March 2014 magazine

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March 2014

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MARCH 2014

From the Editor’s desk...

VOLUME 16, ISSUE 2 PUBLISHER/EDITOR John White john.protrucker@shaw.ca PRODUCTION/CIRCULATION Tori Proudley tori.protrucker@shaw.ca ADMIN/SPECIAL EVENTS Donna White donna.protrucker@shaw.ca ADVERTISING/MARKETING John White john.protrucker@shaw.ca Tori Proudley tori.protrucker@shaw.ca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mel McConaghy • Dave Madill Ben Proudley • Ken Davie • Scott Casey Ed Murdoch • Frank Cox Colin Black • Mark Whitworth PHOTOGRAPHY Hank Suderman • David Benjatschek HEAD OFFICE Ph: 604-580-2092 Fax: 604-580-2046 Toll Free: 1-800-331-8127 Published eleven times a year by Pro-Trucker Magazine Inc.,

The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of the publisher. The advertiser agrees to protect the publisher against legal action based upon libelous or inaccurate statements; the unauthorized use of materials or photographs; and/or any other errors or omissions in connection with advertisements placed in Pro-Trucker Magazine. The publisher can and will refuse any advertising which in his opinion is misleading or in poor taste.

The publisher does not endorse or make claim or guarantee the validity or accuracy of any advertisement herein contained. All materials submitted for publication are subject to editing at the publisher’s discretion. The act of mailing or e-mailing material shall be considered an expressed warranty by the contributor that the material is original and in no way an infringement on the rights of others. Pro-Trucker Magazine is written and produced in Surrey, B.C., and printed by Coastal Web Press Inc., Langley, B.C.

PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #40033055 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. 9693 129th Street.

SURREY, B.C. V3T 3G3 Email: tori.protrucker@shaw.ca

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE MAGAZINEe PRO-TRUCKER

His Legacy Lives On. Back in 1988 a truck driver woke up in the middle of the night with an idea for what he called a Multi-phase Trailer System. Instead of a trailer that could only be used for one operation, his system involved modules that could be swapped out so that the trailer could be used as a flat deck, log hauler or rock hauler. These trailers were also the John White first ever designed with air scales on an air ride suspension. Drawings were soon in the works and production started. The inventor of this system was Don Glenn, a very well respected driver, company owner and family man.

He built six trailers and one of the first jobs that they were used on was the Oldman Dam Project in Southern Alberta. They were the first contractor on the job site and the last one to leave 5 years later. The rock tubs that he built for his trailers worked even better than he imagined and during the construction of the dam they hauled over 960,000 tons of shot rock.

The original 6 rock tubs were used for various projects after the dam was completed and then sat idle up until the devastating floods that swept through Alberta and south eastern BC last year. When the water started to rise and miles of roads and rail lines were washing out they were quickly called out of retirement to help stop the erosion. That was last June and since then six more rock tubs have been built bringing the total to 12. They have been going steady since then and there is no end in sight to the work yet to be done.

In four short weeks Brad Glenn and his crew had depleted all the rock quarries from Fernie to Crowsnest and had to find another source of rock.

Not just any rock either, some of the rocks that are needed, to make sure they do not wash away should there be another flood, can measure 6 and 8 feet in diameter.

The only quarry they could find that was willing to keep blasting through the winter in minus 40 degree weather to ensure that the work could continue was in Nordegg Alberta which is located at the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan River, about 170 km west of Red Deer. In order to keep up with the volume, the quarry at Nordegg had to increase the number of excavators they had from 3 to 7 and they also had to bring in a second blasting Crew.

Since last June they have hauled rock to Edmonton, Calgary, High River, and across south eastern BC all the way to Cranbrook and the race is on to complete as much of the work as possible in case this spring brings more floodwaters with it.

On another note, the news that we will be parking some of the trucks indoors at BC Big Rig Weekend has been greatly recieved. There have been a number of reservations but space is limited so don’t forget to reserve your spot.

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MARCH 2014

LETTERS to the EDITOR

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINEe

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John White gazine Pro-Trucker Ma

Letters to the editor are occasionally edited for length, language and objectionable content.

John, This is just a quick follow up to my article in your February issue about my trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. I just received an email from my brother in-law who talked to Bush, the African that was the driver on my trip to Kickwit. He had just came back from another run.

Apparently he was behind a truck that lost his motor and then lost control. The truck ended up down a ravine, killing everyone on board. He didn’t say how many but he said the driver had picked up passengers that were in the cab and others that were riding between the cab and the trailer. When I was there I saw trucks with as many as eight in the cab and five between truck and trailer. It was unfortunate that Bush was the first to the scene. Life as a truck driver in Africa not for the faint of heart.

Larry Hodgson, Hodgson Heavy Duty, Chilliwack BC

Living in North America it is hard to fathom that there are countries where there are no rules of the road or where they have rules but they are just not enforced. I have seen examples on the internet that boggle your mind. These are not all third world countries either. I saw one from Russia that was absolute bedlam.

The regulations here in North America do seem extreme at times but at least we have a better chance of making it home alive. The biggest problem I see in Canada is that we have fewer and fewer police on the roads enforcing those rules.

Ryan Jacobsen, Toronto, ON.

Editor’s note: Enforcement is definitely a problem in Canada. At one time traffic violations were a priority but understaffing on all police forces is common now in Canada and traffic control seems to have slipped to the bottom of the list. The exception is the over regulation and enforcement for trucks. But that is how politicians work. They say they are going to improve things, then they demonize a small segment of the population, (in this case truckers) and blame them for all the problems. If you do an honest comparison, between 4 wheeler and truckers, on accidents per 100,000 miles driven– it makes no sense that 4 wheelers are not regulated at a much higher rate than John, trucks. It comes down to the fact that if politicians were That was a great article on driving truck in the Congo. not so concerned about pandering for votes, our roads and

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your work-place would be much safer.

To Whom It May Concern: Subject: Tolls Charges.

I have been a resident in the Lower Mainland for nearly 40 years and an Owner/Operator trucker since 1997.

Traffic in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley has steadily been getting busier every year. All of the new transportation projects have made the job of getting around much easier, namely the new Port Mann Bridge, Highway 1 Improvements, Godden Ears Bridge and South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR). As someone who spends a great deal of time on the roadways in B.C. and, especially the Lower Mainland, all of the projects are definitely welcome and much needed.

The fact that the Port Mann & Golden Ears would be tolled was at first not too much of a financial concern, no problem I said to myself – I will just charge more for the deliveries. At $6.00 per crossing for the Golden Ears and $4.50-$6.00 for the Port Mann in early 2013 it will be reasonable passing the costs onto my customers. As you can appreciate, this is easier said than done!

Early on in 2013 Treo was charging me the $4.50 introductory rate for “Medium Vehicles” for my tandem straight truck. After a couple of months of being charged this $4.50 rate this fee suddenly changed, with no notice to $9.00 for the same three (3) axle truck. Several phone calls were placed and Treo kindly credited my account due to the over-

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charging. However, about a month later, this $9.00 became the standard fee for my truck. Upon realizing, I visited Treo and thought maybe a mistake was made again since it had been previously reversed. I was told that Treo had measured my truck, in transit, on Johnson Hill and that I was longer than eight meters. From this point forward, as per Treo, I would be charged as a “Large Vehicle” – I was under the understanding that only BC Ferries charged by the foot!

Of course, I discussed my concerns and thoughts on their fee schedule with the customer service representatives at Treo. In this discussion, I explained to them the different combinations of trucks, trailers and weights that each truck can legally haul in British Columbia.

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I tried to have someone explain to me why on earth both trucks are paying $9 per crossing? The gentleman at Treo could not give me any logical or reasonable explanation other than to say, “both are over 8m”. The whole reason trucks pay more is because they beat up the roads with their weight not the length of their vehicles! The representative from Treo informed me, near the end of our conversation that they were looking at charging by the axle – excellent there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for struggling owner/operators. I posed the question – when might a decision be made? He politely informed me he had no idea.

Coquihalla tolls were by the axle and I think that makes a lot of sense. Having to incur $18 round trip for any combination truck vehicle is a BIG financial burden to pay for

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any truck – for any individual owner/operator – let alone when these trucks do multiple crossings per day. Charging $18 round trip for an average load across the Port Mann is approximately 10% of revenue for one load being delivered in my Tandem Truck.

While there is a small fuel savings and sometimes a good time savings the same ground must still be covered – the loads throughout this Lower Mainland still need to make it to the end user – to the consumers, to the building supply yards, to the grocery stores, to the job sites, etc. Please do not get me wrong, I am all for paying my fair share, but I cannot help but feel I am paying more than that with 10-15 crossings per week. This can equal approximately $90-$100 a week which can increase drastically when the weather in the Lower Mainland improves and more loads are shipped.

I would suggest that a flat fee for all people benefitting from these projects, which is everyone in this province (my opinion). I also think this would help alleviate the traffic though New Westminister and Surrey, King George area.

