Truck News November 2009 by Annex Business Media

November 2009 Volume 29, Issue 11 Delivering daily news to Canada’s trucking industry at www.trucknews.com

Closed for business Despite tough economic times, truckers once again volunteer their time and their equipment to support a worthy cause.

Story on page 11

Ontario highway service centres could be closed for years By Harry Rudolfs TORONTO, Ont. – Drivers looking for a restaurant and a place to buy fuel on Ontario’s 400-series highways will find slim pickings the next few years. Twenty of the 23 sites are closing while they are being decommissioned and rebuilt. And although some parking, vending machines and portable toilet facilities will be available at some of them, the project is expected to take much longer than originally expected. The service centres are being shut as soon as the leases expire and the last one will close its doors in 2011. But until the first of the new structures come on stream – a process that takes three years or more – we could be left with only three fully-operative service centres (Ingersol, Maple, and Newcastle) on the 400 and 401 highways. This is nothing new to truck drivers. From Windsor to the Quebec border we’ve watched these places close in bunches for the last Continued on page 24

The new UltraShift Plus Putting it to the test on some massive grades

Inside This Issue... • Are you ready for this?: The US is completely changing how it issues carrier safety ratings and is already monitoring you. Are you prepared for the new rules? Page 8

See our ad page 50

• Don’t trash those tires: Ontario’s used tire program may add to the price of tires, but there are savings too.

Page 20

• The last load:

After humping furniture for 40 years, a professional driver decides to hang up the keys. We chat with him before he heads out on that final run. Page 32

• Hands on Trucking: Mark begins to seek revenge on a shipper that’s exploiting truck drivers.

See page 48

Page 52

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® November 2009, Volume 29, Issue 11 Truck News (ISSN 0712-2683) Truck News, USPS 016-248 is published monthly by BIG Magazines LP. U.S. office of publication: 2424 Niagara Falls Blvd, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-5709. Periodicals Postage Paid at Niagara Falls, NY. U.S. Postmaster send address corrections to: Truck News, P.O. Box 1118, Niagara Falls, NY 14304. Truck News is published 12 times a year by BIG Magazines LP, a leading Canadian information company with interests in daily and community newspapers and business-to-business information services. Creative Directors: Carolyn Brimer, Beverley Richards Circulation Manager: Vesna Moore V.P. Publishing: Alex Papanou President: Bruce Creighton

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Page 6 TRUCK NEWS

Truckers fume over smoking fine When an OPP officer pulled over a truck driver near Windsor recently and fined him for smoking a cigarette in his rig, he couldn’t possibly have known the firestorm he’d ignite. Or maybe he did. Maybe it was a slow day and he wanted to shake up a hornet’s nest and create some headlines. Maybe Ontario’s speed limiter law has been so effective at slowing down the big rigs that he had to find another way to get his trucker-ticketing fix. Or perhaps he was acting upon a directive from some bureaucrat in Toronto who wanted to enforce the letter of the law and make an example out of some unsuspecting trucker. Whatever the case, the ticket spurred the ire of not only many professional drivers, but also gained national attention in the mainstream media. Dare I say the prevailing sentiment from the media and most readers was that of empathy? For once the trucker wasn’t portrayed as the villain. In what has become a dinner table discussion, it seems most would agree that the OPP had no business charging the truck driver for smoking in his truck. However, according to the

Editorial Comment James Menzies Smoke Free Ontario Act, it is, in fact, against the law to smoke in any workplace – and that includes a truck cab. Now there are exceptions to every rule. An owner/operator is still able to smoke in his cab – provided he or she is the only person to drive and work in that vehicle. Federally-regulated carriers are also exempt. They must instead adhere to the federal NonSmoker’s Health Act, which allows for ‘smoking areas’ within workplaces. So theoretically, a truck can be deemed a smoking area – provided non-smokers are not required to work within that truck. But drivers working for intraprovincial carriers operating company-owned vehicles can in fact be fined $305 per offence, and the company that owns the rig can be smacked with a fine as high as $10,000 if it knowingly allows

Take this job and… There are many depressing numbers I’ve had to look at this year. Class 8 truck sales, for example, are down 46% year-to-date compared to the same time last year and off an incredible 65% from their peak in 2006. By June of this year, rates were down 5.6% from the end of last year and LTL cross-border rates down more than 21% while company valuations are down by more than 40% on average. There’s no need to go on. I’m sure you get the picture. This is definitely a year worth forgetting. But there is one statistic I think we dare not forget. It may be the most depressing statistic of all and will not improve simply because the economy will eventually rebound. This sorry statistic was revealed most recently by our annual Driver Satisfaction Survey but perhaps of even greater concern is that it re-

Did you know? Secrets to a successful marriage For a good decade now, motor carriers have been trying to expand their service offerings to provide a wider service portfolio for their customers. It’s a smart move considering large shippers are looking for one-stop shopping, the penetration of outsourcing is growing, and margins tend to be better on the third-party logistics front. Although transportation is already the most outsourced logistics service, as indicated by the results from the 14th Annual Logistics Outsourcing Survey published this year, there are many areas such as customs brokerage, warehousing, forwarding and cross docking that offer growth potential for carriers. For the outsourcing

Viewpoint Lou Smyrlis Editorial Director

flects a clear downward trend. Our nationwide survey of drivers and owner/operators found their satisfaction rate down to a paltry 3.13 out of 5 this year, compared to 3.48 last year and 3.66 for the two years previous to that. Whereas two years ago the job satisfaction rate could be considered a solid ‘B’, 3.13 is barely a ‘C’. For the first two years of our survey almost two-thirds of drivers taking the survey described themselves to be either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” in their driving jobs. Last year that dropped to slightly more than half

smoking in its vehicles. So what’s a driver to do? Does the province really want a truck driver who smokes to pull over on the side of the road to light up? That’s far more dangerous than smoking in the cab – and you better not linger too long or the police will soon be along to fine you for illegal parking. Is a driver expected to pull entirely off the highway and park at a rest area before having a smoke? Wait a minute, most of those have been closed by the province and may remain closed for years (see cover story). And besides, just imagine what would happen to delivery times and the trucking industry’s productivity should this occur. The sad thing is, there was no need to enforce the letter of the law in the first place. In my opinion, some overzealous cop chose to do so and as a result, the professional driver has been beaten down even further by an ever-longer regulatory billystick. Many professional drivers got into this

business because they’re independent spirits and enjoyed the chance to work alone on the open road without anyone looking over their shoulder. Those days are long gone. Is it any wonder, as Lou writes below, that driver satisfaction is on a steady decline? ■

being likewise happy with their driving jobs. This year that’s down even further with only 42% being satisfied.And while last year we reported alarm that a full fifth of the people behind the wheel now considered themselves either “unsatisfied” or “very unsatisfied” in their jobs, that level is now up to almost a third reporting dissatisfaction. Our survey, conducted in partnership with the CTHRC, digs further, asking drivers to rate their satisfaction with 12 different aspects of their job, ranging from pay and recognition to stress and growth opportunities with the company. The depths that these satisfaction levels have fallen to in several areas should be of great concern. Of the 12 different job factors, only one was rated above 3.50 or, put more simply, given a ‘B’ grade. Several important areas slipped into dangerous territory, slipping uncomfortably close to receiving a failing grade.These included the “amount of pay and benefits,”

the “amount of job security” and the “amount of job training.”The “quality of supervision received on the job,” and the “amount of independent thought and action exercised on the job,” were also graded low. And there were a couple of areas graded at 2.5 or less out of 5 this year, which translates into a ‘D’ grade or worse. These included driver satisfaction with the “amount of recognition received for strong performance,” and the “opportunity to grow with the company.” The economic uncertainty and tumultuousness of the last couple of years have proved to be the perfect storm in which to test our mettle when it comes to driver relations. And at the moment, we are fighting an uphill battle. ■

Measurable Benefits from Use of 3PL Services All Regions

Results Logistic Cost Redction (%)

12.3%

Logistics Fixed Asset Reduction (%)

23.4

Inventory Cost Reduction (%)

8.6

Order Cycle Time

Order Fill Rate (%)

Order Accuracy (%)

Changed From

10.2 days

Changed To

9.8 days

Changed From

86.0

Changed To

92.7

Changed From

90.4

Changed To

95.3

relationship to work, however, the Logistics Outsourcing Survey has identified three key elements: Openness, transparency and good communication: 74% of shipper respondents and 77% of 3PL respondents to the survey identified this factor as contributing to successful shipper experiences with 3PLs. Personal relationships on an operational level: This factor, agreed

– James Menzies can be reached by phone at (416) 510-6896 or by e-mail at jmenzies@trucknews.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/JamesMenzies.

– Lou Smyrlis can be reached by phone at (416) 510-6881 or by e-mail at lou@TransportationMedia.ca. You can also follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/LouSmyrlis.

Penetration of Outsourced Logistics Services Outsourced Logistic Service Domestic Transportation

North America 75%

International Transportation

Customs Brokerage

Warehousing

Forwarding

Cross-Docking

to by 65% of shipper respondents and 72% of 3PL respondents, suggests that 3PL-shipper relationships are best served when members of both organizations develop personal relationships to enhance the people, process, and technology attributes needed for successful collaboration, the survey’s authors conclude. Flexibility of the 3PL to accom-

modate shippers’ needs and the ability to achieve cost and service objectives: Shipper respondents and 3PL respondents rank these similarly, however, there seems to be slightly more agreement by both parties on the importance of cost reductions than on service improvement. ■

Question of the month How will Ontarioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cell phone ban impact truckers? page 54

Mark Dalton inâ&#x20AC;Ś

Hands on trucking Part 3

page 52 departments

NEW PRODUCTS: We put the new

Eaton UltraShift Plus automated transmission to the test.

In Brief

Federal funding for fuel-saving devices

Behind the headlines Trucknews.com has been named a finalist for best overall magazine Web site and best video awards in the first-ever Canadian Online Publishing Awards.Trucknews.com was the only transportation magazine to be recognized in any award category. The awards program, produced by Masthead magazine, recognizes excellence in online editorial and innovation by Canadian magazine and Web site publishers. The best overall magazine Web site category is awarded to the publication deemed to best serve the needs of its target audience through content, design and use of the Web medium. Trucknews.com is also up for the best video category through its weekly WebTV show, Transportation Matters. Video features were judged on how they serve their intended audience, through their educational, entertainment and production values. Trucknews.com has been named one of Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Top 5 business Web sites by the Canadian Business Press for four years running. Meanwhile, to make accessing information on Trucknews.com easier and more convenient, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve removed all registration requirements. In other news, the first video in our new online information video series The Driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Seat, is now available. Coupling/Uncoupling, the first title in the ongoing series, features Truck News personality Adam Ledlow learning the correct procedure to couple and uncouple a tractor/trailer from KRTS master driver trainer, Randy Burry. Future releases will feature other common driver tasks such as air brake checks and daily vehicle inspections, as well as business-related material. The Driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Seat is available as a subscription service with prices starting at $7.99/month. For more information, visit www.TheDriversSeat.ca. â&#x2013;

SASKATOON, Sask. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Government of Canada is offering to pick up the tab for a million bucks in environmental upgrades for the heavy-duty trucking industry. The government announced the program Sept. 10, which will allow fleets to apply for up to $100,000 in funding to put towards proven fuelsaving devices such as aerodynamic devices and low rolling-resistance tires. Up to 50% of the cost of eligible fuel-saving devices will be refunded under the program. Eligible products must be EPA SmartWay-certified and funding will come from Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ecoENERGY for Fleets program, which is administered by Natural Resources Canada. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fuel efficiency in all sectors is important to our economy and the environment,â&#x20AC;? Brad Trost, MP for Saskatoonâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Humboldt, announced on behalf of Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources. â&#x20AC;&#x153;By investing in

fuel efficiency we will help the industry reduce fuel costs and contribute to a cleaner Canada.â&#x20AC;? Not surprisingly, the trucking industry welcomed the announcement, but Canadian Trucking Alliance chief David Bradley hopes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just the beginning. â&#x20AC;&#x153;While this is a step in the right direction, the industry is still looking for a coordinated, dedicated program of rebates and appropriate tax treatments for all the aerodynamic technologies available to the industry,â&#x20AC;? said Bradley. â&#x20AC;&#x153;While there have been small programs here and there, what is lacking is a cohesive, targeted plan to achieve meaningful emissions reductions and improved fuel efficiency for industry that these technologies can make happen. Societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s environmental goals and the economic goals of the industry have never been more aligned.â&#x20AC;? To find out more about the program, visit fleetsmart.gc.ca. â&#x2013;

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November 2009

401

Pages 46-50

Truck Sales 4 Opinion 6 8-10 Border Canada 11-12 14 East 16-18 Quebec Ontario 20-25 26 David Bradley, Industry Scott Taylor, Tax Talk 27 Lighting 28 Karen Bowen, Health 30 Chris Singh, Health 30 Profiles 32-33, 36 34 Fleet News 37 Management 38-40 OEM/Dealer News Bruce Richards, Industry 41 Ask the Experts, Safety 42 Michael Burke, Safety 44 Rob Wilkins 45 45 People Advertiserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Index 51 Mail 53

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Page 8 TRUCK NEWS

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By Ingrid Phaneuf WASHINGTON, D.C. – Are Canadian truckers ready for the FMCSA’s new safety rating system, slated to kick off in July 2010? Or are they being caught with their pants down, yet again? It depends on whom you talk to. Either way, those in the know say the new Comprehensive Safety Analysis system (a.k.a. CSA 2010) created by FMCSA, will monumentally change the way carriers track and hire drivers and owner/operators. “It’s like a tsunami,” says Peter Charboneau, the Canadian rep for a US company selling carrier solutions. “Honestly there is almost no awareness by Canadian fleets of what is coming towards them. The impact is going to be tremendous.” “Up to now, the FMCSA was able to provide safety ratings for less then 2% of carriers in the US,” says Charboneau’s partner Steve Kessler, based in Dallas, Texas. “But with this new program, they’ll have the ability to generate safety ratings for every carrier on a monthly basis.”

So are Charboneau and Kessler just blowing smoke because they’re selling a product that they say will help carriers stay out of trouble? Not according to industry veteran Ray Haight, executive director for MacKinnon Transport, based in Guelph, Ont. “They’re fundamentally changing the way carriers are rated for safety,” says Haight. “Companies aren’t used to being measured by infractions. And they’re not used to being measured by their drivers’ infractions. The criteria for assessing safety ratings under CSA 2010 has grown exponentially. Canadian carriers need to know what’s coming down the pipe.” Jeff Davis, vice-president of safety and human resources for Jet Express, a carrier based in Dayton, Ohio, agrees. He’ll be delivering a presentation on the new CSA safety rating system in Mississauga, Ont. in November, under the auspices of the Driving for Profit seminar series, organized by NAL Insurance in partnership with KRTS. “I think it’s fair to say that carriers Continued on page 10

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Across 1. Protective devices behind cabs (8,5) 8. Lode King product 9. New-truck-deal factor, perhaps 10. Truck-stop fixtures 11. Corporate name on NASCAR vehicle 12. Roadside-assistance service 14. Twist-off cooling-system component (3,3) 18. State with “Big Sky Country” plates 20. Trip-odometer button 22. Dress-up trim for windshield 23. Radiator liquid 24. Event ending ice-road season (6,7)

Down 1. Truck stop with Wi-Fi service (3,4) 2. Anti-theft-system component 3. Truck-transmission brand 4. International sleeper type (2,4) 5. Relationship between gears 6. Freightliner conventional model 7. Tractor-tire type 13. Border city in SW Ontario 15. Gladhands connector (3,4) 16. Brief truck-stop visit, slangily (3,4) 17. Tractor for local-cartage driver (3,3) 18. Allied’s business, you might say 19. Ohio’s “Rubber City” 21. A vertical exhaust pipe

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TRUCK NEWS Page 9

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Page 10 TRUCK NEWS

Border

Drivers to be rated under new program Continued from page 8

don’t know much about CSA, but I wouldn’t feel too bad about it if you’re Canadian. The system has been in the planning process for four years now in the US and US carriers are just finding out about it,” says Davis. In fact, the FMCSA has just completed a pilot project in four US states (Missouri, Colorado, New Jersey and Georgia), to determine how effective the new system will be. The results are either reassuring or alarming, depending on whether you’re already a carrier that tracks driver behaviour closely. “The government has stated that it has been able to greatly increase the effectiveness of the use of auditors under the new system,” says Davis. In plain English, that means that the FMCSA has found that by tracking and rating driver roadside performance as part of its safety measurement system, it can keep a close eye on a lot more carriers

for a lot less money. And here’s the even scarier part, for some. Even though the pilot project has only been going on in four states, inspectors are already gathering the information they’ve been accumulating on drivers and inputting it into the new database. Which means Canadian carriers (and drivers) will already have a safety rating under the new system when it becomes official next July. “It will take only three roadside inspections to trigger a safety rating,” says Davis. So how does the new safety rating system work? To begin with, drivers will receive their own safety ratings, based on roadside inspections. The criteria consist of seven categories of driver behaviour (see the BASICS chart). How drivers perform according to these criteria will of course impact carrier ratings. Ratings will consist of three categories: Continue

Operation; Marginal; or Unfit. A rating number will also be calculated based on the new criteria and, as is now the case, the higher the number is, the more unsafe a carrier will be perceived. Next, the way the FMCSA responds to a carrier rating will change. CSA 2010 ‘Interventions’ will include Tier, 1, 2 and 3 interventions. Tier 1 will consist of a warning letter and a focused roadside inspection. Tier 2 will consist of an off-site investigation, the requirement for the cooperative development (between the carrier and the FMCSA) of a safety plan to address the issue, a notice of violation, a focused on-site investigation, and a comprehensive on-site investigation. Finally, a Tier 3 intervention will include a notice of claim, a consent agreement and a safety fitness determination of ‘Unfit’. (Of course all of the above may also be accompanied by gradually increasing fines.) If all of the above seems a little

confusing, think of the whole process this way: If you get a notice that something needs to be addressed (including the roadside behaviour of your drivers) and you don’t provide proof that you’ve fixed it, FMCSA is going to step in and fix it for you or take you off the road. So is this good or bad for carriers and drivers? It depends on who you ask. “This is definitely going to have an impact on the driver hiring process,” says Davis. “Carriers will be required to look at the driver’s safety rating under CSA 2010. In a way it’s a good thing, because carriers won’t have to dig and hunt for info on driver behaviour. Conversely, much more data will be used to calculate a carrier’s safety rating. And the algorithms used to calculate the rating will be weighted more towards driver behaviour. Every violation will count.” Davis says the FMCSA has severityweighted 3,589 different violations. A further impact on carriers will be that they will need more resources to track the increased volume of data on their own drivers, as well as more resources to train them, should action be required. The advantage, says Davis, is that drivers will be more accountable. The driver/carrier relationship will therefore change, possibly for the better, says Joanne Ritchie, head of the Owner-Operators’ Business Association of Canada (OBAC). “This new system is going to give drivers and owner/operators a higher stake in making sure they don’t do anything wrong,” says Ritchie. “That means they’ll have more motivation to push back if their carrier tries to push the envelope when it comes to compliance. Carriers won’t be able to pressure or threaten drivers into doing things they don’t want to do.” So are carriers prepared? Truck News called one smaller carrier, which will remain nameless and discovered that the carrier’s compliance manager knew nothing of the CSA 2010 initiative. “We’ll be watching for your article to find out more,” said the officer. As for larger carriers, Challenger safety and compliance director Robert Halfyard believes the impact will be minimal, at least for “carriers who currently have effective safety programs and monitor their on-road performance.” As for carriers who do not have ways and means to monitor and correct deficiencies, they “will most certainly have some issues to deal with.” For more info on CSA 2010 visit http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov. ■

