Dave brings to you 38 years of valuable experience in transportation, management, business and compliance. Dave has driven in every condition across North America and overseas as military, police, company driver to owner operator to now Publisher Editor of Canadian Trucking Magazine. On the Front Cover is I of course had fun with a picture from the Oakpoint in this telling people I was paranoid Winnipeg where they really about getting hit so I put a moron know how to feed us and make masher on the front and one on the us feel like home. back! Below is a family picture I I did feel safe I must say was proud to take. If you are in with that big Volvo BFG on the back Winnipeg, chances are your delivfrom anyone rear ending me. ery will take you to the Oakpoint That’s a lot of Stainless Steel to hit Hwy, just look for the sign out front and it does not move! Plus 300 that states have a cup with Dave. extra pounds on the back for If I am there or if you see weight.With this weather might do me on Delivery acrosss Canada it every trip. or the USA, be sure to stop me Please remember and tell me how you like CTM. Red Shirt Fridays, where you wear You can’t miss me with the Red to respect our service people big moose catcher on the front of and thank them every Friday. the vehicle. In fact last month I made the rounder with a BFG on the back so I could show drivers this awesome product up close. The looks and comments we got was too funny to put in this magazine. Most people thought it was permanently mounted. continued on page 4
continued from page 3
So if you see the CTM vehicle cruising down the road with a moron masher on the back, remember it’s just on there with a trailer hitch to show you!
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But yes it sure makes me feel my 6 is covered. Folks this is CTM’s 4th anniversary Edition and I have to thank you the readers and of course the advertisers that pay the costs to print this for you! Over the last 4 years we have met at truck stops, truck shows and had very interesting articles and opinions in this mag of ours. CTM is styled like a readers digest for truckers, small enough for you to put in your back pocket and keep for reference if you need a recovery from Jamie or some of the great products from thesource.ca or have decided to move on and go with one of the companies that advertise. CTM can be read over and over again as the articles are really stellar and the word search and crossword are built from this magazine and kills time at a dock or truck stop. Hey all you East Drivers with NB plates saying you are looking for a new home, check out AYR Motor this month.
So again I can’t say this enough, thank-you for the last 4 years of readership, I hope you really enjoy each Edition and keep a copy with you. I hope the Holiday season does not leave you sitting to long and you get some time with family and friends. Those of us that have spent a lifetime on the road in one way or another know that if we can’t be where we call our residence on Christmas, we are at home on the road with the people that make it feel like home. That is places like the Oakpoint and Huskys and Dennys where the staff greets us like family every time we walk through the door. If you can tip heavy to show you appreciated them all this year. 2013 will be a great year for all of us with tonnage up and money starting to loosen up and CTM there for you to read. Merry Christmas and God Bless and hope to see ya soon! Dave
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE 2 HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER Means you Have Been Trucking a while eh!
WINTER TIPS by JAMIE
Well the end of the year is almost here and the winter has come to the Edmonton area with a vengeance, the tow trucks have been busy, so busy that I barely have time to write anything down. Soon after a storm has passed and the sun comes out the temp. warms up a little we tend to get a little heaver with the foot but remember there is ice in the shadows like a evil creature ready to gobble you up , so don't let your guard down compliancy will kill.
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Water will melt from overpasses and settle under them where there is usually no sun so watch for that. Also when your running the mountain rock faces and snow sheds that block the sun will result in icy patches so when you coming into that corner on that nice sunny day with the cruise on and radio blasting
it happens that sick silence and life goes into slow motion as you try to keep the truck and trailer pointing in the right direction. Sound familiar most of us have been there, the rest will be there soon . I guess any one that has been following my stories probably think by now i don't like cruise control. That is not the case at all, every thing has a place and time, you don't use tire chains on dry roads and you don't use cruise in slippery conditions . I love cruise control,I wish I had it back when we ran the winter roads in the NWT. We would spend up to 3.5 hrs crossing a lake at 35 kmh , and no, the lake ice was not slippery it was so cold it would be almost sticky. We would improvise back then and use our thermos bottle wedged on the throttle for cruise or the old style cable throttle . But all of those came with there own set of problems. There is no replacement for common sense but sense is not so common some times.All of the new technology is great but it was never intended to replace us from using our heads nothing is fool proof keep your head up and the rubber down.
For our 4 wheeling friends out there and rookie OTR drivers! Watch to get too close to a trailer in this weather, there is a good chance ice and snow has built up there and could come down in the wind or on a turn. There is no way a truck driver can get on top of a trailer to clean it off, so common sense again tells us to stay a safe distance away.
