Pro-Trucker Driver's Choice - January February 2023 ( Find Your Trucking Jobs)

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

BY JOHN WHITE

Donna and I made a weekend trip to Lake Country just north of Kelowna to visit our son the night before the season’s first significant snowfall. Waking up to six inches of snow the next morning was spectacular, as it always is when looking at it from inside a warm cozy house. It snowed all that day and part of the next, and by the following morning, when it was time to head home, there was well over a foot of snow on the ground. That is when the fun began.

Between Lake Country and Kamloops, I had to worm my way around seven rigs whose drivers thought blocking one or both lanes of a two-way highway was perfectly acceptable while they casually put on their chains. Once into Kamloops, after a three-hour trip that usually took 2 hours, I decided I had enough, and we would stop for lunch. We were three-quarters of the way up the Kamloops Highway one bypass hill when we came to our exit and found another truck spun out, blocking it. As we went by, I saw the driver putting on his chains while his buddy watched. I only hope he was learning how and when it should have been done.

Few things turn the general public against truckers more than having a highway partially or fully blocked in the winter because a driver has decided that the law does not apply to them. Many of them are not equipped to spend hours in their car waiting for the road to be cleared. Some even run out of fuel while keeping themselves and their family warm.

The increase in fines BC put forth in 2019 for not carrying chains when required, from $121 to $196, was laughable at best. But the ridiculousness of that fine is dwarfed by the absurdity of the $598 fine for not installing chains during a mandatory chain-up.

So how do we stop these preventable road closures? What can be done to get the attention of these macho drivers and the companies that hire them? How about starting with a fine that would be a real deterrent? Say $598 per hour for as long as a highway is closed when a driver ignores a mandatory chain-up. Throw in a matching fine for the company, and I believe we will soon see a reduction in this type of closure.

There are reports that some drivers still do not know how to chain up. I’m not sure if this is still the problem it was a few years ago, but if it is, it should result in a hefty fine for the company that hires a driver and cuts them loose without knowing if they are qualified to be on the road in the first place. It is sad to say, but we already know that our Federal and Provincial Governments care little about the public’s safety when issuing licenses.

John White john@ptmag.ca

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RIG OF THE MONTH by Myrna Chartrand

Editor’s note: I received an email from our writer Myrna Chartrand saying she knew a trucker who would be a great Rig of the Month and asked if she could write his story. I don’t think I know of any driver who is a better ambassador for the industry than Myrna, so I readily agreed. Myrna herself was our Rig of the Month in April 2019. She was recently featured in an excellent article from thetrucker.com out of Arkansas. Our Jan/Feb Rig of the Month is Nick Smith, and this is his story:

Where do I begin? My love and fascination for trucks started when I was three years old. I lived with my parents, my sister, Nan and Grandad in Sydenham, South London, England. My grandad was a lorry/truck driver. I remember sitting and waiting for him to return home. We lived on the

third floor of a block of flats. He would pull up and blow the air horns, which was my call. I would run as fast as possible down the stairs and cross the road to meet him. It was my job to apply the brakes (very excited!) We lived on a steep hill, and one day after applying

the brakes, he jumped out to check the load. I remember looking at the blue brake by the steering wheel (oh, the temptation!) I decided to release the brake, and the truck started rolling. My grandad said he had never run so

Nick Smith

fast in his life. He stopped the truck, and no doubt breathed a sigh of relief. Sometimes we would go around the block, which was great fun. I remember looking down on everyone. I felt like I was king of the road.

As time went on, I went to school and had a few jobs, which were really just to get money to pay for nights out with the boys. I finally got my car license and started a job driving around London in a small van. I then moved up to a 7.5-tonne van which, at the time, you could drive with a car license. I did everything possible to learn about the job, routes, etc. I was offered a job going back and forth to Jersey and Gurnsey, which was on the Channel Islands taking groupage, a complete mix of freight. Both are small islands with a lot of history. You had to use a freight boat/ferry to travel between the islands. The guy who met me when I arrived in Jersey used to like a drink. I remember his wife not being happy when I was there because he would get drunk and then blame me (thanks for that!). So many great memories!

Plenty of trucks and cars were damaged on the ferries due to the rough waters between England and the islands. You could hear the cutlery in the kitchen smashing around while you were in your cabin trying to sleep. I did that for a bit, just waiting to get my heavy goods vehicle license. In the meantime, I did some building work in London.

Finally, I turned 21 and had to learn to drive again, this time pulling a trailer. Again, I took driving lessons and passed the test. When I told my boss I had passed, BOOM, he gave me a trip straight to Germany! I phoned a friend and said, “You need to come with me and read the map. We are going to Germany!”

We were booked on the Olau Line ferry out of Sheerness in Kent, England, to Vlissingen in Holland. There was a disco, free food for

drivers, and a cinema on board. When we arrived in Holland, I showed my friend the map and asked, “Have you got it?” Within one hour of me driving, he was asleep! Anyway, we got to the destination safely, no thanks to him! The place in Germany was called Wuppertal. We loaded and returned to the dock to catch the boat home. I drove this route for a bit, and then one day, I was back in the yard when a guy pulled into the yard driving a brand new Scania truck with a new trailer that was French registered. I started talking about work with this guy. He was English with a French wife. He mentioned he was running to Hungary. Straight away, my ears perked up, and he said I could go on a trip with him. At this point, I was really excited! We set a day when he was leaving, and he said he was returning to France but would pick me up in Calais, a port in France. That was where the long-haul career started. Not bad at 22 years of age.

