Pro-Trucker Driver's Choice - January February 2024 ( Find Your Trucking Jobs)

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

BY JOHN WHITE

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

Once again, the trucking industry has outdone itself with solid community support for those less fortunate at this time of year. Every year, truck drivers and companies step up to the plate with everything from toy runs to food banks and lighted Christmas Parades. Yes, it is a lot of work decorating trucks for a parade, but the looks of wonder in the eyes of the children lining the streets is amazing. But I’m not sure who gets the most out of the parades because I’ve yet to see a driver who didn’t have a huge smile on their face while driving in a parade.

Others do their best to cater to truckers whose jobs have taken them away from home at Christmas. Thankfully, places like Blackjacks Roadhouse in Nisku generously open their doors and give them a home away from home. Once again, Clarence, his daughter Krista and their great staff and volunteers at BlackJacks hosted a free full turkey dinner for truckers. Other than pulling into your driveway at Christmas, I can’t imagine anything more comforting than pulling into BlackJacks and being treated like family.

My January Rant: BC is finally getting tougher on drivers and companies who hit overpasses. There were 16 overpass crashes in the greater Vancouver area last year and 31 since 2021. Chohan Freight Forwarders was named in six of those crashes.

You read that right. Out of 32 crashes, one company was responsible for 6 of them!

And the government has just now decided to suspend their Safety Certificate? What is wrong with this picture?

It sadly reminds me of the Humboldt tragedy, where sixteen people were killed and thirteen injured before provincial governments finally decided to put a band-aid on the problem with the inefficient MELT programs. Altogether, too little, too late.

Who is keeping track of the repetitive problems? Why does it always have to come after public pressure wakes the government up? It seems that votes, not safety, are their primary concern.

BC will also require heavy commercial vehicles to have their speed-limiting systems activated and programmed by April 5, 2024. This will limit their speed to 105 km/h. The fine for non-compliance and tampering is $295 and three driver penalty points. But so far, there has been no confirmation that company drivers, who have no control over the trucks, will excluded from receiving penalty points. “Drive it, or you’re fired!” has always been the threat from fly-by-night outfits who do not comply with the regulations.

Also, dump-style vehicles must have in-cab warning devices by June 1, 2024, to alert the driver if the dump box is raised. Hopefully, they will be in plain sight, not down by the PTO where one now exists. This has to be one of the most straightforward and inexpensive safety devices to install, so why is this just becoming mandatory in 2024? It has been a problem for years.

This comes down to the age-old problem of each provincial government having its own highly staffed transportation ministry with different rules and regulations for each province. Their little kingdoms are an expensive waste of tax payer’s money.

Transportation laws, regulations and driver training should be the same across Canada and fall under the National Transportation Ministry.

"It's no use saying, "We are doing our best." You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary."

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RIG OF THE MONTH by John White

My name is Johanne Couture, and I was born in Rouyn Noranda, PQ. My parents moved to Ottawa when I was two years old. That is where I grew up and went to school and college. My dad was a heavy machinery mechanic.

H

e came home from work smelling like diesel. My mother jokes that I spent too much time crawling around his work boots as a toddler, and that’s why diesel runs through my veins. I have always loved trucks. My dad had worked in a truck dealership at one point when I was 5 or 6, and a picture of me sitting in the driver’s seat of a customer’s truck left a lasting impression on me at that age. I was very much a daddy’s girl, and he would take me on service calls on the weekends. I even had a matching company jacket with my name embroidered on the sleeve.

After college, I got a good union Pro-Trucker Driver’s Choice Magazine

job working as a garage attendant in the vehicle maintenance department for OC Transpo, which is Ottawa’s city transit bus company. That was my first step into having a commercial driver’s license. They had their own in-house driving school for a Class C and air brakes Z endorsement.

After a few years, I concluded that as this was a union shop and seniority dictated what shifts and days off I could book, I would be on evenings and midnights with Tuesdays and Wednesdays off for many years to come. I was in my early 20s, so this didn’t leave me much of a social life opportunity. The man I was dating

Johanne Couture

at the time was a heavy tow truck operator, and I went along with him on many late-night calls. One night, I asked him to show me how to shift the truck. It was a 1986 Freightliner FLD with an 18-speed, and we were in a big, wide-open parking lot. It didn’t take me long before I got the hang of upshifting and downshifting.

I did some soul-searching and research and upgraded my Class C license to a Class A. In 1994, I took a driving school course in which I was the only woman in the class. The company owner was very supportive, and that was the first time I heard that women make excellent truck drivers because, according to him, they are JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

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more patient and much easier on the equipment. He also added he had first-hand experience because two of his daughters drove logging trucks in BC. The training was good, and the road test was a breeze. I passed on the first try, and I was pretty proud.