Even these 5 ton delivery vans can have a chunk of ice that will come right through your windshield. If you are driving on the highway, imagine the problem that could cause.
As recovery units we are out there in the freezing cold recusing vehicles in trouble. It is icy, cold and dark, please slow down and use caution passing a service vehicle or any vehicle on the side of the road. You never know if a child is going to run out to get in the vehicle or cross the road. That is one accident you never want to live with!
SLOW DOWN, the LIFE you save may be a Father, Grandfather, Mother, Grandmother, Brother, Sister, Friend, for sure someones Child and may be your OWN ! Don’t spoil Christmas this year because of stupidity! Pass this on and save a life! M e r r y Christmas and a Happy New Year
Jamie Integra Recovery
info@integrarecovery.ca (780) 719-8077
Editors Note: Thanks Jamie for your dedication and services to the trucking industry through your service, articles and support for good causes! I know who to call now! Dave
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First I would like to start off by wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to come. God Bless everyone out there and keep close in our hearts those who are alone and needing help during this holiday season. Over 1,800 pounds of marijuana was discovered hidden in a shipment of cucumbers that originated from Mexico coming in via tractor-trailer truck November 2012. A 26-year-old man was arrested when during an X-ray of his truck CBP officers discovered 224 bundles of marijuana co-mingled with the produce. The entire shipment was processed for drug seizure.
Canada Border Services Agency has seized over 54 kilos of suspected cocaine at Pearson International Airport during these past few weeks. On November 9, 2012 Officers identified a suspicious suitcase while monitoring a bag coming off of a flight in from the Dominican Republic. When the suitcase was opened the officers discovered 15 bricks of suspected cocaine. The total approximate weight exceeded 21 kg, with an estimated value of over $2.6 million. On November 11, officers discovered 15 bricks, 15.2 kg of suspected cocaine hidden in the aircraft while searching a flight originating from Jamaica, the estimated value $1.9 million.
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Smuggling never sleeps, even By: Dawn Truell, President, Cross Border Services November 12, a woman arriving from Trinidad was referred for a customs secondary examination. While inspecting her baggage, CBSA officers say they noticed her bag had an unusual bulge underneath the interior lining. CBSA officer said: "The bottom of the suit-case was probed and a white powdery substance was discovered. Subsequent examination of the traveller's second bag also revealed suspected cocaine in a false bottom. An approximate total of 18 kg of suspected cocaine was seized with an estimated value exceeding $2.2 million". Vancouver, British Columbia, December 7, 2012 — CBSA seized approximately 23 kilograms of suspected cocaine hidden in the trailer of a commercial vehicle carrying produce. CBSA officers discovered the drugs on December 3, 2012, while searching a commercial truck and trailer. During the examination, anomalies were detected within the wall of the trailer. The load, produce from California, was fully offloaded, and after officers carefully inspected the truck and trailer, they made drill holes into the wall of the trailer. The drill bits hit a white powder and officers discovered 23 cellophanewrapped bricks of suspected cocaine inside a void in the wall. The CBSA arrested the driver of the truck and turned the drugs and driver over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for further investigation. At the Halifax port border agents intercepted a shipment of a daterape drug known as Special K. This was found in a 20-foot container with 1,000 bags of rice. CBSA sifted through the bags of rice recovering 188 kilograms of ketamine. This is the second time ketamine has been discovered in this port. This ketamine, or Special K, was mixed loosely among the grains of rice; it took CBSA officers two days to separate the drug from the rice. This drug is very powerful leaving the victims of this drug with a complete lack of body function ability; it is very scary and has potential fatal effects.
during this Holiday Season.
The container had come from India and was destined for Ontario. The investigation has been turned over to the RCMP; so far one arrest has been made in Ontario in connection with the case. At the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge en route into Canada, an 18wheeler was stopped for inspection, the driver was asked if he had anything to declare upon which he replied no that he had an empty trailer. The driver appeared to be nervous and would not make eye contact so was asked to step out of his tractor. The truck was sent for secondary inspection where it was X-rayed nothing appeared on X-ray, a drug-sniffing dog was brought in and again didn’t notice anything. Two officers noticed screws on the floor boards had been tampered with, they removed the boards and found a hidden compartment stretching across the entire floor, inside they found 97 bricks of cocaine, more than 100 kilos worth an estimated $4.4 million. The driver was a 31-year-old family man from Brampton, ON who plead guilty to the charge of conspiracy to export cocaine. Ecstasy, marijuana and cocaine are the three major drugs smuggled between the U.S. and Canada. Ecstasy and marijuana travel south, cocaine travels north. Until about a decade ago, crossborder smuggling was almost always by sea and air. As Mexican drug cartels replaced Colombian drug lords, cocaine smugglers started using land routes, specifically tractor-trailers to ship drugs from Mexico to the U.S. and Canada. For a while, Vancouver was where drugs were transported across Canada before hitting the Toronto area. About six years ago, Canadian authorities determined that the Windsor-Detroit crossing was the preferred route of traffickers, although large drug seizures have also taken place at Ontario crossings such as Sarnia, Fort Erie and Niagara. Windsor-Detroit is the busiest border crossing, where more than 7,000 trucks cross daily.