The BASICS Drivers’ safety ratings will be calculated using data from the following BASICS (Behaviour, Analysis Safety Improvement Categories): 1. Unsafe Driving 2. Fatigued Driving 3. Driver Fitness 4. Drugs and Alcohol 5. Vehicle Maintenance 6. Cargo Securement 7. Crash Experience ■

TRUCK NEWS Page 11

November 2009

Canada By Jim Bray PARIS, Ont. – Talk about Long Combination Vehicles (LCVs) – or long vehicles combining their efforts, anyway. While these particular vehicles weren’t exactly the type of LCV you see on some highways, they were special trains of trucks that travelled three provinces recently, and they were so long they required police escorts – and so important that truckers gave up their precious weekends to ensure it came to pass. The trucks were participating in this year’s World’s Largest Truck Convoy, which brought truckers and their vehicles together with athletes, law enforcement personnel and others over late summer and early autumn weekends in an annual effort to raise money and awareness for the Special Olympics charity. It’s an event that began in Florida before spreading to Canada, and the organizers of this year’s Canadian legs report that 2009’s convoys were a big success despite some major challenges. “It was our fifth anniversary in Ontario, and it came hand-in-hand with the 40th anniversary for Special Olympics Canada,” organizer Tammy Blackwell says. “So it was a very special year for us.” Blackwell announced that the Ontario truckers – as well as one from Langley, B.C. who drove across the country for the event – ended up writing a cheque to the Special Olympics in the amount of $51,000 after their Sept. 19 convoy. The 2009 convoy didn’t always seem as if it would come off, though. “With a not very promising economy,” Blackwell says, “we really thought about whether or not we would even go forward.Was it wise? Would we get the turnout? And then we started hearing from our drivers and decided to do it anyway. I’m very glad we did.” Ontario’s convoy begins and ends at the Paris fairgrounds and goes as far as the Putnam scales, where there’s a large turnaround area the trucks can use. Once back in Paris, the participants take part in a lunch and awards session that gives them a chance to rub elbows with the athletes, the law enforcement officers involved, parents and the public. Blackwell says that, as a special treat this year, Lynn Snider of Drumbo Transport addressed the crowd. “She’s not only part of a trucking family, but she also has three Special Olympic athlete children,” Blackwell says. “So she could talk from the trucking side as well as the side of the parent of Special Olympics athletes.” Snider was accompanied on-stage by four athletes and, according to Blackwell, “You could’ve heard a pin drop. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard that many truck drivers quiet in one spot.” Snider’s family was well represented in the trucking part of the convoy, too. Her husband Dwight was one of the top three fundraisers, pledging $3,100 – only beaten out by Luis Alves, of Linamar Transport ($4,730, which earned him the honour of driving the lead truck) and Brian Hilton of MacKinnon Transport ($4,244). A total of 56 trucks were on-hand for the day, which ended with a baseball game between the top 12 pledgers and

It’s a convoy, alright! Economic conditions can’t dampen spirit at Canadian legs of World’s Largest Truck Convoy Stratford’s Special Olympics baseball team. “Try to visualize 12 out-of-shape truck drivers who haven’t touched any sporting equipment for years playing a bunch of athletes who practice all the time,” Blackwell says. “It was a hoot!” The $51,000 given to the Special Olympics surpassed last year’s total by $1,000 and, while it wasn’t a record, the organizers weren’t discouraged. “We knew it was going to be a tough year so we dug in and got a few more prizes and worked hard on sponsorship,” Blackwell says, “because we knew we couldn’t just depend on one element to bring in all the funding. Overall it came out good for us.” It’s good for the drivers, too, apparently. Blackwell says some of them are already asking for their 2010 pledge sheet.“They want them before Christmas so they can hit up everybody at the Christmas dinner table,” she says. In Manitoba, Special Olympics director of marketing Terry Hopkinson reports its third annual convoy also came off well despite economic kerfuffles. “We had the largest number of trucks ever,” he says proudly, tallying 48 in all, up six from a year ago. The

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Sept. 12 event ended up raising close to $15,000 for the Special Olympics, Hopkinson reports, praising the great buy-in from the industry,“particularly at the driver level.” “We had some companies that stepped forward and put a lot of trucks into it as well, such as Bison and TransX, who were huge players,” Hopkinson says, noting that many independents and company drivers turned out for the convoy as well. The Manitoba convoy headed out from a new venue this year: the town of Oak Bluff, which sits on the perimeter highway just southwest of Winnipeg.“They were really good to work with,” Hopkinson says of the townspeople. “They let us use their community centre, which had showers and washrooms and the like, so a lot of the truckers stayed overnight and were ready to go on Saturday morning.” The procession followed a 52-km perimeter route around Winnipeg and, besides the truckers and police escorts, they also had “a bunch of athletes come out and they all got to ride in trucks – and they were absolutely thrilled about it, pulling on the horns and that. They thought that was pretty terrific,” Hopkinson says. Trophies were awarded to TransX, for having the most trucks in the

event, and TransX drivers Cliff and Brenda Sumner raised the most money, “about $3,500” according to Hopkinson, and got to be the lead truck. Henry Picton, with Darcol International, was the number two driver, while Norm Lussier of CWS Logistics came in third. The Athlete’s Choice Truck, awarded to the truck the athletes thought was “the prettiest,” was the Darcol International/Henry Picton entry. Saskatchewan truckers held their third annual fundraiser on Saturday, Sept. 26, with 60 truckers – the most participants since the event began there, beating handily the previous high of 42 – heading out in a two mile long train along Hwy. 11 from Saskatoon to Regina. This year’s event supporting the province’s 1,250 Special Olympics athletes grossed $25,000, according to Special Olympics Saskatchewan director of operations, Roger Dumont. “Which is tremendous in terms of sponsorships and registrations from all of the truckers involved,” he adds, “Given the economic times and conditions that we have, this year certainly surpasses the expectations that we had.” After the convoy, figure skater Justin Duong spoke to the crowd at a celebration barbecue, recounting his experiences competing with Special Olympics for eight years. Duong has won 18 gold, 11 silver and six bronze medals at four national competitions. “Special Olympics helps him train, compete Continued on page 12

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Page 12 TRUCK NEWS

Canada

Convoys help Special Olympians Continued from page 11

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effort was worth it.â&#x20AC;? The Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Largest Truck Convoy has raised well over $50,000 for Special Olympics Saskatchewan in its three years. Money contributed from each convoy stays in its home province, helping to provide a much-needed lift to Special Olympians there. â&#x2013;

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and meet new people and travel across the country,â&#x20AC;? Dumont says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;And the truckersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; support goes a long way to help him and other athletes get to competitions.â&#x20AC;?

For the third year in a row, Ed Wright, who drives for Kindersley Transport, raised the most pledges ($3,100) and drove the lead truck. Second was Al Ackerman with Slinkemo Enterprises and third was

Brian Harrison from Maximum Training. Dumont credits Paul Perry, safety and compliance officer for Jayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Group of Companies, as being the lead organizer of the event. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is his enthusiasm and long hours on the phone making calls that lines up all these trucks,â&#x20AC;? Dumont says,â&#x20AC;&#x153;But the

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Page 14 TRUCK NEWS

East By Carroll McCormick DIEPPE, N.B. – Queer as it sounds, New Brunswick and Ontario have managed to come up with dead opposite conclusions on the use of high-mounted lights on the rear trailers of their long combination vehicle (LCV) programs – not good for carriers anxious for an unbroken Toronto-Halifax corridor for this energy-saving configuration. New Brunswick says the lights improve safety and visibility, and made them mandatory. Ontario declared them illegal. Ontario’s reason must be a charmer, since carriers are allowed to run them on non-LCV trailers. Of the few points on which the N.B./N.S. LCV rules (N.S. is in full harmony with N.B.) differ from Quebec and Ontario, high-mounted lights are reportedly the touchiest. “The APTA has had a bad taste in its mouth about them,” says Gordon Peddle, president of D.D. Transport in Newfoundland and, until recently, the chair of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association. “The Ontario Trucking Association is down on us for them, but we didn’t vote for the high-mounted lights.We pretty well had to agree with high-mounted lights as part of getting the pilot project off the ground.” New Brunswick Transportation Minister Denis Landry says, “The consultant made various recommendations including the addition of high-mounted rear brake lights connected to four-way flashers to allow for speed change reductions

Disharmonious quartet Could the LCV corridor dream crash over high-mounted light requirements? noticed during the pilot project field review.” Who would’ve thought, since LCVs do not have an extra-heavy GVW and their arse ends look the same as any other rig’s, except for that great shiny ‘LONG’ sign on the back? Believing that talking with the Department of Transportation trumps public reamings, Peddle quietly reports, “We are negotiating to discuss it. The government knows they are a source of concern for us. New Brunswick carries its own torch in Atlantic Canada for safety. It went into the LCV pilot project without wanting to hurt people.” Sunbury Transport, which is running LCVs in N.B., is no stranger to high-mounted lights. Vern Seeley, its technology and specifications manager, says, “We have been putting them on tankers for years, and we order raised lights with all of our new vans. The high-mounted signal and brake lights really stand out on a hill where, say, the lower lights can be hidden by vehicles. I’ve talked with hundreds of (truck) drivers and they say that they increase safety. Car drivers say that too.”

Seeley wonders whether highmounted lights could be grandfathered in, to give carriers more time to install them on their assets, and figure out how to put them on containers. While government and industry fuss, Seeley is going to take a break, “We probably won’t put more trailers on LCVs until we find out what is going to happen with this requirement.” As for Ontario, where up is down, he laments, “This puts us out of the running for Ontario.” The LCV issue has sparked conspiracy theories on both sides of the N.B./Quebec border. For example, there is a rumour that Quebec carriers are blocking the twinning of Highway 185 between Riviere du Loup and the N.B. border, to ward off competition. Eric Gignac, CEO, Groupe Guilbault sputtered earlier this year that the high-mounted lights rule was protectionism. “(Atlantic Canada) is asking us to put pressure on Transports Quebec (to hurry up and twin) the 185. But I will not be fighting for them for faster twinning or special permits. As the president of Guilbault and the president of the board of the

Quebec Trucking Association, I am not in any hurry to help them.” Peddle scoffs at the idea of a Maritime conspiracy against out of province LCVs. “This would be the most stupid thing the Atlantic Canada trucking industry could do when we have to go to Ontario and Quebec to survive.” It is all hush-hush (men at work, pride at stake, you know), but word is that the governments are not as blind to the need for LCV harmony as the evidence suggests. “I think it won’t be too long before everything gets squared away. The four provinces work well together and have frank and open discussions,” says Mike Balsom, program manager, weights and dimensions policy, N.S. Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal. “I can’t say a whole lot right now (but) there are sensitive discussions going on. The high-mounted light issue has been blown out of proportion.” The Ontario DoT says, “There have been numerous discussions between the four eastern provinces on LCV harmonization and further dialogue is expected in the future.” Peddle thinks there will be harmonization, and Seeley speculates that N.B. might give up the lights if Ontario were to agree to grandfather its roll stability, ABS and bigger brake compressor rules. Word is that LCV harmonization sticking points will be on the agenda for the Task Force on Vehicle Weights and Dimensions Policy meeting in Montreal Nov. 24. ■

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Page 16 TRUCK NEWS

Quebec

Turn onto 105 Controle routier Quebec demonstrates speed limiter enforcement capabilities with the gear to read the speed limiter setting off of trucks’ Electronic Control Modules (ECMs). The law requiring that trucks’ speed limiters be set at a maximum 105 km/h covers trucks manufactured after 1995 and with a GVW above 11,794 kgs. Eventually, all Controle routier’s Quebec cars will be equipped with them too. But that is not to say that trucks with their speed limiters set higher than the legal maximum of 105 km/h can’t get dinged on the open highway. If an officer paces a truck or clocks it going over 105 km/h, he can issue a speeding ticket to the

By Carroll McCormick LAVAL, Que. – It is show time at a check station on the southbound A-13 in Laval, just north of Montreal. A Controle routier Quebec carrier enforcement officer wriggles a little cube, barely an inch and a half on a side, into a jack under a truck’s dash. Much less than a minute later another officer inside the check station reads the speed limiter setting off of a computer screen. The warm officer radios a “c’est bon” verdict to the cold officer, and the truck is cleared to roll on. As of late September 21 check stations in Quebec were outfitted

driver and another ticket to the truck owner for not complying with the limiter setting. The fine for a first infraction is $350. Repeat offenders may get a ticket report and depending on the judgment of the prosecutor, the carrier can receive a fine of up to $1,000. Controle routier Quebec selected a piece of gear called an Ez-TAP Truck Access Point, by Cloverdale, Indiana-based XscapeEz Ltd. to read the speed limiter setting off the ECM. The cube has no power source of its own. It is activated by the ECM. This ensures the Ez-TAP cannot change the ECM, according to Arnold Yetman, a carrier enforcement officer. The cube has a six-point plug, and comes with an adapter cord with a nine-point plug. Ez-TAP pulls four pieces of information, or values, from the ECM and transmits them to a receiver inside the check station. From there they are forwarded to a desktop computer and pop up on a screen. The values are: Line 74: the maxi-

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TOOLS OF THE TRADE: A Quebec enforcement officer shows the connection device used to read a truck’s speed limiter setting. And yes, it can read the cruise speed too. Photo by Carroll McCormick

mum road speed limit; Line 87: cruise control high set speed limit; Vehicle ID number; and odometer, if that value is available. The page also shows the date and time. Officers ran three checks while I was there. The first: Line 74=100 km/h and Line 87=100 km/h; the second, Line 74=103 km/h and Line 87=103 km/h; and the third, Line 74=105 km/h and Line 87=absent. Some carriers will be dismayed to read that Ez-TAP also reads the cruise control setting. Officers have discovered that some sneaky carriers are setting Line 74 to 105 km/h – very nice – and Line 87 to a higher value – very naughty. “A lot of carriers do not know that we also read Line 87. We have seen where Line 74 is set to 105 km/h and Line 87 was set to 120130 km/h,” Yetman says. “I have also seen trucks with Lines 74 and 87 set at 150 km/h.” The six-month grace period expired at the end of June. From Aug. 1 to Sept. 18, Controle routier Quebec made 1,959 verifications: 511 trucks were not in compliance. “We have basically been concentrating on Quebec and Ontario plates, because both provinces have the law. We want to concentrate on our own vehicles. At the same time this gives truckers from the United States and other provinces a chance to comply,” Yetman says. Here is how an infraction plays out in real time: The first time a truck is stopped and the inhibitor is not set, the driver will get a ticket and will be allowed to drive off. Caught a second time, however, that truck must be inhibited before it is released back to the carrier. Most likely then, it will be impounded because there is only one company in Quebec that the Societe de l’assurance automobile du Quebec has authorized to do the inhibitions on the road. “In this instance, we would impound the vehicle until there was compliance. It is the carrier’s responsibility to pay for all the charges: about $25-$35/day for the impound. The truck can be towed to the impound or we can escort it there. If everyone is nice and follows our directions we usually will escort the trucks to the impound,” Yetman says. In Yetman’s check station, officers are making checking the inhibitor part of their routine whenever they do an interception. And yes, speed limiter compliance blitzes are being planned. ■

TRUCK NEWS Page 17

November 2009 A

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In addition, Hankook focuses on improving fuel efficiency and lowering the rolling resistance of current and future products with an annual investment of $19 million on R&D to make more environmentally-friendly products that reduce the operating costs of O-Os and fleets. Certainly, you will hear about additional Hankook products being certified for the SmartWay Program. Fact : Hankook Tires provide tremendous value to the consumer. You now know the Hankook products are made by a global company

that focuses on providing innovative products that are high in quality. And the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effort has been recognized and certified. But did you know the tires provide excellent value to consumers? Hankook tires are very cost effective in comparison with comparable quality products and have been well-recognized for their value. Call your local dealer today to find out how much you can save with Hankook products and how they can deliver better value. The news you hear about the price, quality and value of Hankook Tires will be some of the best news you will hear in 2009.

Maybe you did not know this, but Hankook Tire is one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world. In fact, Hankook Tire is the 7th largest tire manufacturer in the world with one of the fastest growth rates in the industry*. With great success and satisfied customers all around the world, the company has grown and transformed itself over the years. Hankook Tire now has more than 20 offices globally, multiple state-of-theart manufacturing facilities and several technical centres on every major continent including in the U.S., Germany, Korea, Japan and China. With a global network that stretches from Seoul to Toronto to Moscow, it is true that Hankook is a global company, not an off-shore tire company. Hankook products are premium imports developed to exceed the expectations of consumers. * Modern Tire Dealer, 2008 Fact : Hankook Tires are produced with innovative technology. Grouped with energetic, smart and consumer-oriented engineers, Hankook Tire continuously re-invests approximately 5% of its revenue into Research and Development. At the Akron Technical Center of Ohio, energetic and dedicated engineers develop tires that reflect the weather, road and drivers of North America. The dedication and effort in advancing tires has been noticed from several highly respected organizations. First, Hankook Tire is the original equipment tire supplier to International Trucks and I.C. School Buses on drive and steer positions. The tires meet and exceed the requirements of the highly respected company and continue to satisfy drivers and fleets in North America. Secondly, Hankook Tire has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and received EPA SmartWay certification on three truck and bus tires for reduced rolling resistance that creates a smaller carbon footprint. The recently launched AL07+ steer tire, top-seller Z35a drive tire and advanced TL01 trailer tire provide reduced rolling resistance of 3% or more to meet SmartWay standards. The certified Hankook tires provide improved fuel economy and reduced costs to drivers and fleet managers.