With a new class A license in hand, I set out to find a driving job that would pay me roughly the same as the union job I had but allow me more freedom in my work schedule.

I knew I’d be working longer hours, but at least I would have some weekends off. I had always wanted a job where I could “just pack up and leave, travel,” so trucking answered that wish. I mailed out a pile of resumes and got a call from a driving agency that offered me some parttime city work loading insulation bails on a flatbed and taking the load to the rail yard to transfer it to a rail car. I did my best at that but soon concluded that throwing straps over high loads wasn’t my specialty. I’m not that great at bowling either - the gutter balls count for nothing. But the part-time work at least let me add a little experience to my resume.

A few months later, through a friend of a friend, I was interviewed, did a road test and was hired by Kriska Transportation. They had a fleet of Internationals, pulled vans and ran cross-border. I was partnered with a great trainer for a month and ran team with an experienced driver for six months, after which I was confident enough to run single.

I credit those two gentlemen for getting me off on the right foot. A few years later, I was asked to be an onthe-road driver trainer and instructor at the in-house driving school they had started. Both positions gave me valuable experience, sharing the knowledge I had acquired.

This is also where I met my husband. He was the weekend dispatcher and later the corridor dispatcher. I discovered that a relationship with someone in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

the industry has advantages and disadvantages. Advantages: I didn’t have to go into a deep explanation as to why I wouldn’t be home when I planned to be there. It’s the “stuff happens” factor in trucking.

Disadvantages: when you get a phone from your dispatcher saying, “I need this load picked up in Mass on Saturday morning, and Dean (my husband) says you two don’t have any plans, so you can go pick it up.”

In 1998, I became an owneroperator, which was a whole new learning process. I remember the first time “I” was paying for the fuel going into “my” brand new 1998 Volvo 610. It was only 0.87 cents/gallon – my, how that has changed over the years. Today, I’d be tickled pink with $0.87 /litre!

I learned that building relationships would be key to my success. Not everything is measured by the bottom line number today. Sometimes, what happens today will affect tomorrow.

I’ve earned the respect of dispatchers I’ve worked with. Sometimes, doing the undesirable load on a Friday turns into the most time-saving and profitable load on Monday. Being flexible and negotiating is part of this industry.

In 2004, I upgraded to a Volvo 780, which had more room and comfort.

I also switched to a dedicated reefer division still with Kriska, a different challenge, different work, and the hum of a reefer to fall asleep to.

I left Kriska in late 2007 and worked for another van carrier for a few months, but the fuel price was going up faster than the fuel surcharge I was getting, so I had to make another change that brought me to where I am today. Laidlaw Tank (now Contrans Tank Group) had an ad toting one of the best fuel surcharges in the industry, so I decided to try it. There are no straps to throw over high loads, just a ladder to climb and hoses to handle. I had

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to learn new skills, but I was up for the challenge, and the fuel surcharge and mileage rate compensation were where I needed them to be. Learning how to drive with a liquid load in a chemical trailer with no baffles took a little adjusting. I left my first plant with a half-full, single-barrel acid tank. The lesson I learned that day is that I will never get a ticket for not wearing my seat belt or what I like to call the wave retention belt.

I love what I do for a living. It has given me so many opportunities and experiences over the years. I have delivered F1 Racing fuel to the paddocks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I’m a huge NASCAR racing fan, and my dispatcher at the time knew this, so when he saw a load going from Montreal to Indy and what it was, he thought this was the perfect load for me. He was right.

I was like a kid in a candy store. I delivered that a week before the race, but just being there had me smiling from ear to ear.

I have seen both oceans in the same week, from Vancouver to Saint John, NB, via Nashville. That was one of those weeks where everything worked perfectly on paper.

I showed a broken-down driver in Northern Ontario that if you wrap enough electrical and duct tape around a cracked airline, it will hold long enough to get you the 40 miles to the next shop. I’ll never forget how that driver looked at me, this 20-something-year-old woman, who had stopped to help. He initially didn’t have much faith in my Mcgyverism fix, but when he pulled into the shop parking lot for the night, he profusely thanked me for stopping and helping him out. That’s how things worked. This industry was like a brotherhood/sisterhood when I started driving almost 30 years ago.

Nowadays, we’ve lost some of that way of thinking. The CB radio was used more back then as a valuable Pro-Trucker Driver’s Choice Magazine

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method of alerting drivers about road conditions. We didn’t have radar apps about traffic delays, and we didn’t have Google Maps to check on broken-down drivers on the side of the road. We didn’t have truckdown apps, but one of the most useful courteous uses of the CB radio was to warn drivers going the other way about a situation in front of them so they would slow down. That saved a lot of accidents. I especially think of the lake effect snow zones in this scenario.

