Fleet Executive May June 2015

MOTORTRUCK

MAY JUNE 2015

CANADA’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR FLEET OWNERS

SPECIAL INSIDE

FAST FORWARD: An inside look at the future of trucking

EQUIPMENT Autonomous trucks on our roads — the reality is here

TIRE MANAGEMENT Maintenance and evaluation programs that deliver results

Ending the nightmare Why sleep apnea among your workforce must be addressed and what you can do about it

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Volume 84, No. 03

May/June 2015

contents 30

Cover Story 22 ENDING THE NIGHTMARE:

Addressing sleep apnea among your workforce

Features 17 RESHAPING TRUCKING Vehicle connectivity innovations will soon change the face of the trucking industry, reshaping everything from maintenance practices to driver productivity

20 LEADERS Wes Armour on fostering good relationships, work-life balance and investments for the long term

26

26 WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

Departments 4 WHAT’S ON

Tire maintenance and evaluation programs are essential to keeping costs down

28 WOMEN WITH DRIVE How other industries are attracting women to the workplace

5 THE VIEW WITH LOU 7 MAILBAG

28

10 THE BOTTOM LINE 13 RISKY BUSINESS 14 TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS 16 THE HUMAN EDGE 30 GEARED UP 38 INSIDE THE NUMBERS

SPECIAL INSIDE

FAST FORWARD: An inside look at the future of trucking

trucknews.com

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WHAT’S ON TRUCKNEWS.COM Brought to you by the editors of Truck News, Truck West and Fleet Executive

BLOGS

FEATURES

>W hat’s the secret to Orlick’s success?

CAROLINA BILLINGS

What is your “Brand” worth?

Branding is who you are. Your brand works itself into people’s minds and can alter their behavior and attitudes towards your company.

EARL GALAVAN Safety? Safety?

Safety.

Safety has become a really overused word. It is used, abused, and applied to all manner of things, but I wonder if we really understand what we mean by safety.

When you ask for safety in your workplace what do you expect; and is the safety you get anything close to what you wanted?

Gene Orlick was frustrated when we sat down with him for an interview. The long-time Calgary carrier owner was faced with finding a quick replacement for a driver who quit suddenly after one of his loads was cancelled. Yet it was just another in the challenges he – and many other owners – faces on a daily basis.

> A MTA leaders gather for conference

The remarkable landscape surrounding Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise may not have contributed to the success of this year’s annual Management Conference for the Alberta Motor Transport Association, but it certainly didn’t hurt. And by the time the last member had gone home again they’d been treated to some fine wining and dining, as well as plenty of food for thought they can take with them going forward. Find out what they learned.

> B .C. Kenworth dealer cuts a big cheque to interior college

A British Columbia truck dealer will see its name displayed prominently and proudly at the Kelowna campus of Okanagan College after it made a $50,000 donation to the school.

Inland Kenworth, which opened its West Kelowna outlet recently, made the gift as a way to help ensure a healthy stream of technicians is available to fill its upcoming positions, as well as to raise its profile in its new community.

Web TV:

Transportation Matters SHAPING THE AGENDA CITT’s Canada Logistics Conference 2015 to cover industry hot button issues.

A NEW HIGHWAY ROLLER COMES TO CANADA Michelin introduced the Uniroyal truck tire line to Canada at this year’s ExpoCam. IN IT TOGETHER You know what drives shippers and carriers apart. What should bring them together?

SHIPPER SPEAK What do shippers want from carriers?

It’s simple: Execution.

SOCIAL MEDIA FIND US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/trucknews

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FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @FleetExecutive | @TruckNewsMag | @JamesMenzies | @LouSmyrlis @JuliaKuzeljevic | @KathyPenner | @SoniaStraface trucknews.com

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THE VIEW WITH LOU

MOTORTRUCK

See you at the Summit on October 14th

is written and published for owners, managers and maintenance supervisors of those companies that operate, sell and service trucks, truck trailers and transit buses.

MAY/JUNE 2015

VOL. 84 NO. 03 PUBLISHER & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Lou Smyrlis (416) 510-6881 lou@TransportationMedia.ca GEARED UP EDITOR

James Menzies (416) 510-6896 jmenzies@trucknews.com FEATURES EDITOR

Julia Kuzeljevich (416) 510-6880 julia@TransportationMedia.ca

It’s the best lineup of topics and speakers we’ve ever put together Lou Smyrlis

MCILT, Editor • lou@transportationmedia.ca

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Sonia Straface (416) 510-6890 sstraface@TransportationMedia.ca CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Roy Gaiot rgaiot@bizinfogroup.ca ADVERTISING CREATIVE DIRECTORS

Carolyn Brimer Beverley Richards CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Ken Mark Ian Putzger John G. Smith Carroll McCormick Harry Rudolfs ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Kathy Penner (416) 510-6892 kpenner@trucknews.com NATIONAL SALES MANAGER

Don Besler (416) 699-6966

ACCOUNT MANAGER

Brenda Grant (416) 494-3333 PRODUCTION MANAGER

Kim Collins

(416) 510-6779 CIRCULATION MANAGER

Mary Garufi

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

Brad Ling

VICE PRESIDENT

Joe Glionna PRESIDENT

Jim Glionna Head Office: 80 Valleybrook Drive Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 Motortruck Fleet Executive is published by Newcom Business Media Inc. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, either in part or full, including photocopying and recording, without the written consent of the copyright owner. Nor may any part of this publication be stored in a retrieval system of any nature without prior written consent. Motortruck Fleet Executive is indexed by Micromedia Limited.

PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT 40069240 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Circulation Dept. – Motortruck Magazine, 80 Valleybrook Dr., Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 Member Canadian Business Press.

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F

or several years now we, along with our sister publication Canadian Shipper and Dan Goodwill and Associates, have taken a proactive approach to improving shipper-carrier relations, by bringing the buyers and providers of surface transportation services under the same roof with the Surface Transportation Summit to discuss and debate key industry issues.

This year is no different and we are proud to open registration for what we think is the best lineup of topics and speakers we have yet put together. This year’s Surface Transportation Summit takes place once again at the Mississauga Convention Centre on October 14. Visit www.surfacetransportationsummit.com to register.

We are particularly excited that the Freight Management Association of Canada has jumped on board this year as a partner, helping us attract even more of your shipper customers and potential customers to the Summit. Another new wrinkle this year is the Business Matching program.

Those participating in the Business Matching session will be able to pre-select in advance of the conference the companies with whom they wish to meet for private one-on-one 20-minute discussions, allowing both parties to discuss business opportunities in depth.

The Economic Outlook, which starts the Summit, should be particularly interesting this year.

The economic recovery stumbled in 2015 as a 50% drop in the price of oil had a dramatic impact on Canada’s energy sector but made for cheaper energy pricing for the manufacturing sector. Meanwhile the significant drop in the value of the Canadian currency (and other currencies) compared to the U.S. dollar is having an impact on north-south traffic flows. How will these forces play out over the next 12 months? One of Canada’s leading economists will provide an economic overview of 2015 and share his insights on where the economy is headed in 2016. He will be joined by a leading equity analyst who follows the trans-

portation sector and will offer his perspective on how the economy will affect truck and rail carriers specifically. And I will also be interviewing carrier executives for their thoughts on the coming year and how they will be shaping their business strategy accordingly.

Another favorite session back this year is The View from the Top, with rail, trucking, 3PL and OEM executives sharing where they plan to take their organizations in 2016 .

This will be followed with the largest ShipperCarrier Roundtable we have put together. I’m moderating this session, featuring no less than 7 key industry executives representing major carriers, shippers and 3PLs, and we will leave no major subject untouched. You may want to sit up close, there could be some fireworks with this one.

The afternoon will include sessions on carrier benchmarking (Have you ever wondered how your company stacks up against competitors on a range of variables such as cost per mile, revenue per mile, claims cost as percent of revenue etc?), shipper and carrier scorecards, best practices in buying a transportation company and outsourcing.

The retail sector is critically important to many carriers but it is undergoing major changes. Ecommerce, omni-channel distribution, smart apps, same-day delivery and a host of other developments are profoundly changing the way retailers do business. These changes are impacting every facet of logistics and transportation from order processing to warehouse management to customer delivery. We close with an impactful panel discussion with supply chain executives from two leading Canadian retailing giants and a leading retail market consultant sharing their insights on where the retail industry is headed.

As mentioned it’s an agenda that we are very proud of. I hope to see you there come October 14th. To find out more and to register, the address once again is www.surfacetransportationsummit. com FE May/June 2015 ❙ FLEET EXECUTIVE 5

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Actually worth its weight

No declared value on the Bill of Lading?

Most cargo insurance only pays up to $2/pound.

Chances are the freight is worth more than $2/pound and someone forgot to declare the value. That’s why we made Cargo Secure to cover the actual cash value of your load.

Unload the fine print and load up with coverage.

sgicanada.ca

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MAIL BAG

Glad someone is investing in the future Regarding the premiere of the Freightliner Inspiration Truck, the first autonomous truck licensed to operate on the highway, this means the end of the heavy sledding, treadmill work of the vast empty spaces between coastlines and cities. The long distance miles will go to the machines. I’m good with that if it means we’ll all become local drivers. What’s not to like? I would like a ringside seat when it has to engage with heavy traffic to see if it sits in position in a submissive state to its safety parameters. At some point it’s going to have to use what little artificial intelligence it has to act in a purposeful manner and that requires a degree of assertiveness or its own version of nerve. Maybe a flashing top mounted strobe on the top front and rear would be in order to identify them on the road? Can you see road-ports with traffic controllers in towers that are linked to units in virtual radar range, where local drivers come to service loads from other parts of the country, terminals that can accommodate 1000 units or more in 4-5 corners of the US?. It shouldn’t be hard to find this truck a load in this type of long distance. Replacing truckers? Cutting wages? Not anytime soon, but glad someone is investing in the future. Obviously if Daimler didn’t, no one else is in the game on this level.

Angelo DiPlacido

Electronic logbooks not as good an idea as some think Regarding the View with Lou editorial “Stop the debate: Of course we need mandatory electronic logging devices. Let’s get on with it” , in a perfect world I totally understand where these logs would be beneficial. However, I have a few questions: 1. Where does the money come from to compensate trucking companies to pay the driver?

2. Who will force the shipper/receiver to work “smarter”?

3. Does anyone realize what the potential impact is to short haul bulk carriers in Western Canada?

In our business fertilizer is delivered on a just in time basis (and most of the time that is not quick enough for the farmer). Plants are only open limited hours and it takes anywhere from ½ to an hour to load sometimes which creates lineups due to the high demand over a short period of time for product. Weather plays a huge factor in this business and we can’t control that.

We DO NOT force our drivers to “cheat” as your article implies painting a wide brush over the industry.

If you have an answer that will correct the problems this industry has please let us know. Forcing every company to have on board electronic recording devices is a great idea but it comes at a huge cost to small companies like ours with no way to recoup costs of another government mandated rule. We already have huge expenditures in becoming “greener” by using DEF in our trucks to cut down on emissions at a total cost to the trucking companies. This has been a lesson in futility as the technology does not work and has increased downtime on the newer trucks by upwards of 15%.

One last question, where are all these trucks supposed to park? Space is limited now and facilities are disappearing fast for the truckers to use.

I like the idea because it reduces paperwork for the driver and the companies but I fear the added costs involved will be on the back of the trucking companies with no chance at recovering from anywhere.

Ryan Thoms, Operations Manager St. Jean Baptist, Manitoba

The problem with driver tests I have no problem with the use of electronics to make trucks safer to drive. I am a big fan of ABS and have this on my F350 Ford and love it although it has activated only one time. My job takes me all over North America and as I see it, most rollovers have been the result of excessive speed while negotiating turns and cornering maneuvers. Driving schools need to educate new drivers as well as veterans that heavy trucks have a high centre of gravity (average 62”) which contributes to rollovers. The other problem I see with tractor trailer drivers is the fact they do not feel the lean of their trailer until it is too late. Suspension travel, fifth wheel slack, cab suspension and some other minor factors insulate the driver from the potential rollover.

All the technology in the world does not compensate for a poor driver. I have observed many driving schools in my town and how they conduct the training leaves a lot to be desired.

Another driver testing problem I became aware of is the fact the Driver Testing Centres will provide driver written tests in most other languages on this world. What the hell is that! This is Canada with two official languages, French and English. No other languages should be allowed for a driver’s test.

Tom MacKay

To read and comment on our industry blogs, visit blog.trucknews.com.

May/June 2015 ❙ FLEET EXECUTIVE 7

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ON OCTOBER 14th 2015, PLEASE PLAN ON JOINING CANADA’S TOP TRANSPORTATION EXECUTIVES FOR A DAY OF EDUCATION & NETWORKING. We have created an agenda that truly addresses the many challenges facing both Shipper and Carrier executives.

2015 SUMMIT AGENDA THE ECONOMY IN 2016: Leading economic experts provide their projections for the coming year & industry executives outline their strategic response.

THE VIEW FROM THE TOP: The transportation executive’s perspective on the major trends driving transportation in 2016 and beyond.

SHIPPER-CARRIER ROUNDTABLE: How should shippers and carriers react to the challenges shaping the transportation industry? Leading shippers and carriers participate in a frank and open discussion.

THE FUTURE OF RETAIL DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA: E-commerce, omnichannel distribution, smart apps, same-day delivery are all profoundly changing the way retailers do business and impacting every facet of logistics and transportation. How should transportation professionals adapt?

CARRIER BENCHMARKING: Do you know how your company stacks up against the competition on key variables such as cost per mile & revenue per mile? How to find out without breaking competition laws.

Douglas Nix

Anne McKee

Vice Chairman Corporate Finance Associates

Executive Vice President Trailer Wizards Ltd.

Ginnie Venslovaitis

Jason Dubois

Director, Transportation Operations Hudson’s Bay

President Len Dubois Trucking Inc.

Car

Seni S

Ra

Co-Fou S

BEST PRACTICES IN MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS: Hear from the experts on the best way to go about buying a trucking company, freight broker or full service logistics provider.

SHIPPER & CARRIER SCORECARDS: Straight talk on the metrics and measurement tools used to see how shipper and carrier goals and expectations align with each other.

IS OUTSOURCING TO A 3PL THE RIGHT STRATEGY FOR YOUR BUSINESS?: Learn what the latest research reveals about 3PL utilization and effectiveness and hear first hand from a major shipper who embarked on an exploration and evaluation of 3PL services.

Registration: 7:30 am Presentations: 8:20 am sharp

Brian Ware

VP, Marketing and Business Development Lakeside Logistics

Douglas Davis

Co-Founder & Partner StakUp Inc.

#sts15

MISSISSAUGA CONVENTION CENTRE 75 Derry Road West, Mississauga, ON

For more information and to register, please visit www.SurfaceTransportationSummit.com

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Ale

Logis Loew

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SURFACE TRANSPORTATION

ummit

2015

Introducing the 2015 team of presenters...

McKee

e President ards Ltd.

Dubois

dent ucking Inc.

Davis

& Partner Inc.

Senior Economist Scotiabank

Co-Founder & President, StakUp Inc.

Chris Henry

Dan Einwechter

Ray Haight

Kelli Saunders

Kimberly Wildenmann

Carlos Gomes

Co-Founder & Partner StakUp Inc.

Alex Boxhorn

Logistics Manager Loewen Windows

President Morai Logistics Inc.

Joe Lombardo

CEO Challenger Group of Companies

Traffic Coordinator Lantic Inc.

Serge Carestia

TRANSPORTATIONMEDIA Vice President Director, Transportation Supply Chain and Terminal Operations The Home Depot Canada Purolator TRUCK NEWS

PRODUCED BY

Truck News . Truck West . Fleet Executive . Canadian Shipper . TMTV . Surface Transportation Summit

Bret Walters

General Manager Operations Chalifour Canada

Mark Bylsma

President Spring Creek Carriers Inc.

Silvy Wright

President & CEO Northbridge Financial Corporation

Dave Zavitz

Robert Wiebe

Doug Munro

Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing Canada Cartage

Senior Vice President Supply Chain Loblaw Companies Limited

President / Owner Maritime-Ontario Freight Lines Limited

Mark Lerner

Mike McCarron

John Ferguson

Assistant Vice President Intermodal Sales CN Rail

Steven J Brown

Partner, National Consumer & Industrial Products Industry Leader, Deloitte

President, Left Lane Associates

Wesley Armour

President & CEO Armour Transportation Systems

President & CEO SCI

Roger Poirier

Managing Director Investment Banking Cormark Securities

MOTORTRUCK

TRANSPORTATIONMEDIA

RESEARCH

TMTV

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TRUCK NEWS.com

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15-06-11 1:20 9:45 PM AM 15-06-11

BOTTOM LINE

Brand masters Every conversation, LinkedIn post, or sales call should enhance your brand.

Don’t take one moment off.

By Mike McCarron

A

ttending the Masters is on the bucket list of every serious sports fan. Even if golf isn’t your thing, you’ve no doubt heard that Augusta National is one those places that will leave you breathless.

Personally, I’ve always been skeptical of the hype but this spring I accepted an invitation to see for myself. I was not disappointed.

Everything about the day was perfect. Watching the world’s greatest golfers compete in a Major tournament was riveting.

The course was more pristine than it looks on TV, and paying four bucks for a pint was as refreshing as the beer itself.

What amazed me most was how well the old boys in green distribute the Masters brand.

Your brand is the sum of all your actions, including how you follow through and communicate it. You can spend an entire career building your own personal brand equity only to see it ripped away by a mindless Tweet or bad behavior.

At Augusta National, the sum of the Masters brand is even greater than its parts. Here’s what I learned about brand distribution while sitting at Amen Corner munching on a two dollar pimento and cheese sandwich.

Excellence all the time

Mike McCarron is the president of Left Lane Associates, a firm that specializes in the “monetizing” of transportation companies.

A 30-year industry veteran, he founded MSM Transportation which he sold in 2012.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @AceMcC.

During my 12 hours on the course, every employee was on his “A” game. Not one person I crossed paths with missed an opportunity to greet me and welcome me to their tournament. The workers acted like there was nothing they’d rather be doing.

The lesson: Every conversation, LinkedIn post, or sales call should enhance your brand. Don’t take one moment off. Be excellent all the time. Customers will notice, just like I did.

Brands within the brand The Masters has a powerful brand but so do many of its unique attributes. I spent most of the day at Amen Corner but also

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visited Magnolia Lane, Ike’s Tree, and Founders Circle—Masters “sub-brands” that enhance the aura of the event. Lesson: There are powerful opportunities to create sub-brands within your personal brand. Try giving your newsletter a compelling name or promoting your services like they are unique standalone entities.

Expectations Lineups are expected at a major sporting event and the Masters is no different. The first time I lined up for food there was a girl at the back of the line with a huge sign: “10-minute wait.” The good news is I was through in less than 5 minutes.

This was repeated every time I was hungry. Instead of being upset, Mr. Patience was ecstatic because I got through in half the advertised time. Lesson: Set customer expectations through clear communications—and exceed them.

Consistent Message The Masters logo was on absolutely everything. You don’t buy a Coke, you buy a Coke in a take-home Masters cup. Pulledpork sandwiches are wrapped in Masters-branded foil. Lesson: Don’t miss a chance to promote and enhance your brand.

You need to eat, sleep, and breathe your personal brand or risk being just an average golf tournament.

Look the part While smiling the day away Augusta National employees wear uniforms that are appropriate and reflective of their job.

Clearly, there was a hierarchy. It started with the parking lot attendants in Dockers and polished deck shoes and ended with the big-wig tournament officials who, in spite of the 90-degree weather, wore jackets (green of course) and ties. Lesson: Your appearance is part of brand distribution. Look the part.

Distributing your brand is about taking advantage of every opportunity and making sure every action adds to your aura.

The Masters is one of the most powerful brands in the world. There’s a lot more than great golf in Augusta. FE mmccarron@leftlaneassociates.ca | 416-931-7212 trucknews.com

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15-06-04 1:01 PM 15-06-11 1:21 PM

Fleet Safety Council Conference Cost $150.00 (Includes HST)

24 Annual th

Educational Conference October 2, 2015 8am - 4:30pm

The 2015 Annual Educational Conference will consist of a new one-day format along with another outstanding agenda of session topics of key interest to the Transportation industry.

Topics include:

• Commercial Vehicle Enforcement/Education Mark Bonner - Ministry of Transportation • Secrets of the Best Fleets to Drive Mark Murrell - Carriers Edge • Personality Dimensions Patsy Marshall - University of Guelph • Driving as a Task- What are the Human factors?

Brett Carson - O.P.P. Officer Acting Staff Sergeant Orillia

For more details, use your smartphone’s scanning program to access this code and get additional details about the conference.

For more information, please visit fleetsafetycouncil.com or follow us on Twitter@FleetSafetyConf or contact IHSA at 1-800-263-5024 ext. 7944 Centre for Health & Safety Innovation (CHSI), Mississauga Ontario

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a

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RISKY BUSINESS

SOLUTIONS TO HELP CARRIERS TURN SAFETY INTO A PROFIT CENTRE

The risk of the “technological fix” Technologies should support safety management programs, not replace them.

By Rick Geller

T

he pace at which technologies are re-defining safety management in the trucking industry is leaving a lot of people scratching their heads and trying to figure out what to do with the tiger we’ve got by the tail.

Historically, technologies were viewed as a cost that needed to be managed. Consequently, business owners established a budget of what they were willing to spend and it was left up to safety and operational managers to determine what capabilities they wanted to deliver after the fact. In a lot of cases, it was ignored completely until mandated by a regulatory requirement.

At the same time, safety policies were designed to make the consequences of unsafe behaviour undesirable. Fines, suspensions and dismissals combined to threaten people into adopting safer behaviour.

But the allure of safe-guarding both the equipment and the environment has thrust technologies into the limelight.

Technologies are encouraging safety policies designed to improve safety by lessening the consequences of unsafe behaviour.

In the absence of a carefully thoughtout plan, it’s easy to miss the big picture, allowing safety management to devolve into monitoring a number of behavioural Rick Geller, CRM, touch-points with little to tie them to crash serves on the board causation beyond anecdotal guesswork. of directors for both Bombarded with reams of data, on a the Truck Training daily basis, that pull them back to the dire Schools Association consequences model of safety manageof Ontario (TTSAO) ment, safety managers try to strike a baland the Professional ance between the two conflicting models.

Truck Driving Against this backdrop, it is imperative Institute (PTDI). He that carriers develop a technology plan to is also the incoming determine how they can harness technolchair of the Toronto ogies to support their safety management Chapter of the Fleet program. And that is the key. Technologies Safety Council, support safety management programs. as well as an executive committee They do not replace them.

In his most recent publication, “Target member for both Risk 3”, Dr. Gerald Wilde stated, “Accordthe Ontario and ingly, the prospect for greater public safeToronto Regional ty is unlikely to be found in a “technologiTruck Driving cal fix” because of the way people respond Championships. trucknews.com

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to such fixes. Instead, the prospect for safety is inside the human being, not in the human-made machine or human-made physical environment.”

As Dr. Wilde has suggested for many years, the key to effective safety management is processes that impact the level of risk that drivers are willing to assume. The problem is that drivers do not consciously weigh the likelihood of crash involvement when determining a level of risk that is acceptable to them.

Rather, they tend to go with what “feels right”.

This is compounded by the fact that what “feels right” is a moving target that changes throughout the time a person is driving. For example, when trying to enter a busier roadway, the longer the driver must wait often impacts their decision whether or not to pull out into a gap in traffic that they otherwise might not have considered sufficient to do so safely. Following that riskier move, their level of risk acceptance can very well change.

The “Target Risk” concept is that there are four categories of motivating factors that determine an individual’s “target” level of acceptable risk, as follows: • The expected advantages of comparatively risky behaviour alternatives; for instance, gaining time by speeding.

• The expected costs of comparatively risky behaviour alternatives; for instance, insurance surcharges for being at-fault in a crash.

• The expected benefits of comparatively safe behaviour alternatives; for instance, an insurance discount for accident-free driving.

• The expected costs of comparatively safe behaviour alternatives; for instance, using an uncomfortable seat belt.

Technologies are providing new opportunities for carriers to improve safety management if we remember that unsafe driving behaviour is often inspired by the desire to save time, money or both and not by inadequate perception of the risk.

