Cross-border (northern one) communication
 

It can be really, really expensive to communicate when you head up to Canada. Cell phone minutes are usually like 50 cents. Check this out, my wireless internet unlimited costs $68 per month with taxes included. I go to Canada and use my laptop less than two hours and it adds $70 to my bill!!!

How do you Canadians do it? How do you afford to communicate across the borders? Fellow Americans, how do you do it? The costs of not taking loads and communicating is way to much to just not use your phone? Even so, the costs are expensive. Any tricks to this?

The Canadians use a fast moving communication system called sled dogs. It takes two weeks to get a message back from dispatch, but it is cheaper.

:x Sly devils!!! :x :sad:

Ah, you guys, c'mon, pleassssseeeee......

http://www.actorsnetbucks.org/get_in...e_pleading.jpg

Do you have a cell phone down here and one up there? Do you swap out sim cards? It there one carrier that offers cheaper US/Canada rates? Do you just have a $300 phone bill every month and are you minutes-hoarding clock watchers? You've must have found some answers.

I figure if i`m going through canada another hundred max on my phone bill is worth it because if i`m up there i`m going to be making more then usual but I dont use my phone much anyways, if I get a load to fort mac AB or the yukon or alaska I already know what i`m coming out with it or i`m getting a good enough rate to deadhead out.

Our phones are with Bell Canada. I communicate with the drivers using the phone's 10-4 feature ($20/month unlimited IIRC).

As far as talking to US brokers & shippers, I'll have to check to see how many minutes I'm averaging in the US and what the cost is. 400 a month sticks in my mind but I'm not sure that was dollars or minutes. Probably dollars. More later.

Ok, let me see if I've got this straight. You've got to pay to play, and just talk less..........EUREKA!..............That's it! :lol:

Really, is that it! No way to do this cheaply? The Canada guys have got to know something and they just aren't talking. Probably just bitter because our North is their South. :P :lol: :shock: :lol:



edit** oops, Rank! You are Canadian :oops: I didn't really mean that about the North and South. I really like ice cubes and cold beer and huskies and everything.

Rank isn't Canadian you bone head. Look at his posts, they are all in English!!! Also, his trucks have the steering wheel on the left like we do, yet another clue!!

Oh yeah, I didn't think of that. :sad:

Bien oui, je suis Canadien! La terre de biere et hockey.
Oui, oui, oui, les Americans est tres bon, aussi. Vive les Etas-Unis. Vive Monsieur Bush.

Cam,

Excuse my poor French. Your cell phone provider must have a "North America Plan" or something. That's what we have with Bell. Still have to check my cell phone bill and get back to you.

Bien oui, je suis Canadien! La terre de biere et hockey.
Been out, Jesus is Canadian, Later do beer at hockey.

Oui, oui, oui, les Americans est tres bon, aussi.
Ouch, Ouch, less Americans, Eric Estrada is Australian.


Rank, I remember my Canada language class from high school like it was yesterday and to tell you the truth, this makes no sense at all.

Calls to/from Canada and USA
 

North American Free Trade means nothing when it comes to phone service. It means nothing anyway, and it's the WORST thing that the goons in the World Government have done to us so far (no, it's not the governments of the USA and Canada anymore, it's the Bilderberger Group - do a search).

Anyway, I use one "800" number wherever I am, and I get the same low rate on either side of the border, and it's cheaper than cell.

The company is out of Montreal, Canada - called DCI TELECOM. Their number is 1-866-850-5679. When you call, be cagey; you might need to give them a Canadian address. Say you're just calling for information right now.

Then email me at [email protected]. I'd like to know what they say to you. If I can help providing an address for you, I will. Plus, I think if I sign up some people, I get some kind of monthly bill reduction for myself this time.

I've been with them for around ten years. They're not fly-by-night.

