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By Alex Frazer-Harrison
usinesses may come and go and companies may downsize, but one thing remains constant – people will always need stuff transported from place to place. That’s why transportation continues to be one of the biggest employers in North America. “I’ve driven a million and a half miles. I don’t have a BlackBerry and I don’t have a suit – I’m a basic trucker,” says Bob Hill of Calgary-based Hill Bros. Expressways Ltd., and a director with the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA). “My father owned a trucking company…at 10 years old, I started working on the dock and, at 12, started driving in the yard.” Hill says there’s a misconception that the transportation industry begins and ends with drivers. In fact, it is a very complex sector – not only do you need people (men and women) behind the wheel, but also, he says, “that goes along with dispatching and co-ordinating of people and equipment .… You’ve got pieces of equipment and persons driving it and a client and a destination, and you have to puzzle that together. “A business wants to move something, so they call a company like mine. There is a dispatcher and the dispatcher gets hold of the foreman or driver, a dock person unloads and reloads (the cargo), and, if the truck breaks down, you have to have mechanics. And then there’s purchasing – it is a diverse industry.” A 2009 report from Alberta Employment and Immigration predicted there will be 106,800 jobs in the transportation and warehousing industry by 2013, and the industry was forecast to provide two per cent of new jobs in Alberta between 2010 and 2013. The AMTA provides training opportunities, particularly in the area of enhancing driver and workplace safety, and provides on-site safety auditing for companies like Hill’s while “fostering a healthy, vibrant industry.” Hill says what’s kept his interest as a 33-year journeyman is that there’s always something new to learn. “The technology has changed over the last 30 years, and I have worked on these things my whole life,” he says. “But, believe it or not, 30 years ago, when I was driving and picking up freight in the city, I didn’t have a cellphone but still got as much done as we do today.” Hill says a challenge faced by his industry is the fact that trucking is not always recognized as a skilled profession; in fact, he says, he even started a petition to “try and convince the (federal) government to
recognize trucking as a skilled workforce.” Hill says AMTA’s biggest role is “is to encourage safety in the industry. You go there to get the training to be safer.” Courses offered cover topics from cargo securement to professional driver-improvement courses. The AMTA also works to promote transportation as a career choice through its Road Knights program, a team of experienced drivers that visits schools and job fairs to discuss life on the road and in the loading docks. “It’s a team of professional transport drivers with first-class driver’s licences and a truckload of information about the trucking industry and safety,” says program co-ordinator Rebecka Torn. “The AMTA assembles this team every two years and the drivers are nominated by the companies they work for. They are sent out to make presentations on how to safely share the road with trucks and careers in the industry, and how dependant we are on truck transportation.” Most people don’t realize there are many careers beyond truck driving, Torn says. “They see the truck and driver and assume that’s all there is … but there are many positions behind the scenes required to put a truck on the road: maintenance, IT, sales and marketing, a lot of high-tech with satellite tracking and GPS,” she says. “The Road Knights try to make people aware of the positions available.” Torn says there is a “severe shortage” of truck drivers right now, so the Road Knights visit schools and career-awareness events for adults, often with a tractor-trailer on hand to give kids and adults a firsthand look at the equipment and, hopefully, inspire future career choices along the way. “Road transportation competes with other industries, especially in Alberta with the oil and gas … the industry is looking for drivers, in particular, but other positions as well,” says Torn, adding the grey wave of retiring baby boomers is going to put pressure on the industry in the near future. “To keep the wheels moving in the next 10 years, we need to replace the men and women behind the wheel.” This also includes encouraging more women to enter the industry, not just as drivers, but also in the many other positions available, she says. For more information about the AMTA, including booking a Road Knights presentation, visit amta.ca or call 1-800-267-1003.
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2011-2012 AMTA Road Knights Team (from left to right): Darwin Clark, Trimac Transportation (Edmonton); Rob Wells, Bison Transport (Calgary); Craig Gavel, Bison Transport (Edmonton) and Dennis Hokanson, Trimac Transportation (Edmonton).