I’ve been in every lower 48 state and every province. It took me 23 years to say that as I kept missing Colorado and Kansas. For some reason, my destinations always sent me around those two states. I suppose that means I can officially wear the “Been there, done that” shirt. My personal favourite scenery is the majestic Canadian Rockies - when it’s not snowing. I’m a flatlander, and I know where I don’t belong. I’ll leave the chaining up for the hearty experts.

annually and other meetings like the by-annual CCMTA meetings.

I’ve slept in some odd places, on top of a hydroelectric dam, because the unloading process wasn’t going as the engineers had planned. In nasty neighbourhoods in New Jersey, the ground moved every time a truck went by because they had paved over swamp land. I thought I was Dorothy in South Dakota, and the tornado would take me away.

I feel you get what you put in; to see things change, you must get involved. Getting involved requires time, and time in our industry is very precious, especially home time. In 2012, I was nominated and elected to the OOIDA board of directors. I was the first Canadian driver and the first woman elected to the board. This was a time commitment to attend board meetings in Grain Valley, MO, twice

These positions have allowed me to convey the opinion of our members and drivers in general to government lawmakers on both sides of the border and educate some of them on our dayto-day realities. I’ve attended CVSA and CCMTA conferences and built relationships with representatives to advocate and convey our thoughts on road safety and enforcement issues.

The differences in points of view on

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In 2017, I was asked to join the board of directors for the Women’s Trucking Federation of Canada.

Today, I am the organization’s Executive Director. Our goal is to promote this rewarding industry to anyone who sees it as a possible career choice. We are a network of supportive and empowering individuals who thrive in this industry.

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the same regulation can be clarified with discussion.

Today, I drive a 2011 Volvo 730 with a D13 motor, the second one in this truck. I blew the original one this past April in West Virginia, with 2.4 million km on it. That gave me some extended home time, two months waiting for the new engine and two weeks for the swap. I was a victim of the supply chain deficiency. The truck has an iShift transmission, which I love, especially in Toronto traffic at rush hour. With a bad knee from a skiing accident years ago, I’m thankful not to have to push a clutch anymore. All 3 of my trucks have been white. The initial one was white because I had to meet a paint code clause for my carrier contract.

That is something that has become a thing of the past nowadays. After the paint code went away and I could add a bit of a personal touch to my decal package, I went with a racing JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

checkered flag theme. All black and white, so the saying on the back of my bunk says, “No Grey Areas.” I have a Carrier Comfort Pro APU for temperature-controlled comfort in Edmonton in January or Georgia in July.

My husband and I have been together since 1996, and we own a house on a quiet country road.

A traffic jam at our house is three

deer and 12 wild turkeys crossing the backyard. He had two kids from a previous marriage when we got together, and they’re both in their 30s now. We have one grandson, who we love to spoil. There’s the pitterpatter of little paws in our house.

Our 13-year-old German Shepherd passed away this past spring, and we now have a 10-month-old Shar Pei. She’s full of energy, so she keeps us on our toes.

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Letters to the Editor John I’ve been hauling logs for over 25 years, and the stats on the electric truck being developed in Merrit are pretty incredible. I would love to take that one for a run.

Bob Cummins, Alberta Editor’s note: Give them a call and stop by. Apparently, they are open to test drives.

John, They are finally doing something about the overhead pass crashes in BC. I can only say it is about time. Quotes from our Transportation Minister, Rob Fleming, are hilarious. He said, “So, the fines were — I think everybody would agree — ridiculously low and rarely issued,” Do you think? Who does he think is to blame, if not the Transportation Minister?

Or is he confirming that he has not been doing his job?

Tony Spires Vancouver Editor’s note: We should hold our elected officials’ feet to the fire concerning road safety and eliminate the very few

Pro-Trucker Driver’s Choice Magazine

cker azine Pro-Tru Choice Mag s Driver’

trucking companies and drivers creating the problems. As I have said before, truck drivers are a huge voting block, and by the polls, it looks like some politicians will find this out in the next election.

To the editor, So sorry to hear about the passing of your writer, Ed Murdoch. I knew Ed years ago, and he was always a good driver who never failed to surprise you with his general knowledge and dedication to the industry. Because of your article, I know much more about him now than I did before.

I had no idea he travelled that much or his musical history.

It explains why he was always considered a bit of a brain.

I worked with him at the same company both as a driver and then as the dispatcher, and he never failed to deliver.

Editor’s note: It seems that Ed touched a lot of people over his career. I have heard from a number of people like you who worked with him, and they all talk about how they respected him and his ability as a driver. Others only knew him as a writer, and they said how much they liked his articles.