Technologies that support safety management efforts to address those issues have a place at the table. Those that “enable” unsafe behaviours do not.

As the Carpenters sang in their 1970 hit song, “We’ve only just begun”! FE May/June 2015 ❙ FLEET EXECUTIVE 13

15-06-12 9:37 AM

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

Selling your family business How to bring an element of objectivity into what can be an emotional process

By Rick Geller

S

elling a family business is a major decision that some might be considering as the economy transitions from recession to recovery.

It’s a choice that involves valuing your business’s tangible and intangible assets, your employees, possible liabilities and tax issues. And it’s important that the sale price you set for your business matches the expectations of the marketplace.

Reasons for selling the family business usually centre on retirement, the long hours; loss of skilled employees and very high capital expenditures. You must prioritize objectives and consider exit alternatives from your business. You can choose to work with your accountant and then bring in professionals. A business valuation can be done informally, some brokers will do it for free, which will help keep down costs. If you choose to work with a mergers & acquisitions broker ask for references from their clients who sold businesses similar to yours in terms of size, assets, customers additional and number of employees.

It may take a year to put best practices in place, explaining that this involves ensuring tax planning has been done, to reduce liabilities. First you have to understand your objectives for making the sale and allow market exposure time in the hopes of exiting at the highest price.

If the business is sold to a family member to ensure family harmony and to minimize tax liability for all parties involved, an accountant should be consulted prior to the sale. A plan should be in place if the seller remains involved financially with the business, such as through a retiring allowance. A professional mergers & acquisitions professional can co-ordinate this whole process.

Planning for a retirement savings plan (RSP) and to find out if the seller qualifies for an $800,000 capital gains tax exemption is also important.

The typical buyer is a strategic buyer is president of Mercantile Mergers & who knows their business and knows what Acquisitions Corp. they are buying. They are the logical choice Mercantile has [for a seller]. The second most common is been selling mid the private equity buyer, and the least premarket companies for over 34 years. ferred is the individual buyer.

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There are many methods to value a business. Your professionals should provide this advice. The valuation by financial statement method will base value on your company’s financial statements, examining the cash on hand, equipment, real estate, debts and investments, and obligations. The liabilities will be subtracted from the total assets to establish the business’s theoretical value.

This method may not take into consideration the current values of assets and instead assign them their costs at the time they were acquired. These are the historic costs. Another disadvantage is that intangible assets such as your brand, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets such as customer lists, and employees and their contracts, and lease agreements are not considered.

They are only considered if they were purchased from another business and thus appear on the business’s financial statement at their historic cost.

A second method called valuation using multiples or comparable company analysis looks at what public companies similar to your own are being traded for. This method for valuing businesses is best applied to larger businesses, rather than smaller owner-manager businesses.The disadvantage here is that no two companies are completely alike in terms of products, size and growth potential. If your business produces a specialized product or service this can also make comparisons difficult.

This method is an approximation of the similarities between businesses and affects the business valuation’s accuracy; thus, two sub-methods can be used.

The first is the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E). This sub-method requires that the price of a share of the business’s stock be divided by the business’s earnings for a share.

The second sub-method uses the enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EV/EBITDA). Enterprise value (EV), refers to the business operations, and does not include debt, excess cash and redundant assets.

EBITDA represents the business’s cash flow (before required capital expenditures) that would be paid out to shareholders.

When applying an EV/EBITDA multiple, “the art of it is in choosing the right variables, earnings level and multiple.”

Another available method is the comparable transaction method, which looks at recent sales and purchases of similar but trucknews.com

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privately owned businesses. The business valuator will determine which businesses are appropriate to use as a comparison to yours and will apply valuation methods such as P/E or EV/EBITDA to determine your company’s value. Due to the differences between your business’s characteristics and those of the business to which it is compared, the valuation might be affected.

Creating a projection of what cash the business can produce at a future date is another possible valuation method.

The broker will create this projection with the assistance of the business owner.

Discounted cash flow analysis is a fourth method that can be applied. As the value of the cash received in the present is not the same as cash received at that future date, the cash flow must be discounted to assess the cash’s current value. This is a complicated process and is best applied by an experienced valuator.

It involves estimates such as how much your company will grow and what are the costs and profits that can be expected over the next few years, and related risks.

The sale of your business will also affect your employees and possibly your legal obligation to them. When a purchaser is simply buying the assets of a business there are not necessarily any obligations to the employees unless the purchaser offers employment to those employees.

If employees are offered employment, they can accept or decline. If they accept, you, as the purchaser, assume their years

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of service. If there is a share deal the purchaser steps into the shoes of the vendor and this means buying the corporation with all of its warts and obligations. A seller of a business is obligated to disclose employee contracts to a potential buyer in most transactions.

In an asset sale, the seller will be liable for the severance costs associated with employees who decline, or are not offered, employment with the purchaser. These costs will depend on many factors, such as whether or not the employees have written employment agreements which specify their entitlements on termination.

Employees might be entitled to claim more than the minimum notice and severance pay provided for under employment standards legislation. There may be costs associated with providing incentives to retain key employees pending a sale.

Purchasers should keep in mind that any collective agreement associated with the business may become binding on the purchaser following the sale.”

Selling your business means a change in lifestyle, identity and relationships with employees and customers. Working with your accountant, business valuator or corporate lawyer will bring a needed element of objectivity into what can be an emotional process. FE www.mercantilemergersacquisitions.com

15-06-11 1:49 PM

THE HUMAN EDGE

Standard Bearers The new National Occupational Standard defines a truck driver’s job more clearly than ever before. Do you know why this matters?

By Angela Splinter

C

anada’s trucking industry has long known that the role of a driver is complex. Earning a licence represents just one step in the process which truly prepares someone for a career behind the wheel.

Clearly describing the individual steps has been complex in its own right. We know that drivers must be able to back into loading docks, complete pre-trip inspections, secure loads and maneuver through intersections, but what steps should be followed when completing these tasks?

By Sejkitfcluk What about the many tasks outside the truck? How are drivers expected to interact with coworkers? What are the many regulations that drivers need to follow?

Experienced members of the industry could describe the answers, but nobody had actually taken the time to record all the details in one place. It all left plenty of room for interpretation.

Things have changed.

Trucking HR Canada has officially unveiled the new National Occupational Standard for Commercial Vehicle Operators (Truck Drivers) – defining their related knowledge, skills and abilities more clearly than ever before. It gives the industry a tool that can guide everything from training programs to recruiting efforts. It should also help put to rest any debate about whether driving is a “skilled” occupation.

There are a lot of people who share the credit. We developed the standard by partnering with the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), every provincial trucking association, individual fleets, industry experts and truck drivers themselves. The entire process was guided by a national working group of fleet representatives from across the industry.

Once a first draft was developed, we poured over the details line by line with consultation sessions across the country. Every topic was debated to ensure that regional differences were reflected. The question of whether every driver should need to know how to use a manual transmission ultimately had to reflect that some individuals can work their entire career without seeing a clutch. When wondering how to address adverse weather conditions, we needed to reflect that the definition of “bad weather” varies widely by geographic area. Even discussions about what defined an “urban” area were challenging. (One Atlantic representative quipped that it was any area with a Walmart.) Those are just a few examples. Then these results were all validated through an online review.

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Now it’s a matter of identifying people who meet the standard. Trucking HR Canada is working to develop a certification program that will accomplish this very thing.

The document has plenty of other uses in the interim.

While the standard is not a training curriculum, it offers trainers a way to confirm that existing programs prepare trainees for the job. The way someone is trained, and even how long a program should last, is a matter for legislators and schools.

We have defined the specific learning outcomes that someone needs to achieve along the way, whether in a school, a training room, or on the job. Every piece of knowledge is described in a way that can be measured in a written test. Each task has been divided into observable and measureable steps with a definite beginning and end.

It goes a long way toward addressing the recruiting and retention challenges identified by the Canadian Trucking Alliance’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Driver Shortage. This document dispels the myth that trucking could ever be a career of last resort, or that anyone can be a truck driver. It will certainly inform discussions about the need to update the job’s National Occupational Classification, otherwise known as the NOC Code.

The NOC – which classifies more than 40,000 occupations and groups each of them into one of four skill levels -- shapes many government policies that affect everything from the allocation of training dollars to the hiring of foreign-trained workers. But the existing code ranks truck driving as an “unskilled” trade. This limits the trucking industry from accessing funds to train apprentices or using traditional immigration channels to recruit internationally trained drivers.

The NOC clearly needs to change, but this will take time.

We know the process can take several years. But industry employers have the power to move us toward a better-informed NOC rating by insisting that drivers meet the voluntary National Occupational Standard today.

Take the time to review the new National Occupational Standard, which can be downloaded for free from www. truckinghr.com. See how well it reflects the realities of the trucking industry, and see the difference it can make to your business. FE Angela Splinter is the CEO of Trucking HR Canada trucknews.com

15-06-11 2:05 PM

DATA DRIVEN

CONNECTING PATHS Volvo outlines how connectivity will reshape trucking

By Lou Smyrlis

V

ehicle connectivity innovations will soon change the face of the trucking industry, reshaping everything from maintenance practices to driver productivity, according to Goran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks North America.

Nyberg was one of several Volvo C-Suite executives gathered in Newport, Rhode Island, home of a leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, to share their vision of the industry’s future.

Data connectivity with trucks was established back in 1990 and since then there has been a steady evolution of connectivity in the business world but Nyberg feels trucking has fallen a bit behind other industries in keeping up with connectivity.

By 2008 the number of things connected to the Internet exceeded the number of people on the planet – 6.6 billion. By 2020 it’s predicted the number of things connected to the Internet could rise to 30 billion.

So why shouldn’t there be greater connectivity with truck equipment? There will certainly be great demand for it from the new people entering the industry, according to Nyberg.

“People under 25 have never lived one day without the Internet and connectivity. Their expectations are different (from previous generations). In a few years they will be in management positions and they will have different expectations when it comes to connectivity. We need to think differently,” Nyberg told Volvo customers and business media gathered for the event.

Volvo is already starting to employ the “different thinking” Nyberg called for with its focus on platooning vehicle technology. Such technology, where trucks can communicate with each other and team up to follow a lead vehicle, is technology that is possible today because it can be applied to existing ve-

hicles and infrastructure, provided the regulations that would allow its use on North American highways was available, said Susan Alt, senior vice president of public affairs for Volvo Group North America. Vehicles operating in platoon mode are able to greatly reduce the following distance between them than is currently acceptable thanks to the onboard sensors. By tightening up the following distance significant drafting advantages are created which improve fuel economy.

Alt said Volvo is working with the state of California on a bill that would allow platooning of 3-4 truck combinations.

“We are doing it state by state and hoping NHTSA will jump in federally,” Alt said. “The technology is available but your average soccer mom is not going to be ready for it (on our roads). I see this as something starting small and growing. I see starting with two-truck platooning.”

Two-truck platooning provides advantages over running Btrains because the two tractor combinations are not tied to each other and don’t even need to be from the same company to enjoy the advantages of better fuel efficiency while travelling the continent’s highways, pointed out Jeff Cotner, Volvo’s chief engineer.

Another advantage would be that the drivers in the following vehicles would get a chance to rest since their vehicles would simply be following the motions of the driver in the lead vehicle.

And eventually the following vehicles could be driverless, according to Nyberg.

“If we can have road trains in the future with the following vehicles running driverless, it will improve the driver shortage,” Nyberg said.

Predictive shifting is another area where connectivity can change the face of trucking, improving safety and productivity.

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DATA DRIVEN

HE PO AL WE TH RE Y DB FL Y EE T

For example, as the truck approaches a hill, preprogrammed information on the terrain allows the truck to handle the climb and descent in the most efficient manner. As the truck comes into the hill it is automatically sped up to delay downshifting, then the truck’s momentum and stored energy is employed on the downhill portion to accelerate and get better roll off.

Maintenance is another key area to be affected by advances in connectivity.

“Remote diagnostics is something we are putting a lot of focus on. We believe it will be one of the game changers in the industry,” Nyberg said. “We need to change the mindset.

It’s not acceptable to have an unplanned stop. That’s a vision that we need to strive towards.”

Remote diagnostics capabilities lead to 70% reduction in diagnostic time and a 22% reduction in repair time, Nyberg said.