My last two cents are that there are a lot of people using the new roads, but getting off before the toll booths and cameras. In other words, this shows more LOST revenue for the government, lost revenue for Treo and lost revenue for Translink which cannot be recovered. Let’s share the cost of our new roads in a fair and equal manner.

Sincerely, Andrew Gould, Concerned Owner/Operator r

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Idle Time

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By Scott Casey Scott, our Rig of The Month for May 2003 has written “In the Devil’s Courthouse” a book about his years as a gun toting truck driver while serving as a Canadian Peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia

ays Open 7 D k e e W A

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Trucking and Amputations The announcement over the AM/FM instantly got my dander up. "There has been another rollover collision involving a semi on highway 5A." I knew what would follow in the local media.

In perfect knee-jerk form there would be renewed cries to close the road to tractor-trailers. I knew, immediately, somewhere in a politician’s office, a phone would begin to ring incessantly with calls from everyone under the sun complaining about the ever increasing carnage on that stretch of road and require its closure to truck traffic.

As we in the trucking industry know, big rigs are not the issue. It is, however, a few select drivers that are.

Invariably the paintbrush, and all too frequently I might add, comes out and plasters all commercial drivers with the same horrific colour palate. Thousands of trucks travel Highway 5A every year without incident. Fatal car crashes occur with more frequency than trucks on all of

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our major highways, yet there are no shrieks to close the Rogers Pass, Kootenay Pass or the Port Mann Bridge because of it. Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon remains open even with its history of collisions, semi, car or otherwise.

So when it comes to closing a route, the facts must be closely inspected. All the data from earlier crashes, from time periods relating to crashes such as weather conditions, the future plans for that route, any and all pertinent information must be taken into account.

We do not repair heart failures by closing arteries.

We identify the root causes of heart failure and adopt healthier ways of changing the way we live without stopping the flow of blood to our body. The same can be said for the loss of limbs.

Trucking companies, government regulators, drivers, and regular citizens need to work cooperatively at finding a cure for crashes rather than simply cutting an arm off. ***** • Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

• “My education as a youth was dismal and disappointing. I went to a series of schools for mentally disturbed teachers.”

• Sarcasm – because it’s against the law to physically beat people.

NEW Extended Hours Mon-Fri 8 am- Midnight • Sat 8 am- 5pm Dave Madill was Pro-Trucker Magazine’s Rig of the Month in June of 2001 and he has been entertaining us with his poetry ever since. Dave has published three books of poems that are available by special order through Chapters Book Stores.

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Reflections Thru My Windshield

Springtime on the Farm

Like most truck drivers of my day I learned to drive and work on equipment on the farm where there was always something that had to be moved, driven, or fixed.

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It was Spring and finally the snow was all gone and it was time to clean the barnyard and spread the manure across our hay fields and what would be our summer fallow. I was out in the garage getting our front end loader ready to go for the morning when Dad came in. Dad stood there looking around and finally said; “If we are going to haul ‘manure’ in the morning then I think that the stuff looks pretty sloppy, we can haul it in the single axle dump and use the spreader chains. It would be a heck of a lot faster than using the honey wagon”. Now, I learned long ago not to argue with my Dad but this seemed like a bad idea so I just nodded and asked if he would drive the truck for the first few loads to try it out.

He agreed and I never said another word about it.

Morning came and we headed for the barn. Dad backed in towards the pile until the back wheels of the old truck sunk into the slop and he came to a halt. He hopped out, looked around and told me to load the truck with the sloppy stuff and said that would give him traction to get out. Well I loaded him up pretty good but there was a lot of straw mixed into that mess and I just put it all in as it came. He hopped in the old truck and she never moved an inch but the wheels were going round at a pretty good clip. He hopped out again and told me to hook a chain on him and tow him out of the barnyard. I had chains on the loader tires so I managed to get him out and finally away he went - headed for the hay field.

When he got to the field it was mostly dry so traction was no problem but the fun had just begun. He set his spreader chains so the gate would open about six inches and away he went. He flipped the PTO in and as the box went up he tripped the tailgate and exactly what I figured would happen, did happen. The mixture started spreading and then the straw clogged up and the box was still rising. As the box went up the front of the truck started to lift. The whole load then shifted to the back of the box and the cab rose majestically into the air. The back of the box hit the ground closing off the spreader and leaving Dad in the cab about fifteen feet in the air.

Now at this point there was nothing you could do as the hydraulics would not lower you down and you couldn’t PAGE 14

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go anywhere.