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November 2009

Page 18 TRUCK NEWS

Quebec

Hybrid or hype-brid? PIT plans to find out By James Menzies SAINTE-THERESE, Que. – FPInnovations, Feric Division, whose claim to fame is putting fuelsaving devices to the test during its now twice-annual Energotest, is launching two new projects to validate the fuel-saving potential of hybrid delivery trucks. FPInnovations detailed the two projects – the newest elements of its Project Innovation Transport (PIT) – during an open house at the Paccar plant here Sept. 18.The first test will compare the fuel consumption of a traditional medium-duty delivery truck to that of a hybrid while making real-world liquor deliveries for the Societe des Alcools (SAQ).Yves Provencher, business development director for FPInnovations, told Truck News that researchers will instrument two regular SAQ trucks to measure their fuel economy in real-world conditions as they deliver

alcohol to liquor stores and restaurants. Those same trucks will then be taken to a test track (either the oval at Blainville or another nearby road course) where their typical driving conditions will be replicated in a more controlled environment to get a better handle on their true fuel consumption. Then, that exact same duty cycle will be replicated using a Kenworth medium-duty hybrid to calculate a direct fuel economy comparison, Provencher explained. The goal is to determine the payback in pickup-and-delivery applications similar to that of the SAQ. “They say you’ll save 30% (fuel), that’s the number everyone is throwing around, is it true?” Provencher asked. He hopes FPInnovations will have the answer by the time the test concludes. Medium-duty hybrids currently cost about $45,000 more than traditional

PUT TO THE TEST: FPInnovations will test the fuel-saving potential of this Kenworth hybrid.

drive vehicles, so by the end of the project Provencher says his organization will be able to help fleets determine how long it will take for them to recover their investment in typical P&D applications. In another, separate test, FPInnovations has partnered with Agropur, Paccar-Kenworth, Fourgon Transit, Carrier and the Ministere des Transports du Quebec

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to develop guidelines for drivers of hybrid vehicles. “These trucks are great, but nobody knows how to drive them efficiently,” Provencher told Truck News. “That’s the essence of this project, to find the best driving techniques for these trucks.” Agropur has been provided with a medium-duty Kenworth hybrid that will be passed between 12 different drivers in various duty cycles. First, each of the drivers will have their regular truck fitted with an on-board computer capable of measuring driving conditions and styles. Then they’ll be given the hybrid to use on their regular route for one month. FPInnovations’ researchers will compare the data to find out which driving styles and techniques coax the best fuel economy out of the hybrid. In the end, FPInnovations will develop a set of driving guidelines for drivers of hybrid vehicles that enable them to maximize their fuel mileage. “We hope to develop a new, dedicated (driving) technique for the hybrid,” Provencher explained. At the same time, he hopes that by providing Agropur drivers the opportunity to drive a hybrid, they will see the benefits of the technology first-hand and may consider hybrids when making future purchasing decisions. “We want to also demonstrate the technology by passing the tuck around to 12 different drivers in 12 different regions of Quebec and maybe Ontario as well,” he said. “The idea is to present that truck to many people, so they are able to see and compare, ‘I’m doing the same milk run every day, I’ve been doing that for 10 years and I know how much I consume, now with this truck there’s a difference’.” As with all PIT projects, member fleets will be the first to receive the results. The tests will conclude in 12 to 18 months with PIT members receiving the data shortly thereafter and the general public about a year after that. While Provencher and Paccar were hosting members of the trucking industry and the media, FPInnovations researchers were hard at work testing some 18 fuelsaving technologies and practices at the nearby Blainville test track. The fall version of Energotest 2009 was held from Sept. 16-23. The test was reportedly going smoothly but it was not without a few unexpected challenges. Provencher told Truck News one of the test trucks was involved in an accident on its way to the track and weather was once again causing some delays. However, besides the inevitable hiccups, he said testing was going well. “It’s going well so far,” said Provencher as morning rain gave way to blue skies.“Even today, I just got a message that they’re starting to test now. They will finish late, but at least they can complete the program for the day.” The appeal of having early access to PIT’s findings has led more fleets to join the organization. PIT’s roster already boasted some heavy hitters such as Bison Transport, Robert Transport, SLH and Yanke Group. During the VIP day festivities, Provencher welcomed three new members: RST; Grand Island Express; and Centre de Gestion de l’equipement roulant. ■

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November 2009

Page 20 TRUCK NEWS

Ontario

Ontario launches used tire program Commercial truck tires may cost more, but disposal fees eliminated By James Menzies TORONTO, Ont. – The province of Ontario has launched an ambitious tire stewardship program which will ultimately clean up massive stockpiles of tires from landfill sites and direct all future scrap tires to recyclers where they’ll be converted to useful items such as car parts, mulch and playground surfaces. The Ontario Used Tire program went into effect Sept. 1, and has several implications for the trucking industry. For starters, manufacturers, importers and retailers will serve as ‘stewards’ of the program, and will have to pay a $14.65 fee for every commercial truck tire sold in Ontario. That fee will be used to fund the program, including the collection and delivery of scrap tires to processing

plants. This has already posed some challenges for equipment dealers, points out Mark Diamantopoulos, vice-president of sales and marketing with Wabash Canada. Since it typically takes 60-75 days for Wabash to build a trailer, the company provided quotes before the fee was imposed and now its salespeople are in the unenviable position of having to ask customers to pony up another $160 or so in tire fees at the time of delivery. It’s not a lot of money, Diamantopoulos admitted, but the company is receiving some pushback as many of its customers are not yet aware of the new program. The lack of awareness about the program remains an issue,

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Andrew Horsman, executive director of Ontario Tire Stewardship (administrator of the program) acknowledged to Truck News. He said his organization will be launching an awareness campaign so that customers understand why the fee is being collected. Just how the stewards choose to collect the fee is up to them, he said. “The responsibility to pay the fee is imposed on the stewards, how they manage that fee through the supply chain isn’t something we have control over,” he said. “That fee in many cases may be passed on as a separate line item or integrated into the price of the tire.” But before truck and trailer operators get their backs up at the prospect of yet another environmental fee, there are some savings available as well under the new program. If you take your scrap tires to a registered collector, for instance, there will be no disposal fee, Horsman explained. “Based on our analysis, the average disposal cost for a medium truck tire was between $8 and $11 per tire, so what we have done is when the tire gets changed if you’re dealing with a registered collector you won’t be paying any disposal fee,” he explained. “The disposal fee piece is really critical, that’s where there’s a real savings.” Horsman is also hopeful trucking companies will continue to retread when possible, noting the fee for new tires will not be applied to retreads. For tire retailers and dealers, participation in the program as a collector is voluntary. Dealers that choose not to participate can still legally charge a disposal fee, Horsman warns, so it’s a good idea to look up participating collectors on the program’s Web site at www.ontariots.ca. The voluntary nature of the collector side of the program causes Diamantopoulos some concerns about whether all suppliers will be playing by the same rules. “It will be interesting to see how they regulate this,” he said, with some skepticism. “It’s good for the environment, as long as it’s monitored the right way and the funds go to the correct facilities to do this and there are no loopholes where ‘little Johnny’ doesn’t have to pay for it but everyone else does.” He’s also worried about how the program will play out between jurisdictions, some of which have their own such programs already in place. In Wabash’s case the company will have to pass the new fee on to its Ontario-based customers, yet a customer in the Maritimes will be exempted, and he questions whether that’s fair? There are other challenges posed by a mobile industry such as trucking as well. If an East Coast-based fleet has a blow-out in Ontario, will they have to pay the stewardship fee on a replacement tire?

PAY NOW, SAVE LATER: New tires purchased in Ontario will cost more, but the disposal fee will be waived.

The short answer is “Yes,” according to Horsman. The fee will be applied to all tires sold in Ontario. But what about border regions? Can a trucking company in Northwestern Ontario purchase its tires in Manitoba to avoid paying the fee and then dispose of them here free of charge? “There’s potentially a bit of an issue at border areas,” acknowledged Horsman. “All of those areas (neighbouring jurisdictions) have managed tire programs, just not the same aggressive approach to commercial truck tires that we have. The fees are different, how are we going to manage that? We’ll be working with the other jurisdictions.” He went on to explain that the program will be monitoring registered collectors to determine where the tires are coming from and they will be audited to ensure there’s a balance of incoming and outgoing tires. “In a situation where a dealer is changing tires and we look at the inventory and they changed 200 tires and they have 700 scrap tires, we’re going to raise some questions,” he said. “Registered collectors need to provided proof those tires come from Ontario.” Despite the operational hurdles, nobody would suggest the program lacks merit. Not only will the program clean up the province’s stockpile of some 2.8 million scrap tires currently occupying landfill sites, it will also ensure most of the 11 million onroad scrap tires generated in Ontario each year are recycled. “Ontario’s used tires program marks the most ambitious used tire program in the country,” Horsman said. “The program will remove tire stockpiles, recycle tires into household, commercial and automotive products, and create green jobs and economic benefits right here in our province.” For the first year of the program, some of the tires will be trucked to recycling facilities in the US, but by next year Horsman said he expects Ontario processing facilities will have the capacity to handle all the tires collected under the program. There are currently 10 tire recycling facilities in Ontario with more expected to come on-stream, creating new ‘green’ jobs within the province. There are also opportunities for trucking companies that wish to participate in the program as registered haulers. They can find out how to do so by visiting the program’s Web site. ■

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November 2009

Page 22 TRUCK NEWS

Ontario

DriveTest strike tests Ontario trucking industry’s patience By James Menzies TORONTO, Ont. – As a strike by DriveTest employees – including driver examiners – entered its second month, the toll on the trucking industry has continued to mount. Instructors at many truck training facilities have been laid off, and new commercial drivers – some with job offers in-hand – have remained out of work as they were unable to take their road test and upgrade to an A/Z licence. The union representing striking DriveTest employees, USW Local 9511, appeared no closer to an agreement with management when this issue of Truck News went to press and had taken their message to the streets. Striking workers were joined by representatives from about 15 commercial training centres during a demonstration at Queen’s Park Sept. 17 and our WebTV show Transportation Matters was there. Jim Young, president of USW Local 9511, said “We want to demonstrate to the employer that we are unified, not just with employees but also people directly involved…we want a fair and just collective agreement.” He said the union has concerns with job security, the recognition of seniority, management performing work functions, and public and employee health and safety. Also on-hand was Jay Poothappillai of Jay’s Truck Training School. He was there to voice his displeasure with the Ontario government, which has sat idly by as the strike dragged on. “We can’t train anymore,” he told Transportation Matters. “It’s ridiculous. It’s a big shame for the government.” You can see the Sept. 24 episode of Transportation Matters at Trucknews.com for coverage. Meanwhile, professional drivers and driver instructors have been

ON STRIKE: DriveTest staff bring attention to their cause during a demonstration in downtown Toronto Sept. 17. Photo by Adam Ledlow

they have signing authority and caught in the crossfire of this can issue A/Z licences themselves union/management struggle. upon completion of training – Kim Richardson, president of which Richardson said is an “outKRTS Transportation Specialists, right lie.” Prospective new truck told Truck News he’s had to lay drivers should be aware of this, he off about 40% of his truck trainwarned. ing division staff. “Some competitors are saying KRTS’s sales dipped to their ‘we have the authority to do the lowest levels in the company’s 20test here,’ and they’re telling all year history, and “for the first time kinds of stories just to get the in the history of our business, we revenue, and people are buying it don’t have any control over it,” he – we’re losing said. clients,” said Richardson Richardson, of said KRTS has what he resuspended truck ferred to as a training activigrowing ‘red ties, since stulight district’ of dents will be untruck driver able to take training schools. their tests and Many profesobtain an A/Z Garry Harris sional drivers licence at the have also found conclusion of themselves on the sidelines as the training. strike drags on. Garry Harris told Some inscrutable schools, on the other hand, have found an opTruck News he let his A/Z licence portunity to exploit the situation lapse when business was slow, and profit from it, he blasted. with the expectation he could reAccording to Richardson, some new it when work became availdriver training schools are telling able. prospective new customers that When his carrier called and said they had work for him, he made an appointment with DriveTest to upgrade back to an A/Z. But just days before his appointment, the strike commenced. “Here I am, ready to work, capable of working and my hands are tied,” he said, adding the bills are piling up and “it’s starting to get to the critical stage.” Harris feels the government should be doing more to bring an end to the dispute and says the province is risking further economic hardship by keeping people out of work as the economy begins to show some signs of life. Richardson noted that the province has the ability to process all the paperwork and suggested it allow qualified trainers to conduct road tests while the strike continues. “Why not give them temporary signing authority?” he asked. USW Local 9511 also has pitched a compromise to get people moving. The union said it would conduct road tests directly for the MTO on a non-profit basis, but that suggestion was shot down by the province, he said,

‘Here I am, ready to work, capable of working and my hands are tied.’

which is seemingly unwilling to wade into the labour dispute. The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) has chimed in, urging both sides of the dispute to get back to the table and hammer out a deal. “Our members are encouraging the two parties to get back to bargaining. This thing can’t be solved if they aren’t talking,” OTA president David Bradley said in a release. He too warned that Ontario may suffer economic damage if qualified workers are prevented from joining the workforce. “Some of these people have recently been displaced from other industries due to the tough economic times, are on EI and are trying for a fresh start in trucking. When the economy comes on stream, which we are all hoping it is, there will be a need for these people to be able to step in and do a job. They can’t even begin to get the experience they need if they are unable to get their licences because of the strike.” The OTA says about 100 Class A drivers’ tests are conducted each day in Ontario, which raises questions about how quickly the backlog can be alleviated once business resumes at DriveTest. Richardson pointed out companies such as his will also have to endure the cost of retraining students who may have forgotten some of what they learned. “We have an obligation to make sure they’re ready not only to pass the road test, but also to be ready for the industry,” he said. “It’s a substantial investment for KRTS to ensure they’re trained to the standards (industry) is used to.” For drivers already holding an A/Z licence, the MTO has promised an extension to any expiration dates. Still, not all drivers are confident other jurisdictions will follow suit. Bill Insell, a professional driver with an expired A/Z told Truck News that he’s nervous to cross the border and some carriers have told the OTA they’re avoiding sending drivers with expired licences to the US in fear of delays at the border. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has assured the OTA that all FAST-approved drivers will be allowed to cross with expired licences up until Dec. 31. Non-FAST drivers are advised to carry documentation with them from the MTO which explains the situation. You can find details on the MTO’s Web site at www.mto.gov.on.ca. To weigh in on the DriveTest strike, you can read James Menzies’ blog dated Sept. 8 at TruckNews.com and post your comments. ■ – As this issue of Truck News was going to press, there were rumblings of progress coming from talks between management and the union. Visit Trucknews.com for updates as the strike progresses or follow James Menzies on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jamesmenzies.

TRUCK NEWS Page 23

November 2009

Ontario announces Oct. 26 enforcement date for cell phone ban CB radios to be phased out in three years TORONTO, Ont. – Ontario’s cell phone ban for drivers will kick in Oct. 26, with fines of up to $500 for offenders beginning Feb. 1, 2010 the province has announced. The new law makes it illegal to use a handheld communications or entertainment device while driving. Ontario joins many other jurisdictions with similar laws, noting that a driver is four times more likely to be in involved in an accident while using a handheld phone than a driver who’s focused on the road. The ban does not include hands-free devices, including a cell phone with an earpiece or a headset that uses voice dialing. GPS systems that are properly secured within the vehicle are also acceptable, according to the

Trucker reportedly fined for smoking in cab of truck WINDSOR, Ont. – According to media reports, an Ontario truck driver was fined $305 for smoking a cigarette in his truck. The Canadian Press has reported the truck driver was fined because the cab of his truck was considered a “workplace.” He was reportedly pulled over on Hwy. 401 near Windsor and ticketed after a police officer spotted him smoking. The Smoke-Free Ontario Act doesn’t allow people to smoke in public areas or enclosed workplaces. The driver may be able to successfully challenge the ticket, however, if he works for a federally-regulated carrier. the Smoke-Free When Ontario Act was passed in 2006, the Ontario Trucking Association fought for and received assurance that only provincially-regulated carriers would have to abide by the law. “Our concern was over provincial incursion into an area of federal law and what precedent that might set in other statutes in the future,” OTA president, David Bradley said at the time. “We are very pleased that we were able to work with the government on this issue and come to an understanding on how the law affects a major segment of the industry.” Federally-regulated carriers would still have to abide by the Non-Smoker’s Health Act. Under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, a trucking company could be fined as much as $10,000 for allowing smoking in its vehicles. To weigh in on the debate on whether or not truckers should be allowed to smoke in their rigs, check out the Trucknews.com blog and post a comment. ■

province. Truckers will also be able to continue using display screens that provide information about the status of the vehicle. The province has also allowed certain exemptions for commercial drivers. It will allow a three year phaseout period for the use of two-way radios including CB radios to allow time for hands-free alternatives to be developed. The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) which lobbied for exemptions for truckers, said it’s been told by the Ministry of Transportation that if hands-free solutions for CBs are still not available in three years, the exemption may be extended. Mobile data terminals, logistical tracking devices and dispatch de-

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commodation for most of the other handheld devices used by industry that serve an important business purpose.” However, Bradley admitted truckers may be incensed to learn CBs will eventually be banned along with other types of communication devices. “Given the still pervasive use of these devices in the industry, I expect there could be push-back from some truck drivers,” he said. “In many respects the CB is not only an important part of the truckers’ social network, but it is also an important safety device in its own right. However, by introducing a conditional three-year phase-out, it gives us time to monitor how the technology develops and if need be, revisit the issue down the road. It doesn’t mean that CBs are going to be banned on Oct. 26, 2009 or Feb. 1, 2010.” ■

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Page 24 TRUCK NEWS

Ontario

Ontario drivers left with few options as rest areas close Continued from page 1

couple of years; the strategy probably suited the Ontario government as it wanted one vendor to take over the whole works. The deal with a provider, at least, appears to be in place. In August of this year it announced Host-Kilmer Service Centers as the preferred proponent, although the monetary details are yet to be worked out. The rebuilding initiative is a joint venture between the MTO and Infrastructure Ontario, but the fact that the ground at these sites is contaminated with decades of spilled gasoline and oil drippings brings the Ministry of the Environment into the mix. The sites are subject to environmental assessments, and before the first brick can be laid, the old fuel tanks have to be dug up and the polluted soil removed. Then,

NOTHING TO SEE HERE: More Ontario service centres are being shuttered, in many cases leaving truckers with no place to park. Photo by Harry Rudolfs

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a colossal screw up,â&#x20AC;? he tells me on the phone just after heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finished lambasting the governing Liberals on the issue during question period. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is going to provide a bad image for the province and potentially jeopardize public safety by not having these services available.â&#x20AC;? Indeed, Runciman might be particularly agitated because two of the recently-closed centres (Mallorytown north and south) were in his home riding of LeedsGrenville. He estimates the closures from these two centres alone will cost 250 local jobs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s absolutely no reason those two service centres at Mallorytown had to close,â&#x20AC;? he fumes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing wrong with the tanks in the ground, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been checked and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re good for at least four or five more years. We talked to the lessee at Imperial Oil and they told us they offered to extend the lease and were denied. We used to get 15 buses in there at one time. Are you going to be able to do that with a little trailer and a johnny-on-thespot?â&#x20AC;? Furthermore, Runciman questions the deal with Host-Kilmer itself and the fact that no numbers have been released. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still negotiating and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not finalized,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Who knows how many billions this is going to cost? They havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t supplied any kind of figure.â&#x20AC;? The CAA has also expressed anxiety for motorists travelling the 400 highways. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our concern is that people, instead of stopping, will keep pressing on. Motorists who are not familiar are reluctant to stop in small towns or places they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know,â&#x20AC;? says CAA spokesperson Edyta Zdancewicz. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With winter coming, it might be a big problem for motorists running out of gas who have to travel more than 150 km to get fuel.â&#x20AC;? The provincial government, on the other hand, says it is doing what it can to mitigate the discomfort to travellers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If a service centre is temporarily closed, every effort has been made to have the next one on the highway open with interim services at a minimum,â&#x20AC;? says Paulette Den Elzen of Infrastructure Ontario. Den Elzen adds that signs have been posted along the highway in advance of the service centres that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have fuel. As well, she says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;While the service centres are closed, fuel and food services can be obtained on a 24-hour-aday basis at privately-operated and easily accessible alternative service areas located along the highways.â&#x20AC;? It should be noted that some expanded truck parking is now available at the Morrisburg and Wooler Hill (Trenton) sites. Bob Nichols, media liaison for the MTO, adds that King City, Barrie, Woodstock, Cambridge North, Cambridge South, Newcastle, Port Hope, Napanee and

TRUCK NEWS Page 25

November 2009

Plan ahead when driving in Ontario: The following service centre sites are closed with no interim services available at this time: West Lorne – westbound; Mallorytown North – westbound; Ingleside – westbound; Bainsville – westbound; Mallorytown South – eastbound; and Trenton South – eastbound.

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Odessa have been approved for LCV use. “Once the new service centre sites have been redeveloped, all the sites will include LCV-friendly access and parking,” he says. But on the whole, truck parking spots have been lost while the sites are being developed. Joanne Richie, director of the Owner-Operators’ Business Association of Canada (OBAC), is critical of the government’s handling of the project. “We’re incensed with the Ontario government’s poor planning…They’ve completely dropped the ball on this one.” Ritchie recalls meeting with members of Infrastructure Ontario and the MTO while the project was in the planning stages. She says OBAC’s suggestions for truck-friendly sites with safe, accessible truck parking so drivers can comply with HoS rules were warmly welcomed at the time. “They liked our ideas and asked us if we would work with them and the contractor going forward (when they were chosen); we readily agreed, then we never heard from them again…That was over two years ago.” As a professional driver, I agree that truck parking is available off the 401 at truck stops and the like, but finding a spot after 11 p.m. while you want to run in and get a coffee is often an ordeal. As for the 401 centres, I stopped using them because of the dearth of truck parking and fears of getting blocked in. Nichols may have declared the Odessa site LCV-friendly, but you don’t want to pull around the back of that place at night. My linehaul colleague at Purolator, Tom Murray, agrees. “I found out the best thing is to get off the highway.” He immediately starts listing his favourite Tim Horton’s in Brockville, Trenton and Belleville. “The new rest area at Woooler is okay I guess, but it’s an awful long way from the truck parking to the bathroom.” Fellow driver and newly-minted LCV pilot Greg Manchester is more scathing. “Why could they have not brought in a temporary Tim Horton’s in those closed places? It is absolutely absurd and socially irresponsible that the Ontario government would allow this to happen. Where are drivers supposed to stop and eat and take their mandatory breaks?” ■

The following service centre sites are open (for now) with full services: Napanee – westbound; Newcastle – westbound; Cambridge North – westbound; Ingersoll – westbound; Woodstock – eastbound; Cambridge South – eastbound; Port Hope – eastbound; Odessa – eastbound; King City – northbound; Barrie – northbound; Cookstown – southbound; and Maple – southbound.Truck parking is available at all sites however Newcastle, Ingersoll, Woodstock, King City and Maple have more truck parking capacity than the other sites. ■

NO STOPPING: These Service Centre Closed signs are popping up everywhere along Ontario’s most heavily-travelled highways.

The following service centre sites are open with interim services (interim services include parking, accessible washrooms, drinking water, vending machines and telephones but no fuel): Tilbury North – westbound; Trenton North – westbound; Tilbury South – eastbound; Dutton – eastbound; and Morrisburg – eastbound. While truck parking is available at all five of these sites, expanded truck parking lots exist at Tilbury South, Dutton, Morrisburg and Trenton North.

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Page 26 TRUCK NEWS

Industry

The devilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in the details All carriers need to ensure accuracy of HRSDC overtime surveys The overtime provisions for truck drivers under Part III of the Canada Labour Code have been a source of confusion and concern for many years. At the root of the problem is the fact that most drivers are paid on a productivity basis (ie. per mile) whereas the rules are hourly based. There is also significant confusion around definitions. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;City Driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; are entitled to overtime after 45 hours in a week or nine hours in a day while â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Highway Driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; are entitled to overtime after 60 hours in a week. A truck driver is deemed to be a city driver when he/she: 1) Operates exclusively within a 16 km radius of his or her home terminal; or, 2) Is classified as a city motor vehicle operator in a collective agreement; or, 3) when they would be defined as a city driver according to the prevailing industry practice in the geographical area where the driver is employed. It is this last element which is particularly problematic. In the event of a complaint (this is a complaint-driven process), and unless the definition of a city driver for the company in question is dealt with in a union contract, Human Resources & Social Development Canada (HRSDC) inspectors conduct a survey to determine the prevailing industry practice in the re-

Industry Issues David Bradley

gion to determine who is a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;city driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and who is a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;highway driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and how they are paid overtime. How the surveys are conducted is a rather murky area and appears inconsistent across the country. Sometimes, the survey results can also create inconsistent rulings even within regions. For example, at the time of writing a survey was being conducted in Mississauga, Ont. There is nothing to prevent and there is always a risk, of a ruling that imposes a different â&#x20AC;&#x153;prevailing industry practiceâ&#x20AC;? in Mississauga compared to Toronto, Brampton or Oakville. So, it is important that carriers understand how the surveys are conducted and take steps to avoid providing faulty information. The results of a survey â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whatever they are â&#x20AC;&#x201C; will establish the legal definition of a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; driver for the purpose of paying overtime for all carriers in a specified geographic area.

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First, companies in the area are contacted by letter requesting their participation in the survey. How the area is defined, which carriers are selected to participate, from which segments of the industry, and how many carriers are selected appears somewhat arbitrary. The letter also includes a list of the questions so the carrier can prepare its responses. The survey itself is conducted by telephone. The inspector is supposed to ensure that the survey responses are obtained from a person who is qualified to describe the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s practices and immediately after conducting a telephone survey the inspector will send each survey participant a

Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area should be paid overtime as city drivers if they travelled less than 100 km from their home terminal during a day â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a result that did not jive with what most carriers in the region felt was the prevailing industry practice. After much hard work, and the threat of a legal challenge, HRSDC was convinced to re-do the survey and they found that the local practice was actually to use a 16 km radius of the home terminal (as is stated in the regulation). Indeed, as it pertains to the city vs highway driver definitions, the 16 km radius provision actually provides useful guidance. If all carriers in all regions actually used the regulatory standard there

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;If you are contacted by HRSDC to participate in a survey, you should ensure that senior management is alerted and oversees the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responses.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; David Bradley

letter with an attachment on which the inspector has recorded the employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responses. On the basis of this survey, HRSDC determines the â&#x20AC;&#x153;prevailing industry practiceâ&#x20AC;? in the geographical area for establishing driver eligibility for overtime pay.A prevailing industry practice will be deemed where at least 70% of respondents use that practice. In the past, problems have arisen when the people contacted at trucking companies did not fully understand the importance of these surveys and offered up definitions of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;localâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; drivers that had more to do with operational practices rather than payroll practices concerning eligibility for overtime pay. The result is that they may say something like â&#x20AC;&#x153;the company deems a driver who travels no more than 100 km from their home terminal a local driverâ&#x20AC;? without understanding that HRSDC could then determine that all drivers who travel less than 100 kms are â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;city driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and should be paid overtime after 45 hours. Based on faulty information, a survey undertaken a couple of years ago determined that drivers in the

would not be an issue. Regardless, if an HRSDC survey is ever conducted in your area, it is critical that all carriers ensure that a similar misunderstanding does not occur. If you are contacted by HRSDC to participate in a survey, you should ensure that senior management is alerted and oversees the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responses. Ensure that you carefully consider what it is that HRSDC is actually asking and what your policy is with respect to overtime payments. Do not use any definitions you have for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; drivers that are operational in nature, only answer the survey based on what your human resources policy is and the definition of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; driver you use for determining overtime pay. If all carriers do this, it will ensure that HRSDC gets accurate information regarding the prevailing industry practice in your area regarding overtime pay. â&#x2013; â&#x20AC;&#x201C; David Bradley is president of the Ontario Trucking Association and chief executive officer of the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

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TRUCK NEWS Page 27

November 2009

Tax talk

Baby, you can drive your car (just log the miles) One of the most misunderstood deductible business expenses I see involves the so-called ‘service vehicle’ – the business-related use of a car, truck, or van, especially if it’s also your personal vehicle. Canada Revenue Agency has pretty clear guidelines about how to document the use of the vehicle for business purposes, yet this type of claim remains one of the biggest red flags for auditors.Why? There are specific requirements for documenting these expenses and it takes discipline to get them right every time. You’re not only collecting a receipt for fuel, service, or some other expense, you have to record mileage as well. As a truck driver you may be accustomed to that sort of thing, but what about your spouse or kid who’s running a business errand while you’re away? Before the year ends, talk to your accountant about how to make a valid service vehicle claim. Here are some questions to help get the conversation rolling: What’s a “business” trip? There are all kinds of reasons to use your car, truck, or van for business: a trip to the parts store, a meeting with your carrier, and so on. What’s important is that you’re using the vehicle for a task that helps you earn business income. Note that CRA considers driving back and forth between home and work – commuting – as personal use, so you can’t deduct expenses related to your drive from home to your truck. I’ve argued that if your business office is in your home, then driving from the “office” to where your truck is parked should count as business travel. But I haven’t found an auditor yet who agrees with me. What expenses are deductible? Only the business portion of your motor vehicle expenses are tax deductible. So as a rule, you can deduct any reasonable motor vehicle expense you paid or will have to pay to earn business income. This includes licence and registration fees; fuel and maintenance; repair expenses; insurance; interest on money borrowed to buy the vehicle; and your lease payment or capital cost allowance (CCA or depreciation). CRA’s guide, T4002 Business and Professional Income, is the official reference on motor vehicle expenses (it’s available online at www.cra-arc.gc.ca). How do I separate personal and business travel? To support the amount you can deduct, you’ll need to keep a record of both the total kilometres you drove and the kilometres you drove for business. Divide your business-use kilometres by your total kilometres for the year, giving you anywhere from 1% to 100%. The percentage is important. CRA uses “90% or more” as its guideline to interpret the words “all or substantially all” in the Income Tax Act and Excise Tax Act. If your business miles are 90% or more of the vehicle’s annual total,

Tax Talk Scott Taylor

special rules may apply. For example, if you’re buying a new service vehicle, you can claim 100% of the GST/HST immediately on your next return if you can show that it’s used for business 90% of the time. If the business use is less than 90%, you have to calculate the GST/HST included in the depreciation of the vehicle each year and claim it back over time. What do I need to know about recording mileage? You need a logbook for the vehi-

cle that contains the total number of kilometres you drive in a year as well as the date, destination, purpose, and the distance in kilometres for each business-related trip. Without a log, you can’t prove that the vehicle was used for business. Your kilometres will be deemed to be personal and your expense claims will be denied. Since CRA can audit three years at a time, you may lose three years of claims as well as the GST/HST input tax credits on those expenses. This includes the GST/HST in your lease payments, purchase price, gas, repairs, etc., which can be refunded to you at the percentage of business use. You may have to pay back part of your GST/HST refunds. If you use more than one motor vehicle for business, keep a separate log and calculate each vehi-

cle’s expenses separately. If you change vehicles during the year, record the odometer reading and dates of each vehicle at the time you buy, sell, or trade it. And if more than one driver is using the vehicle to support the business, remind them to maintain the log as well. Make sure there’s a working pen inside the vehicle and an envelope to organize receipts. Like any other record-keeping exercise, keep it as simple as can be. ■ – Scott Taylor is vice-president of TFS Group, a Waterloo, Ont., company that provides accounting, fuel tax reporting, and other business services for truck fleets and owner/operators. For information, visit www.tfsgroup.com or call 800461-5970.

November 2009

Page 28 TRUCK NEWS

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LEDs move from â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;nice to haveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;must haveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as costs come down and technology improves By Jim Bray CALGARY, Alta. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Driving or working at night can be tough enough without having to worry about whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lurking in the dark. Fortunately, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modern lighting fixtures are doing a better job than ever of not only banishing the darkness, but of ensuring that you can be seen by those around you as well. Some of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brightest ideas are advancing the state of the art in LEDs, or Light Emitting Diodes. Solid-state LEDs are not only super bright, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also getting quite intelligent, allowing their owners to do more things with fewer fixtures. LEDs have been around for decades â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for example, many early digital watches had LED displays â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and TV sets are now going LED. LED taillights are commonplace on new cars and trucks, and LEDs for safety lighting have been available to the trucking industry for about 20 years. Besides their brightness, LEDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advantages include long life, energy efficiency, and flexibility. The downside is that LEDs are generally more expensive than their old tech, incandescent counterparts. This is typical of newer technology, however, and in the years since LEDs first appeared, their prices have come down substantially. According to Mark Assenmacher,

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director of marketing for Peterson Manufacturing, LEDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advantages outshine incandescent regardless of price, making them a compelling choice for companies looking to enhance their bottom lines. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At one time LEDs were 10 times the cost of incandescents,â&#x20AC;? Assenmacher recalls. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But even then some fleets jumped on-board because they could see the longterm benefit, especially for places like up on the high rails â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want their people climbing up there on ladders replacing light bulbs.â&#x20AC;? Assenmacher says LEDs last six to 10 times as long as incandescent lights, are imperious to road shock and have no bulbs to break. He also says theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re cheaper and easier to use in the long run which, figured on a cost-per-mile basis explains why a lot of fleets are going LED. Peterson and other manufacturers currently offer a wide variety of LED products, mostly safety lighting such as marker lights, turn signals and taillights. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty much commonplace to go to LEDs now,â&#x20AC;? says Assenmacher, â&#x20AC;&#x153;though some guys still stick with incandescent â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it depends on the segment of the market.â&#x20AC;? He points to the container chassis market as one place where incandescent lights are still popular, because â&#x20AC;&#x153;they have pilferage problems and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to spend the extra (for LEDs).â&#x20AC;? For the most part, however, â&#x20AC;&#x153;fleets are looking to companies like ours to give them a complete system: wiring harness, premium LEDs, a lot of the time with hard shell connectors to keep corrosion out and help them keep the trailer on the road and avoid downtime and repair costs.â&#x20AC;? Assenmacher says â&#x20AC;&#x153;valueâ&#x20AC;? LEDs can cost two or three times an incandescent version but, since some LEDs have a rated life of 100,000 hours, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a good investment. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And if you want to step up to one thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s got all the bells and whistles and hard shell connectors and all that, for longevity, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to pay more, maybe three to four times more, but youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll get all the benefits.â&#x20AC;? Next up for Peterson are â&#x20AC;&#x153;Smart Lampsâ&#x20AC;? that combine strobing LEDs with a turn signal override, so the functions of a Class 2 warning lamp and a legal DoT turn signal can be performed by a single unit. Petersonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first Smart Lamp was a 36-diode, four-inch round model introduced mainly to the refuse market. When the driver activates the turn signal with the new lamp, the alternating triple flash strobe automatically shuts off on that side, resuming when the signal light is cancelled. The unit is selfcontained, with no requirement for a separate controller. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kind of the wave,â&#x20AC;? Assenmacher says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;asking your LEDs to have more functions, to offer solutions.â&#x20AC;? He says the new smart lamp is an integrated, hassle-free solution for refuse, maintenance and service vehicles and is more compatible and

TRUCK NEWS Page 29

November 2009

easier to install than other strobe systems. Grote Industries is carving its own LED path. At last spring’s Mid-America Trucking Show it unveiled LightForm technology that, as vice-president of sales and marketing Dominic Grote claimed at the time, will alter dramatically the way the industry uses lighting. The LightForm thin-film, solidstate lighting device Grote demonstrated was only a millimeter thick and could be bent, flexed and twisted – so you can even install it around corners. Grote claimed such a lamp can be “peel-andstick” mounted and can achieve “The same FMVSS 108 photometric requirements for a P2-rated marker lamp, with just 2% of the material used in a traditional LED lamp.” He also says it should virtually eliminate installation hassles and costs. Around the same time Grote was mesmerizing the audience with LightForm technology, Truck-Lite was taking the wraps off a seveninch round LED headlamp it says brings “a new level of performance for seven-inch round forward lighting 12-volt applications, offering the extended life and energy efficiency of light emitting diode technology.” Truck-Lite says its new LED headlamp (the follow-up to a 24volt version now being used by the US military), meets or exceeds all applicable DoT requirements for headlights and offers “a perfect blend of thermal management and light output to produce an aesthetically pleasing beam pattern.” The company says the new headlamp is designed to replace any standard seven-inch round headlight in 12-volt applications and can be aimed using standard mechanical aiming equipment. Each lamp uses 10 high-output LEDs and Truck-Lite says they should last up to 50 times as long as a typical headlamp, while offering improved visibility. The bad news is a current price of about US$350 – per lamp. The company says, however, that the improved durability, extended life and safety benefits (they’re also said to offer 30 times the impact strength of glass), ensure their value even at that price. Higher prices can turn people toward cheaper “knock-off” versions, and such is the case with LED fixtures. “There’s imitators out there,” Assenmacher admits. “They bring lights in and you can buy them cheaper in a truck stop, but you’re not getting the complete solution.” Assenmacher says such lights are “just a quick fix and you’re probably going to have some corrosion problems down the road.” Assenmacher warns that some products may not be compliant with motor vehicle safety standards, even if they’re labeled as compliant. “That’s something buyers should be cognizant of,” he says, adding that “fortunately, most OEMs and fleets are looking for a quality manufacturer that stands behind the product.” It seems, then, that LEDs are an increasingly bright idea for fleet owners and truckers looking for true enlightenment. ■

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November 2009

Page 30 TRUCK NEWS

Health

Lightening your autumn diet with healthy parsnips Once fall comes, root vegetables seem to become more popular. Carrots, potatoes and even turnips become standard fare, yet parsnips are often overlooked. Rediscover, then add this vegetable to your menu. Why? Parsnips are quite nutritious and versatile, providing many of the same nutritional benefits as potatoes, with only half the calories. Although they have less protein and Vitamin C than potatoes, parsnips are still considered an “excellent source” of Vitamin C, fiber, folic acid, pantothenic acid, copper, and manganese. Parsnips are also a “very good source” of niacin, thiamine, magnesium, and potassium. And they are a “good source” of riboflavin, folic acid, and vitamins B6 and E. (For a food to be considered an “excellent source” of a particular

Preventive Maintenance Karen Bowen nutrient that food must provide at least 20% of the Recommended Daily Value – or RDV. Foods that are a “good source” of a nutrient provide 10-20% of the RDV). In addition, parsnips have more fiber than potatoes. It is currently felt that adding dietary fiber as part of our regular eating habits could hold off many health concerns. Parsnips are an excellent source of fiber. A little more than half of the fiber in parsnips is the soluble kind, which means that it turns into a gel-like substance in the di-

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gestive system. This, in turn, helps prevent the intestine from absorbing fats and cholesterol from foods. At the same time, it dilutes bile acids in the intestine, which can prevent them from causing cancer. Soluble fiber has been seen to relieve or prevent many other conditions as well. Research has found that getting enough soluble fiber in your diet can prevent many intestinal digestive conditions and can also stabi-

lize the blood sugar swings that occur with diabetes. Parsnips are often thought of as carrot’s white cousins because they look so similar. Like carrots, parsnips grow in the ground. However in the grocery store, they’re often left on the shelf because of their rough, dirty skin and roots that grow off in every direction. Even though their ivory or pale yellow skins might not catch your

Plantar warts a public shower risk This month, I have decided to write about plantar warts.This condition is very common among professional truck drivers due to their lifestyle on the road. Essentially, plantar warts are a non-cancerous skin growth on the soles of your feet which are caused by the human papillomavirus. Although plantar warts are not usually a serious health condition, they can be quite painful and irritating. The symptoms of plantar warts can vary from person to person. However, for most people the first noticeable symptom is pain or tenderness on the bottom of their foot when walking or running. On closer inspection, plantar warts appear as small flat growths with a rough surface and well-defined borders. Another way to identify them is to look for bumps that interrupt the normal lines and ridges in the skin on the soles of your feet. Plantar warts are contagious, however in order to catch them you must come into direct contact with the virus. This virus thrives in warm, moist conditions such as showers, locker rooms and public swimming pools. For truck drivers, walking barefoot in public showers is by far the most common way to contract the virus. Due to this, I always recommend my patients wear slippers into the showers. Also, it is important for drivers to practice good hygiene by keeping their feet clean and dry. Changing your socks daily is a good idea. It is particularly important to take extra caution if you have a cut or a sore on your foot as these can serve as entry points for the virus. Unfortunately, plantar warts can be very persistent as it is possible to spread the virus to other parts of the same foot. In order to avoid this, it is important to get new warts treated as quickly as possible and to avoid picking at the warts.

Back behind the wheel Dr. Chris Singh If left untreated, warts can grow and spread into groups of warts called mosaic warts.These clusters of warts can become very painful. The good news is that home treatments of plantar warts are usually successful. The most commonly used remedy is salicylic acid, which is an over-thecounter medication.This medication works by slowly peeling off the infected skin over a period of time. Salicylic acid treatment can take up to several weeks to completely remove warts. Cryotherapy products such as Compound W Freeze Off are also effective in removing warts. If these home treatments are not successful, you will have to consult with your doctor to discuss other possible treatment options such as freezing, laser therapy or minor surgery. Doctors generally start with the least invasive and painful treatment and work their way up from there. Due to the fact that every individual’s immune system responds differently to warts, it may be necessary to try a few treatments before being successful. As you can see, plantar warts are more of a nuisance than a serious health condition. By following these simple prevention strategies you will be able to greatly reduce your chances of catching them. Keep them in mind next time you pull over at a truck stop for a shower. Until next month, drive safely. ■ – Dr. Chris Singh runs Trans Canada Chiropractic at 230 Truck Stop in Woodstock, Ont.

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MARKHAM, Ont. – CarriersEdge and Trans Canada Chiropractic have teamed up to produce an online health and wellness training module for professional drivers. The module will consist of previously-published articles, research and seminar materials produced by Trans Canada Chiropractic, focusing on practical approaches to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. “Our fleet customers have been asking for more tools to help their drivers get, and stay, healthy,” said Mark Murrell, president of CarriersEdge. “For more than seven years, Trans Canada Chiropractic has been focused on serving the medical needs of the trucking industry. They’re well-known for the quality and depth of their expertise, and we’re very excited to have that expertise available through our system.” More info is available at www.carriersedge.com or by contacting Murrell at 905-530-2430 or Dr. Christopher Singh at 519-421-2024. ■

TRUCK NEWS Page 31

November 2009

eye like a bright orange carrot does, parsnips pack a solid nutritional punch and are good for your health! They help prevent colon cancer, lower the risk of heart disease, stabilize blood sugar levels, and decrease the risk of stroke. You can find parsnips in the produce section of grocery and health food stores. Although they come in many different shapes and sizes, when picking one, look for small, firm, and well-shaped roots. The whiter ones tend to be the tenderest. Avoid limp, shriveled, or spotted ones and remember that very large parsnips are often hard and woody. When you get parsnips home, snip the greens from the tops, otherwise they will draw moisture and nutrients from the root itself. If you refrigerate them in a plastic bag, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll last up to two weeks. There are lots of excellent ways to eat parsnips. But before you begin to cook them, give them a good scrubbing. Some of their nutrients are water-soluble and can be lost quickly during cooking. So, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s better to cook parsnips unpeeled. Then, once theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re tender, scrape or peel their skin away. Parsnips also have a unique taste! Parsnips are subtle, finetasting vegetables, sometimes described as nutty, peppery, or sweet, with a smell thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a bit like mild celery. When left in the ground until after the first frost, parsnips become quite sweet because the cold ground causes their starches to turn into sugars. Parsnips add a gentle sweetness to stews, soups and other combinations of root vegetables. Bake, sautĂŠ, steam, whip, puree, or boil and mash parsnips like potatoes. Exchanging parsnips for carrots, sweet potatoes, or regular potatoes works well in most recipes. (I like to roast them along with the meat, onions and other vegetables for Sunday dinner). Be careful not to overcook them or theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll get mushy. For something a bit different, instead of oven fries made of sliced potatoes, try parsnip fries. Simply chop the parsnip into halfinch strips. (Remove the core). Then, place the strips on an oven sheet; apply a slight coating of olive oil and salt; and put the strips in a 425-degree oven until crispy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; around 15 minutes. For something really different, use parsnips in desserts. In fact, when the early settlers brought parsnips to North America, they were first used to produce sugar before sugar beets were used. (Now, the best quality Parma hams in Italy are still fed parsnips to sweeten the flavour of the meat). Parsnips taste wonderful caramelized. Cooked, then mashed, parsnips can even be used (like sweet potatoes) in pies. So this fall, root for your health. Add a few parsnips to your supper plate and lighten up your regular fall diet. â&#x2013; â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Karen Bowen is a professional health and nutrition consultant and she can be reached by e-mail at karen_bowen@yahoo.com.

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Page 32 TRUCK NEWS

Profile

The

LAST LOAD

CHANGING GEARS: Bill Waistell pauses for reflection as his trailer is loaded with furniture one last time. After 40 years in the furniture hauling business, Waistell’s ready to spend more time fishing and golfing. Photo by James Menzies

After a lifetime of hauling furniture from coast-to-coast, a professional driver pauses for reflection as he prepares to make his final delivery By James Menzies OSHAWA, Ont. – After 40 years of ‘humping furniture,’ as Bill Waistell refers to it, it’s time to park it for good. The owner/operator, who has spent the last 25 years of his career driving for Mackie Moving Systems, reaches into his pocket and pays his lumper one last time at the Mackie warehouse in Oshawa, Ont. He has just taken on his last load, which he’ll haul to Hamilton in the morning before heading to Prince George, B.C. for his final drop.After that, it’s back home to Shawnigan Lake, B.C. just outside Victoria. His truck’s already sold. Most of his goodbyes have been said. “It hasn’t hit me yet, but I know it will,” he says as he prepares for his final cross-country run.“I sometimes wake up at night thinking about it – Jeez, no more on-theroad, no more seeing all the guys I know and like and having a good

time. It’ll be different, but I think my wife will like it.” Waistell’s wife Vivian is resting at a nearby hotel – there’s no more living out of the truck for either of them. “When I’m travelling, it’s the truck all the time but when I get into town, it’s the hotel,” he says.“A lot of guys will stay at the truck stop, but I can’t stand it.” Waistell first got into the furniture hauling business at the age of 25, when he was dissatisfied with his job as a B.C. Ferries deckhand. “I had a lot of days off and one day my next door neighbour said ‘I work for a moving company, do you want to work on your days off?’ So I started doing that and I loved the physical labour,” Waistell recalls. It turned out to be a lasting labour of love. Waistell bought his first truck, a 1965 single-axle Ford cabover with a 250 Cummins and began

hauling household goods around Vancouver Island. “That was quite the ol’ beast, I tell you,” he says.“Colder than a whore’s heart in the winter time.” Waistell signed on with North American Van Lines and soon after, with North American agent Mackie Moving Systems. He took a short hiatus about 20 years ago to try hauling freight, but “three months later I quit freight and went right back into furniture again,” he recalls.“I couldn’t stand it.” Waistell figures he has owned about a dozen trucks during his career. One of his favourites was a ’65 Kenworth with a 250 Cummins and a four-and-four, two-stick transmission that kept him busy behind the wheel. “I just loved that truck,” he recalls with a chuckle.“You had 16 gears to choose from and you were always playing with them. In the mountains

it was nice because you always had a lower gear.” It was a far cry from his current ride – a 2004 Volvo VN780 complete with an automated transmission, twin bunks, refrigerator and a 19inch TV. “I’m spoiled now,” he says with a smile. Waistell has always taken pride in his equipment, and he had no problem finding a buyer for his current rig, which has only 650,000 kilometres on it. All told, he says he’s racked up about two million miles during his career and has delivered furniture from coast-to-coast in Canada, as well as into the US and as far north as Yellowknife. Most of his loads originate in B.C. and from there he’ll usually deliver to Mackie headquarters in Oshawa, or to a home in Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal. A delivery from Victoria to Ontario can earn him as much as $17,000 gross, which is one of the appeals of transporting household goods. “Furniture is good money compared to freight…if you want to get out and make some money, you can do it,” he says, adding a good run will consist of 30,000 lbs of furniture packed front to back, top to bottom. “Whenever you load them, you load them right to the roof and right to the back, otherwise you don’t make any money.” Exceeding legal weights isn’t a concern with furniture, he explains, since a 53-ft. trailer cubes out before it grosses out when hauling household goods. Furniture hauling is a different kind of trucking. Waistell makes just seven or eight trips per year and often spends two to three weeks waiting for a backhaul. When he’s stranded in Ontario, Mackie’s tries to keep him busy hauling general freight or car parts for other segments of its business. However, Waistell is often just as happy to catch up with old friends while waiting for a return load of furniture.The lucrative nature of furniture hauling means there’s less urgency to get back on the road. But like other forms of trucking, the furniture business is not without its challenges. “The (cost of) labour’s gone up,” Waistell says. Over the years, he’s established a network of helpers in virtually every Canadian city, but many of them now command $20 an hour “from the minute they sit down in that seat.” There’s also a growing contingent

TRUCK NEWS Page 33

November 2009

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of â&#x20AC;&#x153;independentsâ&#x20AC;? to contend with â&#x20AC;&#x201C; smaller movers with no van line affiliations, who Waistell says often undercut rates and promise unrealistic delivery schedules. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The discounts have gotten bigger in the moving industry,â&#x20AC;? he laments. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to cut all the independents up, because thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some good ones out there, but there are a lot of bad ones too. Some people never see their furniture again and if they do, they only get half of it or itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smashed and broken.â&#x20AC;? Waistell also has grave concerns about the safety of Canadian highways. While he says heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;watched them twin the Trans-Canada Highway across the prairiesâ&#x20AC;? over the years, current traffic volumes and the lack of professionalism on the roads today worry him. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It gets more dangerous out there every day,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the winter time, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see at least five wrecks between here and Vancouver.â&#x20AC;? Driving through the Rockies in winter is one of the things Waistell says he wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss, even though his wife prefers to accompany him on those scenic runs. He also wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss the physical labour. Just a few months ago he had to pick up a load in Kelowna in the 40-degree heat â&#x20AC;&#x201C; closer to 50 C inside the enclosed trailer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had enough of that,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve humped millions of pounds of furniture.â&#x20AC;? However, like any trucker he admits heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll miss the call of the open road, as well as visiting the many people heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s come to know during his travels. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I chum around with a lot of people and have gotten to know hundreds of people,â&#x20AC;? he recalls. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I get into town here and I know everybody. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m really going to miss the Mackies and all these guys here. Even the guy at the hotel; I told him I was leaving and he and his wife came to my room and brought me a bottle of scotch to say goodbye.â&#x20AC;? Ross Mackie, patriarch of the family-run Mackie Moving Systems, is still hopeful he can coax Waistell back to work once winter passes. But Waistell shakes his head. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think so,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made up my mind.As much as I like them, I just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to do it anymore. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a hard olâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; life sometimes, humping that furniture, I tell you.â&#x20AC;? Instead, Waistell plans to spend more time on the golf course or aboard his buddyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 18-ft. boat in pursuit of Vancouver Island salmon. But thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not to say heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never again slip behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer. In fact, he admits with a grin that he has already put out the word that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s available to deliver the odd load of freight or lumber locally on the island. â&#x2013;

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Fleet News

Canadian fleets top SmartWay fuel-savers LAS VEGAS, Nev. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Three Canadian carriers have been recognized by the EPA SmartWay program for significantly reducing their CO2 emissions. Thirty-seven organizations were recognized during the 2009 SmartWay Excellence Awards, including Bison Transport, Challenger Motor Freight and MacKinnon Transport. â&#x20AC;&#x153;EPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SmartWay partnership helps freight companies go the extra mile by saving fuel and money, while cutting air pollution,â&#x20AC;? said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office of Air and Radiation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Within our nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard-working freight sector, SmartWay Excellence Award winners have stepped up to help protect our health, climate and environment.â&#x20AC;? Bison earned SmartWayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s praise by modifying its idling policies, reducing its speed and reducing its emissions by taking advantage of intermodal opportunities. Bison invested in auxiliary power units (APUs) for 391 of its sleeper cabequipped trucks, slashing idling by over 650,000 hours, according to SmartWay. Bison shipped more than 5,000 loads intermodally in 2008 and also lowered its governed speed from 65 mph to 62. Bison also has an incentive program for drivers willing to reduce their speed to 59 mph, which has been embraced by 40 drivers. Bison estimates it improved its fleetwide fuel economy by 0.3 mpg since

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Bison wins inaugural Volvo safety award LAS VEGAS, Nev. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Bison Transport has won the inaugural Volvo Trucks Safety Award for fleets accumulating more than 10 million miles. The award was presented at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference and Exhibition. Winning the award for small fleets was Virginia-based Food City. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Food City and Bison SAFETY PAYS: Bison Transport Transport represent extraordi- president Don Streuber (left) collects the nary ongoing achievements in cash from Volvo exec Scott Kress in the safe operation of trucks,â&#x20AC;? said recognition of its safety practices. Scott Kress, Volvoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s senior vicepresident, sales and marketing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Both of these companies have taken the concept of safety and made it the foundation of their fleets. They have focused significant resources and talent on recruitment, training, maintenance and equipment.â&#x20AC;? Participating companies were judged on accident frequency using US DoT definitions of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;recordable accidentâ&#x20AC;? in addition to fleetsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; accident prevention programs. Bison boasts an accident rate of 0.19209 per million miles travelled, while operating 1,050 tractors and delivering 3,200 loads per week,Volvo reported. Bison provides drivers with a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;toolboxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that contains promises such as the selection of safe equipment, a safe working environment, in-depth training and accountability â&#x20AC;&#x153;so that we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t lose sight that safety is in fact a priority,â&#x20AC;? according to Bison president and CEO Don Streuber. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bison has an intense focus on safety,â&#x20AC;? said Streuber. Bison provides ongoing training for drivers using 15 different courses and four simulators. It also performs risk assessments on every driver and uses targeted training to improve drivers who are identified as high-risk. Each of the winning fleets received $25,000 from Volvo to put towards their safety programs. â&#x2013;

Challenger acquires Sandrock Specialized Carriers CAMBRIDGE, Ont. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Challenger Motor Freight has announced it has purchased certain assets of the special commodities business of Sandrock Specialized Carriers. Sandrock is an Ontario-based carrier that specializes on over-dimensional transportation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The addition of the Sandrock business is a significant moment for both our companies,â&#x20AC;? said Dan Einwechter, chairman and CEO of Challenger Motor Freight. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With the addition of their equipment and expertise, we look forward to expanding our special commodities division to provide Challengerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innovative transportation solutions to a wider range of customers as well as our combined existing client base. Having Mark Sandrock and his team join our new division, Sandrock Specialized Transport,

will enhance service offers to existing Challenger accounts as well as provide Sandrockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customers with much broader service offerings from a single source, a true win-win situation.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;With the challenges in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trucking industry, it is often necessary and sometimes inevitable to seek out a larger carrier to provide security and diversity of service, and such is the case for Sandrock,â&#x20AC;? added Mark Sandrock, president of Sandrock Specialized Carriers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I take huge pride that I can join a truly great carrier of Challengerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s calibre and build a strong team for the future of both my current and potential customers.â&#x20AC;? Sandrock was founded in 1999 and has focused on transporting heavy equipment and over-dimensional freight. â&#x2013;

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TRUCK NEWS Page 35

November 2009

ATA Convention

Good news, please Although not exactly a poke in the eye, economic overview creates little excitement for trucking industry By Lou Smyrlis LAS VEGAS, Nev. – US motor carriers have seen their loads drop by about 20%, their revenue-per-mile or per-tonne fall off dramatically and their total revenues shrink by 30% on average so far in 2009. In other words, the industry has taken it on the chin. So the fleet executives who converged at the posh Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Resort for the ATA’s annual conference were hoping to hear some good news from the much anticipated All Eyes on the Economy panel session. Yet all they got from the three experts on the economy and the industry was an assurance that the worst was behind them. The worst recession to hit the US in the post-war era likely ended in the third quarter but unlike past recessions, it will not be followed by a strong and quick recovery. Panel moderator Stuart Varney from Fox News warned fleet executives that Sara Johnson and Charles Clowdis Jr. of IHS Global Insight and the ATA’s Bob Costello would not sugarcoat anything, and they certainly did not. Johnson, managing director of global micro-economics, said any projections of a recovery in 2010 with 3-4% GDP growth are too rosy, even though past recessions have been followed by even stronger growth. She figures the final quarter of this year will see GDP growth around 3% as will the first half of 2010 but the second half growth will slip to just 1.5%. In total she projects the US economy, Canada’s largest market which absorbs more than 70% of our exports, to grow just 2% in 2010. “We see some speed bumps in the road ahead,” she said, explaining that the US consumer, which accounts for 70% of spending, is still under considerable financial stress. American households have lost $14 trillion in net worth, so they’re not likely to soon return to their pre-recession free-spending ways. Johnson said just as the Great Depression left its mark on a generation of people, so too will the worst recession of the post-war era change the spending habits of today’s consumers. “People are now a lot more conservative in their spending.They are still deep in the hole,” she said, adding that by 2005 US consumers were setting aside just 1% of their annual income, as they counted on the appreciating value of their homes to provide their retirement money. The collapse of the housing market changed all that in a hurry and now the savings rate is up to 3% of income and she expects that to climb to 6%. So the US consumer will be saving more and spending less and will also be checked by reduced access to credit. She expects consumer spending to grow by just 2% annu-

ally rather than 4-5%. Also by the end of 2010 some of the boost to the economy gained from the Obama administration’s monster stimulus package will start to wear off and business will again slow down. “There is a 20% chance we will indeed fall back into recession next year,” Johnson said. Historically the trucking industry has been a leading indicator of both economic slowdown and economic recovery. But it will not be leading the US economic recovery this time, held back by still large volumes of inventory in shipping circles that needs to be worked off before there’s any need for trucks to transport new products into stores, plants and warehouses. “We have seen an inventory cycle like never before,” ATA’s chief economist Bob Costello said. “By mid-2008 there was an unprecedented increase in the inventory-tosales ratio.” Companies did move aggressively to bring inventory in line with sales but sales dropped faster and deeper than expected.