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Helping Out in a Clutch I

was running for a company out of Calgary and returning from a trip to Edmonton. I had just passed Red Deer and was approaching the big hill when I noticed a truck pulled over. I thought I recognized it as my buddy Lou’s, Hayes Clipper. As I got closer, I could see it was, so I pulled over to check if everything was OK and chatted for a few minutes. Lou was under his truck, so I waited for him to crawl out, and he explained that he had been nursing a bad clutch and was trying to make it home to Calgary, but it seemed like everything had disintegrated, and he was not moving at all. After a few minutes, I suggested he lock it up and come with me, and we could deliver my load and drop my trailer in the yard and then bobtail back, and I would pull him out from under his load and then deliver his load and then come back and tow his truck home.

First, we delivered my load, dropped the trailer in the yard, returned, got Lou’s load, delivered

that, and then headed back for the Clipper. We got back just as it was turning dark, so we crawled into our bunks for a while and waited until 3 am before heading out. Now Lou and I and two other guys had rented a small shop where we could park our trucks inside and do our maintenance, so that’s where we headed. After getting Lou’s truck inside, we slept a few extra hours.

I was up early, hopped in my pickup, ran over to The Blackfoot Truck Stop, picked up a couple of bacon and egg sandwiches and coffee, and returned to the shop. I woke Lou up and, while we ate, called my company and shut myself down for repairs, then we started tearing the Hayes apart. By three, we had everything out, and Lou was off to the dealer to pick up parts and some KFC for supper. We worked on it until about 9 pm, and by then, we were both dragging our butts and starting to make little mistakes, so we knocked it off, and both of us went home to our beds and caught a good

solid sleep. I got down to the shop about 8 am just as Lou did, and now fresh and with a much clearer head, Dave Madill we went back to work and by 3:30, Lou fired up the Clipper and went for a test drive. After a couple of minor adjustments, everything was ready to roll. I spent the next day doing maintenance on my rig and then returned to work.

Neither Lou nor I were mechanics, but we had grown up repairing our own vehicles, so we managed to keep our costs down and help each other out when needed.

In Memory of one of the best friends and talented drivers I have ever known, Lou Norris, the Calgary Clipper.

STANLEY/MECHANIC’S KNIFE Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door. Works best on those cartons containing seats, rare gaskets and seals. Also used for removing the outer coating on electrical wire. This is after you have had 3 attempts at first, and cut the copper wiring also, thereby shorting your original wire by 6 inches.

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL Normally used for spinning steel pop rivets in their holes but is also works for drilling mounting holes in fenders just above the brake line to the rear wheels. These sometimes comes with an automatic cord rewind that only works when your drill jams in the fender holes and warps the edge.

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Dumb and Dumber H

ave you ever had a situation develop around you that left you scratching your head and thinking, “Did I really see what I just saw happen?” I’ve had more than one or two. I’ll tell you about some.

It was winter, and I was on the Coquihalla highway just past Merritt and headed towards Vancouver.

A heavy snowfall had left about a foot of snow and slush on the road. It hadn’t been plowed, so I was cautious, following two ruts as I came down the grade toward Larson Hill. I saw a truck coming up fast behind me, so I moved over to let him pass. He was pulling a van with a Conventional Peterbilt that had Quebec plates. It was slippery, so I slowed even more, thinking I might see him again. I could see the remainder of the hill from where I was and watched as he rapidly overtook a car. At the bottom of the hill was a cloverleaf interchange, exiting onto Coldwater Road back to Merritt.

He was in deep snow and started to jackknife as he passed the car. I put the flashers on and slowed further.

He missed the car but touched the New Jersey divider on the left, which made him veer to the right and hit the cement divider on the exit to Merritt.

He blew through the concrete and headed into an extremely steep pit in the cloverleaf. As the trailer went through the concrete blocks, the back trailer doors broke open, and two pallets of Booster Juice spilled out on the highway.

When he passed me, I noticed two drivers in the truck. As he went through the barrier, the tractor disappeared, going over the road’s

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

edge and heading down. What I saw next, I could not believe. The truck and trailer did an endover-end and landed completely upside down. It was about 100 feet below me and about 500 feet from the highway.

When the unit landed upside down, the trailer was squashed ½ in height, and the tractor’s roof was crushed level to the hood, with all the wheels in the air. The police soon arrived, and thankfully, neither driver got killed, but I’ll bet there was one guy who didn’t drive double again.

If you don’t do stupid things when you are young you won’t have anything to laugh about when you are old.

The last story that caused me to think, “What kind of deal is this?”