Left-hand drive truck, French license plates, TIR placard on the front. I felt on top of the world! We drove through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria then into Hungary. We changed route after a while, and instead of going through Austria, we went through Germany to a border town called Waidhaus in Germany to Rozvadov, Czechoslovakia. I remember that day like the back of my hand. It was the day of the splitting of Czechoslovakia. I got fined for driving as the police called it a “holiday.” They took us to a truck stop, and I had to buy them a coffee (honest truth). That was my fine! From there, we went on to Pilson, Prague, Brno, Bratislava, on to the border at Rijeka then on to Hungary. Once there, I would go to many points within Hungary. I had a regular pickup from a town called Debrecen back to the UK for delivery. That job lasted for a little while and was a great experience.

I was on the boat crossing from Calais, France, to Dover, England,

one day when I bumped into a couple of drivers I had previously met on the Olau Line. They both worked for Birds Groupage Services based in Oldbury, West Midlands, UK and Ballyclare, Northern Ireland. I managed to get a job with them on a regular run to Germany. I made a couple of trips to Spain, and that was a great company to work for. I was there for nearly six years. I had a good time and made great friends there and in Germany.

I remember taking my dad, Michael Smith, on a trip with me...ha ha! We arrived at the dock in Sheerness in Kent, booked in, and boarded the ship. We went to our cabin and dropped off our bags in the room, and I remember my dad looked puzzled. We went to the restaurant to get some food, then off to the bar to grab a pint. All was okay until the bar guy mentioned the crossing time to my dad. It was roughly an 8-hour crossing - the look on my dad’s face was priceless. My dad never liked boats - my bad! I remember we went back to the cabin after the pint, and my dad lay down. The boat started rocking a bit, and he decided to return for another pint. In the morning, he said, “I remember the boat going down but never returning to the surface.” He mentioned he hadn’t slept all night and used a few choice words in the morning to describe his displeasure with my snoring.

We arrived in Vllisingen and headed to our destination in Duren, Germany. We made our delivery and then headed south to Belfort in France to load. After loading there, we headed up to Epinal, which is beautiful countryside. Next, we went to Luxembourg, Brussels, Belgium and Calais to catch the train to England, which was called Le Shuttle at the time and is now known as the Eurotunnel. I had travelled it countless times, and for every 75 trips, you got a zip-up sweater with their Le Shuttle logo. Finally, we returned to our yard, and my dad couldn’t have been happier to have his feet on solid ground. We laughed about that boat

travel for days, and when we told my mom about the trip, all she could say to my dad was, “You don’t like boats!”

I ended up finding a job that had me around home more often. It was time to settle down and start a family. I ended up working at the BOC/Linde Gas that was contracted to a supermarket, Mark’s and Spencer’s. I worked there for ten years, but in the beginning, one of the managers noticed the work I had been doing previously to and from Hungary. He had a position doing humanitarian aid to Belarus that he thought would be perfect for me. Before even entering Belarus, I had to take numerous vaccines. I was carrying goods to a school in Maryina Horka, which consisted of beds, bikes etc. Although I had only made a few trips, it was enough to open my eyes to see how poor some places were and what little belongings they had. It made me appreciate how lucky I was and when I got home, I remember telling my kids they had no excuse to moan about anything. Belarus and Poland were entirely corrupt. We made sure we had plenty of cigarettes and chocolate when arriving at the border to ensure a smooth crossing from Terespol, Poland, into Brest, Belarus.

After finishing the humanitarian aid duties, a couple of us had a day trip to Minsk, where I took photos of a post-WWII tank on a concrete base. We had an interpreter with us who came up to me and told me not to take pictures of the building behind, which I found strange only until I turned around. There was a fleet of limos up the side of the building. We then made a quick dash away from there.

We went to a market where we found many knock-off goods. Next, we visited the train station in Minsk, where an armed guard was holding an AK-47. He was just a young fellow, and this sight was quite unnerving. He was guarding the man that was tending to the cash machine. We spent the rest of the day there, having

a great time and then headed to the city of Gomel. The distance from Gomel to Chornobyl is approximately 200 km. They told us the amount of radiation we would be exposed to in 2 days was the equivalent of having two x-rays. We visited a vodka distillery, some churches and a few other tourist things. We were invited by a friend of one of the guys I was travelling with to a beautiful dinner. They must have worked two weeks to pay for the spread they laid out for us.

I returned home from this trip and returned to my regular run around the UK. I was in the yard one night talking to a co-worker, and I told him I fancied doing some other work. Canada was always a place that piqued my interest. I found out a friend of mine had previously moved to Canada. I got in touch with him, and he provided me with some information and a company to contact.