“Freight volumes got hit much, much harder than the overall economy but I am happy to say it has hit bottom. Volumes are still at very, very low levels and it will be slow and choppy ahead,” Costello said. Year to date, tank loads are down about 20%, dry van loads down about 18%, reefer loads down about 2% (we still need to eat, drink and take medications during recessions) and flatbed has been hit the hardest with about a 25% decline in loads. “And I still don’t know if we can call this bottom for the flatbed sector,” Costello warned. Fleet capacity is down 10% across the board as carriers operate one of the oldest fleets in recent memory and employment in the for-hire sector is at its lowest level since 1995. Costello figured it would be at least another six months before trucking returned to any degree of normalcy and more likely it will take 12 months. Nor did Costello have good news for truck makers, even though the fact the industry has experienced one of its largest capacity reductions ever would make it seem on the surface as if truck plants will soon be getting much busier. “I think you are lagging behind the fleets. Fleets don’t have plans to buy any time soon,” Costello said. Aside from weak demand for their services, fleets remain reluctant to buy because the age of their vehicles is deceptive. The average miles travelled by truck fell 22.6% in 2009

Obama on wrong track with ATA over road work LAS VEGAS, Nev. – For Canadian motor carriers frustrated with Ottawa’s historically slow response to dealing with our nation’s infrastructure needs or its push towards a more intrusive regulatory approach, rest assured.You are in good company. They’re just as frustrated south of border, even with a new administration in place. The Obama administration’s honeymoon with the leaders of the American Trucking Associations (dubious at best considering the heavy Republican leanings of the membership shown in past conventions) is clearly over and infrastructure spending is a particularly sore point. ATA president and CEO Bill Graves, a former two-term Republican senator in Kansas, came out swinging in his opening address to the annual conference, held this year at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. Graves said he is frustrated that Congress is working on things that it “really doesn’t need to at the moment and doesn’t work on things it really needs to.” Graves was referring specifically to what he perceived to be a lack of action and funding for infrastructure by the Obama administration, pointing out that the administration recognizes and President Obama even acknowledged during his presidential campaign that America’s long-term competitiveness depends on the quality of its roads and bridges. “It’s a point we enthusiastically agree on. But yet when it comes to taking action, both the White House and the Democratic leadership use all their energy and time on health care reform and climate change,” Graves said. “…I think it’s politically safer/easier to have grand discussions on subjects that are so complex and confusing, and provide legislators with a great degree of political cover by obfuscating the impacts the policies will have on Americans, while avoiding a straightforward discussion about the need to raise the national fuel tax.” Graves said raising the national fuel tax is the only way to create the funding necessary to deal with his nation’s “staggering” infrastructure needs. He pointed to a recent report from the American Society of Civil Engineers that concluded that an estimated $930 billion needs to be spent over the next five years to fix the highway infrastructure. Yet of that, only an estimated $350 billion will be spent, a shortfall of $550 billion (when you take into account the $29 billion included in the 09 economic stimulus package). “The money included in the stimulus package was a start. But I take issue with labeling it a ‘record investment designed to lay the foundation for the nation’s economic future’, which were the words used to announce it, when, in fact, it fell far short of the money we needed and was such a disappointingly small fraction of the total stimulus package.” Graves said that with all the money spent on the stimulus package, coupled with fighting wars on multiple fronts along with a serious decline in both federal and state governments there is simply no more general fund money available for infrastructure investment without raising taxes. But it’s a very tough fight for the industry to win and warned against expectations that something will happen soon. ■

compared to the previous year. Based on a five-year replacement cycle, that basically saved a year of driving. (Incidentally, it’s also interesting where many of the used trucks are going of late. At the start of the decade very few used trucks were finding a home outside the US. By last year, however, about 20,000 used Class 8 trucks found new homes in Russia and Nigeria. This year more than half of used truck exports from the US went to Africa). Several issues will combine to make navigating through the next few years choppy. Bankruptcies in the industry are not close to where they should be given the economic pressures, Costello said, surmising that many lenders are reluctant to move on companies as long as their used truck assets remain low. Once the used truck market picks up, however, that will change. “Don’t be surprised if more carrier failures start to happen as demand picks up,” Costello said. One of the more interesting issues is the focus on reduced packaging. Supply chain executives, faced with high fuel costs and environmental concerns, are on a drive to reduce packaging, explained Clowdis Jr., managing director, North America for global commerce and transport. And they are meeting with some success which has distinct repercussions for trucking. Clowdis Jr. gave an example of one large telecommunications company which by redesigning the packaging for one of its products was able to get 300 of them on a pallet compared to just 120 under the previous packaging design. Hewlett Packard’s packaging redesign for one of its computers is helping it reduce weight by 8% and cube by 25%. The company is able to now move in three trailers what used to take four trailers. Wal-Mart has a much publicized plan to reduce packaging and is leaning on its suppliers to follow suit. Clowdis Jr. figured that 8% savings on weight and 25% savings on cube will become an industry norm, placing even greater pressure on capacity as fewer trailers are required to move the economy’s goods. The panelists did deliver good news about fuel pricing, which just last year was the top concern for motor carrier executives. Johnson said the global market for petroleum is currently over-supplied and expects pricing for a barrel of crude to stay around the $70 mark and then fall to $62 by March as the economy gets more sluggish. She added that if the impact of speculators was removed and only supply and demand issues drove crude pricing, the price would range between $50 and $70. More good news: there’s little chance of inflation despite the $1.56 trillion deficit the US has racked up and will likely not be able to take below a trillion for another two years. Johnson said excess capacity, wage gains that are down to 1% and significant productivity gains will protect against inflation. “But clearly we will have to pay for the deficit,” she said, explaining the heavy borrowing by government will crowd out private investors. ■

November 2009

Page 36 TRUCK NEWS

Profile

Prime chuck Alberta trucker’s quest for horsepower takes several forms By Jim Bray GRANDE PRAIRIE,Alta. – Mitch Sutherland knows all about horsepower. Sutherland, the 31-year-old owner of Grande Prairie, Alberta’s, Hitch’em Oilfield Hauling company, can “torque” about horsepower all day – not only because he’s familiar with it from his fleet, but also because he knows it intimately from his summer sideline: he’s a champion chuckwagon racer. The man comes by both facets of his “horse sense” honestly, having grown up in a family with a long history of driving and of racing. Sired in Grande Prairie, Sutherland spent four and a half years studying “a little bit of this and a little but of that” at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, but quit half a year before getting his degree from the Faculty of Arts. “I could tell that it wasn’t the direction I wanted to go,” he says. The experience in the halls of academe didn’t propel him directly toward becoming the latest racing and trucking Sutherland, though; for a while he trod a decidedly different path where neither trucks nor horses were part of his stable of interests. Instead, he was into pigs – as in pigskins. “I played football through high school and a year of junior,” Sutherland remembers, playing linebacker first and later, when he got to college, moving up to defensive end. He was good enough to attract the attention of the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes, who drafted him. The CFL didn’t work out for him, though. “It was a little political at that level,” he says, admitting that the expe-

rience left a sour taste in his mouth. “But that’s the way she goes.” He came back home to Alberta and worked construction for a year, “fixing camp shacks and stuff like that,” and then got into trucking with his dad Kirk, who’s had trucks as long as Mitch can remember.“He was hauling mud when he was 14, 15 years old,” the younger Sutherland remembers. Mitch drove for his dad’s company for a couple of years, then made a deal that resulted in him becoming co-owner. “I could have either had the truck I was driving,” he says, “or half of all the company’s trucks – which was three at the time.” After opting for the latter arrangement, they spent the next decade building the company to a point where they had 11 trucks in service, though they downsized to four recently and plan to purchase one more to run through the winter “and see how things pan out.” Hitch’em does oil service work such as hauling rental equipment, pipe and the odd load of mud. Sutherland says they used to get into more things, like end dump work, “but we got rid of those trucks because there are just too many out there. There’s no money in it anymore.” His busy season is November to April, and he stays mainly around the Peace country, ranging from Hinton in the south to Tumbler Ridge in the west and as far east as Slave Lake. He doesn’t drive much during the summer, which suits him just fine – it frees him up to pursue racing. It seemed inevitable that Sutherland would wear a chuckwagon racing hat eventually: his dad has

been racing them since before Mitch was born. “I travelled with him until I was 17 or 18,” he says, “then when I started into the football thing that took over my summers so I wasn’t around it for about five years.” When the final gun sounded on his football career, however, he started accompanying his dad to the races again and, when Kirk eventually went south to compete in World Professional Chuckwagon Association events, Mitch took up the Western Chuckwagon Association (WCA) seat his dad was vacating. “I did that for a couple of years then took a year off before getting back into it last year,” he says. His timing couldn’t have been better: he won the WCA title last year and again in 2009. WCA events let him stick close to home. Most races are within an hour’s drive of his base, the farthest being three hours away, in Manning. That suits him for now and lets him keep riding herd on the trucking company which, while he aspires to following his father Kirk, uncle Kelly and cousin Mark into the WPCA, keeps him plenty busy for now. “Racing locally, you’re home for three or four days a week so you still have time to work the trucks if you have to,” he says.“With the other circuit, you’re gone for two months solid. I do want to get there but it’s going to be a bit of a challenge managing the company from the road. But I think it can be done if you have the right personnel back at home looking after stuff for you.” Right now he and his wife, Heather, run the business and Kirk “helps out here and there.” Mitch does the dispatching and managing, which keeps him hopping. “I’ve got my plate full and now with all the safety stuff the oil companies are starting to require to show you’re compliant with the regulations, it’s more or less a full-time job.” And while that makes things a little more challenging for him, “It’s not a bad thing; it’s just time-consuming.”

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NO SPEED LIMITERS: Mitch Sutherland’s trucking business helps fund another form of horsepower – chuckwagon racing.

Being as hands-on as he can be – and being around enough to be hands-on – has other benefits, too.“I have more trucks than I do drivers so sometimes I end up in the truck,” he says.“I don’t mind it and it actually seems that the more you’re out there, the more work you get out of it because you’re out talking to the (customer) and you’re not just a driver collecting a paycheque.” Business has been quiet since April, but he’s optimistic for the winter and hopes it’ll be decent like last winter was.For the near term though, “It’s basically survival, keeping the wheels turning and the wolves away from the door. The recession is turning around, but the price of oil and gas still has to come back up.Another year or two and that’ll be back – hopefully at that point I can afford to have a manager.” He admits that his business plans also depend on how much fun he’s having with chuckwagon racing. And fun it is. “It’s been getting better and better every year,” he says. “We’re getting more drivers and more money. It seems like a natural thing for me, I’ve been around it so much and I love horses to begin with.” He admits there isn’t a lot of money in the sport, at least at the level he occupies currently,“But I can break even and I’m having a whole bunch of fun. It’s just a love for the sport – it’s a lot of fun or I wouldn’t be doing it because it’s way too much work.” For aspiring chuckwagon racers, Sutherland has this advice: “Ambition goes a long way, especially up in our association. If you’ve got the drive for it, you can make it happen.You have to go out and get your sponsor, and if you can find someone who’ll help you out for the first year, that’s a big help.” He says a chuckwagon racing newbie can get away with spending only about $10,000 dollars on horses and still be competitive for a year or so, which he says is a good way to get one’s hooves wet. Perhaps self deprecatingly, Sutherland says success in the sport of chuckwagon racing is “Probably 90% the horses.” He admits the driver does make a difference, and that it probably takes about 10 years to become a really good driver, but “after that it’s horsepower.” It’s the thrill of competition that keeps it exciting, though. “Our club is getting more competitive every year,” Sutherland says. “The top three guys are within a second of each other.” In contrast, Sutherland says that at the higher level, such as the WPCA, the top 20 only have a second between them. “If you hit a barrel or something, you’re at the bottom.” Right now, however, with the 2009 championship under his belt, Mitch Sutherland is at the top. ■

TRUCK NEWS Page 37

November 2009

Management

Driving for Profit seminar offers tips on investing in your drivers By James Menzies HAMILTON, Ont. – The worst recession the Canadian trucking industry has faced in decades may soon be behind us, but it has claimed its share of victims. Many owner/operators have left the industry – voluntarily or otherwise – and the competition for drivers will be fierce as freight volumes pick back up, predicts Ray Haight, past chair of the Truckload Carriers Association and executive director of MacKinnon Transport. “As we do come out of this recession, think of what’s going to happen when we’re looking for drivers,” he said during a recent Driving for Profit seminar, hosted by KRTS Transportation Specialists and NAL Insurance. “It’s going to get goofy…there’s going to be blood in the streets.” To that end, it’s critical to once again focus on attracting and retaining quality drivers, Haight suggested before sharing some tips that have been successfully employed by MacKinnon Transport, recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies. One thing the best-run companies have in common is their willingness to invest in their people, Haight pointed out. However in the trucking industry, ongoing driver training is often overlooked. “When you think about drivers and how much we really invest in them, we’re not using our heads,” he charged.“We’re not talking huge investments here, but the ROI on those investments is massive.” He noted there’s a 30% fuel economy gap between the best and worst performing drivers in any given fleet, yet companies rarely provide training on progressive shifting and other tricks to maximize fuel economy. The same can be said for business training for owner/operators, he added. “We know the majority of owner/operators out there are not businesspeople,” he said. “They are individuals who bought a truck – they’re not good businesspeople. They want to own that asset and they want it in the driveway, they want to polish it and go to truck shows but only 20% of these guys ever worry about looking at a financial statement.” Haight said it’s been proven that owner/operators who take the time to review and understand a monthly profit-and-loss (P&L) statement typically earn between five and 12 cents per mile more than those who do not. “At 120,000 miles per year, that’s $15,000 to $20,000 and all they’re doing is paying attention to their business,” he said. Many carriers fail to offer training opportunities because they assume drivers and O/Os are uninterested. However, he recalled some success stories from MacKinnon that proved otherwise. In one case, the company placed desktop comput-

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ers in a common area with training programs available on topics such as customer service and safety. “We had 30% of our drivers go in on their own and start taking these courses,” he recalled. “They wanted the knowledge, there’s no doubt about it.” Likewise, when fuel began to spike and MacKinnon required its 100 company drivers to undergo additional training on fuel economy and defensive driving, only one driver resisted. “We had one complaint out of 100, and most of these guys were 20-year veterans,” he said. “They loved it. These guys were sponges; they wanted to learn more about the industry and to see changes. They want to do it better and they want to do it smarter.” To ensure drivers stick around once freight volumes pick back up and attractive signing bonuses once again become the norm, Haight said it’s important to identify why drivers are leaving your company in the first place. He said MacKinnon measured driver turnover 30 different ways to identify trends. Some of the reasons drivers are leaving may be easy to fix, such as working with a shipper to make it more driver-friendly. MacKinnon would poll its drivers on the best and worst shippers to deliver to and it rewarded the most driver-friendly customers with a plaque and visited the worst performers to see how things such as wait times could be improved. Haight also said driver turnover can be reduced by hiring better drivers in the first place. He suggested identifying your company’s “blue-chippers” and then look for commonalities when evaluating prospective new hires. Whatever you do, don’t relax hiring criteria when freight rebounds, warned Haight, speaking from experience. “I did that once,” he admitted. “Don’t break your rules when freight comes back and you want another 100 trucks. We started hitting stuff, accidents crept up. We’d rather not be able to give the shipper everything they want than bend our hiring practices.” ■ – Drivers will soon once again be in demand – just don’t call it a driver shortage. For Ray’s thoughts on the so-called driver shortage, see his blog on Trucknews.com.

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Page 38 TRUCK NEWS

OEM/Dealer News

Freightliner unveils severe-duty Coronado SD vocational truck PORTLAND, Ore. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Freightliner has introduced a new severe-service version of its Coronado truck. The Coronado Severe Duty (SD) is aimed at the toughest vocational applications, the company announced when unveiling the new model at the International Construction and Utility Equipment Exhibition. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The flagship vocational product for Freightliner Trucks, the Coronado SD encompasses Freightlinerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most advanced technological innovations, resulting in a versatile product that is built to perform and work,â&#x20AC;? said Richard Shearing, director of product strategy for Freightliner Trucks. The Coronado SD is available in set-back and set-forward axle configurations. Features include a durable fiberglass hood and fenders made of impact-absorbing material to minimize the risk of damage and cracking. A one-piece stainless steel grille surround is accented with chrome steel horizontal bars. New headlights feature single, high-tech reflectors for improved lighting. The new truck also has new doors that the truck maker says are built lighter yet sturdier, to minimize mirror vibration. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We created a truck strong enough to tackle the most extreme elements,â&#x20AC;? said Shearing.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everything about the Coronado SD was carefully developed and built to keep it running and earning revenue in any environment.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;We understand that every minute counts, so we developed the Coronado SD to keep customers out of the shop and on the job longer,â&#x20AC;? added Melissa Clausen, director of product marketing for Freightliner Trucks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our new design elements enable drivers to easily make adjustments on their own, keeping repair costs and downtime to a minimum.â&#x20AC;? The Coronado SD retains the Coronadoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s distinctive chrome steel intakes on either side of the hood, however the intakes are aerodynamically-designed, the company points out. The Coronado SD also features a new single air filter with improved filtration capabilities. An optional pre-cleaner creates a vortex effect to spin dust and heavy water particles out of the air and away from the engine. User-friendly features include a 90-degree hood tilt for easy access to engine components and easilyreplaceable headlight bulbs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We focused on and have delivered what is needed to get the job done â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a resilient and sturdy truck that is easily maintained out of the shop,â&#x20AC;? said Clausen. Inside the cab, the Coronado

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SD boasts a new dash design with well-lit gauges and controls and switches strategically placed within easy reach of the driver, Freightliner claims. It also reduced the number of joints in the dash to cut down on squeaks and rattles.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vocational applications are often loud, dirty and distracting at job sites, so we created a quiet interior for drivers,â&#x20AC;? said Shearing. The new Coronado SD will be available with Detroit Diesel DD13, DD15 and DD16 engines as well as the Cummins ISX. â&#x2013;

Pilotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first fuel island DEF pump now in service KNOXVILLE, Tenn. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The first of Pilot Travel Centersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fuel island diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) pumps is now in service. The company has begun rolling out its DEF infrastructure in anticipation of the fueling needs of trucks using selective catalyic reduction (SCR) exhaust aftertreatment to comply with EPA2010 emissions standards. The first such DEF fuel island pump to be put into service is located at a Pilot in Brooks, Ore. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The installation and operation of the first DEF pump marks a major milestone for Pilot and the commercial vehicle industry,â&#x20AC;? said Mark Hazelwood, executive vice-

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TRUCK NEWS Page 39

November 2009

Class 8 orders continue slow climb NASHVILLE, Ind. – North American Class 8 net orders were up for the fourth consecutive month in September, according to preliminary figures from industry forecaster FTR Associates. The North American OEMs totaled 10,817 units in orders in September, the report says, which marks the fourth consecutive month-over-month gain. The total includes orders for the US, Canada and Mexico as well as exports. Year-to-date orders are now 5.2% better than last year, accord-

ing to FTR, marking the first yearover-year improvement since June 2008. “FTR still believes that any increases we are seeing now are partially driven by abnormal industry activity ahead of the 2010 EPA emissions mandate,” noted FTR president Eric Starks.“The data we track does not support any significant purchasing activity driven by increased freight demand any time soon. We continue to advise our clients to expect a continued soft recovery at least through 2010.” ■

Deserving driver to win a second chance KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It’s an American program for American drivers, but it’s nonetheless a noble award that will change somebody’s life for the better. Arrow Truck Sales has once again launched its Back on the Road program, which will help a downtrodden truck driver get back on his or her feet and back behind the wheel of their own rig. The award, now in its third year, looks to award a trucker who “consistently and unselfishly” helps others in need or otherwise supports the trucking industry. It has a celebrity spokesperson, country music star Aaron Tippin and a strong partner in Volvo Trucks. Arrow is now soliciting stories about American truckers who may have lost their truck (and livelihood) through unfortunate circumstances beyond their control, and are deserving of a second chance. The winning nominee will re-

ceive a 2007 Volvo VNL670 from Volvo, a one-year work agreement with Heartland Express and an assortment of other prizes. “Over the past two years, we’ve received a number of heart-warming stories of truckers helping others in need. So, we felt we should recognize these individuals, and their acts of kindness and consideration, as part of this year’s campaign,” said Carl Heikel, CEO of Arrow Truck Sales. “We believe the Back on the Road campaign has not only had a positive influence on those we’ve selected as winners, but on the trucking industry as a whole.” So if you’ve got an American buddy who’s down on their luck and may be considered for the award, you can nominated them at www.BackOnTheRoad2010.com. The deadline is Dec. 6 and the award will be presented at the MidAmerica Trucking Show in Louisville next March. ■

SECOND LOCATION: Quick Truck Lube hosted the grand opening of its second location on Oct. 5, with a barbecue for customers and suppliers. On-hand to help Quick Truck Lube celebrate its expansion were companies such as: Shell Canada; Mobil; Transit (representing Chevron); Castrol; Mack; Fleetguard; Alemite; Applied Lubricants (representing Graco); Cummins Eastern Canada; and Bertie Tire. Mike Gurmmett from Bertie Tire cut the ceremonial ribbon to make the grand opening official. Quick Truck Lube officials said the new location at 1405 Commerce Parkway in Fort Erie, Ont. is strategically located for easy access for truckers and proximity to the US border. “With such a convenient location for trucks to stop at, it’s hard to imagine that people would want to stop anywhere else,” said company owner, Gurjinder Johal. For more information, visit www.quicktrucklube.com or call the new location at 905-992-0660. ■

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Canadians among top Bendix distributors ELYRIA, Ohio – Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems has awarded its top distributors with platinum designation. A total of 37 companies have earned the highest ranking in Bendix’s Premier Distribution Program, including seven Canadian distributors. This year’s Canadian platinum distributors are: • Buy-Rite Truck Parts – Mississauga, Ont; • Fort Garry Industries – Winnipeg, Man.; Vehicle • Harman Heavy Specialists – Kitchener, Ont.; • Macpek – Ste-Foy, Que. ; • Malmberg Truck Trailer Equipment – Ottawa, Ont.; • Parts For Trucks – Dartmouth, N.S.; and • Ressorts Maska – St. Hyacinthe, Que. To achieve platinum status, distributors must place in the top 10% of

the comprehensive Bendix independent aftermarket distributor network, which covers the US and Canada. Distributor performance is evaluated in six business performance areas and each distributor’s score places them in one of four categories: bronze, silver, gold, or platinum. The highest-scoring distributors are rewarded on a sliding scale with enhanced support from Bendix, the company said. “We’re proud to honour, for the third consecutive year, our select distributors that continue to demonstrate outstanding achievement in sales, while demonstrating the qualities a leading distributor should embody,” said Robert Johnson, Bendix’s vice-president for aftermarket sales and marketing. “The hard work of these fine distributors has enabled Bendix to continue in its drive to be an even better supplier.” ■

Blower-Tech Solutions now distributing Amsoil products BRAMPTON, Ont. – Blower-Tech Solutions has announced it is now a distributor of the Amsoil family of products. Blower-Tech Solutions sells, services and distributes positive displacement blowers and blower packages to a wide variety of industries, according to the company.Amsoil produces a range of lubricants, including motor oil as well as everything from spark plugs to garden products. For more info, contact Josko Kovic at 905-793-7771, 800-387-2809 or by e-mail at josko@blowertechsolutions.com. ■

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November 2009

Page 40 TRUCK NEWS

OEM/Dealer News

Yokohama inks major deal with NationaLease LANGLEY, B.C. – Yokohama has inked a deal with NationaLease to meet the leasing company’s commercial tire needs. Under the deal, Yokohama and its dealer network will provide tires and tire service to NationaLease’s customer fleet, the companies announced. NationaLease has more than 700 full-service locations in Canada and the US and more than 150,000 trucks, tractors and trailers. The deal covers the entire Canadian fleet as well as the US fleet when running in Canada. “This agreement builds on Yokohama Canada’s commitment to the country’s commercial fleet operators,” says Eric Dedoyard, national sales manager. “With a strong dealer network, new products like the next-generation tires from the Z.environment series and the blessing of key products by the US SmartWay environmental management program, our customers know we stand behind them.” ■

Detroit Diesel files for EPA certification PORTLAND, Ore. – Having racked up more than 25 million miles of testing for its BlueTec selective catalytic reduction (SCR) emissions control system, Detroit Diesel has now submitted applications to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for formal approval. The DD13 and DD15 engines have been submitted for EPA certification already, with the DD16 to follow next month, according to the company. “The submission of our 2010 certification applications, based on successful completion of our emissions and OBD certification testing, is a key program milestone for us. We have millions of test miles under our belt, including ‘real world’ freight hauling experience in customer trucks as well as our own testing in extreme

ambient conditions and diverse operating conditions. We are pleased with test results confirming that our Detroit Diesel engines with BlueTec consistently meet the 2010 emissions standards,” said Rakesh Aneja, 2010 program manager, Detroit Diesel. “In addition to being good for the environment, BlueTec allows the performance of the engine to be optimized, thereby meeting customers’ need for fuel efficiency, drivability, reliability, simplicity, and convenience. “We are satisfied with the readiness of our engine and aftertreatment system for production launch – in fact, pre-production of our 2010 trucks and engines is already underway. We remain excited at the prospect of offering a paradigm-changing product to our customers.” ■

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Are August Class 8 sales sign of recovery or just a mirage? By Lou Smyrlis LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Class 8 truck manufacturers, battered like never before by the worst global economic malaise since the Great Depression, just may be starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of tunnel, according to Andreas Renschler, head of Daimler Trucks. Then again, it may be a mirage. Here’s what’s going on that has Renschler being very cautiously optimistic. August showed an uptick according to worldwide sales figures for his company that he presented in conjunction with the annual American Trucking Associations conference in Las Vegas. Specifically, Daimler truck sales in the NAFTA region showed a 9% increase versus July. Sales were also relatively strong in the European Union and in Brazil August proved to be the best sales month of 2009 so far. In Asia August was the second best month of the year. Welcomed news in a year where the truck market imploded worldwide but for North America at least it may be a mirage. The upturn in Class 8 sales may simply be reflective of the weak pre-buy before the 2010 engine emissions deadline. Renschler acknowledged that if that’s the case, the final quarter of the year could prove very slow. Both Renschler and Martin Daum, the new president and CEO of Daimler’s operation in North America, believe the North American market will improve in 2010 but it won’t be much to get excited about. They are basically banking on a 10% improvement in sales over the horrible year that was 2009. “We see very, very moderate growth, based on a U-shaped economic recovery that will climb slowly. It will certainly not be V-shaped. If I had three wishes, that would be one of them but we are not living in a fairy tale,” Daum said. The past year has certainly proven a nightmare ending to the fairy tale growth in Class 8 sales shown during the decade.

As Renschler pointed out this is the first time all regions his company is involved in have experienced sizeable drops at the same time. And those drops are significant. So far sales in North America for Daimler products are down 45% compared to 2008, which was not a particularly strong year in itself. In Europe sales are down 46%, in Asia 51%. Overall, Daimler Trucks sales worldwide are down 48%. “The current market situation is not a walk in the park even for us, the market leader,” Renschler acknowledged in the understatement of the month. “The markets will not return to previous sales levels in the near future and there is a lot of pressure on pricing. But we have no intention to enter the discount race and we are flexible enough to last this out…Cash flow is the name of this game and we are still in a positive position.” Daimler has taken decisive steps to manage the situation. For example, manpower levels in the NAFTA region were almost halved between December 2006 and June of this year. In fact, in August they were able to slightly add to their workforce. Also in April, everyone from the president on down took a 10% pay cut. Renschler believes growth in the near future will come from the emerging markets and Daimler is positioning itself to be a bigger player in these areas. Daimler is in a strong position in Brazil, having been there for 55 years, but is looking at partnerships in other countries. Daimler is cooperating with the heavy-duty market leader in Russia to enter the local volume market and recently announced a common project between Kamaz, MFTBC and JV for production and sales of Fuso trucks in Russia. Daimler is also planning to enter the volume truck segment in India, starting in the construction sector. It’s also looking to make moves in the Chinese marketplace, Daum said. ■

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November 2009

Industry

CTHRC guides aid fleets of all sizes Just like the lyrics in that old blues song say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been down so long the bottom seems like up.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; This industry is enduring what some have described as the worst economic struggle in memory, and arguing that point is simply an exercise in semantics. But there are opportunities to see some light, some encouraging signs with behind the scenes developments that will pay dividends to fleet operators â&#x20AC;&#x201C; private or forhire. Some examples were announced recently by the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council (CTHRC), an organization to which I have made many references in this column. The references are well deserved because they do such good work on behalf of the trucking industry and their products are practical, and helpful. In the interests of full disclosure I will point out that I and some of my colleagues from the PMTC are directors of CTHRC, as are representatives of the for-hire carrier sector and other important industry participants. But, having clarified that, I would also make it clear that I certainly do not need to shill for CTHRC products â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they are excellent and need no selling from me. In September, CTHRC announced the release of two such products that carriers will find invaluable. The first is the latest Volume II of the Guide to Human Resources modules, which will support Canadian fleets in the hiring of im-

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migrant and temporary foreign workers. If, somehow you are unaware of the initial Volume I of the guide, let me tell you that it is an extremely useful reference tool with three sections: Recruitment, Retention, and Understanding Turnover. The section on recruitment contains practical examples and advice on screening applicants, preparing job descriptions, assessing applicants, reference checks and orientation planning for new hires. The retention module contains a how-to on mentoring, communication, resolving employee concerns, designing a compensation package, recognition programs, progressive discipline and exit interviews. And the section on understanding turnover describes how it can be measured, the root causes, the inherent costs, and how to plan for turnover. This really is a guide that belongs on every fleet manager and personnel managerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desk. Notice I did not say bookshelf â&#x20AC;&#x201C; because this guide will be used constantly. The newest modules will make another useful addition to the guide.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Building on areas in which the industry has expressed its interest, we now have the next round of information and tips, which tackle the subject of hiring and managing a multicultural workforce. The two new modules in the guide provide tools and templates for the recruitment, cultural awareness, orientation, and integration of foreigntrained truck drivers,â&#x20AC;? says Linda Gauthier, executive director of the CTHRC. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Examples are provided by using a fictional trucking company with real-world experiences.â&#x20AC;? Gauthier went on to say that â&#x20AC;&#x153;except for a few large fleets, the trucking industry has had little experience in dealing with a multicultural society, and given the demand for workers, it is a certainty that other sectors will be looking at how they can attract workers from this pool. Trucking needs to make itself an attractive alternative, and having guidelines in place to help employers is a very good first step.â&#x20AC;? And on the heels of that announcement, CTHRC had a second release in September, that of a new program for the development of coaches, mentors, and assessors. These three new professional development programs are for those who coach, mentor and assess Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s truck drivers. The content of each program developed by the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council has been customized to reflect the unique roles, which can involve tasks such as coaching newly

trained drivers or assessing job candidates. Each module covers a variety of topics. For example the Coach Program deals with issues such as preparing trainees for the trucking lifestyle, reinforcing policies, procedures, and regulations, and reinforcing over-the-road skills. The Mentor section will help proteges develop problem-solving skills, while assessing their risks and offering encouragement and the Assessor Program includes a how-to for pre-employment screening, skills assessments, and road tests. These latest releases are but a few of the practical offerings from the CTHRC, and for a complete listing I would encourage a visit to www.cthrc.com, or place a call to any of the helpful staff at the office 613-244-4800. CTHRC is supported by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, and a broad and inclusive section of the trucking industry. It is the go-to centre for information, industry studies and reports, training and certification programs, and of course, valuable tools such as Your Guide To Human Resources. As such the CTHRC deserves the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s support and PMTC is proud to play a contributing role. â&#x2013; â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Private Motor Truck Council is the only national association dedicated to the private trucking community. Your comments or questions can be addressed to trucks@pmtc.ca.

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November 2009

Page 42 TRUCK NEWS

Safety

The cold winds are coming, but is your fleet ready? As the leaves change their colours and temperatures begin to drop, experienced truck drivers begin to shift their thoughts to the most challenging season of all. Yes, it will not be long before today’s dry pavement is covered in snow and ice. While the realities of winter are impossible to escape, there are steps that fleets and drivers can take to address the threats that accompany the onset of colder weather. Have your equipment thoroughly checked and prepared for winter – this includes tire tread, the braking system, batteries, and coolant strength, among others. There should be little surprise that slicker surfaces can have a dramatic impact on a vehicle’s handling characteristics; we must be ready for quickly changing conditions.A tractor-trailer that is travelling 100 km/h may stop within ap-

Ask the Expert Robert Spencer proximately 600 feet on a dry road, but the distance can be double that amount when travelling on snow. Add black ice into the mix, and the stopping distance can be three times as long. Of course, drivers of every sort need to be extra vigilant in these conditions, and that will contribute to the levels of stress and anxiety. Fatigue management practices such as regular sleep, frequent breaks, and trip planning are much more important. A commitment to the principles of defensive driving will also help to ensure that speeds are adjusted

when heading into any intersections, ramps or bends in the highway with reduced visibility and traction. Trip planning initiatives play their own role in ensuring that changes in the weather do not come as a complete surprise. Drivers who check their routes will be able to identify areas such as mountain passes that are more prone to bad weather, and further warnings can be collected by monitoring forecasts or even speaking with drivers who have recently passed through the same areas. Know where your safe havens are located and always try to leave yourself a way out. When they encounter the deepest snow, drivers will also need to know about a fleet’s policies and procedures surrounding the use of snow chains. Some fleets simply ask their personnel to pull off the road

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when they see a warning to “chain up,” but those who use the chains will require training in the way the devices wrap around tires and clamp into place. Even when they are locked in position, chained tires are also accompanied by reduced vehicle speeds, such as limits of 35 km/h in deep snow and 15 km/h when the snow begins to melt. Familiarize yourself with the snow-chain regulations for the jurisdictions in which you operate. The simple addition of a snow brush, shovel and ice scraper will help to ensure that circle checks can be properly conducted. Drivers may need to clear ice and snow away from LED lights, since these bulbs do not heat up as much as their incandescent counterparts. The build-up of ice and snow may make it difficult to properly inspect your vehicle, and may affect your gross weight. You may then have to adjust your payload accordingly. Other low-tech supplies can make the difference between being stranded and continuing a trip. Some additional washer fluid and wiper blades, for example, will ensure that the view of the road is as clear as possible. A bag of kitty litter can provide some welcome traction in a slick parking lot, and it will be easier to carry and handle than a bag of salt or sand. Even the choice of fuel can lead to a stranded vehicle.The long-haul drivers who fill their saddle tanks while driving through the southern US could end up with some of the summer diesel fuel that is more prone to waxing when it is exposed to freezing temperatures. Moisture will present a challenge of its own. Those who allow fuel levels to drop too low will face struggles around the condensation that forms in the empty space of your saddle tanks. The air brake system needs to be dry in order to perform properly. The system can be protected by draining air tanks at every opportunity, keeping air dryers in good repair, and topping up the airline antifreeze that is fed through any automatic injectors. So let the cold winds blow. With some extra caution, common sense and a handful of supplies, professional drivers will be safely prepared for the days ahead. ■ – This month’s contributing expert is Markel Safety and Training Services trainer Rob Spencer. Coming from a family of truck drivers, Rob grew up with trucking and has more than 10 years as both a driver and a trainer. He has now been sharing this expertise as a Markel trainer for four years. Markel Safety and Training Services offers specialized courses, seminars and consulting to fleet owners, safety managers, trainers and drivers. Send your questions, feedback and comments about this column to info@markel.ca. To read about more industry hot topics, visit Markel’s Web site at www.markel.ca and click on the Articles & Essays section.

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November 2009

Page 44 TRUCK NEWS

Safety

Remember to adjust driving habits as winter sets in Driving challenges increase at a chilling pace in winter.Whether you are a seasoned professional transport driver who has clocked thousands of hours on winter roads, or an industry newcomer, there are guidelines to keep in mind that will help you stay safe. Safe winter driving demands knowledge of defensive driving skills and adjustments. The winter scene will be less hazardous if you keep some of these in mind. While the two major hazards in winter driving are commonly considered to be poor traction and reduced visibility, research has shown there are six important problems which confront all drivers: Poor traction To keep your grip, start off slow and easy. Do not spin your wheels. In deep snow, try turning your wheels from side to side to push the snow. Before you turn off the ignition, move your vehicle back and forth one to two metres (four to five feet).

tion from -18 to 0 degrees C.

Guest Column

Slippery surfaces

Michael Burke

This packs the heavy snow for easier starting. When you are pulling out, use a light foot on the accelerator, easing forward gently. Reduced ability to stop It takes three to 12 times the distance to stop on ice and snow covered roads than on dry roads. Under winter conditions widen this gap accordingly – the more severe the conditions, the wider the gap. Starting and stopping Braking on ice is never easy but as the temperature rises, ice becomes even more slippery. For example, your braking distance can double with a temperature varia-

The action of tires spinning and sliding on snow and ice polishes the surface. It happens most often at intersections, on curves and on hills. Slow down early when you approach a slippery intersection, curve or hill. Gearing down may be necessary to slow down safely. Black ice Ice sometimes becomes disguised. The road ahead may appear to be black and shiny asphalt. Be suspicious, it may be covered by a thin layer of ice known as black ice. Generally, in the winter, asphalt is a gray-white colour. If you do see a black surface ahead, slow down, and brake smoothly and gently. Proceed with caution. Reduced ability to see and be seen Before starting your trip, clean off

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the entire windshield and all the windows. Wipe off the headlights, stop and tail lights and turn signals so that others may see you.This may be necessary frequently during a heavy storm. Road splatter can leave you blind. Use your windshield washer often. At night, stop occasionally to clean off the headlights. In fog or heavy snowfall, keep lights on low beam, and adjust your speed accordingly. Hazards of jackknifing for tractor-trailer combinations There are two distinct kinds of jackknifing: a tractor jackknife in which the rear of the tractor skids sideways; and a trailer jackknife in which the rear of the trailer comes around. Repeated tests have shown that if a jackknife develops beyond 15 degrees, it is almost impossible to recover. A jackknife can go to 15 degrees in 1.5 seconds. You must react fast in order to take preventative action and recover control of your vehicle. The faster this 15 degree angle develops, the greater the severity and potential damage of the jackknife. Safe defensive driving and adjusting to conditions offer the best safeguard against jackknifing. Going over a hilltop at 60 km/h to discover a sheet of ice or cars and trucks piled up below, invites tragedy. Letting the truck build up speed downhill before a turn or a stop invites danger by having to overbrake, which could result in a skidding or jackknife accident. There has been considerable difference of opinion on the subject of jackknifing and driver techniques have been studied to find the most effective methods of maintaining control of a tractor semi-trailer. The most effective technique for recovery from a jackknife on ice is almost complete reliance on steering with little or no use of the accelerator or brakes. A prompt start in correcting a jackknife is important. Experience and practice count. Drivers with the most experience have greater confidence and better control. Directional control is best with all the wheels rolling. The tractor is most likely to jackknife when the drive wheels of the tractor are locked and the front and trailer wheels are rolling. When the trailer wheels are locked, a trailer jackknife can also develop. Brakes on empty vehicles still have all the power necessary for a full load.When the truck is unloaded, it’s easy to overbrake. So, when driving on a light or empty unit, brake with extra care. Power should be applied cautiously. Spinning the drive wheels risks a jackknife. This can easily occur on icy uphill grades and usually result in a tractor jackknife which blocks the road and ties up traffic. Jackknifing often develops while braking for a curve. Do your braking or gearing down well before the turn, get down to a safe and easy turning speed, then take the turn with all the wheels rolling. ■ – Michael Burke is president and CEO of the Transportation Health and Safety Association of Ontario. THSAO is one of 14 sector-specific workplace associations dedicated to the advancement and promotion of safe workplace practices. For more tips on winter driving and other transportation workplace safety topics, visit: www.thsao.on.ca.

TRUCK NEWS Page 45

November 2009

People

Opinion

Four Manitoba drivers receive awards WINNIPEG, Man. – The Manitoba Trucking Association and Custom Truck Sales named the first four winners of the newly-formed Industry Excellence Award. Bruce Wright of Northern Deck, Robert St. Vincent of Bison Transport, Doug Ducharme of Arnold Bros. and Fred Barnett of Len Dubois Trucking were the first to receive the honour. The award goes to drivers that demonstrate excellence in four categories: commitment to the industry; commitment to safety; commitment to customer service; and acts that go beyond what is normally expected of drivers in day-to-day operations. Recipients will then be considered for the MTA-Volvo Trucks Canada Manitoba Driver of the Year award, according to the association. Northern Deck driver Wright, earned the award based on rave reviews from his employer, a division of Gardewine North, where he has spent the last 14 years of his career. He’s been described as a “consummate professional” and goes “above and beyond even our highest level,” according to company officials. He’s been trucking since 1987 and before that worked in the shop as a mechanic and general labourer. Len Dubois Trucking’s Barnett won the award based largely on his customer service abilities, according to the MTA. He has been an owner/operator with Len Dubois for six years and has often been acknowledged by customers for his professionalism. Barnett excels at multi-drop and job-site deliveries and ontime service according to his employer. Arnold Bros. driver Ducharme boats a clean abstract thanks to his commitment to safety, which helped earn him the award. He has already won a variety of

Let’s hope for end to DriveTest strike

safety awards and bonuses and Arnold Bros. officials say he also takes great care of his equipment. Bison’s St. Vincent won the award for his life-saving heroics when he had to maneuver his truck in icy conditions on a northern Ontario highway to avoid hitting two other motorists. The motorists later thanked him for saving their lives. In a letter, the motorists acknowledged St. Vincent’s heroics: ‘Thank you with all my heart, Mr. Transport Driver, you saved my life. I would love to meet you in person and hug you. None of this was your fault, you did a great job at steering your rig as best you could under the circumstances. Thank you so much! You are my angel. Although I don’t know your name, you will always have a place in my heart.’ The MTA continues to seek nominations for future awards. Full details can be found online at the MTA’s Web site: www.trucking.mb.ca. ■

As Thanksgiving weekend came and went, there were a lot of Ontario families that had less to be thankful about due to an ongoing strike by employees of DriveTest. I’m talking about the men and women who have been unable to get their A/Z licences and the people who train them, many of whom have been laid off due to this nearly two-month long (and counting) dispute. I don’t know enough about the situation to decide who’s right and who’s wrong. It seems the employees, including driver examiners, have some beefs about working conditions – and they may well be legitimate.What I do know is that the two sides need to get back to the table and work out a deal pronto, so that the innocent victims of this strike can get back to work. Many of the victims of the strike are workers who have been displaced from manufacturing jobs at steel plants and other professions. Now they’re interested in pursuing a second career in our industry (some even have jobs waiting for

6$ 0 0 .0

ONTARIO DRIVERS WALK-IN MEDICAL CLINIC

Rob Wilkins

them) and they haven’t been able to take their road test as their EI benefits trickled away. Jobless rates have been climbing through the recession and we should be making it easier – not more difficult – for people to work. The most frustrating thing about the strike is that there seems to have been little progress in the negotiations. In fact, the two sides have gone stretches of time without even negotiating at all. One thing’s for sure, two sides can’t meet in the middle unless they’re willing to sit down together and hammer out a compromise. Let’s get at it! ■ – Rob Wilkins is the publisher of Truck News and he can be reached at 416-510-5123.

Owner Operators ★ $1.14/Mile Tandem ★ $1.20/Mile Quad Axle • Operating mainly within a 1200 mile radius of the Toronto area • Home weekly • “Personalized dispatch” • Consistent year round work

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Maritime domiciled Owner Operators please contact: Mary Beth

1-800-561-9040 or fax your resume to: 506-633-4731 or email resume to: mtaylor@brookville.ca

21 Queensway West Mississauga, Ontario (DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM MISSISSAUGA HOSPITAL)

8:30 a.m. – 11:00 p.m. 7 Days a Week No appointment necessary

E-mail: kellacott@laidlaw.ca kellacott@laidlaw.ca or or ccampagnaro@laidlaw.ca ccampagnaro@laidlaw.ca Fax: Fax: 519-766-0437 519-766-0437 E-mail:

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www.laidlaw.ca Laidlaw is an equal opportunity employer and qualified women are welcome to apply

November 2009

Page 46 TRUCK NEWS

New Products

Problems with the ETR407? Help is now available from HTS to manage Canadian toll highway invoicing.The company says it works with toll operators to resolve problems, settles outstanding balances, offers dispute resolution, corrects improper invoicing and assists with plate and transponder management. The company also provides detailed monthly breakdowns of your charges. For more info, contact HTS at info@highwaytollservices.com or call 416-986-9062. • A former truck driver, driver-instructor and commercial driver examiner has authored an electronic textbook on gear selection and shifting. Practical Tips to Shifting for Students of Truck Driving Schools and Truck Drivers (ISBN: 0-9684939-0-4), is a textbook fea-

turing 140 pages and more than 100 graphics, covering comprehensive, step-by-step instructions on gear shifting in a wide range of applications, according to the author, who claims it will help drivers achieve a greater level of shifting proficiency. The book is being marketed direct online and is available as a .PDF file from the author. Payment of $9.95 is accepted via PayPal. For details, send an e-mail to the author: truckgearshiftingtips@gmail.com. • Imperial Oil has introduced a new Mobil Delvac 1 ESP SAE 0W-40 heavy-duty synthetic motor oil which it says will offer added engine protection, particularly in cold weather. The company says the oil has proven in testing to reach even the furthest parts of the inside of an engine within the first minute of start-up, even at temperatures as cold as -43 C. Conventional oils thicken in the cold and allow metal-on-metal wear and tear during cold starts, the company claims,

whereas its new synthetic moves into action as soon as the ignition is turned. Imperial Oil says its newest product also delivers and maintains a strong, stable film of protection under heavy load and in high-temperature operations. It’s also more resistant to the formation of sludge and deposits as well as viscosity breakdown than conventional motor oils. Customers using the new synthetic oil can also extend drain intervals and reduce maintenance costs, Imperial Oil says.The new oil is available through Imperial Oil’s national network of branded distributors. More info is available by calling 800-268-3183 or visiting www.imperialoil.ca.

Peterson Manufacturing has introduced a new LED tunnel light.The new 274 Series tunnel light is a

UR YO R T PE GE PA

two-inch round, grommet-mounted accessory light for trucks and trailers. It complements the company’s 179 Series, which it dubs the “ultimate accessory light.” The light features a unique 3D tunnel effect, which led to its name. The two models now available feature an operating range from eight- to 16-volts and are available in amber and red. For more information, visit www.petersonmfg.com. • Phillips has come out with a new trailer dome lamp it claims to be the brightest trailer interior lamp on the market. Phillips says its Permalite XB trailer dome lamp boasts twice the light output of competitive lamps and its 175-degree light spread illuminates the trailer more thoroughly so pallet documents can be read anywhere within the trailer. The lamp draws only 1.8 amps at 12-volt DC, according to the company. For more info, visit www.phillipsind.com.

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Haldex has announced it is now offering service parts for the Dana ESD-225 air disc brake caliper. The service kits include all the necessary parts required to service the Dana Spicer ESD-225 Air Disc Brake Caliper and are conveniently packaged for order, stock and identification, according to Haldex. The kit is available from Haldex distributors or by visiting www.haldex.com.Also new from Haldex is a heavy-duty clutch guide wall chart and clutch guide/cross reference brochure. The wall chart and brochure include new and remanufactured parts numbers, product photos and specifications. The wall chart and brochure are

6) Indicate your PRIMARY type of business by checking ONLY ONE of the following: a) ■ For Hire/Contract Trucking (hauling for others) b) ■ Lease/Rental c) ■ Food Production / Distribution / Beverages d) ■ Farming e) ■ Government (Fed., Prov., Local) f) ■ Public Utility (electric, gas, telephone) g) ■ Construction / Mining / Sand & Gravel h) ■ Petroleum / Dry Bulk / Chemicals / Tank i) ■ Manufacturing / Processing ji) ■ Retail jii) ■ Wholesale k) ■ Logging / Lumber b) ■ Bus Transportation m) ■ Other (Please specify) _______________________ 7) Are you involved in the purchase of equipment or replacement parts? . . . . . . . . . . . . ■ YES ■ NO 8) Are you responsible either directly or indirectly for equipment maintenance? . . . . ■ YES ■ NO

www.a-ztech.on.ca 299 Mill Rd., Unit 1510 Etobicoke, ON M9C 4V9 Wally Loucks (416) 626-1794 Fax: (416) 626-5512

Lease To Own Commercial, Industrial and Residential, Garages, Workshops, Equipment Storage, Warehouses, Offices, Quonsets.

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November 2009

available from Haldex distributors or by calling 800-267-9247 and providing order code LL60059 (wall chart) or LL20649 (clutch guide/brochure). • Thermo King dealers are providing rebates of up to $1,000 on qualifying

Espar heaters up until Dec. 31, the company has announced. Airtronic D4 and D2 truck kits are included as are Airtronic D2/Hydronic 5 combo truck kits and Hydronic D5 truck kits. Customers can find out more by visiting a local Thermo King dealer. •

Alliance Parts and ArvinMeritor have teamed up to offer cost-effective remanufactured brake shoes, the companies have announced.The Alliance reman’d brake shoes offer value for any make or model of commercial vehicle, the companies claim, noting they’re still engineered

to strict standards. The shoes are manufactured by ArvinMeritor and feature the company’s PlatinumShield advance shoe coating to prevent rust-jacking. They’re available from more than 1,000 retail locations including Freightliner and Western Star dealers. ■

Smart Trucking Begins with Webasto

AIR TOP 2000 ST Air Heater

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Let us design a system for your custom application! Manwin Enterprises

Wilson Instruments

Niagara Service & Supply Ltd.

15 Wanless Court, Ayr, Ontario (888) 823-7611 (519) 624-4003 manwin@bellnet.ca

43 Crowe Bay Heights, Campbellford, ON (877) 467-4440 (705) 653-2403 wilsoninstruments@sympatico.ca www.wilsoninstrumentsltd.com

150 South Service Rd. Stoney Creek, ON (800) 268-5076 (905) 573-3101 sales@niagaraservice.com

November 2009

Page 48 TRUCK NEWS

New Products

Road Test: Eaton’s UltraShift Plus transmission It’s a smarter, more diverse UltraShift. Will it be smart and diverse enough to pry Canadian truckers’ clenched fists from their beloved sticks? construction, the VXP for severe heavy-duty, the MHP for … well, you get the idea. The Plus line also features a new electronically activated two-plate ceramic clutch that’s operated through the transmission’s own control module. This pair of gadgets works in tandem – using info provided by the engine ECM – to deliver silky smooth launches and precise, rapid shifts.Thanks to the assistance from a newly relocated inertia brake – or “I Brake,” to use an Eatonism – gear changes are accomplished in roughly half a second. As if that weren’t enough, the Plus trannies also apparently know the appropriate gear for launching – their thoughtful selections based on vehicle weight, grade and available power – when to skip-shift, when to activate an engine brake, when to “creep” and, just as importantly, when to completely ignore the driver. “If you try to make one of these do something it’s not supposed to do, it will just beep at you,” said Samir Mazahem, Eaton’s heavy-

By Paul Hartley MARSHALL, Mich. – Eaton’s recent introduction of the UltraShift Plus, an improved automated transmission “family,” is the latest corporate attempt to pry North American truckers’ clenched fists from their beloved manual shift sticks. These new products, awash with convenience and safety features, might just do the trick. Heavy-duty automated transmissions have been around a while. Eaton has been building them for some 25 years. The company’s previous generations, however, had their limitations and peculiarities. They were primarily intended for the linehaul crowd, and they relied on a centrifugal clutch for launching and shifting. Unfortunately, that technology didn’t always provide the sophisticated executions users wanted. The release of the UltraShift Plus changes the game entirely. First, it comes in six versions, covering 98.37% of all trucking applications known to man.There is the LAS for linehaul, the VCS for vocational

MAKING MOLEHILLS OUT OF MOUNTAINS: The UltraShift Plus’s diversity makes it suitable for a wider variety of applications. Photo by Paul Hartley

duty transmission division chief engineer. Mazahem was one of six testtruck chaperones accompanying media folks during an outdoor, hands-on product introduction at Eaton’s spacious, scenic and comprehensive proving grounds near Marshall, Mich., in early September. He was in charge of a Pete Model 379, powered by a Cummins ISX (rated at 600 hp) and grossing roughly 160,000 lbs. I joined him for the paved-hill portion of the company’s nearly daylong demonstration. This roughly two-mile route included two stiff grades: one 8%, the other 15%. Releasing the parking brake and

moving the ‘driver interface’ to D, I noticed that the transmission picked third as our launch gear. I thought the choice was a bit tall, but Mazahem said we could have overridden the system and used an even higher gear. “It would probably handle fourth here because we’re on level ground,” he said. “Fifth would have been too much, and the transmission would tell you that. It won’t allow you choose an improper gear. It knows its capabilities.” We rolled forward smoothly with no driveline shudder nor faint whiff of cooking clutch. Mazahem said Eaton engineers spent a lot of time mapping the torque transfer on

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November 2009

each clutch plate in a multitude of scenarios, and they programmed that information into the transmission’s software. This code, along with other mechanical advances, allow clutch plates to open and close independently of each other, offering flawless launches in any imaginable condition. Heading toward the hill, I mashed hard on the accelerator, and the transmission responded accordingly, shifting from third to fourth to sixth to eighth to tenth to twelfth to fourteenth.We were soon halfway up the short 8% grade, and the engine speed began sagging. The tranny dropped one gear at 1,300 rpm; then it went through a quick series of two-gear downshifts as our momentum slowed, and the need for torque greatly increased. I was impressed with the system’s performance. It not only knew when to shift, but also how many gears to take each time to keep the engine within its power band. Mazahem credits the box’s “skill” to the newly added inclinometer, a device that measures road grade, and good software programming. “When writing the code, we always determine when to downshift based on a projected point where the engine can recover an adequate amount of torque to continue pulling the weight forward,” he said. “We know where the engine rpm will be in every gear based on road speed. The goal is to choose a ratio that provides the best power.” Of course, it also helps to make these decisions in nanoseconds and execute them in half-seconds, regardless of the seat cover in a passing car, the interesting chatter on a CB or what just fell out of a shelf in the bunk. I brought the truck to a stop just past the summit so Mazahem could demonstrate the transmission’s downhill abilities. He said I should shift to third gear in the manual mode, release the brakes and keep my foot off the accelerator and brake pedal. I did as instructed, and we began rolling forward. The engine retarder, which was set to medium power, immediately activated and curbed the truck’s speed somewhere around 10 mph – not bad, considering that we were descending a 15% slope carrying 160,000 lbs. Mazahem reached over and switched the retarder to low. Our velocity gradually increased. When the engine reached about

RUN FOR THE HILLS: The new UltraShift makes easy work of grades, including this one of 15%.

2,100 rpm, the transmission flipped into automatic mode and started upshifting – first in single steps, then two and three at a time – to protect the engine from over-revving. The final display of technical wizardry in Mazahem’s Pete occurred on our way back up the hill’s steep side. He’d told me to back off the throttle about halfway up the ascent. The tranny had already downshifted from 14 to 13 in an effort to keep us moving. When I took my foot off the accelerator, though, our speed sunk fast, and the little UltraShift Plus gnomes under the floorboards went straight to eighth then, after a lazy second or so, to first. At that point we were pretty much just idling up the remaining few yards to the top. I’d challenge any seasoned gear-jammer to match that maneuver without coming to a complete stop. Following my heavy-haul trip, I spent some time on the facility’s hilly, winding off-road course, first with a Cummins-powered cement mixer then a pair of Cat-powered dump trucks: all Kenworth T800 models. Their transmissions shared many of the same characteristics I’d experienced in the Pete, but they

were fine-tuned for vocational needs. Eaton officials say that any of the Plus models can be easily customized for buyers’ unique needs. This is done through the Service Ranger software package, which is currently available only to dealers and the company’s largest customers.Wider distribution might be possible in the future, said Michael Holahan, Eaton’s program manager for the UltraShift Plus. “The challenge is making sure people would know how to correctly use it.” My last romp of the day was on the facility’s oval road course, driving a Kenworth W900, Cummins powered and grossing 129,000 lbs. I was accompanied by Rose Gould, an Eaton test pilot. Rounding the track’s final turn we were cruising at roughly 55 mph, and she suggested I shift the transmission to the low mode – as in first gear – to check out its ability to slow our speed. I was reluctant, imagining the awful grinding sound that might ensue, but I followed her recommendation anyway. Instantly, the engine brake came on at full power. As soon as a downshift was possible, the trans-

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mission grabbed a gear, and it continued grabbing gears until we were down to 15 mph, at which point I switched the box back to automatic and began accelerating. Gould said the technique is a good – and safe – way to achieve maximum slowing power without touching the foundation brakes. Eaton executives said the UltraShift Plus was in development for nearly seven years – a long time, to be sure – and extensively fieldtested during the last two. The company has clearly done its homework to ensure the product delivers on its promise. Still, the question arises: “Can we beat the very best drivers in North America?” Michael Holahan rhetorically asked during the press event. “To be honest, we’re still learning from them. But we can beat a whole lot of others, enough so that fleets installing this transmission will notice a significant uptick in their fuel economy and corresponding decrease in their driveline maintenance costs.” Now if they can just figure out a way to peel those diehard truckers’ fingers away from their beloved manual shift sticks. ■

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