It was many years before the other stories. I was a lease operator hauling mobile homes with a single-axle Western Star set up to haul mobile and modular homes. I was going from Saskatoon to Regina with just the tractor, and as I got to the small town of Craig, SK. I saw a lot of dust and shrapnel flying. There was an accident. Polaroid cameras had just

By Glen Millard

Glen “The Duck” was born in Saskatchewan. He has driven trucks for 50 years, mostly long hauling.

He’s now retired, that is until another adventure comes along.

come out, and I always carried one to verify any damage on the homes before loading them. I saw no one was hurt, so I stopped and turned on all my rotary lights and flashers.

I grabbed the camera and stepped out onto the truck’s fuel tank, took a picture, pulled the photo out and set the camera back on the seat to let the picture develop. Before I got out, I heard a screech, and another car slid past my truck and ran into the already wrecked car. I reached back in and took another picture.

I set it on the seat, and there was a horn and a crash that hit the last one to the pile, bounced off the wrecks, and went into the ditch backwards.

Another picture! I think I took seven pictures in all. What a mess. By the time the police arrived, it was just a big mess, so when he asked if there were any witnesses, I told him about the pictures. He said he wanted them because you could see who was first, why the guy was in the ditch backward, and how all the pieces fit. He gave me a form that he filled out and took the pictures. The form was a voucher that I could use at any R.C.M.P. detachment so they could reimburse me for the cost of the Polaroid refill. No one was badly hurt, so I got myself ready to go, and as I slowly drove around the junk, I could not stop thinking I was sure the cop was thankful to have those pictures.

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Just Be There…

I

intended to write part 2 of my last article about being a paid tourist until my Christmas party.

While ‘tis the season for merriment and joy, others and I descended into a conversation regarding friends we had lost around this time. It was rather shocking to me how many people we knew had taken their own lives around the holidays. More frightening still was the common thread of none of us seeing it coming.

Mental health is always a hot-button topic I am admittedly not an expert in, and as I listened to the stories my colleagues told, it became painfully clear I wasn’t alone.

Some of us had friends who had been through painful divorces, some had bad childhoods, and others led seemingly “normal” lives. We all noticed there were no signs saying this guy was a ticking timebomb.

How was this possible? Why could we not see it coming? As a rule, most had talked with us in the last days/ weeks before their demise and had seen normal posts on social media recently - no clues.

loved ones and the ruin left behind.

Even when a note was left to explain, there were more questions than answers. Tears were shed in drinks as we shared memories, pondered signs we might have missed, and kicked ourselves for not making that one extra call or dropping by. The theme is always the same, sadness and a feeling we could have done something more.

As noted earlier, I am no expert, no psychologist. I don’t even play one on TV. I am just a guy who wants to help and believes my actions will do just that. My first step was thinking about my own mental health. Not my current happy state of mind, but back where I’ve been in the past. No one goes through life without low points, especially not in Trucking, so I tried to reflect on those times. I tried to dig into what got me through it, what picked me up, what made things worse. For me, the key to it all was communication.

At the lowest points in my life, things got lower when I thought I was alone. Not physically alone but I think back to the funerals of the alone in the problems I was facing. I friends I know who took that step and felt that no one would identify with picture the kids and the parents and what I was going through and that it was something too shameful to share. I was embarrassed to share it and Drivers are well Compensated! Please Inquire. worried about burdening my family and friends. I am lucky to have Flatbeds, Step Decks & Double Drops the parents I 2 yrs exp & acceptable abstract do; they were Western Canada & USA able to see I was Some dedicated runs struggling and draw it out to get

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By Greg Evasiuk Greg is a 3rd generation trucker with over 1 million miles and 22 years in trucking.

me talking. So, how do we make sure people start talking?

That is the question I think is at the heart of men’s mental health.

It is the key to it all, and I’m sure you all have answers to it as well.

My answer is to share stories and let other men know it’s okay to talk about something deeper. It is okay to have thoughts of doom and gloom.

Thoughts are just something that runs through our heads, and we can choose which ones to pay attention to. I think of them as rolling on a conveyor belt in a factory, and if I am constantly getting bad ones, I need to slow down production. Maybe get a second opinion on the lousy quality!

It used to be a real issue for me to be alone with those thoughts, which was nearly all the time when I was first on the road. As truckers, we have a lot of alone time watching the miles pass and thinking. As my good friend Luke said on our podcast, “Trucking is my therapy. It’s also why I need therapy!” There is a lot of truth in that statement. Hitting the road tunes cranked or listening to the rumble of the pipes and the highway can make you lose yourself in the journey. At the same time, it can be hours of beating yourself up over some bad decision or replaying an argument over and over.