Dad was livid especially when he looked over at the barn and saw me, Grandpa, and Mom leaning on the rail fence doubled over with laughter. Finally I composed myself enough to hop on the loader and drive out so that Dad could climb out of the cab, into my dirty smelly bucket so I could lower him down to the ground. Dad only said a couple words (if you leave out the cussing that is) --- “Fix that” he said as he stomped off towards the house where he had to undress in the back porch as Mom had beat him to the house and would not let him in. He climbed into the shower, cleaned up, got dressed, hopped in the pick up and left.

That left Grandpa and I to get a chain on the truck and using the front end loader muscle the front wheels back to the ground and hand fork the load out until we could take enough pressure off the tail gate to undo the spreader chains. We removed the whole tailgate and dropped the load where I was able to sort of spread it around with the loader. Needless to say the rest of the manure was spread with the honey wagon and things went as usual.

Not much was said about the incident until later in the year when Grandpa was cutting hay. He casually mentioned at the supper table that, “Dads,” section of the hayfield sure enough grew some pretty good clover.

Mom, Grandpa and I had a good laugh but Dad never said a word. r

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Rig of the Month

Photos

by:

By: John White

Nicole Van Veen

At the beginning of December I received an email from their class 1 as soon as they were old enough and as far as Daryl Robinson who proudly told me about his two nieces he knows, they were the youngest pair of sisters to drive Nicole and Lindsay Van Veen. He said that they both got truck. He insisted they would make a good story and I

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after I spoke with them I had to agree. As everyone knows there is a tremendous shortage of drivers in this industry.

Hopefully their story will encourage other young women to consider driving as a career.

Nicole’s story: I was born on November 16, 1991 in Calgary, AB, where I still live. In the short time between being born and Christmas of that year I had already traveled north to Edmonton and as far south as California, all by truck, so I have no problem saying that I was literally born into trucking. Mom and Dad tell me I was a great truck baby. They would simply tie up the net on the bottom bunk, throw me some toys and I would be happy. Most of my sleeping hours in my first year were spent in the cubby hole above the closet in a 379 Pete. To this day the whistle of a turbo can put me right to sleep.

For the first 2 years of my life I lived in the truck with Mom and Dad as they drove team in one of their four trucks hauling throughout western Canada and the US. This changed when my little sister Lindsay came along.

Apparently she wasn’t so easily entertained by the inside of a truck. Oh well, the four of us couldn’t live in the truck forever anyway as sooner or later us kids would have to go to school. Mom and Dad own Trivee Transport which was based at our acreage just east of Calgary, so even if we weren’t always in the trucks, they were never more than a few steps away.

Nicole Van Veen Growing up with trucks and truckers in the yard was a little different from what the other kids in school went home to. Once when I was in grade 2, I asked my Dad to bring a truck to school for, “show and tell.” I remember all the other kids thinking it was the greatest thing they had ever seen and they raved about it for weeks. Of course this made me think I was pretty cool, cause what’s better to a little kid than a big truck?

I was about 10 years old when I got my first job working for the company - washing trucks and trailers during the summer. On my first day Dad told me, “I’ll be inspecting these after you are done, and if I find any bugs you have to eat them”. Maybe he was joking, or maybe I did as good of

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a job as he expected, because I never had to eat any. The idea of, “do it right, or do it again,” was instilled in me at a young age and that thought is always there in the back of my mind.

For many years when people would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up I would always say, “Drive a truck.” That changed now and then but sooner or later I always came back to the same answer.

I worked a few random jobs throughout school getting some work and ‘real world’ experience. After I graduated I went to work once again at Trivee, which had now grown to 30-plus trucks and had moved to a much larger facility with a real office, shop, wash bay and refrigerated warehouse. My first full time job at Trivee was working in the warehouse, picking orders, loading trucks and learning the ropes. I was taught how to load trucks properly by none other than the master loader, AKA Dad. And once again it was do it right, or do it again. I worked the warehouse for about 2 years. In those two years I learned a lot about the business. For most of that time I had little interest in driving, probably from all the horror stories I heard from the guys coming in and out of the warehouse. Then one day I was driving home from work when I saw a lady, who worked for Bison Transport, pulling turnpikes. The first thought I had was, “If she can pull two, I can pull one.”

Soon after that I signed up to get my Class 1 and got it the end of October 2010 - a couple weeks before my 19th

birthday.