Homeland Security in the U.S. and the CBSA would not reveal how many trucks undergo extensive searches but some sources say as few as 200 a day. The sheer volume of traffic, in the eyes of traffickers, makes it a risk worth taking, says Richard Pollock, federal prosecutor in Windsor. For every illegal shipment caught, he estimates 200 slip through undetected. One RCMP official referred to the drug trade as a continuous “cat and mouse game” as traffickers come up with more sophisticated means of smuggling and authorities develop better ways of detecting the illicit cargo.
For further information on aiding in the fight against smuggling, terrorism, C-TPAT, FAST, PIP please contact;
Dawn Truell, President, Cross Border Services, at: www.c-tpat-certified.com dawntruell@c-tpat-certified.com.
Note from Dave here, if you see suspicious activity, persons asking you for a ride acrosss the border in your truck, a loose lipped driver talking about smuggling loads of drugs or weapons, do us all a favour and contact authorities. Try to get as much information as possible without becoming involved and shut these bad guys down!
BORDER WATCH CALL
1.888.502.9060
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By Sandy Long
Starting back in the mid 1800’s, dieting, as we now know it started. From Diet Blog.com: “Historians trace the origins of a modern conception of dieting to two 19th century figures: Rev. Sylvester Graham (1795-1851), a New Jersey preacher, and William Banting (1797 - 1878), a London undertaker. You may never have heard of Rev. Graham, but chances are that you'll be familiar with his dieting invention: the Graham cracker. Perhaps the first diet food, the Graham cracker was made from flour that was unsifted and didn't have additives (re-
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fined white bread was becoming popular with the middle-classes during the 19th century, who could afford to buy it). Graham saw white bread as nutritionally poor, and he and his followers, the Grahamites, eschewed it - again, we can see the roots of modern diet advice back in the 19th century. Graham believed in a strict vegetarian and teetotal diet, and saw diet primarily as a means to control sexual urges. William Banting, by contrast, was interested in diet for the same reason as most dieters today are: he wanted to lose weight. In 1863, he wrote a pamphlet, Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public. His diet plan, based on advice given to him by a doctor, featured: Four meals a day, consisting of protein, greens, fruits, and dry wine. Avoiding starch and sugars. Milk, butter and meat were all permitted.”
Holiday Season & Winter =
Since then the diet industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar business. Reports abound about the so-called USA’s obesity epidemic, one can follow the money trail. From News Medical .com: “ Xavier Pi-Sunyer, who has also received significant funding from the makers of anti-obesity drugs and is currently promoting anti-obesity drug Acomplia made by Sanofi, chaired a key National Institutes of Health obesity panel, which in 1998 instantly cast 30 million Americans into the "overweight" category by changing the government's definition. That group includes presently "overweight" stars like Will Smith, Pierce Brosnan, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, and even (former)President Bush.” It has become common for obese people to be stereotyped as lazy, lacking will, unhealthy and other slurs to their character. In reality, there are many causes for obesity from genetic/heredity to other medical conditions such as stress and depression. From DrShop.com: “There does appear to be at least an association between heredity and obesity. In a well-known study regarding this issue, adults who were adopted as children were found to have body weights closer to those of their biological parents than their adoptive parents, suggesting that their genetic makeup had more influence on their body weight (and the incidence of obesity) compared to the environment in their adoptive family's home. A person's risk of developing morbid obesity is often heavily influenced by psychological factors. Boredom, depression, anxiety, stress, trauma (whether as an adult or child), and feelings of low self-esteem are examples of psychological factors that could result in an individual's overeating and under-exercising.
