November Issue 2011 Canadian Trucking Magazine

Dave brings to you 38 years of valuable experience in transportation, management, business and compliance. Dave has driven in every condition across North America and overseas as military, police, company driver to owner operator to now Publisher Editor of Canadian Trucking Magazine.

We have a lot about tecnology in this issue!

Front cover a picture of the feared and loved E Logs that were designed for (HOS) Hours of Service monitoring.

Dave MacNevin talks about a parents worst nightmare.

Dawn Truell talks about our borders.

Sandy Long weighs in on her always interesting point of view.

Take the time out to read all these articles as they all contain very interesting and important things that are happening around us.

This is the time were letters have been replaced with email, that people are ridding themselves of the home wired telephone for

cellular telephones, no longer is there paper maps, replaced by GPS units.

Our trucks and cars these days are just loaded with computers, power windows, power brakes, power steering, power windows and on and on.

So not surprising the next step would be to get rid of the paper log books for electronic.

How many people carry a phone book anymore? Most people just use thier black berry or Iphone or laptop to find numbers.

When the idea of big brother in a box first came out, I was dead against it. I was upset and knew I could not stop it.

Then guess what i tried it out!

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I found E Logs to be actually very easy to use and just the same as a paper log bog but without the ruler and pen.

In fact I found you can still run the miles you are use to without violation.

What is the difference between having a paper log book to be hauled into a scale house or E Logs on the side of your truck and get a pass.

I went on the internet to research what all the regulations are and when we must be running E Logs south but did not find a lot about it.

Mainly on the internet was blogs on how to cheat E Logs. Go figure.

I saw Quebec is having some issues with thier law enforcement people understanding E Logs,, I better not write what I am thinking here....but all in all the enforcement in the 20th century love E logs. They know you are running legal so they give you the green land look for the next truck without.

Brothers and sisters this is the age of tecnology

and all I can say is talk to someone who is running with E logs and you will want them too. Another great toy to have in the truck beside your CB, Scanner, GPS, Sirius Satellite Radio, microwave, fridge, tv, should I say more.

Just try running now with spring suspension, no power windows or air conditioning and armstrong steering and tell me progress is not a good thing.

Anyways, when you see me, I would be interested as always to hear what you have to say about this.

Now for my comments about Dave’s article this month about his daughter going missing.

Wow, can you even imagine that!

As a policeman I was involved in a number of missing person cases and I remember the worst 5 with young children that ended up with them drowned and dead.

It is a terrifying ordeal and I was happy to hear my brothers and sis-

ters with the RCMPolice pulled out all stops to do everything above and beyond because a child is involved.

I can’t believe that a transportation of people would not have to track persons under the age of 18. Just for the sake of runaways.

I hope Dave’s article stirs things up and we reach out to corporate and government to close this gap.

This could happen to you or some you know.

I also want to comment on Dawn’s article in regards to customs.

I spent over a year crossing the border with freight every day both ways. I have been border crossing myself for 38 years and I have had some bad experiences and some good experiences.

But all in all the people at the border are charged with the responsibility to keep us safe.

Can you imagine what would happen to a customs office that because it was a bad day for them or they were tired or lazy that a person crossed

blew up a school or peddled drugs your kids at thier school.

You would be one angry parent to find out harm was caused by something not detected at the border.

I think of it like boarding an aircraft, the security can search me all they want and tear apart all the luggage because I want a safe flight. Right, you don’t want something getting on board.

So same with our countries. In Canada there are over 44 thousand people that should not be here.

In the USA I bet the number is higher. These people may think they can cross the borders undetected or send some harmful materials. That’s where tecnology and our great dogs and on the ball Customs Officers kick butt.

Unfortunately we can’t thank them for thier service as they might think we are sucking up and search us.

But we can give them our full cooperation even when searched and show respect.

5 Happy Trails....Dave..

By: Dawn Truell, President, Cross Border Services Canada Borders Tightened Up

If you have travelled recently across borders entering back into Canada, you may have noticed increased delays as well as increased secondary inspections. Whether you are driving a car, van, pickup truck, bus, motor home or truck chances are that you will be pulled over for secondary screening.

The reasons are quite simple, there have been numerous drug and alcohol seizures over this recent year, our year is coming to a close and it’s Christmas season again.

On the evening of November 2, at the High-

way 55 border crossing, while CBSA officers were searching a passenger vehicle, 16 kg of cocaine were discovered in the spare wheel; the estimated resale value of these drugs is $2 million. These drugs were hidden inside of the tire spare wheel that was mounted under the vehicle.

