30 ft to over 70ft.It took some getting used to but I got the hang of it.Anyway so I pass everything and now I have my class 1.This is a unionized company so I have to wait for a position to be posted so I can bid on it and hope someone with more seniority does not out bid me.Well that was a year ago this week and still no highway job..I have had this licence for a year now and I did one trip Montreal to Larado texas and back with a buddy of mine in June when I was on vacation I drove about 1800 miles of it,the trip was 4250 miles.I loved every minute of it.But if I had the choice I would still rather drive a straight body,I guess cuz I'm so used to it after all these years.So about 3 months ago I started looking at other companies,And all I keep hearing is(YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH HIGHWAY EXPERIENCE)Two companies told me they would put me on the waiting list for driver training program,YANKE AND CHALLENGER MOTOR FREIGHT.These are the only two where I live that have this program. What a catch 22 situation, 23 years driving but with the wrong license.So last week I stumble across this web site FEDEX CUSTOM CRITICAL.So I called them the guy tells me the same thing (NOT ENOUGH EXPERIENCE ON THE HIGHWAY).He said if I was willing to get TDG CERTIFED and a criminal search done(WHICH I DID THIS WEEK) he would pair me up with another driver cuz out of Montreal there are only tractor-trailers and no straight body trucks.There are a lot of Expedited Transport co in Montreal but they all have tractor-trailers.Mostly all of them in Canada are in Ontario.Is it possible to live in Montreal and drive out of Ontario and bring the truck home when I'm off duty?
WOW WHAT A STORY.
So any help or advise from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS:
CheeCh

 

[pjjjjj]

Do you mean you want to be a driver for an owner-operator signed on with a carrier, and drive the truck home on your off time? (whatever that means?)
In Canada, it is very different for us than you will read about on here. This is due to the cabotage rules. We have to go back and forth and forth and back, we can't just run wherever we want throughout the US, from one interesting place to another, like most of the people on here.
All you can do is talk to some expediting companies in ON and see what their expectations are, whether they have any OOs looking for drivers, and try to get some 'real' info on what things are like for them.
As far as bringing your truck home, if it's not yours, guess that's something you would need to work out with the owner of the truck, but generally, there is no off duty time, and you'd probably have to reimburse owner for whatever costs would be involved in going home to Quebec however often you were going to do this.
It sounds fun and romantic and interesting and 'free', but coming from a union position to something like this might take some getting used to. If *eye* were you, I'd keep my seniority, benefits, holidays, off-duty-time, and whatever other perks come with that union job, and find an interesting hobby to keep me alive on my off time, to make up for the boring day-job.
hehe

 

[FIS53]

yes you can live in Montreal and work for an Ontario company. Getting home would be the problem unless you sign on with a company going to Montreal a lot and doing hauls out of there as well (paid home, paid out). You could try Macton out of the Belleville - Trenton area as they have company trucks and haul the 401 Windsor to Cornwall. Not too sure about further east though. Yes a lot of trucking compnaies in Canada require the experience on the highway as the insurance for a newbie is high. As you have discovered a few have buddy programs to help with gaining that experience.
Keep looking as there are a lot of companies out there.
Rob

 

[cheech]

Thanks Guys
Very helpful info.