shuttle driver

crew member

site supervisor

editor

yard driver

HALLCON

Do you want to work 24/7 on call as a spare driver?  Even when your booked off they call all hours, and if your to tired to drive, well to bad!  They would rather you drive unsafe, and if you refuse then you will be written up. 

Dispatch is disrespectful, unprofessional, and disorganized.  They called up to 12 times while I was driving, 3 calls were for another driver in another vehicle, the other calls were for ETA, different dispatchers calling for the same information.  They don't care how much they distract you while driving, and expect drivers to do all the thinking for them.  If you say your in Didsbiry they should be figuring out the ETA, instead of distracting the driver.  Dispatch is not only disorganized, but downright rude when you tell them your not sure of estimated time of arrival, they will repeatedly ask again. They can't even pull out google maps to help the drivers.  We have to pull out our phones, pull over and figure it out for them wasting our time and adding to the delay. To this date, only one dispatcher has helped me as a new driver.   Like I said dispatch is disrespectful, unprofessional, and disorganized.

like i said, if you want to work as a road driver, the pay is horrible, you can be on call 13 hours before getting a shift, and be expected to work through the night for 10 hours.  To get 8 hours of work with short tips, and time waiting in between trips could be up to 15 hours.  The on call work, means that it's next to impossible to have a life, as you can wait 13 hours, and when they do call you must be absolutely ready for work.  If your not, and don't take the trip while you have been on call forever, well expect to be written up!

Worked as a highway driver for Hallcon several years ago, and would have to be very desperate to return to that position. Extremely low wages, zero benefits, and no home life.

Working as a yard driver though, LOCALLY, is a different story. As a yard driver the wages are even lower, and also with zero benefits, but the yard driver position has a four days on, four days of schedule with 12 hour shifts. I don't mind the long shifts at all, as for me the commute is less than 10 minutes.

What I do like about this job is that it is not physically demanding - it's pretty much a desk job on four wheels - easy peasy! And with four days off at a stretch, it's a decent work - life balance.

There are no benefits of any kind whatsoever: no medical, no dental, no pension or other benefits. No scheduled breaks. All you get is a wage that is just over minimum wage. I honestly don't know how people in the city can afford to work for this company and pay rent, pay bills, and buy groceries, etc. It's unionized under Teamsters, but apparently that means little or nothing - I've worked at open shop jobs that offer way better pay and at least some benefits. 

But for me it works, as I own my own home and dont have to pay rent. But as long as you are okay with the low low wage and zero benefits, it isn't a bad job; and for the most part it's also low stress, at least for me.

And most of the railroad people and other Hallcon drivers are great to work with as well.

Got hired at Hallcon, a week went by and never heard from them until I called them. Finally he picked me up for a 4 hour training shift which I was promised I was going to get paid. Picked up a minivan with 400000km on it and the seats were not properly bolted to the floor, the tires were bald and the windshield was so cracked it looked like a deer probably smashed through it. Drove it around for 4 hours looking at numerous CN bunk houses. Once the day was done, I was told I would start next weekend. The weekend came and went and I even turned down a 2nd job I was supposed to start on the week thinking I would be working with these guys. They never called so I called them on Monday and was told I would start next Friday. Never heard from them and could not get a hold of them. I called dispatch and was told they don't even have a supervisor in my area. A week later my so called hiring manager called me and asked if I was still interested. I said I was but I was hoping to have started 2 weeks ago. They said they would call me in 2 days and never heard from them again. And never got paid for my training either. Not only lost a 2nd part time job because of these guys but never started with Hallcon in the first place and lost 3 weeks of my life with no pay because of it. This company will lie to you and you will probably get into a severe accident from the most unsafe vans on planet.

Most unprofessional manager that doesn't know how to run a workplace. Even the fact that his still a manager is a mystery. He always threatens workers to quit whenever he doesn't get his way and always asks for favors but never returns the favor. Treating certain workers better than the rest. Always harasses you while your doing your job. The only thing this manager still has his position is that employees are scared to loss their jobs. You'll have no right to say no to whatever he asks from you. Always short on employees whenever an employee calls in sick he pressures you to work faster and when you miss something in the bus he won't even bother to acknowledge the fact that he was down workers and forced you to rush. No he'll either have a meeting complaining about buses not being cleaned properly or he'll call you in the office about you needing to focus at work. Him and few of his "close" employee will deny the fact but you'll find out over the time he discriminate workers, force some workers to work hard while other workers are sitting around or play hide and seek somewhere. This job is easy if it weren't for the current management.

A typical day at work was sit on the board and wait for a call but with the way trips are lately you rarely sit very long. 

What I learned more about trains than I knew before. From Hallcon I learned nothing unless you count how to be a good liar.

