Kevin Martin, a recent immigrant to Canada with 12 years experience driving trucks on European roads, says he first thought seriously about packing it all up and moving to Canada during one of England’s notorious traffic jams. “You can spend most of your day in traffic queues over there,” the 34-year-old Briton says. “You fight traffic all day long and it’s very stressful. By the end of the day, you’re absolutely knackered out!”

Now Martin hauls for Mississauga, Ont.-based Waddell Transport, which specializes in hauling for trade shows and theater companies. He emigrated in the summer of 2000, and within a month was driving a big rig across the open roads of North America. “Basically, I’m a professional tourist,” he says from the recent NHL All-Star festivities in Los Angeles. “I’m getting paid to see the country, and I’m enjoying myself.”

The arrangement is good for Martin, but it’s also good for Waddell Transport, which is always on the hunt for good drivers. And, if the people who brought Martin to Canada get their way, a steady influx of experienced drivers from Europe will be good for this country’s trucking industry.

The Woodbury Transport Group, which is affiliated with Waddell Transport, is in the middle of a global recruitment drive which could see hundreds of skilled drivers immigrate to Canada over the next few years. After two recruitment trips to England, Scotland, and Ireland, more than 80 serious applicants are in the pipeline for visas to live and work in Canada. Hundreds of others are still being evaluated for their suitability for immigration here. More trips are planned for this spring and summer to interview prospective immigrants in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France, and Hungary. And, later this year, there may be trips to Australia and South Africa to find skilled drivers from those countries, as well.

“It’s an ongoing campaign,,” says Wayne Campbell, senior manager of human resources and training for Woodbury Transport Group. “It’s something we’ve decided to do to solve our own driver shortage.”

He says Woodbury is looking to Europe for new hires because qualified driver training schools in Canada just can’t keep up with the demand, and the graduates of what he calls “licence mills” simply aren’t suitable.

Canadian trucking operations at large employ more than 150,000 drivers. Attracting and retaining truck drivers continues to be a challenge for an industry that needs roughly 50,000 more people behind the wheel. But throwing keys at people who’ve been freshly churned out of driving schools doesn’t interest Campbell.

“We need professional drivers with professional attitudes,” he says. “And that’s what we’re finding in Europe. Driving a truck is considered a true profession over there, in a way that it’s not seen here.”

Woodbury is working closely with Cheshire, England-based Four Corners Emigration, one of the larger emigration consultants in Europe. The company works with potential emigrants, helping to line up employers and visas. “The word is spreading that there are driving jobs to be had in Canada,” says David Roberts, client services manager for Four Corners Emigration. “Britain’s roads are overcrowded and truck drivers are not making any money. They’re spending too much time waiting in traffic queues. When you’re in those queues, Canada looks pretty good.”

Roberts believes British drivers have a lot to offer Canada. “The U.K. is the fourth-largest economy in the world. Every truck driver here understands just-in-time supply,” he says. “And many of our drivers service western Europe and go down as far as the northern Mediterranean, so they’re used to long hauls.” The company has sent letters to more than a hundred carriers in Canada, introducing themselves and offering expertise in supplying them with experienced drivers.

However, Roberts’ job is about to get tougher, as pending changes to immigration rules will be biased more heavily toward academic qualification. “The immigration authorities are looking for a post-secondary qualification like an apprenticeship, and I fully understand why. Canada wants la crème de la crème,” he says. “But I think, to everyone’s surprise, truck drivers are not yet on the Canadian government’s priority list of shortage occupations.”

Not on the federal list, anyway. But Manitoba recently identified truck driving as a shortage occupation, so assistance is available at the provincial level to help immigrant drivers. “New immigration rules and a new immigration minister make for an interesting situation,” says Chris Willis, director of Canadian operations for Four Corners Emigration. “But the fact that Manitoba has put drivers on their shortage list is an indication that doors may be opening for drivers coming into Canada.”

Based in Hudson, Que., Willis is Four Corners’ man in Canada, aiding immigrants who have questions or problems. So far, that number is still quite low, but it is set to explode, he says, as more and more carriers see the advantage of hiring hard-working skilled drivers from other parts of the world. “Migrants tend to be a special breed,” he says. “Only certain types of characters will have the inclination and the drive to emigrate. These people tend to adapt quite well because they’re willing sometimes to take a step down before they move up.”