Volvo has now included its I-Shift automated transmission to the list of components that can be dealt with through remote diagnostics, and Nyberg adds “our ambition is to include the entire truck.”

There are 15 different ECUs on a Class 8 truck, all of them collecting vast amounts of data. If all that data could be brought together maintenance could become much more predictive. For example, the truck itself could become smart enough to alert the maintenance department of a pending alternator failure so that replacement of the alternator can be included on the next preventive maintenance check.

“The wireless workshop is coming. Vehicles will self evaluate and will be repaired remotely via wireless updates,” was the prediction from Rich Ferguson, senior vice president, aftermarket and soft products.

But the massive of data amounts of data harvested should not mean a huge dump of data on truck owners. The focus should be on providing solutions, not reporting problems with fault codes.

DAY “When we started the journey into remote diagnostics in 2012, we quickly understood that customers didn’t want data overload. They want solutions. The just want to know when they will get their truck back,” Nyberg said.

Volvo is also using connective technology to ensure it is meeting its own standards on repair times and getting a handle on how quickly repairs are made under real world conditions. To track turnaround times for repairs it operates geo fencing around all its dealers , tracking when a vehicle enters the dealership for repairs and when it leaves.

Nybeg also sees this massive collection of data on which components fail and when having an impact on future component design. FE

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15-06-12 9:12 AM

LEADERS

WES ARMOUR

HIGHLIGHTING THE INSIGHTS OF INDUSTRY LEADERS ON KEY INDUSTRY ISSUES

By Julia Kuzeljevich

On fostering good relationships, work-life balance and investments for the long term WHAT DO YOU FEEL ARE THE KEY FACTORS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT THAT CONTRIBUTE TO A STRONGER, MORE LOYAL WORKFORCE?

FE: OVER HALF THE COMMODITIES SHIPPED BY ARMOUR, IN BOTH LTL AND TRUCKLOAD MARKETS, ARE IN THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE CATEGORY. WHAT TRENDS ARE AFFECTING THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE SECTOR AND HOW HAVE THESE INFLUENCED OR FORMED STRATEGIES IN PROVIDING SERVICE?

Armour: Transporting a large number of food and beverage products gives our company a very consistent and steady yearround business, which is crucial to forming our strategies.

There will be holiday fluctuations and higher demand for alcohol and soft drinks during warmer weather, but for the most part these variations are predictable and can be planned for ahead of time. As a carrier, it enables us to specialize in an essential commodity and opens up opportunity to service many different types of customers within this gigantic category. Food safety is extremely important throughout our organization and policies and procedures are in place for handling, storing and transporting goods. Because we hire from all of the same communities where we deliver, it’s not just a product to us, it becomes what our own people are going to be buying and consuming every day.

FE: ARMOUR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS HAS BEEN NAMED AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE BY THE THRSC ATLANTIC. THIS DESIGNATION IS GIVEN TO EMPLOYERS “WHO ARE DEDICATED TO RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF THEIR EMPLOYEES AND FOCUSING ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS WITHIN THE WORKPLACE.” 20 FLEET EXECUTIVE ❙ May/June 2015

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Armour: In our experience we have been able to attract and retain good people by being fair, offering competitive wages and benefits, being flexible and fostering good relationships with our people. The foundation of our company is built on the Guiding Principles of People, Safety, Service, Sustainability and Family. We attribute our lower than average turnover rate to the connection our employees feel with our company.

In particular, our low driver turnover is almost unheard of.

Many of our employees have been with us for their entire careers and their children are now coming to work with Armour.

Providing meaningful work and on-the-job training is also very important to morale. In our experience, the best solutions tend to come from our own people. Oftentimes, companies have great people, but don’t know how to motivate them. I believe motivation is built through strong leadership, good people skills, trust and open communication. Fostering an environment of trust and open communication is something we work very hard on a daily basis to improve and maintain. These strategies enable us to respond to the needs of our people and focus on what really matters to them within their workplace.

FE: ARMOUR RECENTLY ADDED 100,000 SQUARE FEET OF WAREHOUSING SPACE IN DARTMOUTH, DOUBLING THE SIZE OF THE LOGISTICS WAREHOUSE TO ACCOUNT FOR NEW BUSINESS AND GROWTH. WITH REGARD TO THE COMPANY’S GOAL OF BEING THE “DOMINANT GATEWAY BETWEEN ATLANTIC CANADA AND THE WORLD”, CAN YOU DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE OF GATEWAY STRATEGIES IN ATLANTIC CANADA, HOW YOU’D LIKE TO SEE THE GATEWAYS FURTHER DEVELOP, AND WHAT MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL? trucknews.com

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Armour: We operate out of the ports of Halifax, St John’s, Montreal and Saint John. At the Port of Halifax, our primary gateway partner, we do a lot of pier work, offer transload services between rail, truck and short sea shipping and warehouse container product from all around the world. Due to port-related growth, our Halifax warehouse was recently expanded to encompass 250,000 sq. ft. which complements our existing 400,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Moncton.

Gateway strategies are essential to our region quite simply due to our geographic location. Much like it’s important to develop partnerships with other carriers, suppliers and customers, the same can be said for gateway partnerships. Most recently, the Port of Halifax has focused on improving efficiency by decreasing dwell times and congestion. This creates a win-win outcome by enhancing the attractiveness of their business while enabling us to move goods more quickly and improve transit times for our customers.

FE: WITH THIRD GENERATION FAMILY MEMBERS NOW IN THE BUSINESS, CAN YOU DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY TIES AND HISTORY AS ARMOUR FORMS ITS LONG-TERM COMPANY VISION?

Armour: For our customers, I believe having family members in the business signals stability and that we are around for the long-term. For our employees, it boosts morale, provides job security and creates a culture that is unique to family-run businesses. Though we may be a large organization, we try to maintain a small-company atmosphere and a lot of that can be attributed to our commitment to family values.

Our family ties also enable us to make investments today for the future. Many organizations hesitate to make long-term investments that do not see immediate short-term gains. With both my son and daughter working in the business, we look not only at what is best for the company today but what is the right decision for the future.

FE: IT’S WONDERFUL TO SEE A COMPANY CHAMPIONING ITS EMPLOYEES AS ARMOUR DOES WITHIN ITS EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER, THE ATS NEWSLINK. HOW CAN COMPANIES BEST CHAMPION AND ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEES AT THE WORKPLACE? AMONG THE PROGRAMS, ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES YOU OFFER FOR STAFF, WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FAVOURITES, OR THE MOST WELL-RECEIVED?

Armour: We’re constantly striving to create a workplace that promotes the importance of having a healthy work/life balance and that recognizes both the personal and professional accomplishments of our employees. Perhaps one of our most well-received programs is our “Shift Gears, Live Well” wellness program. For the past nine years we have offered a complete wellness program in order to support our employees and help them achieve their health-related goals. This program

offers a comprehensive Employee Family Assistance Program (EFAP), discounted gym memberships, an Annual Spring Activity Program, Sleep Apnea Program, “Team Crush” Smoking Cessation Program, Healthy Meal Plan and many other initiatives throughout the year.

Another key program within our organization is our annual Scholarship Program. Scholarships of $1,500 each are awarded to up to ten sons and daughters of Armour employees. Since 2001, we have donated over $200,000 through our Scholarship Program.

FE: CAN YOU DISCUSS DEVELOPMENTS ON THE COMPANY’S TRUCKMATE APPLICATION-NEXT MAJOR STEPS, WHAT RESULTS IT AIMS TO ACHIEVE, TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION, ETC.?

Armour: The TruckMate project began in the spring of 2014, with an implementation date of Dec. 27th, 2015. As a supplier of a variety of transportation services, including LTL, Courier, Truckload, Flatdeck, Transload and Intermodal, we are confi-

Let’s continue the conversation Wes Armour is one of more than 25 transportation industry leaders speaking at the 2015 Surface Transportation Summit this Oct. 14 at the Mississauga Convention Centre. To find out more and to register, go to www.surfacetransportatioinsummit. com. Early bird specials currently in effect. dent we have found a flexible solution to accommodate all our requirements in one offering. The new software will replace all aspects of our current system, including Dispatch, Finance, Payroll and all other back-office operational functions.

Previously, we had a combination of separate systems all integrated together, some much better than others. Over the years, these systems have been sliced and diced to accommodate changing processes and, as a result, we struggle today gathering timely information, applying routine system upgrades, and integrating new systems, just to name a few. In today’s world, customers demand real-time data and accurate information is critical to operating as efficiently as possible.

Under our current structure, we did not feel we could give our people and our customers the information they required in the most effective manner. We are confident this new software transition will provide us with the technology to manage our business into the future. FE May/June 2015 ❙ FLEET EXECUTIVE 21

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COVER STORY

Dealing with the thief in the night Obstructive Sleep Apnea, OSA, the most common form of sleep apnea, is the thief in the night that robs many people in our industry of a restful sleep, creating a nightmare in which breathing stops and carbon dioxide builds up in the body hundreds of times a night, night after night. The consequences of this can be severe for both their health and safety. Northbridge Insurance recently hosted a conference on OSA, moderated by editorial director Lou Smyrlis. In our two-part series sleep apnea sufferers as well as medical, legal, regulatory and insurance experts share their insights in their own words.

Sleep Apnea sufferer, Dave Nawton, Northbridge Insurance, former driver and driver trainer I was diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2005, but I didn’t get any treatment until 2007.Truthfully, I think I had the symptoms of it long before that but I was in a state of denial, so to speak. In 2005, when I was diagnosed with it, my doctor noticed my blood pressure had got really high, like at a level that he wasn’t comfortable with. They were treating that with medication and then referred me to a sleep study because I had a bunch of other symptoms. That sleep study came back as positive for sleep apnea but I didn’t want to get treatment at that point. In 2007, it was actually my wife who gave me the ultimatum and truthfully 22 FLEET EXECUTIVE ❙ May/June 2015

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at that point in time I needed to do it because I was exhausted.

I was physically and mentally tired every day. I needed naps in the middle of the afternoon at work just to be able to function. I also suffered from forgetfulness and woke up every morning with headaches. My wife complained about my snoring constantly and I had sore throats. My quality of life was just bad.

In 2005, I was just coming out of doing on-road driver training and was moving into an office environment. By 2007 I was working fully at an office environment and most of my driver training at that point was classroom related. When I was doing in-vehicle training I was training people to do things and I really wasn’t paying attention to what they were doing because I was concentrating on staying awake. In the office environment, I just wasn’t engaged. That was probably the biggest issue. Projects would always go to the last minute. When projects were in, the accuracy wasn’t that great. My focus was bad. I was lucky the office I had was closed off with no windows. Generally around 2:00 or 2:30 in the afternoon I had to close the door, pretend I was on a conference call and grab a nap for half an hour. The list just goes on and on and on. One of the final things that happened at work that made me realize I had a problem was when my boss had people assigned to work with me, to ensure accuracy.

In 2005 the doctor basically said “you need to get help,” but at that point in time, I refused. I’m a guy. I don’t ever want to admit there’s anything wrong. Pride was the biggest thing. I didn’t want to be looked at as that guy with sleep apnea. I traveled a lot and I didn’t want to be the guy that was always seen carrying a CPAP machine around. Pride was a really big motivator. Ultimately, I realized I just needed to get over it and I’m glad I did.

The first night I was on the machine, I woke up the next day, I felt about the same. The second day I woke up, it was a Sunday morning and honestly, I felt like I was 19 again. No headaches, no sore throats, I had energy. My wife actually had a few things on the “honey do” list that I had deferred and deferred and deferred. All of a sudden, I had the energy and motivation to go and do them. It was amazing. Two o’clock in the afternoon came around and I was not tired. The other thing I noticed had to do with my eating. Prior to being treated for sleep apnea there wasn’t a carb I didn’t like. I was constantly craving that sugar and energy. All of a sudden, that started to change. So it was such a profound experience.

Then I remember the Monday going into work and sitting down at my desk and actually having the mental ability to say, “Where am I at? What am I going to get done?” Being able to get it in place, get it organized. Within a couple of weeks, even my boss had commented “You seem to have found a new groove. I guess it’s because we’re doing well as a company, it has rubbed off on you.” I said, “No, it’s the sleep apnea.” That was the first time I had a very honest and open conversation with my boss about what sleep apnea was and what I’ve been dealing with.

