You may have read a letter to the editor on page 7 of the April 2005 issue of Pro-Trucker. It was written by our rig of the month for this issue, David Gunn. David is from Scotland and his letter was in response to a series of comments made in letters and editorials about importing drivers from other countries. He was concerned that Canadians thought that all foreign drivers were not qualified to drive in Canada, were a source of cheap labour, or they received preferential treatment. He clearly explained that none of this was true. I told him that most comments were directed at our provincial and federal government’s complete lack of response to a problem that has been growing steadily over the last twenty years. I was so impressed with David’s letter that I asked him if he would tell us what it was like driving in Scotland and then coming to Canada.

 This is his story.

I was born in Montrose, Scotland which is a small town about 40 miles South of Aberdeen “the Oil Capital of Europe”.  Funnily enough the hospital I was born in burnt down shortly after I was born – make of that what you will.  Growing up with my three brothers, Daryl, Daniel and Dale (the 4 D’s), I spent time living in both Montrose and Aberdeen.  For as long as I can remember I have had an interest in trucks (some would say an obsession).  My first load was 4 pencils secured with an elastic band and my hand powered truck was pulling a twelve inch trailer. I always knew I was going to be a truck driver like my Granddad.  One of my brothers, Daniel and my Uncle Graeme are both truck drivers but by far the biggest influence throughout my life has been my Granddad, Cameron Buchan.  I spent most vacation time from school with my Granddad traveling all over Britain in his DAF (part of the Paccar group) which had a 330hp engine which was big power at that time. I recall it was a red truck with a tartan stripe round the cab which is quite a popular design in Scotland.  I remember when I was about seven, on one trip with my Granddad, we were driving through some road construction about 100 KMH and I was bursting for a pee. My Granddad was panicking because he had nowhere to stop and nothing for me to use in the truck.  He told me to roll down the window and aim outside which I duly did.  We still laugh about that to this day.  My Granddad showed me the ways of the trucking industry inside and out and has instilled in me his hard work ethics. He is very much one of the old school drivers who I still look up to and admire.  Although now retired, I am sure he could still run circles around most of the young guys on the road today. 

I started off my trucking life with A Middler Transport, driving a M.A.N. straight truck, which is a German brand, grossing 7500 kilograms. I used this on contract work for an oil service company for a few months.  Due to the loss of a contract I used the same truck for hotshot work all over the UK, again for the oil industry.  I remember on one occasion where I loaded a pump for a land rig and had to meet an airplane that was being sent over from South Africa especially to collect this piece of equipment from me at London Stanstead Airport.  The cost to the company of having a truck transport this pump at hotshot prices was considerable not to mention the cost of a private plane.  I couldn’t understand why they would go to such an expense until it was pointed out to me that even if it cost the company $400,000 it was nothing compared to what they would lose if the rig wasn’t up and running again asap.  Being as it was a day cab, and I was hotshotting all over the UK and Ireland, I just had to sleep over the seats in a sleeping bag, as and when I could get the chance.  It was during this period that I, unusually, had a Saturday morning off so I took the chance to go out with another driver, Andy, who was going to meet his cousin and her friend Grace.  Andy’s cousin was, unknown to her friend, trying to do a bit of matchmaking for him.  As it turned out, Grace and myself hit it off and she has put up with me ever since.  I learned a lot during my time with A Middler Transport through the drivers, Ronald Taylor, Mike Milne and, of course, my Granddad who was also with the company.  I spent a lot of time with the boss’s son, John Middler, who was the mechanic.  He used to tease me a lot and wind me up but it was always in good fun.  He also was very knowledgeable on the trucking industry.  Sadly, following a motorbike accident, he is no longer with us. 