Success, however, is hardly guaranteed. In addition to cultural adjustments immigrants have to make, there are vast differences in freight distribution patterns, trucking equipment, and regulations to grapple with. The most acute need for skilled drivers is among long-haul truckload carriers — an unfamiliar beast to, say, the average Brit driver. Some companies recruit drivers as owner-operators, adding the pressures of running a business in an unfamiliar environment.

Linda Gauthier, director of programs for the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council (CTHRC), says work is being done to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for emigrating drivers. An industry coalition, involving the CTHRC, the Canadian Trucking Alliance, the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, and Teamsters Canada, is trying to make a case for putting drivers on the federal government’s shortage list. They’re gathering hard numbers about industry needs, and Gauthier believes the results may justify a more open attitude toward letting skilled drivers into the country.

Furthermore, she points out, foreign drivers will likely be a true asset to the industry. “These people realize they are given an opportunity to have a new life,” she says. “If they mess up, they could lose their status and end up going back. So they tend to be very committed, very hard working.”

Although she believes a true solution to Canada’s driver shortage must incorporate some new ideas for employee retention, and dedicated efforts to recruit from certain segments of the population — particularly women and young people — Gauthier is supportive of the efforts of Woodbury, Four Corners, and others to bring foreign drivers to Canada. She says recruiting from Europe and elsewhere is not a new idea, but one that is becoming more popular as Canada’s driver shortage worsens.

She said two groups of people who are especially interested in immigrating to Canada are former armed forces personnel who were once stationed in Canada, and owner-operators who want to establish themselves here to capitalize on the lower cost of living.

Campbell believes missing out on the quality drivers who are ready and eager to emigrate to Canada from other countries would be a terrible mistake. “These are drivers with experience, who have substantial money to come over here and open up their own trucking operation in Canada,” he says. “They’re self-sufficient. They’re not going on the welfare rolls. They have money in their pocket and they’re going to survive over here.”

Certainly Martin’s off to a good start.

“It was definitely a good experience,” he says. “There were stressful times, I must admit, because it seemed to take forever to get the visa. In all, it took about 18 months and about $15,000, but the opportunity was there, and I thought I’d be stupid not to give it a go.”

SIDEBAR: Chance Encounter: When Ibrahim Masic’s life took a turn for the worse, he sought a better one in Canada

Like a lot of truck drivers, Ibrahim Masic had a previous career. He was an insurance salesman, a happy one in a small city near Sarajevo in what used to be Yugoslavia. Then, suddenly, he became a refugee Bosnian. After his country split into factions and fighting began in 1992, Masic — who spent four years in a refugee camp — first sent his family out of the country and then escaped himself.

He landed in Canada with little more than the clothes on his back. Driving a truck was a skill he could learn that would let him start earning income quickly, so he applied for a government grant to pay for driving school. But when he graduated and got his licence, he found no takers. He’d left Bosnia with no papers to attest to his driving record.

Alan Howell took a chance on Masic when other fleets wouldn’t. The human resources manager at Global Forwarding in Dartmouth, N.S., saw a guy who had a great deal of pride and maturity, and wanted to work hard to provide for his family and to re-pay the loans for his schooling.

It wasn’t always easy. When he started, Masic knew little English. But the company treated him no different than any other driver: following his apprenticeship in local and regional work, Masic spent a month or so driving team and then he was on his own.

Three years later, Howell and Global president Ron Clowes wish they had more drivers like Masic. He never refuses a trip, says Clowes, and that willingness to take on the tough stuff is one key reason why he’s a Global favourite. Masic shrugs his shoulders about that. “I don’t complain,” he says. “Everything that was my dream in Slovenia, I have it now. Somebody had to appreciate me. That was part of my dream, to find a company that appreciated me.”

Much as he likes the country, he probably has even more affection for Clowes. “I will collect my pension working for this guy,” he says with feeling, nodding towards his boss. “I had a bad life before. Now everything’s a piece of cake.” — Rolf Lockwood