I'm wondering if any of you have a trucking job in Alberta? If you're working out of Edmonton or Fort McMurray I'd like to know how's the pay?

I've heard they can't find enough workers and it's easy to get a job paying good money. Any truth to the rumours of getting paid up to $44.00 per hour?

Any comments on working in the Alberta oil and gas industry would be appreciated.

 

I just hauled a load up there a month ago, paid $31000 Us out of Ca. so know they are busier than H!!l but don't know what they are paying local. If you go take a goooooooood back brace cuz the roads suck.

 

They pay well on paper, but there is always a catch. The cost of living is crazy, to buy a small home is a half a million. Some do well there and others not so well. I have friends there work in the plants making 45/per hour and double time on there days off.

Don't know of any truckers there, but mostly likely don't as well, as the gaint haul trucks.

 

I live in Edmonton, and occassionally haul dry bulk in super-b's to Fort Mac, Mildred Lake, Jack Pine, High Level ( now and then ) & Grande Prairie. I'm home every night, paid by the hour for everything i do ( including overtime ).

The type of trucking that pays the highest, is specialised stuff like picker trucks, winch & bed trucks. For picker trucks, however, you now need to serve a period of apprenticeship and get a journeyman picker ticket. There's also heavy-hauling, and I mean really big & heavy stuff like gigantic turbines & cokers, that take 5-6 days to travel a few hundred clicks. I'm not sure if you get to see them in BC, but these are trailers with about a hundred or so wheels ( no exaggeration ), with one truck pulling and another one pushing the trailer from behind. You need a lot of flatbed & ordinary heavy-hauling experience to even get a foot in through the door. Companies like Mammoet & Premay specialise in this stuff. You could check out their websites.

 

I'm home every night, paid by the hour for everything i do ( including overtime ).


Man you make me Jelious.....Ya lucky dog.

 

Yes you can make some good money up there, oilfield trucking pays very well but then again Ft McMurray is the most expensive town in Canada. Burger King employees make like $14/hour. They also have a severe shortage of housing and accommodations, most workers either live in the camps or share a room/house with other people. The winters are LONG and BRUTAL, crime and drugs are rampant and their is little else to do in town besides work. If you go, leave yourself an out, always make sure you have enough money for a plane ticket back home. Most people go there to make some quick cash and go back to where they came from after 5-6 months....its a revolving door town.

Oh yeah, and be prepared to work looooooooong hours!

Good luck.

 

[quote="Graymist"]I live in Edmonton, and occassionally haul dry bulk in super-b's to Fort Mac, Mildred Lake, Jack Pine, High Level ( now and then ) & Grande Prairie. I'm home every night, paid by the hour for everything i do ( including overtime ).

Well my current job pays me by the hour also ($25.50). Iused to get 2 hrs. ovrtime everyday at 1.5X but not anymore. I miss that extra thousand every month. I heard you can make a $150,000 a year at Fort M but I guess that must be the heavy haulers.

 

Steve: Trust me you DON'T want to live in Ft Mac! But living & working out of Edmonton is not so bad, cost of living is lower than Vancouver. If you have "some" (2 years minimum) you might check with some of the LTL companies that run there, like Byers, Grimshaw, Duke's or Rainbow. Some of the LTL, like Rainbow & Manitoulin will hire you right out of school, but be careful of them as they have a revolving door for their drivers.

There's lots of work here no matter what part of trucking you want to get into. "Patch" work is pretty specialized & most companies I know of won't hire you without at least 10 years experience.

You will find that most regional carriers pay around 40 cpm to start & go up from there depending on experience & whether you have extended length or not. Our guys are around the 60 cpm range, but then they are union as well.

Many of the bulk carriers like Westcan & ECL & Ventures West are always looking & I understand they pay pretty well & there's lots of work.

There are oodles of options working in Alberta as we are desperately short of drivers period. Unfortunately we do NOT recognize the American CDL or we would be trying to steal American drivers too, as we are doing our level best to steal them from everywhere else. :lol: :lol: :lol: