CANADIAN WINTER | RENTING A VEHICLE

Life In Canada and the Nightmare of Renting a Vehicle in Minus 40C

Not an ideal time to be traveling

Canada went through a serious deep freeze for a few days in the past couple of weeks. Well, okay, I think much of northern North America did. It was minus 40C (-40F) for a few days in a row. A terribly frigid temperature that in some cases was made worse by wind. I saw reports of temperatures in the minus 60s with windchill! All I can say is thank god for central heating!

I had a pending medical appointment in Alberta so we were making moves to leave Saskatchewan where we had been staying with Chris’ Aunt for about 3 months. I suppose we could have simply come for the appointment and then gone back. However, we felt that it would be better to find a place closer to where I would be seeing the doctor in case there are follow-up appointments.

In making our decision to leave, I messaged a high school friend of Chris that we had stayed with back in August/September for 5 weeks. Her family has a sprawling 6000 acre farm and they live just an hour from where the appointment would be. I asked her if she was interested in us coming to do some work on the farm since we knew that there was always work to be done.

There are three houses in the central core of the farm — one that is fully furnished, yet unoccupied. It was where we had stayed in the fall, and we truly loved it. Having our own house to live in truly makes such a difference in our overall mental health. Living with others is often a tricky balance which we know well after having lived in many hostels as we traveled.

She jumped at the chance to have us come and help out. She had recently had bunion surgery, so her husband had taken on the brunt of all morning farm chores, plus driving the kids around to their activities, and he needed help. The plan was set!

A few days later she messaged me.

How will you be getting here?

We don’t have a vehicle so this is always a bit of a chore to figure out, especially in Canada. The public transit is deplorable and the distances to cover are vast.

We are thinking that we will rent a car and drop it off near you.

She replied:

Okay, we just purchased a used sheep scale in Saskatoon and we are trying to figure out how to get it here.

We were staying 40 km from Saskatoon at the time.

Oh, okay. Why don’t I look into the cost of renting a truck instead?

Sure, that would be great.

The cost of renting a truck was about double what renting a car would be, but of course, they were willing to pay the difference. Plus the farm has its own gas pump so we could fill up with gas at the farm before taking the vehicle to the rental drop-off.

I went ahead and booked a truck. In the meantime, we took Chris’ aunt's truck to Saskatoon to pick up the sheep scale and bring it back to her property so at least it was ready for us to load when the time came.

I booked a truck online to be picked up on Sunday at the Saskatoon Airport. My medical appointment was on Monday (I had waited 5 months to get it), in the same city where we would be dropping the truck off. We knew the forecast was grim, Sunday was supposed to be the coldest day of them all, and we were admittedly a bit nervous about it because of the predicted plummeting temperatures. Traveling when it is that cold is not always the wisest thing to do, but we really had few options at this point.

The drive we had to make was only 3–4 hours, so we knew that if we picked the truck up at noon on Sunday, then got it loaded with our stuff at Chris’ aunt's house, we would still be able to make it in daylight hours — knowing that it would be dark by 6 pm. This would then give us time the next morning to get the truck back to the delivery point by noon the following day.

We only wanted to spend money for one day of renting. For those curious, the total price was quoted at $229 including mileage and drop-off fees to another location. A car would have been about $100.

On Friday, I phoned the rental agency to make sure they had trucks available. I have had experiences in the past when the vehicle we booked was not available when we got there. Knowing that we had to move this sheep scale meant that we definitely needed a truck.

The lady on the phone was lovely.

“Oh yes, we have lots of trucks available. You will not have a problem getting one.” She told me in earnest. Perfect.

So Sunday comes and Chris and I drive the 40-ish kilometers to the Saskatoon airport. We arrived at the rental counter at about 11:30. The man behind the counter took our licenses and did all of the formalities.

For some reason, I had butterflies in my stomach as I was a bit worried that our big plan would not work out. If we couldn’t get a vehicle, then I would miss my appointment, which would be terrible.

“Okay, we are all set. A truck was dropped off this morning and we might still be cleaning it. Please sit over there and I will go check.” He motioned to a bench seat in the arrivals section of the airport terminal.

About 5 minutes later he approached us.

“I have some bad news. The truck will not start because of the cold temperatures. I’m surprised because it was just running 30 minutes ago.” He said in an apologetic tone.

“Okay, well I called the other day and the agent told me that there would be lots of trucks available.” I rebutted.

“Yes, well we have four other trucks here that also won’t start.” He said sheepishly.

“Can’t you plug them in? Don’t they have block heaters?” I asked feeling very desperate at this point.

For those that aren’t familiar with block heaters — here is a definition that I found on Wikipedia that explains it better than I can:

A block heater is used in cold climates to warm an engine prior to starting. They are mostly used for car engines; however, they have also been used in aircraft engines.

The most common design of block heater is an electrical heating element embedded in the engine block.

Most Canadians know about block heaters as most Canadians have to plug their cars into their houses in the winter. The heater keeps the engine warmer than the below-freezing air temperatures so it will start in the morning. Even then, we have to start our vehicles and let them run for 15–20 minutes in our driveways before it is advisable to drive them.

Sigh……not exactly a feather in our cap when it comes to environmental sustainability. I know.

And let’s not forget that we need to unplug the car before we drive off! Most Canadians have witnessed a vehicle driving with a chord dragging behind it in the winter because of this not happening. Chris and I had seen one just a couple of days prior while driving in Saskatoon.

“The trucks that are shipped to us now have a double insulated battery. But they don’t make them with block heaters anymore.” He told me.

Our mouths hung open at this news. What the actual f*ck??? We were aghast.

Here we were in CANADA, where the temperatures frequently plummet to these levels, and a rental car company (I won’t name it but I will say that it is one of the most common ones around the world) does not have vehicles that will withstand the temperatures. It was inconceivable to both of us.