Maybe I am oversimplifying here, but I’m no expert. I would JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

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hazard a guess if you are reading this in the pages of our magazine, you aren’t either. I want people to let their friends, co-workers and family know that it’s good to talk.

Start conversations with one another before there’s a problem. For me, the biggest help was knowing that I wasn’t the only one who had faced what I was going through. While no two situations are the same, there is solace in knowing someone else has survived what you’re going through.

couldn’t talk about it; I didn’t want to admit it, and for a short time, I felt like the people I loved would be better off without me. Coming from a family that had done well in business and having been proud to be an entrepreneur myself, it felt like a failure worse than anything. It felt like something I wouldn’t come back from. It was pure chance that I talked to someone who had been bankrupt.

The guy was a success when he told his story. That changed my life.

While I am not proud of it, I had financial problems some years back.

Long story short, I considered going bankrupt, and it was killing me. I

Having proof that his life went on let me talk to my family about it. I was soon able to own up to what was happening. Financially, it

was terrible, but what I learned was priceless. Don’t get me wrong, those were some incredibly tough years, but through the process, I found that people who truly liked and loved me still did. I also found that the ones who no longer were around weren’t needed anyway.

I now am always ready to share some of these “shameful” experiences because it’s part of who I am. I’m fallible, I make mistakes, I have successes, I am human. When I say just talk, be willing to share some of your failures; you may inadvertently talk someone off the ledge. You may find therapy in sharing it as well.

VICE GRIPS Another tool used for rounding off bolt heads. Can also be used for transferring intense heat derived from welding, to the palm of your hand and also as a hammer in an emergency. This tool, as its name implies, can at times exceed its job description and latch on strongly in its clasp any object therefore turning a one handed job into a two handed job as you try to pries the jaw release levers apart.

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Promised Land Up above the normal crowd in my steed of glass and steel, The rhythm of my heart beats with the pounding of the wheels, Dave Madill

My diesel sings a happy note as the highway winds along, It seems to say, “We’re nearly home,” with the rumble of its song.

We pull into the driveway and our song begins to die, I turn the key and shut it down, the engine seems to sigh I step down slowly from the cab and she meets me at the door As I put my arms around her, now I know what I am working for: She greets me with a tender kiss and takes me by the hand I know my run is over; I have reached the Promised Land.

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Thinning the Herd Every country in the world has laws. Canada is no different, we have our laws and they are for the wellbeing of not only ourselves but those around us. In the trucking industry we have laws to govern the way we do business. Last October on one of the highways in British Columbia the Commercial Vehicle Inspectors set up a roadside check point. When I was listening to the 6’oclock news on TV the news caster announced that 16 commercial vehicles were put out of service for various reasons. For the average person, that would scare them thinking there had been 16 trucks out there that were defective and they could cause an accident. What they didn’t tell you was how many trucks were inspected, what the time frame was and why were they put out of service.

(It could be as simple as clearance lights being burnt out.) Also were there 17 trucks inspected in a 2 hour period and 16 of them were defective? Or was it 117 trucks inspected in a period of 3 days and 16 were defective? That is a big difference. When the drivers were questioned by the inspectors, I wonder how many “I did not know” answers they got. It makes you wonder if a pretrip was even performed by some of them.

The second part of the news cast got me angry. There were 4 drivers that did not have proper licencing.

What kind of a company, would put a truck on the highway with a driver that did not have a qualified drivers licence? If the owner comes up with “I did not know” for an answer he should not be in the trucking business. If he had disregarded the law thinking he could get away with it he should be put out of business and never allowed back into the industry in any capacity.

No going across the street and starting up another company or amalgamating with another company. I know a person that owns two trucking companies, one is the “clean” company and the other is the “dirty” company. The “clean” company hauls just enough freight to stay alive and have a good safety record. The “dirty” company hauls 95% of the freight. If the “dirty” company gets closed down the “clean” company takes over and it’s business as usual. He calls it good business practice. There is always someone who will bend the rules but to my way of thinking you either obey the rules or not – there is no bending.

A long time ago (late 1980’s) the transport industry was deregulated and since then the industry has gone downhill as far as maintenance and class of drivers is concerned. Every time it slipped farther down the hill the government put in new laws.

They started putting on more roadside inspections and they discovered so

By Frank Milne Retired Driver, Lease operator and company owner

many more infractions that they implemented the 6 month vehicle inspection by a certified repair facility.

Everyone knows there was cheating going on – half price, no inspection and you got your sticker.

It seems that every time we cut corners it eventually catches up with us and the government steps in to try and cure the problem. We can’t blame the government for all these regulations – it is fly by night companies and dishonest individuals who are to blame. It’s a shame that the companies that break the law and the companies that comply, both have to bear the burden and the extra expense.