I was determined to progress from driving a straight truck to Class 1 and, as my boss was not willing to pay for my training, I obtained a bank loan to cover the costs myself.  First of all I had to sit a test for a 17,500 kilogram straight truck.  After completion of this test I had a couple of hours driving round the city of Aberdeen with an empty 40ft trailer.  The road test for my Class 1 only took about 20 minutes and a quick back-up in the DOT yard and I was told I had passed my test.  You get absolutely no training in Scotland on load securement, tarping or record keeping from the relevant authorities.  Although, they will certainly fine you if any of the aforementioned are not carried out properly.  This is where companies in Scotland rely heavily on experienced hands to teach new drivers the ropes.  I was fortunate in that my Granddad spent a lot of his own free time showing me how to tie knots (they use a lot of ropes in Scotland), belly wraps and tarping.  I used to go out with him on a Sunday and give him a hand covering loads in my free time which I used to enjoy. 

When I left Middler I spent time working for a few local companies in Aberdeen all of which were involved in oil work.  I remember one time in particular, when I was driving a SK Mercedes with 380hp on tap for J.H Transport, an Owner/Operator, Colin Lawson and I went right up North in Scotland with hydrogen tanks for the offshore pipeline they were constructing North of Wick.  They actually use the hydrogen to fill the pipeline and float it out to sea.  The roads in Northern Scotland aren’t really suitable for heavy trucks with a lot of nasty corners combined with steep hills.  During the journey we came to one part in particular called the Berridale Braes

 [which you can actually see if you visit http://www.transportcafe.co.uk/britain4.html]

where you descend a 5% grade, twisting and turning to the bottom and as you get half way up the other side, which is about the same grade, you come to a hairpin bend where the South bound traffic has to yield right of way to those coming North bound as you have to use the whole road to get round the corner and you can’t see who is coming down the hill to meet you on the bend.  Colin was out in front and about half way up the hill when he lost his gears.  As I had only passed my test a few months prior to this and was new to mountain driving, I was driving far too close to Colin’s trailer and, inevitably, as he stopped I was forced to stop also.  I don’t know who was more scared myself and Colin or our girlfriends who had come along for the trip.  I really didn’t think I would manage to get going again but thankfully we managed to get to the top safely with a new lesson under my belt.  After arriving at our delivery point we managed to laugh it off. 

Doing contract work for oil companies does give you a mountain of experience as every single day is different.  I did a lot of oversize covering all aspects – wide, high, long and heavy.  The long loads could be a handful given the vast number of roundabouts that there are all over the UK.  Although the UK trucks are shorter – the standard UK trailer is 45 ft – the places we had to load and unload in were very old and not built with trucks of that size in mind.  I did a brief spell working for North Sea Trucks driving a 400hp 85 DAF and then a M.A.N. with 460hp which saw me doing a lot of Irish loads.  I would catch the ferry from Cairnryan in the South West Coast of Scotland to Larne in Northern Ireland.  I was instructed that once in Northern Ireland if anybody, at any time, tried to stop me in any way I was to keep going.  My loads were going to Killybegs on the North Western coast of Southern Ireland to meet the oil field supply vessels so I was only ever transiting Northern Ireland.  It’s quite an eerie place to drive through yourself, especially at night as a young lad of 21/22 at the time.  It’s a shame to see so much misery and hatred in such a beautiful part of the world.  Another journey across the water took me to France, Belgium and Holland.  I really wish I could have got more mainland European experience because other guys who do it all the time have got a million and one fascinating stories to tell.

After a downturn in the oil industry I moved over to agricultural work which saw me transporting a lot of fresh produce from farms, mostly potatoes and turnips (tatties and neeps as we would call them in Scotland).  On occasions I would phone a farmer for directions and ask if his farm was suitable for a semi, as many of them aren’t.  Farms in Scotland are very different to the ones in Canada.  Often they are hundreds of years old.  The farmer, of course, wanting his product delivered, would, undoubtedly, say that it was suitable.  I would turn up at the farm, find that it wasn’t and say to the farmer “You told me I could get a semi in here” and their usual response was “Well I can get my tractor and bogie round that corner” or “I’ve had bigger trucks than that in here before”.  I had to bite my tongue and politely say “Well this isn’t a 35 ft tractor and bogie” or “The trucks don’t get any bigger than this in the UK”.  I can laugh about it now but I certainly wasn’t at the time when I had to back up four or five miles down a farm track to the main road again. 

