Working the system.

I think there is definitely a trick with H&R and you have to learn to work the system to suit yourself. Sometimes you have to be very underhand in your attempts to get home and get the miles in.. I would always arrive in Calgary with a load, after my dispatcher had gone home, and offer to bring a trailer down to Lethbridge for another lad so he would not have to come up, regardless of whether I had the hours to do it or not. That way there was never the opportunity for them to reset me in Calgary. If I brought a load that passed through Lethbridge to go to Calgary I would OFFER to drop it in the yard, have a quick 36 and go south for them again.. 99% of the time they would tell me to drop the trailer and be ready to go as soon as the hours were spent. The one thing I was never able to get on top of was the waiting at the meat plants for a trailer and when you don't have any other options, I don't think you ever will. If you have a family and you want to be home at the weekends, this is possible but you won't earn any money.. All the best work leaves on a Thursday/Friday for Monday delivery. If you start doing these runs you can normal get there and back in a week and earn the money. The trouble is then trying to get back on the road again with a job that allows you to keep this up consistently. You might leave on a Saturday the next week and before you know it the weeks are rolling and you have lost a weeks money..I don't think the Canadians are so bothered with constantly trying to get home. They seem to work for a bit and then have some time off. I was always trying to get a pattern in my work and this might be the European in me, struggling with the Canadian way.
I am moving to another company on a TWP to haul Cattle mainly down into Washington. This was my original plan many moons ago and the paperwork has finally come. I will update more but I have to get my trailer now..