In 2014 I contacted Schroeder Freight in Winnipeg, MB and found out they were doing work permits called LMOs at the time. I met up with Ernie Schroeder, the owner, who was just such a fantastic guy. I flew to Winnipeg to meet up with Ernie for an interview which went very well. He started the paperwork, and I returned home to England to get my affairs in order to move to Canada. While I was still at home, I found a trucking school in Blumenort, MB, that I enrolled in to obtain my Class 1 as my license from England would not transfer over to Canada. I then flew back to Manitoba and settled in the town of Mitchell. The course at the time was a one-week course. I obtained my air brake endorsement and completed the driving portion of the course. I found out that I couldn’t take the road test for another two weeks, and I had to fly home the following weekend. Once I returned to Manitoba, I took a few more lessons to refresh myself and then took the test soon after. Once I had my license, I went straight to Schroeder Freight to report to work.

I hit the open road and had my first experience covering areas throughout the US and Canada. I must say that the winter weather conditions I experienced were not advertised in the brochure! For some reason, they left that part out.

I used a GPS for the first time in my life because I didn’t have anyone to ask to ride along and read a map that would fall asleep an hour later. I found it unbelievable how I could drive so far without such congested traffic. You could drive 11 hours and still be in the same country! I worked for them for over two years, and then, due to unfortunate circumstances, I had to move on to another trucking company.

In 2017 I started with Jade Transport in Winnipeg, MB, pulling tanker. After driving a Scania, DAF, Volvo, Kenworth and Freightliner, I was extremely happy to drive my first Peterbilt. Having seen the long hood trucks, which I referred to as “the trucks with the dining table in the front” in movies etc., I was so excited to work for a company with many of them. It has now become my favourite make of truck. I started with a sloped nose Pete then shortly after moved into truck 103, a 1998 short hood Pete. That particular truck was used mainly in the city. The fellow that had it before me didn’t even want to take it past Brandon, MB, and I was all over from Tennessee to Quebec to anywhere else they sent me. I took care of it like I owned it and got so many compliments on the road about it. My boss, Larry, had previously told me that I would get something special but that I had to be patient. After returning from a trip, I got called into the office with Larry, where he told me I was getting a Pride and Class. It rocked my world! I proudly drove that truck until I left Jade Transport for personal reasons. I made so many great friends during this time. One, in particular, is my friend Lee. We did a lot of asphalt loads together and ran to Kankakee, IL, many times together.

We continue to talk regularly to this day.

I joined Erb Transport in Winnipeg, MB and was trained by John Gravline, the driver supervisor. I was doing city work as well as shunting in the morning. I made some great friends there; they were a great company to work for. They had a great team to work with, and health and safety were top-notch priorities. I worked here for two years until I realized the long haul life kept calling my name and that I really enjoyed pulling a tanker.

I got in touch with Henry, driver services at Jade Transport, who spoke to Larry and said I was more than welcome to come back. So I hopped into truck 349, a long nose Pete. Not long after that, I got truck 362, my second opportunity to drive another Pride and Class. I drove that one until the winter of 2021 was over. That winter never seemed to end! I then moved into truck 359, a yellow 2021 Pride and Class Peterbilt 389 with a retro-style paint job. It has a 600hp Cummins X15 with an 18-speed transmission. It was my first instance with the new digital dash, and thankfully, knock on wood, no issues yet.

I was always interested in getting into the truck show circuit, and Larry pointed out that there was a truck show in Kasson, MN. Truck 359 has a matching tanker trailer. The paint scheme on the fenders of the trailer matches the paint scheme of the fenders on the truck. I hooked onto the trailer and washed and polished the combo unit to make it show-worthy. I was really excited yet anxious as I didn’t know what to expect at a truck show. One of the staff told me where to park next to the other combos, then took me around the fairgrounds to see what was going on. This was when I met Myrna Chartrand from Portage Transport. I had called out to her many times on the CB to compliment her truck, and it was finally nice to

put a face to the person behind the wheel. She took me around to meet some of the friends she has made over the years that she has attended that show. They welcomed me with open arms, and I realized this type of camaraderie is really what trucking is all about. It made me feel that I wasn’t so alone in this industry.

After the show, I headed to Illinois to load for Regina, SK. En route to Regina, a deer ran out in front of me, bent my bumper, busted the headlight, and scratched up the front fender. I did my delivery and returned to the shop in Winnipeg that evening. By lunchtime the next morning, I had a new headlight, new bumper, and repaired fender and was off to the Busted Knuckle Truck Show in Tonkawa, OK. So much can happen in the blink of an eye, including developing lifelong friendships.

It was at this show that I met Ed Bothe. I was in the 90-degree Fahrenheit sun trying to get my truck

show ready when he popped by to compliment me about the truck. I spent most of the day visiting with them. He took me over to his truck and trailer, and the inside of his trailer reminded me of a museum as it was full of different pictures etc, of trucking history. I fell in love with a picture he had in there because it reminded me of the movie, The Irishman. I just recently received a copy of that photo in the mail. I was so overwhelmed that he took the time to gift that to me. We have kept in contact since the show and plan to meet in the future. Friendships like these are unexpected and priceless!

I am really looking forward to seeing what the truck show season in 2023 has to offer!

Trucking is not a job; it’s a way of life. I have been lucky to have been able to see so many parts of the world that many may never get the chance to see. This is with many thanks to Nan and Grandad and Mom and Dad!