The last couple of years in Scotland I was working with Brick and Curran Transport owned and operated by Nicholas and Helen Curran. I started on a 3 series Scania 360hp which was putting out roughly 470 horse they reckoned. We got on really well together.  Nicholas was a very fair boss and would not ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do himself. He was, and still is, a very hard working man and he set a high standard for any of his employees. We had a contract delivering Kubota machines all over Britain from Kubota’s UK HQ in Thame, Oxfordshire. This work started out as Scottish backloads but got to the stage where we were leaving Scotland at the start of the week and worked for Kubota delivering all over England all week then collecting our Scottish loads at the end of the week. These were really good loads as the machines were not heavy so you did not have to worry about axle weights, not that I was too concerned as the DOT were more interested in your time keeping than weight. I can say in all honesty that in six years driving on the UK roads I have never even had a truck across a scale. Unlike here in Canada, the UK uses electronic tacho-graphs to record driving time. I really enjoyed doing this work, but everything good in life must come to an end. Other local companies cut the rate on the job to the point where it wasn’t worth doing anymore.   After the Scania was sold I was put onto a brand new Volvo Globetrotter XL with a 460hp Volvo engine.  This I must say is the best truck I have ever driven.  In 15 months of operation the only thing that needed repaired on this truck was the cigarette lighter.  The boss even let me put Grace’s name on the front of the truck. The last 6 months or so saw me driving a DAF 480hp Super Space Cab. It was very well named as it was huge inside especially compared to other European trucks. The DAF engine, although bigger than the Volvo’s, didn’t pull nearly as well. Another engine that is very popular, and for good reason, is the V8. The only truck makers to the best of my knowledge that offer these are Scania and Mercedes.

One major difference between North America and the United Kingdom is the truck stops. I would love to take my Granddad over to see one.  The standards of cleanliness and service are far superior here to those in the UK.  I can only think of one truck stop in the UK where you can get Laundromat facilities.  The washrooms, the showers, the store and the food on offer at truck stops in North America put the UK to shame. 

Despite the apparent need in Canada for experienced long haul truck drivers, it took almost a year of internet research each weekend and emailing of my CV to Canadian trucking companies before I received a positive response.  A lot of the companies here weren’t interested in me because I did not have North American experience.  Fortunately Kleysen did not hold this view and Grace and myself decided that we would grab hold of this opportunity and come over to Winnipeg for a week at our expense leaving our two boys, Darren and Cameron, with their Grandma Dorothy.  This was the last week in January 2004 when the temperature was minus 53 approx with the wind-chill.  Sarah Long at Kleysen mentioned the weather and asked whether, after seeing Winnipeg at its worst, if we still wanted to move here.  We said that yes we did – it wasn’t enough to put us off.  Having survived a winter in Winnipeg we now find it amusing when we hear back home that the schools are closed because the temperature has dropped to minus 3. 

We moved over in June 2004 with only six bags of clothes between the four of us.  As I was not going to be paid until I was at least at the stage of city driving it was important that I had to pass all my tests as soon as possible for Class 5 and Class 1. Luckily I passed them all first time. I was fortunate to have a good teacher, Rick, one of the city drivers who had a lot of knowledge and patience, especially when it came to my getting to grips with the gearshift.  The transmissions here are very different to the ones in Scotland.  I have used similar transmissions in Scotland on an older shunting truck with A Middler but that was only within a one mile radius of the yard.  There are some minor differences between the road signs here and in Britain but at the end of the day a stop sign is a stop sign! I have found the drivers here in Canada to be very helpful and full of information which they are usually only too happy to pass on. I have met a lot of fascinating people here in Canada and I love to hear the drivers talking about journeys up North and on the ice roads.