On October 31, 2011 a 60 year old man arrived at the Peace Bridge border point in Fort Erie and declared a shotgun for a duck hunting trip. When he was referred to secondary screening in order to register his shotgun and verify his declaration, his vehicle was examined; border officers discovered 198 bottles of liquor and 25 cases of beer hidden throughout the vehicle, concealed under blankets and in a truck storage box.

Under the CBSA guidelines, all goods entering Canada must be reported to the CBSA border guards. Failure to report all goods may lead to penalty action up to and including seizure of the goods.

Smuggling, undervaluation and other Customs Act contraventions may also lead to prosecution in a court of law.

Over this past year, CBSA has performed 1,864 drug seizures, valuing $150 million, 553 seizures of alcohol in just the Southern Ontario Region alone. Officers have seized a total of 3,045 litres of liquor, 582 litres of wine and 2,889 litres of beer.

For further information please contact Dawn Truell, President, Cross Border Services, at: w w w. c r o s s b o r d e r s e r vices.org, crossborderservices@cogeco.net.

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Truckin’ & Tracking ,

By Dave MacNevin

Barcodes everywhere , RF frequency licence plates , Satellites in your truck and Transponders under your vehicle , yes Big Brother is watching and tracking everything .

Technology today blows me away and we in the trucking industry are in the forefront . Heck we can tell you where your load or box of freight is at any given time , and accurate within feet not miles . Some drivers are annoyed at these tracking mechanisms, but really, other than making creative log book writing more difficult they are an asset to us all. When you compare how we track our customers belongings or freight to how a certain company that transports living breathing people

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tracks them , we stand proud . This unnamed company with a fast dog on the side actually has no idea who or where the people sitting in their seats are at any given time . Airlines have it down to seat number but these guys don’t have a clue and they don’t care, even if the cargo is your 14 year old daughter . Yes , this I speak from a personal experience of trusting this transporter with the care of my sweet little angel. To make a long story short on this trip they redirected her to the wrong bus so when my brother in law watched the correct bus pull in and unload she wasn’t

and a Story about a Fast Dog there . Now panic sets in and believe it or not this fast dog outfit had no after hours operations people which my wife and I as well as the RCMP found out after dozens of calls. The RCMP actually sent cruisers to all routes close to the one she was on and boarded buses looking for her. Our mounties took the absence of my daughter seriously and they were on the case from the get go . Turns out she is sitting at a station on a bus schedule to arrive at her original destination 2 hours after the one she was supposed to be on . Thankfully my brother in law returned when we found out about the next arrival and there she was . So

after a professional letter with no flaming comments I send to the president of the fast dog company I get a reply stating anonymity and the ability of the people on their equipment to come and go as they please is what their customers want but feeling compassionate about the stress we endured for those two hours, he generously gave me a $15 dollar voucher good for any trip their Prevost fast dog would take me to . Nice Touch , eh ? So what the heck has this to do with trucking , well just to say we in the trucking world treat our customers replaceable materials with more concern and care than this large carrier of loved ones .

I am proud of this industry of Trucking and will fight to defend it and all that contribute their time and efforts to get goods delivered on time . For the top dog of the fast dog, I know where the $15 voucher should go, but instead upon publication of this article, I will send you an autographed copy with your voucher back and you can do whatever you like with it .

Safe Trucking to all. 11

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Sandy Long “

Trucking Santas doing Great Things

No Cell Phones, Less Working Hours, More Regulations: Oh My! The September 13th announcement of the NTSB’s latest recommendation that cell phone use of any kind by commercial drivers be banned was the latest in a long list of regulations, recommended regulations and proposed regulations that have become overwhelmingly burdensome to truckers. This in a governmental atmosphere of backing off on regulations to spur the economy, a quote from President Obama highlights this: "At the same time, I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover," he said.

What about the trucking industry?

Just this summer, against the wishes of the majority of people in the country, the government decided to go ahead and open the Mexican border to Mexican trucks that will have the potential of putting thousands of American truckers out of work.

New Hours of Service regulations propose to cut trucker’s work hours to 10 in a 24-hour period and extend the 34-hour restart to potentially 57 hours off including the midnight

thru midnight section. This will not only cut a driver’s wages, but increase the need for more drivers, more trucks and add to the congestion already caused by the old new hours of service. In many truckers’ opinions, this will lead to bringing in more foreign drivers who will not only work cheaper, but who may not be as safe as American drivers due to the so-called driver shortage.

Almost all truckers agree that the ban on texting while driving for truckers was a good move, but most do not agree with the need for more ‘nanny laws’ and all agree that the fine for texting while driving, up to $2700.00 for a first offence and the possibility of losing one’s license, are too stringent.

More states, cities and counties are instituting antiidling laws while some companies have decided, because of the economy, not to add apu units on their trucks. If a driver cannot sleep safely and comfortably, the driver risks accumulative fatigue, this while the FMCSA and lobbying groups are citing driver fatigue as a major contributing factor to accidents against statistical evidence to the contrary.