Letters to the Editor

John Winter driving endorsements are desperately needed - now - not later. Time has long since passed for the ministry of transportation and the ministry of Solicitor general and public safety to mandate winter driving, and mountain operation endorsements for all drivers, regardless of class in BC. Improving performance and safety isn’t about endless political debates, and never ending studies, it’s about making our roads and communities safer. Sent in by a government employee who wished to remain anonymous.

John, BC Transportation Minister, Rob Fleming, is a career politician, with no real world experience outside of politics and even less concerning transportation and road safety. His last position was as Education Minister. His statement in response to the four deaths in the bus crash on the Connector Christmas Eve that bus drivers have the “proper certification” only tells us that our government has licensed them to drive a bus. It says nothing about the low training standards set by our government to acquire that license. Today’s standards are far below what’s needed in an ever-evolving industry. Our outdated training and certification standards have not kept up with increasing vehicle size, weight, and onboard systems. Many of which are not covered in driver training. Then there are some companies with a got-to-go attitude which can result in fatalities in commercial vehicle incidents.

Winter and mountain driving has never been a priority in British Columbia’s training requirement for any commercial class driver. So then we have out-of-province drivers, raised on flat ground, licensed to drive on the most dangerous mountain roads in Canada in the winter.

Poor government response from incompetent ministers and civil servants who drive desks with their class 5 license doesn’t help in their theoretical studies of real-world issues, making safety a joke.

James Cooper

Semi-retired independent transportation and communications advisor.

Editor’s note:

Thank you for your email James, I agree with your assessment. Unfortunately, Government ministers are often just talking heads parroting talking points written by others and then sterilized by government lawyers before being read to the voting public. Very little of what they are required to say by those above them comes from personal experience and or knowledge. Another accident occurred just four days earlier on the same stretch of road with the same company. The Toronto Star interviewed Vizzutti and Patricia Rockwell, who travelled over the same route with the same bus line on December 20th. Mr. Rockwell said it was during near-whiteout conditions. They

Pro-Trucker Driver’sChoiceMagazine

felt the bus slide at one point, and his wife said they almost hit the guardrail. Forty-five minutes later, the driver was forced to swerve sharply to avoid rear-ending a pickup. Then, about 20 minutes later, they were not so lucky, and the bus clipped a semi. He said his wife received “a gashed forehead, glass in her eyes and mouth, bruises and a concussion.”

In 1988 the Social Credit government under Bill Vander Zalm privatized highway and bridge maintenance. Most drivers from that era say that road maintenance went downhill after that. This was not due to the competence of the maintenance crews and companies. It meant that by contracting out, the government could now cap the money spent and, therefore, the amount of maintenance a company could afford.

This accident was not a road maintenance problem. There is only so much a crew can do under those circumstances. Those responsible made a clear decision not to close the road and the company, although warned of adverse conditions, and having recently had an accident on that stretch of highway, decided to

Driving Through My Memories for January/February 2023

Happy New Year one and all, and I trust ‘23 will be somewhat more friendly to the industry that we all love and hate simultaneously. I hope the festive season of giving was a truly memorable time for you and your loved ones. Unfortunately, the winter to date has not been particularly userfriendly, with more snow than usual and bitter cold both on the flatlands and even in places not used to such extremes.

If we Canucks had nothing else to talk about, we’d still have the weather. We can’t leave home without it. It dominates our thoughts and our conversations. The weather consumes significant amounts of radio & TV news time, too. It is the number one topic of discussion wherever two or three are gathered, especially this time of year. Let’s face it; our country enjoys as many climactic characteristics as it does ethnic backgrounds. Canadians champion the weather. If it were an Olympic event, we’d win gold every time. Of the three weather networks worldwide, two are in Canada. We’ve even invented a vocabulary dedicated to it. “Cold enough for you….eh?” Which is not so much a question as a statement. Or “Warm enough for you…..eh?” “Geez…. it’s raining cats and dogs!” “We’re snowed under.” “The frost is on the pumpkin….”

Our neighbours to the south improperly accuse us Canadians for their adverse weather systems, for instance, “a cold front from Canada is headed our way.” or “a storm is moving in from the Canadian northwest,” etc. We have weather watches,

alerts, warnings, and advisories, sometimes preceded by the word “severe.” There are Alberta Clippers, storm surges, wind chill factors & humidity indices as in “…….it feels like minus 40 or plus 110.

I think the weather brings us together as a community and nation. It gives us common ground. No matter in what diverse geographical region one lives or toils, the climate provides an ‘ice-breaker,’ a subject for water cooler chit-chat or CB chatter. “We’re going camping this weekend. Whad’ya think the weather will be like?” or “I have to drive to Calgary tomorrow. Do you think it’s going to snow?” Advice often accompanies wishes for a pleasant weekend or trip: “take along an extra sweater, don’t forget your gloves, scarf, toque, sunglasses, umbrella, sun-screen, etc.”

Together we celebrate great weather, and when Mother Nature gets mad and deals us a bad hand, we commiserate with each other, offering a helping hand where possible and staging money-raising events to assist those who have experienced a disaster. We depend on the weather to feed our families; when there is a drought or flood, we all suffer.