On return from my first trip Kleysen asked me to grab all my stuff in a hurry and fly out to Spokane, WA to pick up a stranded truck and driver.  I was to drive them to Vancouver, unload and reload for Winnipeg. When loading in North Vancouver we discovered that I was not allowed out of the truck because I had no personal safety equipment so the other driver had to do all the loading himself while I sat in the truck.  He left a tarp on the front of the load somewhere and, when I was told to move the truck round the corner to strap the load, the tarp fell onto the fender on the front drive axle pushing it right into the tire.  That took us a good half hour shoving and pushing with a big bar to set free and try and get it in an acceptable shape to pass the scales to get us back to Winnipeg for repair.  Even though it was a Canadian driver he had never been into BC so after some debate about which route to take through the mountains we decided to take the Coquihalla highway.  We had 48000 lbs of 53 ft steel rebar and we got up to a point on the side of the mountain I believe was called Smashers Hill.  After coming through an avalanche tunnel (I think it was an avalanche tunnel) I tried to snatch a half shift to which I had absolutely no response.  Initially I put this down to my inexperience with these transmissions.  After trying to take off again in first gear it felt like the truck was stuck in about fifth gear so we had no chance of moving and realized that it was a mechanical problem.  I had no satellite signal on my qualcom but, fortunately, the other driver had a cell phone and we managed to call for help.  We waited about three hours and eventually the wrecker arrived to pull us back to Chilliwack.  After figuring out the problem, a hole in the exhaust which had burnt a hole in an airline, the wrecker driver told us he could not pull the tractor and the trailer as it would overload his axles.  We agreed to leave our loaded trailer as it was on the shoulder well off the road.  He told us that he would tow the truck forward to the top of the hill where he could go through an underpass for heading South again and would drop our truck and pick it up from the back axle to save dropping the shaft.  We all jumped in the wrecker truck and had an interesting chat about life as a trucker/wrecker driver in BC as we drove back to Chilliwack.  Very suddenly there was a big bang and as we looked in the mirrors there were plumes of smoke so you could hardly see our tractor in the mirrors.  Our tractor had fallen off the wrecker and was dragged for a couple of hundred metres down the road causing flat spots on the eight drive axle tires.  Myself and the other driver just had to laugh at that point after everything else that had gone wrong during the day.  It certainly made our first trip through BC a memorable one.  We managed to get the truck picked up again and got back to Chilliwack without further mishap.  Kleysen were never charged for the tow as they had to replace all the tires on the drives.   

I have covered most of Canada from BC to NB in my T800 Kenworth with its CAT C13 400hp.  I still long to get to Nova Scotia and up into the Yukon/North Western Territories, but one step at a time. I have covered most of the States by now with exception of Florida. I was very excited to see deserts and cacti, down south in Arizona, as you don’t get too many cacti in the wilds of Scotland. My favourite state would have to be New Mexico. I don’t really know why but when I was passing through I just liked it.  I thought it was a beautiful state.  Trips like that certainly give me something to tell people back in Scotland. When I was passing through Nashville Tennessee, I had to stop and send some postcards to my Grandma and Granddad as they are huge country and western fans. The variety of wildlife in Canada also amazes me as all you ever really see in Scotland are deer and rabbits. I really like staying in Manitoba as there is a lot to see and do here. People I meet on my travels often say, “Why Winnipeg? There’s nothing there” but I disagree, it is a very interesting place if you take the time to look and there is still a lot of things that I have lined up to take Grace and the kids to see and do, but as with everything it all boils down to time and money.  We discovered on a water taxi trip down at the Forks, where the Assiniboine and the Red River meet, that Scottish people were among the first settlers in Winnipeg. There is a huge stainless steel Thistle (the flower of Scotland) commemorating these people.  It has been a rough year in every aspect for me and my family but we are starting to feel more at home here in Winnipeg.  I do, of course, miss some aspects about my life in Scotland.  As regards my trucking life there, I would say that I miss having a truck that I could take pride in and present at shows which is something I did quite a few times over the years. On a personal note, of course, I miss my family and especially chatting with my Granddad and brother Daniel about trucks.  I have been asked many times if I would do this again and I would have to say yes. I am very grateful and proud for all the hard work that Grace, Darren and Cameron have put in also, to make a new life here, and I feel this is just the start of a new chapter in our lives together.

David Gunn.