Drivers now are ticketed for mechanical failures that may occur after the pre-trip or where the driver is told by their employers to bring the truck to the nearest shop or terminal for repair.

Furthermore, if a law enforcement officer feels that only a

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warning ticket needs be issued for minor infractions, it will still show up on a driver’s and their company’s safety scores to the detriment of both.

Now the proposed ban on cell phone usage rears its head. In 2009, Ray LaHood head of the Federal DOT, conducted the first ‘safety summit’ where it was cited that the most problems were with young drivers 24 and under who texted while driving. In the report of this summit, it stated that the NTSB had recommended a full ban on cell phone usage three years before.

A study done for the FMCSA by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute that addressed the prevalence of driver distraction in CMV safety-critical events (defined as ‘crashes, near-crashes, crash-relevant conflicts and unintentional lane deviations’), shows that talking or listening on a hand-held cell phone in real world driving conditions does NOT create ANY increased risk of such safety-critical events for CMV drivers. (Olson, Hanowski, Hickman & Bocanegra, Driver Distraction in Commercial Vehicle Operations, Doc. No. FMCSARRR-09-042 (VITI Distraction Study) see Fed. Reg. at 8002080021 & Table 1.) (This information from OOIDA’s February, 2011 response to the FMCSA proposed rule against texting.)

In OOIDA’s response, it also stated that the FMCSA did not take into consideration hands-free cell phones.

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LaHood has cited several areas of distracted driving that needs to be addressed beyond texting and has set up a government website detailing this and focusing on the victims of distracted driving. One must wonder that if the FMCSA takes the NTSB recommendation seriously what will be next that truckers are not allowed to do.

As has been seen in recommendation after recommendation for more stringent regulations, the FMCSA, the NTSB and the Federal DOT has taken study after study and twisted the information to fit their own agenda; that of over-regulating the trucking industry. Working with the emotionally driven ‘victim’s’ groups such as PATT, CRASH, Concerned Citizens, et al, the governmental agencies that regulate the trucking industry are responding to the emotional, not the sensible, in their bid to put trucking behind other forms of commercial transportation.

(www.facebook.com/theoneandonlytv), email (trkrsvoice@thetruckersvoice.ne t), or twitter (@trkingsantas).“ Street Smarts: A Guide to a Truck Driver's Personal Safety Do not cuss a trucker or a farmer with your mouth full!

WINNIPEG – November, 18, 2011 - The Manitoba Trucking Association honoured the best and brightest of the industry on Thursday, November 17 with an awards banquet held at The Gates on Roblin. Guests and honourees attended the banquet, now in its seventh year, to celebrate the noble contributions individuals have made to trucking in Manitoba through commitment, volunteerism and policy direction.

Each year, members of the Manitoba Trucking Association nominate industry peers to receive several awards based on contributions they have made to not only the association, but to the trucking industry in Manitoba as a whole. The categories and recipients of last night’s awards are: • 2011 Volvo Trucks Manitoba Driver of the Year: William DeGroot, Arnold Bros. Transport • Payne Transportation LP Associate of the Year Award: Larry Seel, Wajax Power Systems • 2011 Manitoba Trucking Association Pioneer Club inductees: Borden Hadley, Smooth Freight Ltd Eldon Funk, Wajax Power Systems

• MTA/RBC Royal Bank Service to Industry Award: Earl Coleman, Big Freight Systems Inc. • MTA/Shaw Tracking Distinguished Member Award: Arnold Bros. Transport “We are delighted to be hosting this event for the seventh year now, and each year it becomes more difficult to pick just one recipient for these awards,” says Manitoba Trucking Association Executive Director Bob Dolyniuk, “with so many deserving members to choose from the selection process is very tight. It’s great to see so many members out supporting this banquet tonight.” The evening concluded with the Empowerment Entertainer Scott Burton who thrilled the crowd with his 45 minute performance.

The Manitoba Trucking Association could not have held such an exceptional event without the support of industry sponsors.

The MTA would like to thank Bison Transport, Manitoba Public Insurance, Arnold Bros.

Transport Ltd., Buffalo Driver Training and Beaver Truck Centre for sponsoring the reception, dinner, table wine, toast and entertainment respectively.

Thanks also go out to our Gold Sponsors: Custom Truck Sales Inc., AON Reed Stenhouse, Remple Insurance Brokers, Penner International and Peterbilt Manitoba, as well as Silver Sponsor Sysco Winnipeg, and Bronze Sponsors BFL Canada Insurance Services, Payne Transportation LP, Trailer Wizards and TST Overland Express.