A spectacular weather calamity also affects trends in the transportation industry. For example, when there is a significant event such as the tragic losses experienced in Slave Lake Alberta or Hurricane Katrina a few

By Ed Murdoch

Ed has held a commercial drivers license for 65 years and has spent the better part of 50 years on the road. You can get Ed’s new book at www.drivingthroughmymemories.ca

years back, new construction requires supplies to meet demands, and the best way to move large shipments of material is by truck.

Fifteen years ago, after unloading a load of newsprint from Port Alberni in Chino, California, one blistering August day, I was ‘urgently’ dispatched to Tempe, AZ, for 9:30 pick up the next morning. It was a load of styrofoam forms (say that ten times really fast) for construction in Edmonton, Alberta. Stopping overnight at Buckeye, I phoned the shipper early in the morning. He said, “Oh, you weren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow morning.” So much for the ‘urgent’ part of the mission. However, the shipper, being a practical man, offered to load my trailer as the product came off the line, although it would take pretty much all day, which it did. Now on that particular day, it was 125 F (51 C) in the shade in Tempe, and as most of you are aware, there isn’t much shade in southern Arizona, so yes, it was warm enough for me!

Once loaded, I found a degree of relief, literally a degree, in the shadow of a building down the street and waited until after evening rush hour when it would be safe to pass through Phoenix and head north to Flagstaff. With the trailer totally

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cubed out, the entire cargo weighed a staggering 1,700 pounds. It didn’t take my CAT very long to reach the 6,000 feet of elevation gain between Tempe at 1,100 feet and Flagstaff at almost 7,000. It was noticeably cooler there at my favourite truck stop, Little America.

After fuelling, followed by a shower and dinner, I pointed the Eagle north on Hwy 89 for Navajo Country, found a beckoning turnout to accommodate my rig and settled down for a few zzzzzzzzs. When I woke up in the morning, there was a noticeable chill in the air and, lo and behold, a dusting of snow on the hood. It had gone from 125 F (51 C) to 28 F (-2 C) in less than 24 hours! It must have set some sort of world record!

The coldest I’ve ever experienced was -65 F (that would be -54 C) in Kirkland Lake, Ontario. Up north, the atmosphere is generally quite dry,

so it doesn’t seem as cold as when the temperature is lower, but the humidity is higher. In the mid-’50s, when we moved from Kirkland Lake to Long Branch near Hwy 27 and the Lakeshore west of Toronto, my first wife thought she would be in heaven, doffing her full-length muskrat coat and walking around in shorts and t-shirt all winter. I assured her that compared to the dry cold in Timmins and Kirkland Lake, where she taught school, she would never have been colder than she would experience near Lake Ontario with the dampness. Disbelief turned excruciatingly into resignation by the following spring.

While stranded on the barren wastelands in mid-winter, changing a headlight or fixing broken wiring without gloves, accompanied by sub-zero values and howling wind, plays havoc on one’s fingers. It becomes most notable upon reaching the twilight of one’s sojourn on this

planet, a stage which I have achieved with mixed feelings and considerable joint pain. But, on the other hand, suppose you are a younger aspiring hi-miler or just venturing out in your 4-wheeler to pick up milk and a loaf of bread at the corner 7/11 (I wonder what 7/11 is in metric?). In that case, you might want to consider investing in a high-end pair of skin-tight gloves to offer even a fraction of protection to avoid the discomfort of arthritic joints later in life.

Meanwhile, it’s so cold even the brass monkey is bundling up. It’s so cold lawyers are putting their hands in their own pockets. It’s so cold when a police officer yells, “Freeze!” you do! Are you still repeating ‘styrofoam forms’? Ten times? Motor with care, perform a random act of kindness every day and all the best in the New Year … 10-4!

Service???

Rememberin the “Old Days” when you drove up to the pumps at your local service station, and the attendant came out and pumped the gas for you? Then he checked the water and oil and cleaned your windshield – that was service. The oil, water and air were right there at the gas pumps; if any of them were low, he would add it for you.

In the “Old Days,” you could buy tires, batteries, radiator hoses, headlights, oil, antifreeze, fan belts, and all car-related things. In addition, there were two service bays – one with a hoist to service your car.

Now all of the above has changed – you pump your own gas, do all the other checking and wash your own windshield. Oh, I forgot. First, you have to go in and pay for it and then go out and pump the gas. Then, you go back into the building to get your change and your receipt. When you get there, you look around, and there is nothing in the building that is vehiclerelated, no headlights, antifreeze, radiator hoses – nothing for your car or truck. However, you can buy a cup of coffee, a candy bar, cigarettes, Bic lighters, sandwiches and groceries. They even have a microwave there to heat your food. But not a bay and a

hoist to service your car, nor a tire or tailpipe in sight.

You can now go into a drugstore and buy groceries! You can go into a grocery store and get your prescription filled! The name above the door doesn’t mean a thing anymore.

We in the trucking business are falling behind the times. We have to modernize our business and think of something we can sell other than pickup and deliver freight. We have to think of how we can diversify and increase our profits.

I have put some thought into this and have come up with an idea. Why don’t trucking companies sell men’s underwear? (Yes, this is sarcasm…) After all, we deal with shippers and receivers, and they are primarily men, so we have a potential customer base. When they talk to the shippers and receivers, the dispatchers can tell them that the drivers, as an added service, are selling name-brand, good-quality men’s underwear at competitive prices. We can utilize part of the cab’s sleeper and passenger seat to transport and store the stock.