The first truck I drove was a 2010 T660 day cab with a Cat, and my first trips were out to the Lakeside Meat Plant in Brooks, Alberta. Anyone who has been to the plant knows that the scale there gives you no more than six inches of room on either side of the truck; no big deal for a veteran driver… which I was not. On my first few trips Dad sat beside me and showed me some extra tricks which helped a lot because to this day I haven’t lost any lights or lug nut covers to the scale - or anywhere else. Once the boss was confident in my driving, or close enough, I was sent out on my own. Call me spoiled, and I probably am, but after about 2 months of driving I ended up in a brand new truck, it would be the 3rd day cab in the Trivee fleet.

I was given the twice a day run to Brooks which I did for about 6 months but I soon got bored of only shifting a half gear once in a two hour stretch so I asked if I could stick around town more. After that the guys running Brooks would drop their first load of the day in the yard and I would deliver it. Most of these loads were delivered to VersaCold on Ogden road. If you have seen their yard, it is a bit nasty and there is no room for messing up. If you swing too wide you hit the trailer next to you, if you are too far forward you can scrape your nice shiny wheels on the curb.

I’m not sure if backing up came naturally to me or if Dad is just a great teacher. But what I do know is that when

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you pull into a yard and you’re an 18 year old girl standing a whopping 5’2”people tend to stand around and watch and I didn’t want to be that girl that couldn’t back up. Several times I walked inside to get assigned a door and another driver would be arguing with the receiver saying there was no way he was backing into door 17, which is one of the worst ones. Melanie would look up and see me and say, “Nicole, take 17.” I would never say a word - I’d just go and do it.

About 4 months after I got my license there was another snowstorm coming our way. It had snowed all night and by the time I got to the shop the north wind was getting stronger. But the work had to get done so I hit the road heading for Brooks. I was taking it easy and things were going as well as could be expected until I got to the east side of Cluny hill. That’s where the wind really picked up.

The roads were really icy and when I looked in my mirror I could see my empty trailer was being blown towards the ditch. Other drivers had told me how to get out of similar situations so I tapped the spike and sure enough I got straightened out.

I was getting a little flustered so I decided to pull over to the side of the road to take a breather. I didn’t get much “breathe” time because when I looked in my mirror I saw that the wind was still blowing my trailer towards the ditch. I decided to keep going but of course as soon as the wheels started to turn again the tractor started to slide

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I have always carried a container of floor dry with me in case I get stuck in town so I got out of the truck to get it.

That’s when I found exactly how icy it was – skates would have been more appropriate! No wonder I was almost in the ditch. I managed to get some floor dry under the tires, locked up my dif, and got going again.

Once I got to the plant and got a load on I was fine for the trip home. Dad was about a half hour behind me so I waited for him and we drove back together. So far that was the worst road conditions I have encountered and Dad, even with his many years of driving, told me it was right up there for him too. In the end all was well; I didn’t end up in the ditch and managed to keep the shiny side up!

I always try to have an open mind and take advice from more experienced operators so I continue to learn new things and I’m getting better at the old things. I’ve driven a lot in the morning and evening rush hours and I used to get angry with the cars and other trucks, but my minor, “road rage” has become a thing of the past. It simply comes down to the fact that getting upset doesn’t get anyone anywhere faster.

Things became much more interesting when my little sister Lindsay got her class 1. Now we convoy out to Brooks together, and I am no longer the only, “little girl” running around town. For the first month or two no one could tell us apart which to me seemed ridiculous because she has blonde hair and mine is brown, she is a foot taller

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than me and her truck is dark blue while mine is light blue.

I guess for drivers that seldom see girls under 30 behind the wheel it is hard to tell the difference. Once in a while we will still have people ask, “Weren’t you just here 10 minutes ago? Did you forget something?”

As time has gone on, the company has gotten much busier, with a new Calgary to Edmonton LTL run, and Cargill in High River giving us 2-3 loads every morning.

We come to work any time between 3:30am and 8am (usually closer to 6-7), depending on the day, and leave when the work is finished. This makes a 12+ hour day a regular occurrence. So much for being spoiled! In the mornings we generally start off delivering meat loads around town and then we deliver loads from the States that have been dropped in the yard. Sometimes there is cross docking and other warehouse work thrown into the mix as well. The afternoons generally consist of picking up produce from our customers that ship to Edmonton. When all the produce is picked up we bring it back to our dock, unload it, and reload it onto the proper trailers, keeping the minimal amount of drops as possible for our Edmonton drivers who pick it up later that evening.