After I had the conversation with my boss, I realized I should have had this conversation earlier and been open about it. Fear is a powerful demotivator for people and so is pride. Once I got through those, that’s when the opportunity to get better opened.

Dr. Geoff Fernie, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute First of all let’s define what an apnea is. An apneic event is a pause in breathing. When you stop breathing during the night for more than 10 seconds, it’s described as an apneic event. It can go on, believe it or not, for a long time. It can even stop for a minute or more, but more than 10 seconds is considered to be an apneic event (and people with sleep apnea may do this 10 times an hour on average.) These interruptions during the night prevent you from getting a good sleep and that means you’re going to be sleepy the next day, through no fault of your own.

Secondly, your body doesn’t like it. Your brain says, “Wow! I need more oxygen.” The natural thing in an engineered system like the body is it says to the pump, “Give me more pressure, please.” So up goes the blood pressure. When the blood pressure goes up, it tends to stay up during the day --that’s called Hypertension. It’s something that can be a little difficult to treat as it tends to be a bit resistive to drugs. So you have about four times the chance of being hypertensive if you have sleep apnea, and that’s not good because hypertension also has its consequences. This load on your cardiac system results in about four times the number of heart failures and about four times the number of strokes compared to the average person. The good thing is if you get diagnosed, it’s not a difficult thing to do nowadays, you can get treated.

But there are quite a few misconceptions about sleep apnea and I would like to look at three of them. One is that you have to be obese to have sleep apnea, and that’s not true. We see people who are quite thin who have sleep apnea. A second fallacy is that if you snore, you have sleep apnea. That’s not true either. About one in four people who snore will actually have sleep apnea. However, of people who have sleep apnea, most of them do indeed snore. So it’s an important distinction. The third misconception is that this is not a big deal. It is a big deal because the risk to your ability to have a long life, the risk to your health, the risk to your enjoyment of life and the safety of others is very much compromised by having sleep apnea. It’s also an amazingly easy thing to cure. In a medical sense, it’s one of the few things that you can cure relatively easily and cure completely.

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COVER STORY

Quite often actually, a little bit of weight loss, a little bit of exercise, change in lifestyle and in your eating habits helps.

There are also dental appliances, which basically fit into the bottom of your mouth and into the top, and then connect the two together, pulling your jaw forward. By pulling your jaw forward, it takes the pressure off your throat. That works with some people. Then of course, there’s the CPAP machine which people talk about a lot. It’s a mask that you wear and it has a hose that goes to a box basically with a fan in it. You can think it’s like putting your head outside the window of your truck cab. As you put your head outside, air is being forced into your throat and keeps it inflated a bit. What it does is it applies a bit of extra pressure so that between breaths, the throat doesn’t collapse completely. It keeps it open. Nowadays, these machines are not much bigger than a TV remote control. It takes a bit of getting used to but some people right from the first night say it changes their life. For others it takes a little bit longer to get used to it but compared to treatment for other chronic diseases, it’s not surgical, it doesn’t involve lots of drugs, and it’s pretty straightforward.

Mark Seymour, president & CEO, Kriska Transportation This is a topic that’s of particular interest to me because I suffer from sleep apnea. As an organization, we decided to take a proactive approach to dealing with what likely is to become legislation we’re all going to have to deal with.

My personal story really is one that is very similar to David’s.

For a long time, I would get drowsy in the afternoons, I would wake up most mornings with a dry throat. My wife would be very upset about my snoring all night and how it interrupted her sleep, all those things. It was part of my life and I thought it was just the way it was. I remember going to visit my father in the hospital one time and I walked into the room while he was sleeping, and he had this contraption on his face. It’s the first time I’d ever seen a CPAP machine. That’s when I was first became aware of sleep apnea and the fact there was treatment.

About nine years ago, I went to my family physician and suggested that I should go for a sleep study. I did and found out that I was severely handicapped with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) 24 FLEET EXECUTIVE ❙ May/June 2015

11 Sleep Ap.indd 24

but chose not to deal with it for about two years out of sheer embarrassment and shame. A couple of years went by and for some reason I decided to go back for another sleep study and decided to treat it. My experience was very positive. I frankly look forward to going to bed at night and putting my machine on. It makes me feel so good. It makes me feel comfortable and at peace. I’ve gone two nights without the CPAP machine in seven years. If there is any possibility of you being affected by sleep apnea I would encourage you to deal with it. Why in the world wouldn’t you want to feel better when there’s such a simple and easy fix?

We have a mandatory sleep apnea screening program for new hires at Kriska. It was introduced in January 2011. We just decided, much like the use of EOBRs, it’s not negotiable at Kriska. Since January of 2011, every commercial driver we have hired has had to go through pre-screening. I think it dovetails very well with the wellness program that we have in our organization, and I think people appreciate it. It’s widely embraced.

We have 138 commercial drivers at Kriska today treating their sleep apnea. It’s really about educating people towards the benefit and the risk. Once you get past the vanity of not wanting to wear a mask and traveling with a machine it all becomes so much easier and widely accepted. I notice people now traveling in airports with a CPAP machine over their shoulder. Many women have them in very decorative bags.

Last year, we were recognized as the safest fleet in North America with the lowest accident rate per million miles. I’m not going to attribute that to the OSA testing, but I think it’s something that’s helping contribute to the success of our organization as we measure safety. One of the cornerstones of our organization is to provide a safe place for people to work.

People that want to participate in that culture I think are the types of people that will be willing to be tested, and be willing to be treated, if that’s what it takes. We make it easier for people to participate. We have APUs on 100% of our trucks, as well as power inverters in 100% of our company trucks.

Mandatory testing for OSA is just another pre-regulation cursor and we’re just ready. I certainly would feel a lot better about being put on the stand in the event of a catastrophic accident and being able to say, “We do have a program, and we do test, and we do follow up.” We’ve been very fortunate to align ourselves with a sleep clinic in Ontario that has been very helpful to making our program easy to administer. It all starts with the driver filling out a very small questionnaire that’s faxed to the sleep clinic. They look for red flags to see if it should trigger a sleep test. If the driver has to go for a sleep test, is diagnosed with OSA and given a CPAP machine, the sleep clinic follows up with that driver four times a year to make sure they’re using their machine. We get a certificate of compliance or noncompliance depending on what the results of those four tests per year are. If a driver is found to be in noncompliance, they’re parked until they start using their machine and can prove that.

The results of our safety profile, our retention profile, and our recruiting profile would suggest that screening and treating sleep apnea is not driving people away from our organization; it’s actually attracting people to it. FE trucknews.com

15-06-11 10:12 AM

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15-06-11 10:12 AM

MAINTENANCE MATTERS

WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD Tire maintenance and evaluation programs are essential to keeping costs down

By Harry Rudolfs

M

ost carriers usually have some kind of tire maintenance and evaluation program in effect, but Erb Transport of Baden, Ont., is a pioneer in this field. Service manager Steve Haus and his partner Dave Weber, started tracking tires in 1985. Arguably, their 30-year-old tire management system is as good as any software available today.

Each tire that comes into Erb’s domain is branded with its own distinct number that will track it throughout its lifetime.

Haus or Weber can punch in the tire’s ID and find out what position and what truck it’s on at any time.

“We wanted to take control of our tire program,” says Haus.“It may not be as modern as some systems out there, but it works for us. At first it was all done on paper, later we made up some little cards, which eventually progressed to a computer. But we got some really good information from those cards--our costs and the mileage we were getting. Our fiscal year ends in November and the tire reps would be waiting for those figures to see how well their tires did.”

Erb’s program must be working. As members of the American Trucking Association’s Technology & Maintenance Council, they consistently post among the lowest costs per tire/mile when compared to similar fleets in their group.

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Haus and Weber look after some 600 tractors and straight trucks and 1,200 trailers located in 10 terminals—that’s tens of thousands of tires. Fortunately most of the equipment cycles through the Baden yard (near Kitchener, Ont.) and that’s where the real tire analysis is done, usually on weekends, when the two meet up to decide which tires get swapped out.

“Everything gets thumped,” says Haus, “and everything is done by visual inspection.” Haus estimates that the average age of one of his tires is about 2.5 years, and there’s nothing older than 7 years in the fleet. Erb runs only virgin tires on the tractor units and better than 50% virgins on its trailer fleet. “We found that mixing the casings (from different manufacturers) didn’t work too well, so we came to the conclusion that we would cap only the trailer tires. Tires get capped once and then they are out of the fleet.”

But Matt Loos, director of TVR marketing for Bridgestone, contends, “It all depends on the rotation and the position of the tires and the application. Tires can be retreaded five, six or seven times, there’s no hard number, it depends how clean the casing is. Waste management companies recap their tires many, many times.”

Canada Cartage recaps three times, according to national fleet manager John Haines. A tire will begin its service on the steering axle and move backwards with each retreading, first trucknews.com

15-06-12 10:13 AM

to the drive axle, and eventually ending up on a trailer. “We cap them when they get down to 5/32”, and we’ll try to match casings with no more than 6 or 7 years on a casing.

With a diverse fleet of 5,000 pieces of equipment involved in varied applications, tracking tire costs and performance is a daunting task for Haines, “But we do a pretty good job on our grocery fleet.”

It’s not uncommon for fleets to run several different styles of tires from several manufacturers. But wherever possible, Haines suggests fleet managers try to stick to one or two styles and makes. “We have what we call the ‘grocery tire’ that we use on most applications. Try to find a few standards and a few tread patterns that work for you.” Haines suggests that the same holds true when trying different tires on a trial basis. “Don’t go testing a million different brands because you’ll never be able to track them, especially with a fleet the size of ours.”

Predicting and mitigating expenses is the main reason for instituting any tire evaluation program, but it’s interesting to note that costs can be calculated in several ways, depending on the metrics that are important to fleet operations. Most carriers are primarily interested in cost per kilometer, but other specialty fleets might want a cost per driver hour, or per engine hour. Cement haulers might frame expenses in terms of the amount of concrete poured, while couriers might want the figures in terms of the number of packages delivered.

“All fleets calculate this differently, “ says Rick Phillips, vice president for sales for Yokohama. “Some just use the cost of the tire and total miles driven. But many include other components such as installation labor, tire repair and tire related breakdowns. What’s effective will vary from fleet to fleet.”

Proper inflation, any service technician will tell you, is paramount for ensuring tire longevity. MacKinnon Transport

inspects its trailers every three months, and tire pressure and tread depths are part of a regular service.”We start swapping out at 8/32, it all depends on what kind of work the truck is doing and the kind of terrain they’re traveling on,” says maintenance manager, Don Gibson.

Tire service providers are often a good source of intelligence. KalTire, for instance, supplies each fleet with a bar code for every tire or recap it installs, and makes that information available upon request to the customer.

KalTire also supplies a national tire program for fleets across Canada, and it has signed up some major carriers for their “mounted wheel” program. “We’ll pick up and deliver mounted wheels ready to go,” says Justin Spasovski, general manager for KalTire’s Mississauga, Ont., location. “That means mechanics are no longer required to do tires. The last thing most companies want to see is their mechanic mounting and rotating tires.”

Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFIDs) could potentially be a great boon to fleet managers and their inception is not that far off. Michelin began supplying RFID tires with wireless tire pressure senses to London buses in 2012 and both Goodyear and Michelin introduced RFID-tagged truck and bus tires in Europe in 2013. Apparently, there are other manufacturers working on RFID technology and some brands with RFID tags are expected to be introduced to North America within a year or two.

The RFID concept involves imbedding a chip and antenna in the sidewall which can be combined with an air pressure and/or temperature sensor that would collect data for the life of the tire. A maintenance technician or driver holding a scanner and doing a circle check could get tire pressure readings and temperatures from all the tires in seconds, rather than having to check each tire manually. The tag would also contain information about the tire’s history, date of manufacture, number of recaps, etc.

One recent report estimates that only 65% of US fleets have tire programs, and I suspected the number is somewhat similar in Canada--and that’s not to count those that have started programs and let them lapse. RFID tags could eliminate tirebranding and the way tracking is currently being done by many carriers, more importantly it could make tire maintenance programs easier to access and administrate. Technology, however, is secondary to the commitment required to make a program work. “Be prepared to spend a lot of time at it,” says Haus of Erb Transport.