Let’s say that one company starts selling underwear and makes a success

How It’s Done In Texas

By Frank Milne Retired Driver, Lease operator and company owner

of it. Other companies will soon follow suit and sell men’s underwear too. It wouldn’t be long before it became a national thing, and everyone would know that trucking companies sell underwear. We could even have a catchy slogan like, “Ask a trucker, and he will show you his underwear.”

But why limit ourselves? While the driver is waiting for his truck to be unloaded, he can sell all sorts of things on a commission basis. That way, the driver makes extra money, and the trucking company makes an additional profit with little or no added cost. But of course, this would eventually lead to some fly-by-night company coming in, cutting the driver’s commission and undercutting those making an honest living. And so the trucking saga goes on and on…

P.S. Or we could just keep doing what we do best – hauling freight.

P.P.S. I vote for the last.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

A man that had been married 25 years said to his wife, “Honey, 25 years ago, we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10 inch black and white TV, and I spent every night with a hot 25 year old blond. Now, we have a nice house, nice car, big bed and plasma screen TV, but sometimes I miss the old days. His wife, being a very reasonable woman, told him that if he wanted to go out and find a hot 25 year old blond she would guarantee that he would once again be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed....

Pro-Trucker Driver’s Choice

Bad Breaks and Good Luck

t was two weeks till Christmas, as Dad walked into the Garage while I was installing the last two tires on his R Model. He stood there, watched for a moment, and asked if the truck and I were ready for a West coast run. Well, the truck was, but it meant I would have to miss a week’s school, which was no problem. The next morning we were in Toronto at Dillon’s, loading the biggest metal lathe I had ever seen. This thing was 34 feet long, had a bed that was 6 feet wide and weighed just under 14 Tons. They slid it into our specially equipped dry van, and we chained it down to the rings we had in the floor of the van. Once tied down, we headed for the Vancouver docks to have it loaded on a ship destined for somewhere in Asia.

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Dad and I switched driving and sleeping until the Manitoba border but then we had to get sneaky. I had my Ontario Class 1, but because of my age, it was not good in any other province, so Dad had to be behind the wheel when we crossed the scales. Everything was fine until we pulled into the Blackfoot truck stop in Calgary. Dad got out and started a walk around while I got my boots on. It had been snowing, and the lot was slippery. As Dad stepped out from between the trucks, an idiot in a

4-wheeler came around the corner of the lot, went sideways and struck Dad, pinning him between the bumper of our trailer and his rear fender. I heard the crash and heard Dad scream at the same time. I got to him in time to see Mr. Idiot bounce off another truck and then plow head-on into a third. Several drivers came running, dragged the guy out of his 4-wheeler, and “detained” him. Someone else ran to call the Police and an ambulance while I grabbed our first aid kit and looked after Dad. He had a bad gash on his leg, so I quickly stopped the bleeding, but on inspection, I suspected he also had a broken leg. The Police and ambulance arrived about the same time and took over. The Police arrested Mr. Idiot for reckless driving, hit and run, and DUI while Dad and I headed for the hospital. Dad indeed did have a broken Tibia, and they suspected he might have a concussion, so they said they had to keep him for at least 2 or 3 days. I headed back to the truck stop with orders to find a driver to get the truck to Vancouver and then deadhead straight back.

I got back to the truck stop and started asking around, looking for a driver, when Edna (she ran the diner) spoke up, saying she knew someone who may go with me. I was given a phone number and called a gentleman named Lou Norris. I explained my problem, and Lou said his truck was in for an overhaul, so he would come over and talk to me. We talked for about half an hour, and then he said he would help me out.

So he arranged for someone to come get his pickup and away we went. By the time we hit the highway by Bowness, I knew I had a driver. Lou got us past the Kamloops scale, and then I took over. We switched back before the scales at Hope, and he ran us into the docks, where we unloaded and headed back. Finally, we pulled into Calgary, I paid Lou for all his miles (and most of mine), and I went to see Dad.

Dad was glad to see me and impressed with how quickly I was back and how I handled everything. He told me we had a load to Alliston, Ontario, about 40 miles from our house. I got Dad checked out of the hospital after they fitted him with a walking cast and a set of crutches, and I was surprised at how well he got around.

The load Dad found was from a Calgary company that had gone bust and was forced to sell their brand-new printing presses for 10 cents on the dollar. When Dad called them and told them of our dry van, they jumped at the chance to get their equipment home, dry and not rusty. Dad quoted them a very high price which they agreed to with no qualms. The trip back into Ontario was flawless, all the scales were closed except Westhawk, and they waved us through as we only had 1200 pounds in the van. I swung by the house, dropped Dad off and then went and delivered in Alliston. Dad, meanwhile, was now playing the wounded warrior game and was being waited on hand and foot. All in all, the trip turned out well, and we had a great Christmas that year.

Dave Madill

Ocean Trailer is proud to be Utility Trailers only authorized dealer in Western Canada

All Experience isn’t Good Experience…

have driven a lot of trucks over the years. Ford super duty single axle hauling fuel, Cab over Ford with a Cummins triple nickel motor 555, hauling gravel, a Chevrolet 1957 single axle with a tag axle and a wooden box hauling gravel. It had a 292 gas engine with a two-speed axle (that one didn’t have the power to pull the skin off a rice pudding).