I am lucky to work with a lot of drivers that I have known for a long time (several of them have been working at Trivee for 15-plus years). All the guys have always looked out for me and given me pointers. They were, and still are, always willing to help me out if I need it and I

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can’t thank them enough for that. Occasionally I get a chance to pay them back like when everything is frozen and their axels don’t slide. Since I am the smallest one, I will sometimes get nominated to crawl underneath to see what the problem is.

I have had my fair share of problems, like any other driver, but I can usually take care of them on my own.

When I hook onto a trailer and all 4 brakes are frozen up, I crawl underneath in the -30 temperature with my hammer and fix the problem myself. This may not sound desirable to a lot of women but for me it’s just part of the job and it has to get done. When Lindsay calls asking for help it feels good that I can actually give her some of the tips I have learned and/or picked up from other drivers.

We are lucky enough to have new equipment so we don’t usually have to worry about truck problems (knock on wood), but in 30 degree weather in the beating sun, when the loaded trailer I have to hook up to is about 6 inches above the fifth wheel, it’s a bit of a work out! At least having this job eliminates the need for a gym membership!

I would say that my sister and I have a more physically demanding trucking job than a lot of drivers mainly because we do so many different things. From unhooking and hooking up to 10+ trailers a day to cross docking and running back and forth from the office to the warehouse, we are usually up and about for the most part of the day.

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Working with both our parents is actually a lot fun and we get along probably better than most families. We all fight with each other (except with mom - never go up against mom) and then half an hour later it’s all fine again.

When there are so many things going on at once there is no way one person can do it on their own, so we have to work together.

I have been so submerged in the trucking industry for as long as I can remember I can’t imagine doing anything else. Mom and Dad always told us, “It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you take pride in your work and do a

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MARCH 2014

good job of it.” At this point in time, I can agree that we all do just that. I don’t let it bother me that some men (and I haven’t come across many, most of the guys we meet are very supportive of the idea) don’t think women should be trucking. To me it doesn’t matter who you are, woman or man, young or old, if you do a good job, you do a good job.

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Lindsay Van Veen Lindsay’s story: On March 11, 1994, my mother came home with a new born baby girl and at about the same time my father came home with 3 brand new 379 Peterbilts. Soon after that I let it be known that I was not going to be like my sister. I was a terrible trucking baby. I wouldn’t sleep in the truck - I would just cry and scream. In reality I was just telling my

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family that four people in a truck was at least one, (me) too many. From that point on my mother was forced to stay at home with me and my sister on our acreage just on the outskirts of Calgary, Alberta.

My parents ran the family trucking company just outside my bedroom window from the time I was born until I was 11. As I got older I would run and hide from my dad underneath the trailers and generally making his job a little more difficult. If I wasn’t irritating him I was talking to the drivers and bothering the people who worked in the office with my parents. This often led to me being picked up and stuck on top of the filing cabinet. That worked quite well until the day I realized that I could jump down all by myself. It was all a great adventure and I enjoyed every minute of it.

As I grew older I would jump in the truck with my dad every chance I got and off we would go down the highway - often into the states for the weekend. With both my uncles and my aunt involved in trucking, I spent many hours as a kid going from loading docks in the States to unloading in Canada. Most kids my age would think that was boring but once I was no longer a baby I always had the best naps in the truck. I loved going up and down the highway and couldn’t imagine a better childhood than riding around in the passenger seat of a semi.

After I started school my dad would often come and pick me up on Fridays and we would go to Brooks, Alberta

to pick up a load. Show and Tell was my favorite school day because I got to show off this huge truck to all the kids in my class.

In 2006 Trivee Transport got a new home on two and a half acres just north of Glenmore trail. It had a new wash bay and a warehouse with three docks so we no longer had to do cross docking on Saturday morning by backing trailers together in our front driveway. All through high school I would spend my weekends shipping and receiving produce, re-grading produce for Oppenheimer, the company who rented our warehouse space, and picking orders.

Once I finished high school I went to work full time in the warehouse. I worked Monday to Saturday putting in much longer hours than most other 18 year olds that I know. I saw truck after truck arrive at our warehouse with produce tipped from one end of the trailer to the other and I soon became a very skilled produce re-stacker. Even though that part of the job got a little trying at times I always enjoyed what I was doing. I learned two important lessons - no one likes a late truck and no one likes tipped product. As a shipper/receiver I learned to appreciate the drivers who took pride in their work by making sure the load made it to the customer at the proper temperature and in good order.