“I’m very sorry for this. Can we get you a different vehicle? We have SUVs and minivans.” I could tell that he did feel terrible.

“No, we have something that we need to transport in a truck. It is too big for any other type of vehicle.” We told him.

“Okay, well there are four other trucks that are supposed to be returned before 1:00 pm today. But there have been many flight delays and things are a little bit crazy with this weather. I don’t know for sure when they are coming in. Do you want to wait to see if something comes in?” I could see that he was trying to remedy the situation.

We decided to drive back into the city to get lunch and he promised that he would call us when one of the trucks came back. By 1:30 we had finished lunch and had also taken a walk through a store where we needed to purchase something. We still had not heard back.

“Let’s just go back to the airport and wait there,” I said. “Surely something has to turn up soon.” We were getting increasingly aggravated by this whole situation, and we were starting to get a bit worried about our timeline. We didn’t want to leave too late because driving at night in -40C is even crazier than driving in the day at -40C.

I approached the counter and could already tell that he had bad news with the look on his face. Of course, he told me that nothing had come back yet and he was terribly sorry.

“Can’t you phone them?” I asked thinking that we would at least get an idea of their plans.

“Well, yes, but I can’t force them to bring them back.” He said.

“Yes, but you could at least find out what their plans are,” I suggested.

I could tell that he did not think this was a great idea, and I guess I can see why. It isn’t exactly a professional thing to do for a reputable company.

I told him that we would return to the bench seat and wait to see what happened.

By now it was nearing 2:00 and I was starting to get really nervous so I messaged Naomi, the lady that owns the farm, to tell her what had transpired. Of course, she was as aghast as we were.

After much back and forth about it all, she finally messaged us this:

Well, if you can’t get a truck just come with whatever vehicle you can. We can always go pick up the sheep scale once the weather improves. At least we know it is safe and sound at Chris’ aunt’s place.

Good enough. By 2:30 we finally made the call to get a minivan instead of the truck. I was still hopeful that we could somehow get the sheep scale inside of it. (We couldn’t.)

“You will be compensated for this hassle the agent told us as we left the counter. You will see an adjustment on your bill when you drop it off.” He promised us as we hurried away. Obviously, we were happy to hear that.

When I went out to the parking lot to find the vehicle, I initially walked right past it. I was comparing license plates to the one written on our contract and, because of the frigid temperatures, was frantically walking up and down the aisles to try and find it. Moment by moment, my face was getting colder and colder until the part of my forehead sticking out beneath my beanie (toque for Canadians) felt like it was going to get frostbite at any second. Truly, it was colder that day than I had felt in many, many years.

I was starting to panic a bit and contemplated running back into the airport to warm up when I had a bright idea. Fumbling with the key fob, I finally hit the lock button to see if I could hear the horn beep. It clearly had been a while since I had driven a vehicle with these fancy bells and whistles. Sure enough, one aisle over I heard it. I held my hand over my face and ran head first towards it. By then, I was desperate to get inside it. I turned the key…..no, I pressed the button, and thankfully it stirred to life.

I still have no idea why the minivans and SUVs would start in that weather, but not the trucks because they weren’t plugged in either!

I let the vehicle warm up for a few minutes. Instinctively I grabbed the shifter-looking thing behind the steering wheel and pulled it down thinking that I was shifting it into drive. But when the windshield wipers started darting back and forth, I knew something was amiss.

How the hell do I drive this thing? — was all I could think.

It was then that I noticed a dial with the different gears posted above it. I put my foot on the brake and then turned the dial until the D lit up. I had never seen such a thing. I will remind my readers that we have been out of Canada since 2017 and neither of us had brand new vehicles back in our old conventional life. Clearly, I was in over my head!

I found Chris, who was driving his Aunt’s truck, and followed him back the 30 minutes to her place so that we could pack up our things. It was now nearing 3 pm — time was of the essence.

It didn’t take us long to load up, say goodbye to his aunt, and head off. We knew that we would be driving in the dark at the tail end, but we were relieved to be on our way. It was disheartening to know that we couldn’t bring the sheep scale with us, but it was certainly no fault of ours, and we knew that.

Despite the cold, the roads were great. A funny thing happens when it is that cold — the snow is just tiny ice pellets that don’t stick even though the snow was blowing across the highway for much of the journey. Consequently, the roads were bone dry and in perfect driving condition.

Also, most people aren’t crazy enough to be driving in these temperatures, so, as you can see, the roads were very quiet. It also helped that the skies were blue so we didn’t have to battle any crazy snow storms, which would have certainly made us think twice about our choice to travel on this day.

You will guess by now that we made the drive in one piece and, thankfully, without incident.

The next day we found our way to the rental office to drop off the van. When we very quickly went over the vehicle with the agent, we told her of our debacle. She was aghast at what we had been through, and even more so when she realized that no discount had been applied to our bill. She immediately called a higher-up to tell them what had transpired, meanwhile, I was calling the agent in Saskatoon to find out why it wasn’t showing up.

Of course, the guy we dealt with the day before was not working, but the agent I spoke to took my name down and promised that the problem would be rectified in a day or two.

A couple of days went by and I asked Chris to take a look at his credit card bill online to see if anything had been done. He reported back that there was no charge at all from the rental company that was showing up on his credit card statement. Had we got off scot-free? It appeared so.

However, after a few more days, a smaller charge did appear. Instead of the $229 we were supposed to pay (for the truck), they charged us $123. I still don’t know what the full price would have been for the minivan, but I’m just hoping that we did get some sort of deal after all we went through. We weren’t only inconvenienced that day, but we will now have to make a return trip with the owners of the farm to retrieve the sheep scale.

On the bright side, it won’t be minus 40C when we do it!

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