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I drove an International KB8 with a Rolls Royce diesel engine, hauling gravel. It was a very quiet, smooth engine, which was okay empty, but when loaded, it had about the same power as the 292 gas pot. I also drove a 180 International 345 cube with a V8. It was a nice little truck, but it could have used a few more horses too.

Then I drove a Western Star single axle with a paymaster tag axle. That truck was the fastest way I knew to get stuck on uneven ground. I also drove a Conventional Peterbilt with a V12-71 Detroit engine. It was noisy, but it had loads of power.

I drove a lot of Kenworths. One had a V8 Cat in a Conventional – it had lots of power, but it only got four miles to the gallon and was very heavy on the front axle. Then there was a cab over Kenworth tandem with three transmissions on a winch set up. The three transmissions let you choose how fast or slow to run the winch. I also drove a Cab over K.W. with a 335 Cummins. That was a good

motor. Then there was the Conventional Kenworth with a German Deutsch diesel air-cooled engine. It was noisy and did not have water heaters. Think about that - no heaters in the wintertime in Winnipeg. The heater was colder than a back street hooker’s heart. It was all right in town, but it wouldn’t put out in the hills. (It was like some of my girlfriends.)

In the early days, not many could afford new trucks. So they rebuilt what they had or would build gliders with a new cab and frame rails. The power train was whatever they had lying around the shop.

Of all the trucks I have driven, I liked the 2007 Westers Star I owned while hauling cars the best. It had a Detroit 60 series with an 18-speed transmission.

I was lucky enough to get to know a fellow who had a laptop and knew how to change the parameters in the E.C.M. The engine warranty covered everything because it had settings that were so low that the engine wouldn’t hurt itself. I knew I needed better fuel mileage and more power than the 475 horsepower it came with, so I asked the fellow to turn it up but not so high that it would melt down. He told me to try it out, and if I didn’t like how

By Glen Millard

Glen “The Duck” was born in Saskatchewan. He has driven trucks for 50 years, mostly long hauling. He’s now retired, that is until another adventure comes along.

he set it up, then I could bring it back, and he would re-adjust it. He said that his setting should work out to be about 725 horsepower. Right off the bat, It gained 2 ½ miles per gallon, and that truck drove like a car, but it was not for everyone. It was a “hot” motor.

I put about 1.5 million km on the truck and then sold the truck and trailer to New Age Drivers. I told them that I could get it turned down to stock, but they said they knew everything. Maybe even more than I did. Two months after they bought it, they melted it on Steamboat Mountain. They must not have learned how to read gauges or possibly didn’t know what they meant. I asked them on the phone what the water temperature was before it shut down, and they said it was right at 240 degrees. I told them it might run for a while, but it wasn’t going to be a high miler. The truck ran poorly until it blew up in Louisiana, where they had it hauled into a Detroit repair shop. I would have loved to see the shop foreman’s face when he read the engine computer settings.

The rebuild cost $46,000.00 U.S., proving that some experience comes with a high price!

Northern

Dave Madill

Common Sense

Reading one of my favourite UK truck magazines the other day, I came across another piece of health and safety nonsense. When I see these things, I wonder how I’ve managed to get through 40-odd years of trucking without seriously injuring myself. Could it be that I have an overabundance of common sense? Or are we now scraping the bottom of the driver barrel?

The article’s heading was “Do You Use a Pallet Truck and Tail Lift to Make Deliveries?” If so, has your company instructed you on performing a dynamic risk assessment at each delivery? Have you received the seven-point checklist?

1. Can your vehicle be parked safely without causing an obstruction? Who cares? I once blocked a lane used as a rat run in Edinburgh because it was the company’s only door to take in my load of Del computers. All the commuters sitting behind me were trying to avoid the busy main road that ran parallel, but as I had already circled the block several times, I was in no mood to move again. I did suggest to the mouthier guys who were threatening me with calling the cops that if they helped to handbomb the boxes off the truck, I would be away a bit quicker.

2. Is the delivery on a flat surface without slopes or inclines? Again, who cares? You park the truck nose up if your pallets are heavy, but don’t lift them too far off the floor so you can slow them down by lowering them onto the floor. When I delivered heavy pallets of tiles in Glasgow, I

always parked nose up on the sloping street, mainly because I couldn’t pull the pallets up the trailer when I parked nose down.

3. Are the goods in a suitable condition to be moved? Of course, they are, or they wouldn’t be on the truck in the first place.

4. Can the pallet be manoeuvred and tail-lifted safely without risking damage or injury? Hopefully.

5. Are there pedestrians around the tail lift? Is it possible to restrict pedestrian access? Not a problem. I just shout watch yourself at any people around me.

6. Have you planned and agreed on a suitable route for the delivery? No, I’m not pulling a wide load. I’ll see how it goes when I get near the delivery point.

7. Do you feel it is safe to proceed with tail-lifting the pallet on or off your vehicle? Of course, you only feel unsafe when things start to go wrong. Like when we had a contract to deliver backup batteries to telephone switchboards around Scotland, they were very heavy pallets. At one delivery, the wheel of the pallet truck went through the floor, but the job got done with a little adaptation.