Once I got the okay from my parents I was off to get my Class 1 license and at the age of 18 I was the youngest girl CCA Driver Training Calgary had ever seen. As I sat in

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the class for my air-brakes I looked up and noticed I was the only girl in the room and I was getting rather odd looks from the other students in the class. They were probably wondering if I was lost.

When I started the driver training part of the course the instructors were quite surprised that I could shift gears and back up better than most of the guys in the class. I completed my training and got my class 1 in October of 2012 but I still had to finish out my time in the warehouse.

In August of 2013 I finally got the job I had always wanted - driving a 2012 Kenworth T660 day cab for Trivee Transport. While most parents worry about their kids driving the family car around - my parents just handed me the keys to a semi with a 53 foot trailer. I was overjoyed and full of excitement on my first trip which was out to JBS in Brooks, Alberta. My Dad was in the passenger seat and we followed my sister in her truck. We made a few more trips to JBS as a little family convoy then Dad told me to take the truck and run around town and find all the places that we go to. When I stopped at these places I found I was often referred to as, “Nicole’s sister” but I quickly put a stop to that by telling people, “No, Nicole is my sister”.

Growing up in a trucking family it just seemed natural to me that I would one day become a driver. It wasn’t until I started driving that, thanks to the stares of amazement, and questions like, “Do you really drive that truck?” that I realized Nicole and I are a bit of a rarity in this world.

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Yes we are young, yes we are sisters and yes we do know what we are doing – well for the most part anyway. Like everyone else we learn something new every day. While we often have very long days starting early in the morning and working late at night, driving truck is a great career for a girl. All I can say is thank you to Mom and Dad for giving us this opportunity.

This was my first year driving a truck in the winter and I was making a run out to Brooks when I ran into my first big snowstorm. Nicole was a bit worried and called to see if I was okay (of course my parents were out of town), I told Nicole I was doing great and I was until I got to the east side of Cluny Hill - the same place that Nicole ran into trouble. The snow was coming down hard and wet

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and sticky - just the type that your windshield wipers come in handy for - and that’s when mine quit. I pulled over and called Nicole for advice. I tried everything she suggested but nothing worked. I had the option to sit and wait several hours or to drive down the side of the road going 20kph with my 4 ways on. I took option 2. Conveniently our dispatcher was in Brooks when I got there and he met me at H.E. Truck Wash where Jake, the mechanic, and my hero, works. They worked on my wipers for about 2 hours and finally ‘jimmy rigged’ them so they would at least work.

A short time later I was back on the road and ready to go trucking. Of course by this time it had stopped snowing and I no longer needed the wipers. My simple Sunday run to Brooks had quickly turned in to an all-day adventure.

This has been my first winter of driving and so far I have really enjoyed it, yes it makes every day a little longer and harder but if you enjoy your job like I do, it’s really not so bad. After only a year of driving around in Alberta I have learned that I have what seems to be a family gift for backing up. This always seems to amaze the other drivers.

I have learned from my parents to never quit a job until it is complete even if that means to stay at work until 10 pm when you’ve already been there for 14 hours. I like to think that I take as much pride in my work as my parents and sister do. I always try to make the other employee’s job easier by going the extra mile to dummy proof things.

I love driving and plan to keep doing it for the rest of my

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(Hopefully people will be able to tell us apart by then.) That is still a long way off and for now there is lot of things to learn and a lot of things I want to experience. One thing that I am really looking forward to is being able to haul across the border like my parents did before they had us.

They have told us many stories of their adventures and have always said that trucking is a great way to see the world.

All in all I think trucking is a great career for a woman.

It pays very well and there is lots of work all across the country. If you’re lucky you will find a good crew to work for. Trucking with our crew is a lot of fun as long as you like lots of sarcasm, great people and hard work. r

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MARCH 2014

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Tyres Across The Pond

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

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I hate high winds and it is not just because I’m always pulling a 16 foot 2 inch tall, double deck curtain sider, which is the maximum height allowed over here. It’s the fact that when it is windy I can’t relax.

I’ve actually got to work for my wages and drive the truck, not just point the thing north or south, engage cruise control and sit there and graze.

It’s not fear. When I was a young trucker I’ll admit the weather did scare me at times but after 40 years I’ve experienced most situations before and I think I now know how to handle them. The rules are fairly simple for drivers, high winds, slow down, snow and ice, leave plenty of space between you and the truck in front.

In these modern times some drivers bring up the weather app on their smart phones before leaving the yard. This instant forecast tells them the strength and direction of the wind but what it doesn’t tell them is the

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sheltered parts of the road, so I think you’re better off to just get out there and feel it for yourself.