There is an old saying – it only takes one bad apple in the barrel to ruin the whole barrel. It’s the same in the trucking industry – we have to get rid of the bad operators.

P.S. Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we set out to deceive.

P.P.S. There is no substitute for the truth.

WIREWHEELS Cleans off rust from old bolts. Once the job is done it will snatch the bolt from your grip and fling/file it in some small nook underneath the bench thus ensuring it is stored safely away. Also good for removing calluses from your hands as you hold the bolt. Can be over zealous at this job sometimes.

TWEEZERS Used for removing residue from previous tool. Also good for picking up that small screw that is unmanageable with the average males fingers Pro-Trucker Driver’s Choice Magazine

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And to All, a Good Night!

Well, it’s that time of year again.

One that’s supposed to bring me much joy but also much sadness. As I’ve written in other articles, Christmas has not been the same since my mom passed away. We do not have a large family, so her absence just gets amplified. I tend to pull away from my family during the holidays and stick to my truck, my comfort zone.

I know it’s a selfish move on my part but its how I feel I can deal with the situation.

Faith Hill sang this in the Grinch movie, and every time I hear it, it brings tears to the surface.

“Where are you Christmas Do you remember The one you used to know I’m not the same one See what the time’s done Is that why you have let me go, oh” I do find some spirit, however, in gift-giving. Seeing someone smile and receive a gift that I selected for them brings me happiness. Much thought goes into giving gifts and cards. Some people think Christmas cards are silly, but if I give one, you can bet I stood in that card aisle until I could find one that was perfect for the recipient.

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

The other place I gather the Christmas spirit is taking part in the Portage la Prairie Rotary Club Santa Claus Parade. This year, I told myself that I didn’t want to volunteer to participate if it meant I would lose too many work days. Sometimes I get in that greedy mind space where I think the world may end if I take a few days off of work. It’s hard to get out of that worry and just think that maybe a few days off will do ya good!

Of course, though, the preparation for getting the truck ready takes up all the time off I would get before the parade anyway. This year, it just so happened that I got home on the Wednesday night before the Friday night parade. I participated last year and still had all of the decorations put aside, but I feel how my truck is displayed reflects me, and I felt like I wanted just a bit more pizzazz.

Let me start by saying that TikTok can be wonderful or send you quickly spiralling down a rabbit hole. I found a gingerbread cookie girl inflatable decoration at Walmart and decided that a Candyland theme for the parade might be fun. I scrolled through TikTok because I was sure I had seen a couple of clips on how to make life-sized lollipops, macaroons and other candies. I scrolled through and saved all my favourites. I made a shopping list which consisted mainly of pool noodles, hot glue and tape.

Thursday afternoon, I had all the

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supplies I needed laid out in the office at work. I recruited the help of my coworker, Mandy, and we set off on this mission. Things turned out better than I could have imagined. Now, the hard part was attaching everything securely to the truck.

Friday morning, I was up bright and early to wash my truck, wipe it down to make it extra shiny, and then devise a plan on how I wanted everything to look. I must say, packing tape and zip ties are my new best friends! Again, I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. It’s amazing what you can craft with pool noodles and paper plates, and we did

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

all of this in 24 hours.

Friday evening, I set off for the parade. The weather that night was fantastic! I believe they had a record number of spectators. Many of my coworkers walked alongside my truck, handing out candy. I had my windows rolled down as I idled down the parade route. I wanted to wish Merry Christmas to those in attendance and hear their feedback and giggles when I tooted the horn.

The smiles on everyone’s faces made my heart feel full! As I said, the Christmas spirit is hard to find for me, but I was extremely uplifted in that moment. I knew when the

parade was over that, I would be back to feeling a little down, but that joy I felt was more than I could have asked for. One thing that made me giggle was that I could hear children raving about the candies made from paper plates and how cool they were.

I thought to myself, “We slaved away taping, gluing and wrapping pool noodles to broom handles, and the cheap and easiest decorations were actually the favourite!”

Lesson learned, folks - you don’t always have to spend a ton of time and money on something to bring happiness to others. It’s all in the little things!

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Winter Wonderland Trucking

I

’d not had my class licence for long, and the ink was hardly dry when I got a job with a real trucking company. It was a big change from running about the streets in a threeton van delivering parcels people had ordered from shopping catalogues.

Archibald Brechin was a company that took on just about any driver when they were busy. They covered all aspects of the whisky haulage industry: the grain to make it, the casks, and bulk tankers. If you had a brand-new licence or years of experience, it didn’t matter.

They kept most of the drivers during the busy time, then paid off when things slowed down.