Rick Phillips of Yokohama concurs. “The main thing is to pick a method and be committed to it. Tires are big expense for fleets so the tire program should be constantly checked and reviewed. To review the effectiveness of a tire program you have to have data and you have evaluate the data. There just needs to be a concerted effort to do this. The fleets that watch their tire program are typically the ones who have the lowest cost per mile. Depending on the size of the fleet just lowering their tire cost could provide a significant competitive advantage for them.” FE May/June 2015 ❙ FLEET EXECUTIVE 27

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15-06-12 10:13 AM

FEATURE PROFITABILITY

DIVING INTO THE UNTAPPED LABOR POOL How other industries are attracting women to the workplace

T

By James Menzies

ransportation isn’t the only industry looking for ways to attract women. Other professions are dealing with their own dearth of workers and are also looking to women to help fill the void.

That competition for the same pool of prospective employees makes it even trickier for transportation to draw women to the industry. However, there are lessons to be learned from examining the best practices of other industries and taking note of how they went about attracting women to the industry.

A panel at the recent Women with Drive Leadership Summit examined Best Practices from other industries. It was moderated by Julia Kuzeljevich, editor of Newcom Business Media’s Canadian Shipper magazine.

Her first guest was Judy Lynn Archer, president and CEO of Women Building Futures, a strategic workforce development partner for the construction industry.

“Underemployed women are Canada’s largest untapped 28 FLEET EXECUTIVE ❙ May/June 2015

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labour market,” Archer said. “What we need to do collectively and better is to raise awareness in women about these opportunities and also the realities.”

Women Building Futures helps match trained and certified women with appropriate employers in the construction industry.

“It’s so important to match the right person to the right employer,” she pointed out. “A lot of employers require fly-in/flyout. This is not going to work if you’re a single parent. It’s not our job at Women Building Futures to figure out if that’s right or fair, it is what it is, and it isn’t going to work for you. But we have companies in every city and town in Canada that need good people, so there is plenty of work in those communities, we just need to make that match.”

Archer shared several success stories, including that of a woman who now earns 160% more than she did eight months ago. She said it’s incumbent on industries that haven’t traditionally targeted women to do a better job of reaching out.

“Women out there just don’t wake up in the morning and think ‘I think I’ll be a boilermaker’ or ‘I’ll go drive one of those trucknews.com

15-06-12 9:22 AM

semis’,” she said. “It’s just not in their frame of reference. We need to get that out there, that these are fantastic opportunities.”

Michelle Branigan, chief executive director of Electricity Human Resources Canada, said the same is true in the electrical industry. Only a quarter of the electrical industry workforce is female, and when you drill down into the trades it’s less than 5%, Branigan said, “which is absolutely woeful in this age, given how long we’ve been talking about this problem.”

The organization’s research indicated women and girls need to see more female role models in the workplace. Otherwise, they have difficulty understanding the duties, roles and responsibilities those careers entail.

“I personally don’t know women who drive trucks,” Branigan said. “I would never have thought of it as a career and I collected Hot Wheels as a kid, I never played with dolls. It’s very challenging for a woman to develop an interest or curiosity in a career that they simply do not know exists.”

There are also misperceptions of these industries that need to be overcome.

Branigan also said her organization’s research has found young males are more resistant to females in male-dominated workplaces than older male workers are.

“Society still programs young males to think there’s nothing worse than being bested by a girl,” she said. “That kind of belief makes it challenging for some men to understand women can do the job as well as they can.”

Branigan called on senior leadership to send a message that sexism will not be tolerated.

“They need to develop a culture where there’s no such thing as a non-traditional role for women in their company,” she said.

Denise McLean, senior associate with Graybridge Malkam, a workplace diversity specialist, said the mining industry has recently enjoyed some success in attracting women. The companies that have been most successful in this regard have been those that set firm targets and objectives and where there was strong a commitment from senior management to follow through. One mining company increased the number of women who applied for positions by 30% in 18 months.

Mining companies did community outreach, with one company holding orientation events specifically for Grades 11-12 girls, educating them on careers available in the industry.

Another company held a family appreciation day and encouraged employees to invite their wife, daughters, nieces – any family members who may benefit from a first-hand look at mining operations and the career options that exist.

“They had 25-30 women sign up for more information,” McLean said. “That’s a start.”

Once women have been hired, it’s just as important to ensure they have the opportunity to advance through the ranks, McLean added.

“A lot of organizations are shifting their focus, so it’s not just about attracting women into the occupations, but retaining them and advancing them up the pipeline into more senior-level careers,” she said. FE

13 Women.indd 29

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GEARED UP

RoboTruck

The inside scoop on the world’s first road-legal autonomous truck

By James Menzies

A

fter a flashy prime time introduction of its Inspiration Truck atop the Hoover Dam in Nevada, Freightliner offered further details on how the world’s first road-legal autonomous truck works, and how it will benefit the North American trucking industry.

Martin Daum, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) stressed it was customers that drove Freightliner to develop a truck that will help improve safety and trucking industry efficiency.

“The easy things are already invented,” he said of truck efficiency, noting it’s time now to push the envelope on innovation and to help shape future regulations as well. When it comes to autonomous trucks, it’s the regulatory obstacles that may be more difficult to overcome than any technical challenges. In Nevada, Freightliner found a like-minded government willing to help develop autonomous vehicles by putting a regulatory framework in place to allow their use.

There, drivers of autonomous trucks must have a commercial driver’s licence and also take a course developed by the truck manufacturer and approved by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

“DTNA elected to debut the Inspiration Truck in Nevada, because of the fact the Nevada government has regulatory requirements for needing a licence to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in this state,” said Sean Waters, director of compliance and regulatory affairs with DTNA. “We wanted to do it in a regulatory environment that sets standards.”

Daimler conducted 10,000 miles of testing on its Inspiration Truck to satisfy the state that the technology is safe. Nevada requires a data recorder to be installed in autonomous vehicles that will store at least 30 seconds of data in the event of a crash, however Daimler captures and stores all the data generated by 30 FLEET EXECUTIVE ❙ May/June 2015

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the vehicle over the course of its entire life, far surpassing the minimum requirement. In the event of an accident, this data will be vital in determining who – or what – was at fault.

Until other states come on-board, the Inspiration Truck can only be operated in the state of Nevada. Daum said more states and provinces must follow suit to make autonomous trucks more widely viable.

The truck can only be operated in autonomous Highway Pilot mode when it’s being driven on Nevada freeways and interstate highways. Mechanisms are in place to prevent the driver from operating in autonomous mode when and where it’s not permitted.

While the driver is able, under certain conditions, to relinquish control of most driving responsibilities to Highway Pilot, he must remain in the driver’s seat and must always be in position to take back control of the truck when necessary. Still, Waters said when Highway Pilot is active, the driver will eventually be able to complete paperwork, plan their next load or take care of other responsibilities, effectively allowing them to make better use of their downtime once their driving shift is completed.

A driver will always be required to oversee the operation of the truck, Daum added.

“Will it make the driver obsolete? I don’t see that,” he said.

“The human brain is still the best computer. We want to give the driver a tool that enhances their capability significantly.”

The brains of the Highway Pilot system are a collection of advanced cameras, radars and sensors, integrated with the truck’s engine, transmission, braking system and electronics.

The Inspiration Truck is defined by the Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as a Level 3 autonomous vehicle, explained Martin Zeilinger, director of advanced engineering with DTNA, meaning it “enables the driver to cede full control of safety-critical functions, including steering, in certain traffic or environmental conditions.”

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v

There are four levels of autonomous vehicles, the fourth being a true driverless truck, but that’s not the technology Freightliner is currently developing.

“Freightliner is not interested in pursuing a full self-driving vehicle,” said Al Pearson, chief engineer, product validation for Freightliner. Zeilinger added one of the biggest myths around autonomous driving is that it is ‘driverless’ – a frequently used, but misleading term.

“An autonomous highway truck is not a driverless vehicle,” Zeilinger emphasized. “We still require a qualified truck driver with a CDL to be in the cab and at the controls.”

In fact, since the technology is so new, Nevada currently requires two people to be in the cab of an autonomous truck at all times. One can only assume that condition will be lifted in time, otherwise it would certainly offset any productivity gains the industry hopes to achieve.

While the driver will not be eliminated by the technology, there are still benefits to be had, officials pointed out. Since 90% of crashes are caused by driver error, Freightliner officials said autonomous trucks have the potential to reduce crashes.

They profess the technology can also improve fuel efficiency, reduce the strain on components, improve traffic flow and reduce driver stress and fatigue in monotonous driving situations.

The Inspiration Truck also boasts platooning capabilities, where further fuel savings can be achieved by linking up several such trucks via vehicle-to-vehicle communications. They can then travel in a tightly packed convoy with the braking activities of the lead truck causing the following trucks to slow or stop in unison.

This technology has shown a 5.3% average fuel savings among the trucks in a three-truck platoon and a 6% average fuel savings in a five-truck platoon, chiefly by minimizing the air pressure zones between the trucks.

The Highway Pilot system – while impressive and far more advanced than any other such system – still has some concerning shortcomings. It requires clearly visible lane markings to function, so it won’t be usable in snowy conditions – not likely to be an issue in Nevada – or when lane markings are absent or difficult to discern.

Also, the camera/radar combination can’t yet identify nonmetallic objects and then apply braking, so a driver who’s reading a book or making dinner reservations on his iPad when he comes upon a sizable piece of tire debris or a deer, moose or pedestrian in his path…well, that could be an issue.

However, it seems a fix to this is already in the works. Zeilinger noted as the system is further developed, it will eventually be able to recognize non-metallic objects through technology he referred to as “sensor fusion” – the combining of camera and radar capabilities to recognize a wider variety of objects. Since it’s not yet clear when the Inspiration Truck will be production-ready, this will likely have been sorted by then.

With the technical sessions complete, it was time to climb inside the Inspiration Truck for a journey on Nevada highways.

The tractor-trailer was buffeted by powerful, gusting crosswinds, which put the Highway Pilot system to the test. At one p 35

14 Geared t.indd 31

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GEARED UP

Smart Trailers

Predictive safety systems are part of the future of trucking

By Lou Smyrlis

C

an you imagine driving a tractor-trailer combination where the trailer is smarter than the tractor and can operate independently?

Volvo Trucks can and its executives took the opportunity to share with clients and media their view of how different trucking can be in the future. The information session with Volvo C-suite executives took place during the North American leg of the Volvo Ocean Race hosted by Newport, Rhode Island.

“Why does the tractor have to pull everything?” asked Jeff Cotner, chief designer with Volvo Trucks in presenting a future vision where trailers can operate under their own power and, having no physical connection to the tractor, are free to join up with and follow the tractor in platoon formation with other similarly smart trailers and then break off and drive themselves to different destinations along the way, all done at road speed.

Essentially in such a vision trucking would operate similar to railroads with the driver in the lead vehicle monitoring the constant coupling and uncoupling of smart trailers in the platoon formation. Perhaps such a platoon of trailers can also include passengers in specialized trailers who, using an Uber type booking system, can join the platoon if it’s heading towards their destination. Although the technology is still not there, passengers being part of commercial movements is not far fetched. It already occurs in global ocean freight transport.

Some containerships include berthing for passengers.

Considering such trailers would be far more costly and the trailers currently are the lowest-cost part of the tractor-trailer combination, Transportation Media asked Cotner if there could be enough savings found through improved operational

32 FLEET EXECUTIVE ❙ May/June 2015

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and fuel efficiencies to justify the much higher cost in trailers.

Cotner pointed out that in such a vision the trailer which operates under its own power replaces the truck in many situations and fleets will save money by not having to purchase as many trucks. Also in platooning situations where there is a driver in the lead truck but no drivers in the trailers that follow it, there are considerable savings in labor costs.

Such a vision would also likely require changes to the road system so that such combinations can travel in their own lanes, acknowledged Cotner but Volvo is already working with California on a bill that would allow for platooning of 3-4 trucks using sensing technology to follow each other in tight formation that would be considered tailgaiting under current legislation. By tightening up the following distance significant drafting advantages are created which improve fuel economy and the advanced sensing and camera technologies onboard make it safe to do so, according to Volvo.

Cotner also wondered how autonomous vehicle technology – which enables the tractor to drive itself while the driver simply monitors operations, rests, or looks to other tasks while in the cab such as communicating with customers – would affect the profession’s image.