Management is horrible. Vans are very poorly maintained. They try and blame the driver for stuff they knew was wrong with the van before you drove it so if you do ever drive for them refuse to drive any van that is making any strange noise cause you will be blamed even if something happens after you report it.

Workplace culture? If you count that they like to try and turn drivers against each other as they love conflict long as it not with higher ups.

The job was never very hard as you just transport rail crews. The hardest part was dealing with management.

Most enjoyable part about the job was talking to engineers and conductors. The train stories were awesome.

My advice to anyone who wants to do a job like this go drive for a cab company that does Hallcon trips. The pay is better and you are treated better.

Like to add also this company has a union and its a joke. They take money from us hard working drivers and we got nothing to show for it

This company expects their drivers to be on called 12 hours a day 4 or 5 days a week nights/days or weekends. NO MINIMUM pay for being on call or benefits. If you work 2 hours  out or the 12 you make $40.18 less taxes and union dues and less what it cost you to get to location to pickup your van for each call out, for that day. ( can't support a family like that plus). Company says it's the nature of the job being on call but doesn't pay a MINIMUM or anything at all for sitting by the phone for 12 hours. Seems management is afraid to put in fixed schedules, so the senior drivers run rampant. Work when they think it will be busy and don't when it's not so new drivers get to sit and wait at home with no pay for the day if it's slow. The pay checks are hardly ever correct so your have to complain to get paid correctly. This would be a good job for someone with out a life or family and has a steady disability  income or is retired with a pension otherwise you won't make enough to live here

Typically each day I would go into work, prepare my supplies and head onto the first train to arrive. The Average clean was garbage pick, changing the garbage's, wiping all surfaces, washing windows, sweeping mopping and sometimes graffiti removing. Doing annual cleans were more intense where i'd have to get on my hands and knees and scrub every crack and crevasse. I learned how to operate as a team with my co-workers and that doing something right doesn't mean it'll be done the fastest. During the year i've been there, there have been three changes in management. All were great bosses, but i guess the first two bit off more then they could chew. My co-workers were generally really good, some better then others and the ones that weren't so good were out of the job after a certain amount of time. The hardest part of my job was the first two weeks, me and a co-worker had to clean "the pit" a job no one did or wanted to do for a year. The most enjoyable part of the job would be finding an object like a cell phone, turning it into the security guard and finding out that person received they're lost item.

Working with Hallcon Crew Transport consisted of transporting crews between stations, hotels and trains in various locations. Trips were sometimes from Medicine Hat to Calgary, Lethbridge, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Brooks or local areas such as Dunmore, Bowell, Bow Island or even just within the city of Medicine Hat.
When transporting the crews, the crew may ask you to stay and assist them while piecing a train together, which means I would transport the conducter around various area's. 
The hardest part of the job is receiving calls at any possible hour and being required to accept trip whether tired or not.
Also by making yourself available on the driver board, you are not guarenteed many trips or a trip for several hours, as drivers go on a rotation and you start your shift on the bottom of the rotation.
The most enjoyable part of the job is conversing with the CP Rail Crew members, and the Hallcon dispatch team.

You can call your own hours to some degree. Meaning even if you are available to work, there might not be any work available on your open schedule. These are usually on call driving positions, driving at all hours of the day or night and unless you have a position as a yard assist you don't know if your next call will be a 2 hour trip or 6, at 3 am in the morning or 3 pm. 
Your office is your car, in every kind of weather no matter the road conditions. Hourly wage is dependent on location and while management tries to be accommodating and are good people to work for - understand this job goes hand in hand with the needs of CN workers and the Railways schedule so there's no way for them to really help with you gaining any real financial stability with this job. Unless you are in a location with high demand and low quanity of available drivers. 
If you enjoy seeing the countryside, driving and exploring some remote places this might be a good job for you. 


This workplace is extremely disorganized and poorly managed. I went an entire month without pay because of ‘payroll issues,’ and when I finally did get paid, it was a lump sum with no explanation or apology. Missing hours on paycheques became a regular problem, and instead of fixing it immediately, management would just say it would be ‘corrected on the next pay.’

Management is completely off-site and relies on whatever they’re told rather than actual facts. If a coworker complains about you, management assumes it’s true without speaking to you. Rules are inconsistent — employees are written up for following the exact procedures they were trained on.

Health and safety also didn’t seem to be a priority. Sick employees worked in close quarters for full shifts with nothing done about it.

Overall, the lack of structure, communication, and fairness made this a very frustrating place to work. I would only recommend it as a last resort.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Shuttle driver 79 salaries reported	$20.99 per hour
Crew member 1 salary reported	$19.06 per hour
Site supervisor 6 salaries reported	$42,500 per year
Editor 5 salaries reported	$18.01 per hour
Yard driver 4 salaries reported	$18.17 per hour

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