Weight Gain
Although the psychological aspect of morbid obesity can be difficult to overcome, it is not impossible. Merely identifying the psychological problems can help an individual greatly in his or her understanding of the basis of overeating. I illnesses can also lead to morbid obesity. Some of these include hypothyroidism, Cushing's syndrome, depression, and other neurological problems. The use of steroids and certain antidepressants can also lead to weight gain.” Another aspect of the current trend to think of people as obese is the examples found in the media. From Usatoday.com: “It's not surprising that women want to be slender and beautiful, because as a society "we know more about women who look good than we know about women who do good," says Audrey Brashich, a former teen model and author of All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype and Celebrating Real Beauty…As a culture, we are on a first-name basis with women like Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie," she says. "The most celebrated, recognizable women today are famous primarily for being thin and pretty, while women who are actually changing the world remain comparatively invisible. Most of us have a harder time naming women of other accomplishments." The idolizing of models, stars and other celebrities is not going to change "until pop culture changes the women it celebrates and focuses on." As far as an obese person being thought lazy, this is patently a false assumption. For example, look at the adult Amish women who work from dawn to dusk doing manual, physical chores. Almost all of them are considered medically obese yet work hard. In relation to trucking, it is seen in the above that there are many job related factors such as boredom, stress, anxiety and low self-esteem that can enter into a driver not meeting the artificial insurance height weight charts. Add in long hours, little support from friends and/or peers, constant worry about regulations that might unfairly affect them;
A driver might tend to overeat or have a metabolism that promotes his/her body into turning even healthy food into fat. In no way can any successful driver be thought of as lazy. The average miles per year for a solo driver are over 125,000 miles a year and if a driver does not produce, they do not last long as a driver. By stereotyping a driver, or anyone else for that matter, who may be overweight, as lazy, unhealthy or not having will power does not do anything but buy into the prevalent and sometimes erroneous media, governmental and diet It is not industry propaganda. helping the actual obese person; it is hurting them by adding to their stress levels and perhaps low self-esteem.
Ya’ll be safe and I wish you peace and some serenity in your busy lives
(www.facebook.com/theoneandonlytv), email (trkrsvoice@thetruckersvoice.net), or
twitter (@trkingsantas).“
Do not cuss a trucker or a farmer with your mouth full!
Street Smarts: A Guide to a Truck Driver's Personal Safety Arriving Alive: personal safety, driving and sharing the road with semis tips Just a Lady Driver blog Sandy Long's Faire personal website Sandy Long @ Facebook TrailerTruckinTech Life member OOIDA Women In Trucking Association NOTE FROM DAVE; I have always got my monies worth from a buffet!
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Thank-You Driver
Or why you can go out to the Canadian Tire Store and buy your kids something fun. Or The grocery stores to fill your homes with food. Fuel stations all over Canada and the US can sell you fuel for your
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Here is a shout out to all the Canadian truckers running up and down the roads this December. Thank you for all the time you spend taking care of your Rigs, and the countless hours in the winter nights you spend getting them loaded and unloaded. Not to mention the hours on end you spend crisscrossing the country in Canada and the United States to delivery our goods. Thank you for being so professional each and everyday. Seeing to it that our country's can enjoy their holidays. Why do you think Tim Hortons can serve coffee and splendid donuts.
sleds and ATV's not mention your pickup and cars. So the awesome crops the farmers have raised can find their way around the world to feed us all. Yes I think you all should find a Trucker and thank them for what they do every day for you. They work hard, long and lonely hours. You depend on them each day and without them our system as we know it would completed shut down.
Pictures are courtesy of Ian Spanier
By- Marc Springer - Snortn Boar Transport
Okay so with that shameless self promotion out of the way I would like to tell you about a company in the US that also operates in Canada. The company is called Uship and has been the main source of my success for the past three years. I have had many people write to me and ask about Uship in Canada. All you need to do is click this link http://www.uship.com/
It is in Canada and I used it many times to secure shipments into Canada. I hope some of you will take a look at this site and get involved either trucking or Shipping.
Wether you need that purchase door to door or brought to the border, be you a large shipper or first time auction winner, Snortn Boar Transport can make this a painless secure way to move your freight.
Marc Springer Owner/Operator
Snortn Boar Transport Providing Quality Transportation Throughout the US and Canada www.snortnboartransport.com
https://www.facebook.com/Snortnboar
If you got it! a Truck brought it! Thank a Trucker Today!
© ACS Advertising 2010
Professional drivers like you can be a hero to school children across the country by becoming a Trucker Buddy. It’s a free, fun and meaningful way to spend your down time on the road. Make a difference, learn more about becoming a TRUCKER BUDDY today.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN BE A TRUCKER BUDDY, GO TO
WWW.TRUCKERBUDDY.ORG OR CALL 1-800-MY-BUDDY