“What can we do inside the truck to make the profession more interesting? What can we do so the driver can have a better lifestyle but for it to also be good for business?” he asked.

“Drivers stepping away from the steering wheel is coming– it’s not if but when. Does that make the profession more interesting? Does it allow owners to get better people?”

In the meantime, Volvo is using lessons learned by participating in the Super Truck project to make powertrain and tractor fairing trucknews.com

15-06-12 10:21 AM

design changes which have made for a 3.5% gain in aerodynamics able 5-10- years from now. He added Volvo Trucks has a vision and a 2% powertrain improvement for specific applications. of attaining zero accidents with its vehicles. Think that’s imAs the inventors of the three-point seatbelt, Volvo has a possible? Almqvist doesn’t think so. strong tradition of focusing on safety and company officials “I think it is actually possible. This is where you get into mindvow that future technologies will continue that focus. sets,” he said pointing out that in 1997 Sweden adopted a zero “Why do accidents happen? Why do some drivers have more vision for fatalities on its roads. Many scoffed at the impossibility accidents than others? We’ve been learning from accidents since of such a goal yet last year Sweden enjoyed no fatalities on its 1969 and 90% are due to human error,” said Carl Johan Almqvist, roads for 30% of the year. FE director, traffic and product safety.

Distraction, alcohol, speed, and no seat belt use all contribute to accidents caused and the injuries and fatalities that result.

VOLUME 5 Speed is a particular issue because the human brain is not equipped with a particularly good speed sensor, according to Almqvist.

“We human beings don’t understand speed at all. We don’t have a speed sensor.

This is a challenge for us in traffic. Speed kills,” Almqvist said.

For example, when we come up too fast on slow moving vehicles we often need to see a change happen – such as brake lights coming on – to recognize quickly enough the danger of the situation. Yet when we are distracted or look away and miss the brake lights coming on we may not react quickly enough and end up running into the back of the slower moving or stationary vehicle.

Almqvist said Volvo believes in employSTRAIGHT ing technology such as Enhanced Cruise TALK with Active Braking to support the driver in SMART STRATEGIE such situations. When a crash is imminent S Your guide to the most effective and the driver is not responding to alerts, the fuel saving practices • Canadian fleets taking the system takes over and brakes the vehicle to intelligent approach to fuel avoid the collision. savings. What can you learn Looking further ahead Volvo Trucks wants to further develop its active safety technolfrom them? ogy with the aim of going beyond where human eyes can see.

• Bolt-on technologies that “We are trying to create an artificial really do save fuel brain that can predict what’s going to happen (in traffic) and support the driver to • Buying a SmartWay approved keep him out of trouble,” Almqvist said. tire. They’re not all created equal For example, Volvo is experimenting with technology that provides a 360-degree scan of the truck’s environment and takes over Download your FREE copies to avoid an accident. The driver mis­sed in the Knowledge Centres section of the cyclist in the blind spot on his right www.trucknews.com and is about to attempt a right hand turn that will cause the cyclist to smash into the Produced by the editors of Truck News, truck? No problem, the active safety sysTruck West & Fleet Executive tem takes over and stops the vehicle from In partnership with Michelin North America making the right turn.

(Canada) Inc. Almqvist said such systems will be avail-

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VOLUME 5

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May/June 2015 ❙ FLEET EXECUTIVE 33

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15-06-12 10:21 AM

GEARED UP

Peterbilt shows off its own autonomous truck and prepares to operate in Nevada

By James Menzies

F

reightliner’s Inspiration Truck may not be the only autonomous tractor cruising Nevada highways before long.

Peterbilt has an autonomous truck of its own and is interested in licensing it to operate on roads in Nevada, the only state or province thus far to allow such trucks.

Peterbilt refers to its system as Advanced Driver Assist, and says it’s more of a stepping stone to a true autonomous vehicle. However by NHTSA’s definition, it does qualify as a Level 3 autonomous vehicle, according to Bill Kahn, manager of advanced concepts for Peterbilt.

NHTSA describes Level 3 automation as enabling “the driver to cede full control of all safety-critical functions under certain traffic or environmental conditions and in those conditions to rely heavily on the vehicle to monitor for changes in those conditions requiring transition back to driver control.

The driver is expected to be available for occasional control, but with sufficiently comfortable transition time.”

During a demonstration in late May at Texas Motor Speedway, the Peterbilt truck with Advanced Driver Assist did everything Freightliner’s Inspiration Truck did earlier this month, and some things it did not.

Both trucks use cameras to seek out lane markings and steer the truck within its lane. But when lane markings are absent, Peterbilt’s uses “high-precision GPS mapping” to follow a route that’s been pre-programmed into the system. So it was able to navigate the road course at Texas Motor Speedway even though no lane markings were present, choosing the safest and most efficient path as determined in advance by Peterbilt engineers.

The idea is to eventually enable the system to achieve lanekeeping by both modes and to be able to switch seamlessly between the two, so that in construction zones or other areas where lane markings aren’t present, the truck can continue to find its way. The GPS system Peterbilt uses is accurate to within five centimeters, the company claims.

Still, Peterbilt has shied away from the term ‘autonomous,’

34 FLEET EXECUTIVE ❙ May/June 2015

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providing frequent reminders a driver must always be the chief decision-maker. Even so, in typical driving situations, its system can take over steering control about 85% of the time, Kahn said.

Loading acceptable truck routes into the system will be a painstaking process, at least initially, until all well-travelled truck routes have been programmed.

“The truck can’t follow automotive GPS maps, because of the trailer,” Kahn explained. “So we go out there and teach it what lane it needs to be in and how fast it can go around each of the corners, to drive the route as efficiently and safely as possible.”

When it comes to lane-changing, the driver will still need to advise the system on whether or not it’s safe to do so.

The system in the truck we rode in could be activated and deactivated using a green rocker switch on the dash.

Peterbilt has built two trucks with the Advanced Driver Assist system, one of which was developed for Walmart. Before it becomes viable commercially, Kahn said production costs will have to be reduced. The LIDAR laser system on the truck we rode in cost close to $15,000 and will need to be $1,000 to be economically palatable to fleets. And the pricey cameras will also have to come down in price significantly, Kahn pointed out.

Both the Freightliner and Peterbilt autonomous systems are spectacular, but the truck makers have taken substantially different approaches to achieving automation.

While the Freightliner system relies solely on cameras to detect lane markings, and can currently only function when lane markings are clearly visible to the cameras, the Peterbilt system supplements such cameras with the use of high-precision GPS, potentially broadening the scenarios in which its driver assist system can function. That is only, of course, if that specific route has been programmed into the system.

Freightliner’s Highway Pilot system currently only becomes available at highway speeds, while Peterbilt’s Advanced Driver Assist can be activated from a complete stop and will bring the truck up to road speed without driver input.

However for its part, Daimler has demonstrated the confidence in its system to work with the state government in Nevada to have it legalized and has tested its Highway Pilot autonomous driving system extensively on public roads there.

Peterbilt, to date, has limited public demonstrations of its system to off-highway environments and at Texas Motor Speedway, sans trailer. Both companies, however, have made clear the technology is ready to roll when regulators and the motoring public are comfortable with it. Peterbilt, for its part, seems resigned to the fact it’ll be a while before the systems are approved for widespread use.

“The technology’s there; the technology works,” said Darrin Siver, general manager of Peterbilt. “We’ve done a lot of testing but we would do a lot more testing before we’d ever think of going into production with that. Regulatory hurdles need to be overcome first, then you come to public perception. The technology is there and it works but it has to be accepted and it’s hard to say when that’ll become a reality. Others have made some more optimistic predictions.” FE trucknews.com

15-06-12 9:31 AM

SAF-Holland offers industry’s first fully integrated mechanical trailer suspension ith more fleets spec’ing mechanical trailer suspensions, SAF-Holland has come out with a new system it says will reduce weight and maintenance costs and simplify OEM installation.

The ULX40 UltraLite is offered as a complete system, something only SAF-Holland can offer as the industry’s only supplier of both axles and mechanical suspensions, according to the company.

This systems approach follows a trend seen some time ago with air suspension systems.

The ULX40 uses composite springs designed to last four times longer than steel springs, and the company claims they also provide ride performance comparable to air ride.

Mechanical suspensions are said to save a fleet about $650 in maintenance costs over a 10-year period. There are fewer parts to worry about, as they don’t require shock absorbers, air springs, height control valves or dock lock devices.

“This new spring-ride suspension product will change the way fleets look at mechanical suspensions,” said Jeff Talaga, executive vice-president, trailer systems. “It’s an engineered all-in-one system that is lighter weight, offers a lower total cost of ownership, and the industry’s first 10-year suspension and axle system warranty. It will be spec’d by on-highway fleets in the van industry who are looking for a versatile option to help reduce costs for hauling requirements.”

Trailer OEMs will also like the ULX40, since it simplifies installation and supply chain management, said Bill Rector,

director of sales and marketing, trailer systems business unit with SAF-Holland.

The ULX40 is up to 125 lbs lighter than other mechanical trailer suspensions, the company claims. Weight savings can be attributed to the composite springs, which are 80 lbs lighter than steel, as well as a lighter-weight 5.75-inch diameter axle.

Talaga said more dry van fleets are favouring mechanical trailer suspensions, due to the maintenance savings and an improved ride performance that now comes close to matching that offered by air ride suspensions. Today, about half of new dry van trailers are being spec’d with mechanical suspensions.

“The large fleets are looking at moving away from air ride to mechanical suspensions,” Talaga explained.

One such fleet is Schneider, which published a white paper that concluded ride hasn’t been significantly compromised by moving to mechanical trailer suspensions. This trend suits SAFHolland well.

“We are the market share leader in mechanical suspensions,” Talaga pointed out.

Until now, there has been no fully unitized mechanical trailer suspension available in the industry.

“We are the only ones who can do that today,” Talaga said.

“The end user no longer has to worry about chasing down this supplier for this piece of axle, spring or suspension. It comes from us, one warranty.”

The 10-year warranty is an industry first, SAF-Holland claims.

Doug Dorn, vice-president, fleet and end user development, said the latest offering from SAF-Holland rounds out its suspension offerings.

“What I’m most excited about from a fleet perspective is, I now have the ability to speak to any fleet customer in the US and Canada – I’ve got it all,” he said. “If they’re an air ride fleet, I’ve got it in the CBX40. If they’re mechanical, I’ve got it in the ULX40.”

The ULX 40 can be ordered with disc or drum brakes.

Drums remain the predominant choice, but Dorn said many carriers are placing small orders with disc brakes to evaluate their performance.

The ULX40 UltraLite is available now for order. FE

p 31 time, the system did ask the driver to take control but we never felt at risk.

The driver obliged and after a few seconds placed it back into Highway Pilot mode. The truck held its course remarkably well while driven autonomously. The route was pre-programmed into the GPS so when we approached the intended highway exit the system reminded the driver to take the reins.

While on Highway Pilot, the driver was able to remove a tablet from the dash to perform non-driving tasks. During our drive, the truck always felt completely safe and in control, even when the driver’s feet were planted firmly on the floor and his hands were off the steering wheel.

Highway Pilot will eventually be able to use sign recognition abilities to maintain the posted speed limit but for now, the driv-

er programs in the desired cruise speed. The truck adjusted its speed as required to maintain a safe following distance. It was able to effortlessly handle any scenario that it encountered on our short drive. Daimler, so heavily invested as it is in autonomous trucking technology, is hoping regulators across North America will be equally impressed and convinced.