At the end of this piece of health and safety nonsense, it said, never let untrained persons assist you with a delivery. What! Even if the untrained person is only helping to push a heavy pallet. It also said if you have

By Colin Black

Colin Black lives in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland and has been driving truck for over 40 years. His story shows us once again that the problems drivers face are universal.

ticked ‘No’ to any of the above, do not continue. Contact your office for further instructions. Well, that could make for long working days.

It makes you wonder what kind of people the transport industry and the health and safety snowflakes want to encourage into the job.

One of my Facebook friends, an owner-operator, was repairing the plug that supplies the power to the trailer lights when another driver wandered up and asked what he was doing.

When he told him, the other guy said, “I wouldn’t repair anything on my truck.” (That made it obvious to me that he was a company driver.) So my Facebook buddy said, “Well, don’t buy your own truck, or you’ll be paying a shop for all your repairs.”

I’ve always been a company driver, but I’ll get lights working or repair the odd air leak. It’s either that or sitting for an hour or two for a breakdown truck. I’d rather use that couple of hours to be nearer home.

Although the sad truth is some companies don’t want drivers repairing the trucks, so I don’t tell them when I make a repair. The truck is fit for the road, so there is no downtime.

Pro-Trucker Driver’s Choice

The Weather Outside is Frightful…

t’s that time of year again! As much as I would like to skip past it, it’s inevitable. Winter comes every year, and I get that same anxiety about driving every year. I know my limits, but it is the other drivers that I worry about.

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Now, if I didn’t ever have to go anywhere in particular, I may sing this familiar song by Dean Martin.

“The weather outside is frightful But the fire is so delightful And since we’ve no place to go Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”

Unfortunately, this is not the case! In the last few years, I have started to park it when I don’t feel safe or comfortable. When I began trucking over 13 years ago, I thought I had to be a hero or prove that I could drive through blizzard conditions. All that got me was a case of PTSD from going in the ditch after hitting a whiteoutlesson learned - the hard way! To this day, I still get quite panicky when the roads are covered with that nice fluffy powder that gets stirred up every time someone passes me. I also feel bad if I need to pass someone who is going particularly slow. A friend of mine once said, “Pass or be passed!” And I think I’d rather not be

passed, especially when someone in front of me may stop or slow down even more. I would rather not lose sight of them and end up running into them.

So much can happen when weather conditions aren’t favourable. I’ve been called a sissy or a fair-weather driver, but I don’t care. I knew a storm was coming in last week, so I decided to take four days off of work rather than be stuck at a truck stop during a road closure. It’s my way of being proactive, and to be honest, it was quite fabulous being home snug as a bug!

The band, Alabama, said it best when they sang, “I’m in a hurry to get things done I rush and rush until life’s no fun

By Myrna Chartrand

Myrna was born and raised in Oak Point, Manitoba and was our April 2019 Rig of the Month driver.

All I really gotta do is live and die, but I’m in a hurry and don’t know why”

Do you ever feel like your life is one big rat race, and there isn’t time to take a deep breath and relax for a few minutes? I find I get into that pattern from time to time. First, I complain about how much stuff I have to do and so little time, then I realize I do it to myself by pushing to get in every mile or trip that I can or taking on extra

projects when I don’t have spare time, to begin with. It’s a vicious cycle that I put myself in more times than not.

I volunteered to be in the Portage Rotary Club Festival of Lights Parade at the beginning of December. It was a last-minute decision, but I thought it would be nice to show off my truck and all my pink lights. I found some great pink Christmas stockings, tinsel and a wreath to decorate the outside. The team at Portage Transport even took one of the office Christmas trees with lights on it and mounted it to my deck plate. They also wrapped some boxes as gifts and tied them to my fenders, and all said and done, it looked pretty good. As much as I like to volunteer for such things, I lost a couple of days of work to be home in time to get the truck ready and make it to the parade. But the smiles on everyone’s faces, the cheers and claps

when I tooted the horn, and the ooohs and ahhhs over the pink lights made it all worthwhile. It was great having some of the team walk along with the truck and brave the cold.

I also took on writing this month’s Rig of the Month feature. Trying to coordinate a time to get two truck drivers together in the same place at the same time was an interesting task. I wasn’t sure how I would be as a writer telling someone else’s story, but it was great talking about someone other than myself for a change! I gave Nick some homework to start his story and make notes of things he would like to include so we could collaborate on our ideas and make a good read. I honestly didn’t think we would spend a ton of time writing because we had ideas and a timeline of how to put the story together. I was shocked it took us about six hours to

get the story ready to submit, which felt like two hours. Time flies when you’re having fun, they say!

Everyone has a story, and we often need to take a minute to hear it. That being said, we all know those truck drivers that sit at the counter at a truck stop and tell you how they’ve driven more miles backwards than you have forwards. All of this is in a volume ten times higher than everyone else in the restaurant, just so the whole place can hear. Those stories are some that I’m sure I could have lived without!!

If you take a minute to look and listen, there’s much to learn in this life and industry. Finding balance is key. You must take a minute and immerse yourself in something other than what you see through the windshield or what’s passing you by on the left.