I don’t know if it’s global warming or what, but for the three or four weeks before and after the end of 2013, our wee lump of rock has been constantly battered by strong winds and rain.

I did notice a strange thing though, and it got me thinking that in all my years of running the same stretch of road between Scotland and England I always knew where the windy exposed places were - or so I thought.

There are roads where, if I was northbound, I was guaranteed to be knocked into the middle of the road if I wasn’t paying attention. Places where, if I was on the

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PAGE 34

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MARCH 2014

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CB, I would say, “I’m at windy corner southbound,” and all my buddies would know exactly where I was.

But now, at a lot of these black spots, the wind has shifted and is now in my face or behind me. So what is happening? One day on the radio I heard a program that I thought might explain it. An “expert” said the magnetic north pole was shifting. Is that why the winds are coming from a different direction?

The Polar Vortex should be high up over the North Pole, has it moved down, freezing Canada and most of the USA because of the magnetic North Pole shift?

I’ve been quite lucky, the wind and rain don’t bother me very much and I haven‘t been blown over, but a lot of houses near the coast and rivers have been flooded.

Carlisle on the Scottish/ English border is always badly affected by floods because it’s surrounded by several rivers. Between Carlisle and Gretna is a straight exposed stretch of road where in the old days trucks were regularly blown over, the wind there always hit you square on the left hand side of the truck northbound, right off the Solway firth. (A firth is a large sea bay, or strait.) They widened the road there a while back from two to three lanes but it‘s still exposed.

A buddy of mine was blown over there. Like me he pulls a big double decker and was northbound when the truck went over on its side. He was running double manned at the time but luckily he and his co-driver were wearing their seat belts. When it all came to a shuddering halt he was ok and looked up to check on his co-driver who was now six feet above him strapped in his seat. Compared to my slightly built buddy the codriver was a big heavy guy and before he had a chance to speak the big guy hit the button on his seat belt and fell like a stone on top of him. Big mistake - my buddy went from no injuries to broken arm in a split second, but at least they were still alive to tell the tale.

So what do you guys over there think of my theory?

Has our planet moved on its axis, or is it just an old trucker with too much time on his hands and nothing interesting on the radio to listen to through the wee small hours of the morning? *****

A

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Two lawyers are in a bank, when, suddenly, armed robbers burst in. While several of the robbers take the money from the tellers, others line the customers, including the lawyers, up against a wall, and proceed to take their wallets, watches, etc. While this is going on lawyer number one jams something in lawyer number two’s hand.

Without looking down, lawyer number two whispers, “What is this?” to which lawyer number one replies, “It’s that fifty I owe you.”

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MARCH 2014

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MARCH 2014

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Phantom Driver

I seen him in the wrecking yard amid tons of rusted steel, Sitting in an old cab over, his hands resting on the wheel.

The glass there before him was cracked and streaked with dust, The engine resting on the ground was red with dirt and rust.

He called me in a quiet voice and motioned me inside, Dave Madill Said, “Come and take the shotgun seat and we’ll go for a ride”.

Dave Madill was I felt a chill come over my bones as I opened up the door, Pro-Trucker Magazine’s Rig of I swear I heard a starter whine as my feet hit the rusted floor. the Month in June of 2001 and he has Time and space seemed to fade away as I settled in the seat, been entertaining us with his poetry Now I heard the engine roar with a lonely deadly beat. ever since. Dave has published three The dust seemed to fade away, the dash shone with a ghostly light, books of poems that are available Headlights showed a winding road and a dark and cloudy night. by special order through Chapters The radio played old rock and roll, his fingers tapped on the wheel, Book Stores or amazon.com The old rig was a vision of shiny chrome and steel.

I heard the driver telling me about how he’d dodged the scale, Tonight would see him coming home as he dropped his load of mail.

He told me about his children and he cursed this trucking life, Told me of the highways and he told me of his wife.

Said this would be his final run, he was headed for the barn, Back to see his family and to settle down and farm.

Then I felt a deadly chill and he seemed to fade away, I sat in a wrecking yard in the cold hard light of day.

I stumbled from this rusted wreck got my feet on solid ground, No old men were in sight though I checked all around.

It seems that this old truck had wrecked back in sixty five, The driver never made it home from what was his final drive.

Did I really see him? Was he really there?

Or just a figment of my mind, cobwebs in the air?

The engine fan was spinning and it slowly wound on down, The haunting sound of rock and roll came from all around.

PAGE 38

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MARCH 2014

CALLING ALL

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MARCH 2014

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