Shebear

Spending close to $500/month with Telus. Also have the 10-4. Checked DCI but they do not offer roaming plans. 75% of the calls are going from US to Canada. Canada is home. Right now we're looking into getting a US phone with maybe Nextel. Problem with Telus is that they do not offer a plan with enuf minutes, 700 maximum and then you pay thru the nose. Looking at options if any fellow Canadian has any ideas.

Wow, that company must have fast dogs.

Been banned for two days. First time to get access to the website again. Trying to see if the banning was the aberration or if this post will prove to be the aberration. If you don't hear from me too soon you'll know what happened. :lol:

I heard from a coworker that one of the freelance drivers went up to Canada awhile back, and before crossing the border he called his phone company customer and had them temporarily switch over to a Canadian "plan," and as soon as he came back to the States, he reversed it and went on about his business.

Again, hearsay, but perhaps worth further research for someone who wants to not pay $900 bucks like I did once in Ontario.

So what, Rank is 'bi'? Funny, you wouldn't really know that just reading his posts. :D

I didn't give out all the secrets. I didn't even mention the carrier penguins.

Or the trusty polar bear express. But using that is just grizzly.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: Calls to/from Canada and USA
 

The Apostle Paul is the famous tentmaker? Shebear, I thought you were more like a hippie? :?

Oh yeah, BTW, what's all this about an 800 number? Cell phones I understand, little electronic thing you stick in your pocket. What exactly do you do with an 800 number?

:shock: :shock: :shock:

The 'we're screwed' part I get. It's the part about the cell phone I don't understand. So, you do have two cell phones, a US based phone and a Canadian phone. But that still is only going to help you with intra-country calls, calls across the border will cost $$$ whichever phone you use.

Now, you don't have monthly service on the Canadian phone, is that right? You bought the phone, you buy the cards, it's a pay as you go way of talking inside the country. That might help some, such as when you are talking a lot to a Canada based customs agent. Does it sound like I understand because if it doesn't that's probably because I don't.

No you wouldn't. But I'm not really as bilingual as I should be.......what with being a Canadian and all. I'm just a country farm boy hick with a few years of engineering school thrown in.

But I do find the Quebecios culture an awesome departure from real life. So much so that I married into it. :D

Don't knock until you've tried it. :D :D

Man, it would probably take $1,000 worth of bourbon to get over a $900 phone bill. :lol:

None of this makes any sense. With all the close business ties, the close proximity, the abundance of Inuit translation software (I take it that is Inuit you were writing, rank), it just doesn't seem right that communication costs have to be such a restriction to doing business. The bridge costs $20, Ontario fuel taxes are double :x , but at least you can anticipate that. Crazy phone bills and internet costs just kind of sneak up on you. With the major American based services, I haven't heard anything of a North America plan or even a Bildeburger plan :wink:

Oh that was a good one too. You and Steve are a laugh a minute.

Hmm. That sux. Must be because less than .08% of Americans can even locate Canada on the map, even fewer want to use a cell phone there.

You're right tho. Wireless options suck....internet too.

50 cents/min is chump change. I pay over $2 a minute whenever I'm in the states.

:lol: Yeah, that would probably fit in with the percentage who know who our VP is, or something.

I'm still not totally comfortable with 'WTF' so pretend I didn't write that, only that's what I'm thinking. What the hey, Allan5oh. Is that really what Canadians' international calls cost in the US or do you have the worst phone plan in all the known universe?

Let's talk about $2/minute. If you are like many Canadian drivers you spend more time driving in the US than you do in the 51st state. 8) At $2/minute you can hardly afford to take but the most crucial phone calls. Contrast that to an American driver who has a large minutes package or things like free 'in circle' type deals (do you just love that commercial with D. Wade and Barkey where he shows off his 'sexy' shorts?) :lol: I sit in my truck jabbering with whoever, it really closes the gap when you are away from home. If you can hardly afford to do that, that's a tremendous quality of life issue due to the costs of cross-border phone calls. I'm not telling you something you don't already know, it's just something an American driver generally wouldn't think about. I'm whining and I spend a small percentage of my time up north.