To begin with, I was on local jobs hauling the grain, and then I got moved onto box vans hauling the casks, full and empty. When loading empty casks with no bungs in the summer heat (yes, it gets warm in Scotland), I would get a little lightheaded from the fumes in the back of the trailer.

As the winter weather came in, I got a few deliveries a bit further up into the snowy north of Scotland that involved an overnight stay. The fleet had no sleeper cabs, so I had to find a B&B. In hindsight, I think the boss was probably trying me out to see what I could do.

One day, he said, you keep a nice clean lorry, that’s good. But what else can you do when you’re sitting waiting to get loaded or unloaded, and there’s a couple of old rags in the cab? One day, I was in the yard when he asked me to help another driver change a ripped tarp on a flatbed trailer loaded with pallets.

We got the tarp changed and started to rope it down. I had no idea how to make the hitch that we call a dolly over here, so when the rope came over to my side, I just pulled it as tight as Pro-Trucker Driver’s Choice Magazine

I could, put it around a hook, and threw it back over.

When I started getting more bulk tanker work, I was glad to get away from the physical box van work loading full whisky casks. It was almost Christmas when I came back to the yard one day. The boss said there’s a full tanker going to the Co-op supermarket bottling plant in Warrington tomorrow. There was another driver beside him, and the boss told him to give me directions to the place. I suspect this driver had been asked to do the trip first but made some excuse not to go because it was so near Christmas.

Some people don’t want to hear your opinion. They want to hear their opinion coming out of your mouth.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a number of drivers who have gone to more than their fair share of grandma or grandpa funerals when heavy snowfall is forecasted, or Christmas is a few days away.

Archibald Brechin was a company with a fleet of old ERF, Foden, and Volvos. There was one ERF with a 220 Cummins. All the rest were Gardener 180s, a real boss’s favourite,

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

economical, pulled like a train, but not the fastest truck on the road. When I came in the following day, and the 220 Cummins was ticking over, I thought my luck was in, but no, I got a Volvo, although the Volvo is very car-like and easier to drive.

I set off with my load, and after driving for a while, I thought I should have written those directions down. A real rookie mistake, trying to look as if you’re more experienced than you are., I was hoping to find somebody to point me in the right direction when I came off the main highway and stalled the truck at a set of traffic lights. I turned the key, and all I heard was click, click. Another trucker came to my cab door and suggested giving the starter a knock with the wheel key, while he turned the key, I hit the starter, and it was a success.

I eventually found my delivery and got unloaded, but it was late afternoon by now. I’d been up and down that highway many times through the years, and I knew the round-trip driving time should’ve taken eight and a half hours. But with the dodgy starter and getting lost, I needed a bed for the night.

Luckily, another trucker saw a rookie in trouble and took me to the place where he would be sleeping that night.

After a Christmas dinner and a good night’s sleep, my fellow trucker came out with me after breakfast and helped start the lame Volvo to get me home.

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INDEX Berry & Smith ..................................................................................................... 09

TRUCKING SERVICES

Challenger Motor Freigh ............................................................................... 40 APNA Truck Show 2024 .............................................................. 04

Geyser Transport .............................................................................................. 37

B & W Insurance .................................................................................... 06

Golden Express Trucking Inc. ..................................................................... 19

Behind the 8 Diesel Engine Parts .................................................. 26

Grant Transport Inc. ......................................................................................... 24

Cool Heat Truck Parts .......................................................................... 08

Green Freight Assessments ......................................................................... 15

Cool-it ........................................................................................................ 22 Howes Lubricator ......................................................................... 20 & 21

Keywest Express .............................................................................................. 17

Mobalign .................................................................................................. 09 Moh Trucking .................................................................................................. 05

Norris & Co. .............................................................................................. 33

North Coast Trucking Ltd. ............................................................................ 03

Ocean Trailer .......................................................................................... 16

Reliance Logistics ........................................................................................... 39

The Gear Centre .................................................................................. 25 Trucking APP ....................................................................................... 41

Transam Carriers Inc. .................................................................................... 42

Trucker’s Together ............................................................................... 29

TransX ................................................................................................................... 02

Trucker’s Pages ..................................................................................... 27

Trican .................................................................................................................... 38

ZZ Chrome ........................................................................................... 32

18

30

Dave Madill

Myrna Chartrand

HELPING OUT IN A CLUTCH

AND TO ALL, A GOOD NIGHT!

23

28

Glen Millard

Frank Milne

DUMB AND DUMBER

24

JUST BE THERE Greg Evasiuk

THINNING THE HERD

34

WINTER WONDERLAND TRUCKING Colin Black

Pro-Trucker Driver’s Choice Magazine

10 RIG OF THE MONTH JOHANNE COUTURE

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