There is no jabbering on the cell phone. That's for sure. Use the land line and the calling card for that.
As far as $2/minute yeah it can easily be that.

Air time: free
long distance: $1/minute
roaming fee: $1/minute
+ 15% tax.

Tentmaker
 

Attn: SHARP-EYED "CAM"

Paul supported himself making tents, in between his travels, so that he could fulfill the Divine Commission Jesus gave him, as well as the rest of us: Preach the Gospel to every creature.

I'm sure there are some Truck Drivers out there who are doing the same thing -- working behind the wheel to be in the right place, at the right time, to share the Holy Love of God with people they meet on the road -- all those who are aching because they are "burdened and heavy laden". . . with sins, grief, guilt, and heartache.

You see, Paul was once a FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORIST.

That's right! Before Jesus got hold of his life, Paul was a religious fanatic who rounded up whole families of Christians to slaughter them or put them in prison. He was cheering on the sidelines when an apostle named Steven was stoned to death.

But then, out on the Interstate between Jerusalem and Damascus, Christ struck Paul blind and told him he'd have a new birth once he got on STRAIGHT STREET, where a man named Ananias was waiting to baptize him. (Read the story in Chapter 9 of The Book of Acts.)

Paul became an evangelist. Unlike the suits on television, he never asked anyone to support him. That's the real meaning of "tentmaker".[/quote]

Re: Tentmaker
 

Ok, yeah. I'm really familiar with the expression 'tentmaker', I was a missionary English teacher to Canada myself. Almost did a YWAM DTS, got a friend in Mozambique with Heidi Baker if you've heard of her.

Perhaps to my own shame, I rarely make the effort to lead people to Jesus as I did in...China. I've gotten the left foot of fellowship from church a time or two (or three, or five... :lol: ). If some measure of the love of God doesn't surface in me from time to time I guess there really is no witness. I'm not completely backslidden. Even as I write I have Darlene Zchech singing in the background.

So then, that explains the lion, but not necessarily Shebear.

That really is too bad. Huge quality of life issue. I can't tell you how much time I've spent talking to my Mom about the antics of our dogs, the Morning Glories, my nephew...Other people, hours on the phone...It stands out because I started driving in the days of 800 numbers and calling cards. I remember how it was then and how it is now. The internet? Condo sleepers for solo drivers? I wonder how much people realize the quality of life for truckers in the US has improved over the past ten years. Terrible that Canadian drivers can't reap the benefits.

Well...now tah tyou mention it...there is a thing caled Skype IIRC for home calls. Required a computer and internet connectino I beleive, but it's really cheap from all I've heard.

Cam, I don't even know what a thousand bucks in bourbon looks like, but I'm imagining an entire room of Jim Beam.

By the way I should note that I fought that bill amount and won.

I drove for about 3 years until Jan 06, all of it into the US - have picked up, delivered or driven through 44 of the contigious 50 US states. The biggest problem was communication and the extortionate rates charged by Canadian cell phone companies. It did not make any sense for me use my Canadian cell phone in the US, no matter what plan they offered for North American roaming. The best solution I was able to come up with was to use a US cell phone (given by a relative who lives in the US). I paid US $39.95 per month then for a T-mobile plan which allowed me 1000 day time minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends, no long distance and no roaming no matter whether I was just across the border in Detroit or in Nogales, Arizona on the Mexican border. When my dispatch in Canada needed me, they dialled me on my US cell phone. When I needed to call them, I called them on the 1-800 number, so I only used air time on my US phone. I got one of the then new VOIP phones at home which for Thirty canadian dollars per month allowed unlimited calls all over Canada and the US. That coupled with unlimited calls at nights on my US cellphone, allowed my wife to call me any night after 9pm and speak for any length of time for "free". My cost was capped at a total of 45 US dollars (including tax) plus thirty five canadian dollars (including tax) per month.

But for US drivers coming into Canada, forget about getting US style deals. The cell phone companies here are extortionists. Had I driven in Canada alone, I would never have got the quality time speaking with my family that I did driving into the US.