Once more states allow the use of autonomous trucks, DTNA’s Daum said the hope is the technology can be used to drive further productivity gains for the industry. These could come in the form of longer driver hours-of-service due to the reduced fatigue they experience when driving autonomous vehicles, or larger, longer truck and trailer combinations, which will be safer than ever to operate because of the safety benefits automation brings. FE

By James Menzies

W

May/June 2015 ❙ FLEET EXECUTIVE 35

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Fleetexec.pdf

1

2015-06-10

8:36 AM

STAKUP ESSENTIAL PERFORMANCE FOCUS DAYS SALES OUTSTANDING (A/R)

Beginning with this issue of Fleet Executive, every two months we will focus our attention on a specific metric which we deem to be an Essential Performance Indicator (EPI). StakUp is the only dedicated online Performance Benchmarking Service for the North American Trucking Industry. Currently tracking 27 EPIs, StakUp seeks to provide timely and relevant data to either: 1) Focus your efforts on underperforming areas of your business, or 2) Validate your operational success and management. Some of these metrics are very specific to the Trucking Industry, while others are more general in nature. This month’s focus is Accounts Receivable – Days Sales Outstanding. To most successful businesses, this should be a key focus of attention regardless of your size and profit margins. Improving on this measure means you have less of a reliance on your working capital (or line of credit), and increasing your ability to invest in profit seeking opportunities (trucks, property, systems).

days sales outstanding (A/R)

37.60 42.97

32.28 Industry Type Long Distance For-Hire Long Distance For-Hire

StakUp’s database of Trucking Companies totals 37 Truckload Carriers throughout North America (evenly dispersed geographically). Included in this total are 10 publicly traded Truckload Carriers (all US domiciled). The gauge to the left represents the current range among our Population in terms of A/R Days Sales Outstanding. The value in the centre is the population average and the values to the left and right are the longest and shortest collection period on average.

This metric is based on a 6 month rolling average calculation. Interestingly enough, the best single month recorded by a motor carrier in this population was 21 days!

For Accounts Receivable benchmarking, BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada) has created an A/R calculator for specific industries. The following table breaks down Trucking’s Canadian Measures:

Industry Sub Type Truckload (TL) Less Than Truckload (LTL)

Days Sales O/S 33.5 35.1

How do you StakUp? What can you do to get better? Here are some tips: 1. Track it Weekly - If you’re not measuring, you probably won’t improve. Every StakUp subscriber has improved on this metric since enrolling, coincidence?

2. Know Who You’re Giving Credit to - Research every new account, and if it isn’t business prohibitive get credit references from at least three different vendors.

3. Invoice ASAP - If your system isn’t generating invoices automatically upon successful delivery – make that a short term goal for your business.

4. Make it Easy to Pay You - Allow your customers to pay you electronically. It’s becoming more common for large shippers to prefer EFT or online payment processing.

5. Use Accounts Receivable Management Software - Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, look into ARM platforms.

These tools can be customized to your credit policy(ies) and integrate with your existing accounting/invoice platforms.

Checkout some of these popular examples Funding Gates, ZenCash, and AnytimeCollect.

6. Try StakUp with your business - benchmark, set corporate goals, enagage your employees (www.stak-up.com)

www.stak-up.com 15 Inside .indd 36

15-06-12 9:10 AM

tn.com m

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS

WHAT DO SHIPPERS WANT?

There are many things a shipper can take into consideration in evaluating carriers. Our annual Shipper’s Choice survey asks shippers to rate the importance of 8 Key Performance Indicators and then to rate the performance of their top TL and LTL carriers.

While on-time performance is paramount, competitive pricing and customer service are also considered critical by shippers.

IMPORTANCE OF KEY PERFOMANCE INDICATORS TO BUYERS OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES (SCALE OF 1 TO 5)

On-time performance

Quality of equipment & operations

Information technology

Competitive pricing

Customer service

Leadership in problem solving

Ability to provide value-added services

Sustainable Transportation Practices

4.767

4.358

4.098

4.700

4.692

4.416

3.658

4.078

4.842

4.508

4.163

4.737

4.655

4.429

3.936

4.188

20.44

18.50

16.36

19.87

19.89

17.78

14.57

16.57

21.31

19.63

16.64

20.29

20.41

18.50

16.04

17.37

LTL

TL

PERFORMANCE OF LTL AND TL PROVIDERS (SCALE OF 1 TO 25)

LTL

TL

RESPONSE BY SECTOR

Other

ANNUAL EXPENDITURES ON SUPPLY CHAIN

Less than $100,000

$100,001 - 500,000

$500,001 1 milliom

$1 milliom - 5 milliom

$5 milliom - 10 milliom

$10 milliom - 20 milliom

More than $20 milliom

13%

25%

12%

21%

10%

7%

13%

23% Manufacturing

42%

Freight forwarding

6%

Third-party logistics

17%

Retail

ANNUAL EXPENDITURES ON TRUCK TRANSPORT

Less than $10,000

$10,001 - 50,000

$50,001 - 100,000

$100,001 - 500,000

$- 500,001 - 1 milliom

3%

11%

11%

27%

11%

$1 milliom $5 milliom More than - 5 milliom - 10 milliom $10 milliom

18%

6%

12%

12%

38 FLEET EXECUTIVE ❙ May/June 2015

trucknews.com

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6/5/15 1:52 15-06-12 9:13PM AM

FAST FORWARD

Brought to you by the editors of Truck News, Truck West & Fleet Executive, in partnership with Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac.

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in this issue 3 5 6 8 9 10 12 14 15

RAISE THE BAR Think recruiting and retaining drivers is tough today? It’s only going to get tougher in the future. Finding and keeping tomorrow’s driver is going to require a higher standard on HR practices. Read how some fleets are already making the transition.

AN UNTAPPED RESOURCE They make up 48% of the nation’s work force but only 3% of our industry’s driver pool. Why don’t more women consider trucking a viable career option and how you can help change their minds.

TOMORROW’S TECHNICIAN Today’s trucks are highly complex and the shops that service them increasingly high tech. How and where are we going to find the skilled technicians this calls for? Our maintenance experts share their insights.

IN DEMAND SKILLS Five tips from professional educators and employers on how to hire the right technicians for your business’s future needs and how to develop them into long-term employees and future leaders.

PC-11 and NEW OIL STRATEGIES The new oil category holds the promise of fuel savings but can also bring added complexity to the shop. Mobil Delvac expert Stephanie Jaworski explains why and what it could mean for your operation.

NO UNPLANNED STOPS Can you envision a day when unscheduled mechanical downtime is a rarity from the past? Learn how advances in telematics and remote diagnostics are changing the mindset when it comes to truck repairs.

THE EVOLUTION OF SAFETY The rapid shift from passive to active safety systems is saving lives and significantly reducing costs for fleets. Yet, we may just be scratching the surface in terms of what we can achieve by developing such systems.

OPTIMIZING DRAIN INTERVALS Establishing an optimized oil drain interval can be labor and time intensive. But the potential benefits can be exceptional. Profit from some expert advice on how to get started.

IT’S A NATURAL. OR IS IT? The plunge in crude oil pricing is leading some to question the future viability of natural gas and the adoption rate has slowed. But the early adopters believe natural gas remains a smart long-term plan.

Glimpse into the future

O

ver the past month I’ve sat transfixed with awe in the cab of the world’s first road legal autonomous heavy duty vehicle, Freightliner’s Inspiration Truck, as it maneuvered its way in highway traffic through the Nevada desert, its “driver” monitoring the controls but not touching the wheel. I’ve listened with rapt attention to engineers and designers from Volvo Trucks speak of the imminent emergence on our roads of truck platooning, where two or more trucks connect via vehicle-to-vehicle communications and then travel in a tightly packed convoy. I even heard of the possibility of tractor-trailer combinations where the trailer is smarter than the tractor and can operate independently to deliver itself to warehouse locations along the way.

I’ve read with interest about the lengths some carriers are going to attract drivers and technicians to the industry from non-traditional sources of labor and, more interestingly, the new approaches they’re adopting to retain them.

We are on the cusp of great change. A decade from now the technolo2 FAST FORWARD

Next Gen2.indd 2

gies, regulations, and human resource practices that drive our industry will be significantly different than what we know today.

We are about to move “Fast Forward” indeed and with this special supplement produced by the editors of Truck News, Truck West and Fleet Executive, in partnership with Imperial Oil – Mobil Delvac, we strive to provide you with an inside look at the future of trucking.

And there is more to learn in the months ahead. I encourage you to turn to the special Knowledge Centre entitled An Inside Look at the Future of Trucking we have created for you on www.trucknews.com for more features and informative videos on the subject. We will be updating it regularly.

We’ve worked hard to produce a multi-media educational package that allows you to learn and thrive in the years ahead. I hope you find it a fascinating read.

Lou Smyrlis Publisher & Editorial Director Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

15-05-29 1:08 PM

FINDING AND KEEPING TOMORROW’S DRIVER: RETENTION, RECRUITMENT AND RAISING THE BAR

By Harry Rudolfs

H

ave you ever heard of a trucking company with its own daycare? Les Petits BouBous operated by and for employees of Transport Bourassa in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., provides spaces for 54 pre-schoolers, ages 8 months to 5 years, and there is a waiting list.

Blended families and working spouses are common among truckers, and having an inexpensive daycare near the workplace (open 6 am to 6:30 pm weekdays) makes life easier for Transport Bourassa families and gives them more options. To be fair, child care is wellsubsidized by the Quebec government, but the initiative is indicative of the lengths some trucking companies are going to accommodate their drivers and families and a prime example of the lengths carriers can expect to go to attract tomorrow’s driver.

Like some other carriers, Bourassa has gone to a 4-day, 10-hour work week to provide its regional and Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

Next Gen2.indd 3

city drivers with more home time. And long-haul drivers with children are given special consideration as well. “Some of our drivers are single dads who only get to see their kids every other weekend, so we make sure they get home on time,” says Jacynthe Seguin, director of human resources for the company.

Challenger Motor Freight has a cafeteria that serves hot meals at its Cambridge, Ont. facility along with a bunk room and indoor fueling bay for drivers passing through the terminal. Kriska Transport of Prescott, Ont., keeps a fully-loaded refrigerator at its terminal along with laundry facilities, showers, a television room and computers for drivers who might be spending a night in the yard.

Making sure drivers are content is the norm among the top trucking employers. Some carry extra insurance to allow family members to ride along on occasion. Other companies permit drivers to keep pets with them in the cab, usually small dogs or cats, although I know a couple who share their sleeper with two large dobermans.

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Driver comfort has come a long way over the decades, and fully loaded and accessorized rigs are becoming the industry standard.

Tony Primiani, general manager of Sylvester and Forget comments, “We supply everything: late model Petes or Volvos, leather seats, fridge, micro, inverter, CB. All the driver has to bring with them is their personal stuff.” And Daniel Lefebvre, director of operations for Via Val Transport Inc., of St-Eustache, Que, understands that drivers want to drive something classy. “I just ordered six LoneStars. Our work is flatbed work and drivers want a truck that looks strong and tough.”

Needless to say, wages, bonuses and benefits are among the most important considerations, and Canada’s biggest carriers are frequently revising their pay scales to stay competitive. After consulting with employees across the country, Challenger drivers were split down the middle on how they wanted to be paid. “About 50% of the drivers wanted to see their pay mostly based on mileage, while the other half wanted to be paid by mileage and the number of events like drops and switches,” says Geoff Topping, director of re-

So as the last of the baby boomers gets set to retire, the nagging question remains, where are we going to find people to drive trucks in the next decade? cruiting. “So we came up with two pay scales and drivers can choose which one suits them. We also recently announced our second pay increase this year and increased the Eastern seaboard premium.”

But retention is more of an overall strategy than merely the size of the pay packet. Driver recognition is a big part of the equation. Challenger has a one million and a two million mile club for its long service drivers, while other carriers like Bison and Yanke have similar programs.

Safety and compliance departments that offer regular safety and training sessions are crucial to the smooth operations of any carrier. Kriska Transport, for instance, has a variety of training modules and upgrades that can be tailored to suit a specific driver’s needs. As well, individual fuel mileages are tracked, and safety bonuses are paid quarterly.

“Retention is absolutely key”, according to Angela Splinter, executive director of Trucking HR Canada. “Retention is the new recruitment and successful carriers have some type of formal retention programs in place. It all ties in to the mentorship and coaching, as new recruits are looking for leadership and guidance from experienced drivers.”

Carriers partnering with driving schools are becoming more common in today’s trucking culture. These are usually schools with certified programs that involve extensive training time, both in classroom and behind the wheel. But once the graduates start work with the transport company, a mentoring and training program kicks in where the trainees are brought up to speed on the job’s requirements.

4 FAST FORWARD

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“We hire 30 to 35 drivers (yearly) directly out of driver schools and provide them with internships,” says Seguin of Transport Bourassa.

“They are accompanied by a driver trainer for the first two weeks, and after that they start working on their own. But we supply them with their own dispatcher who works directly with them, talking with them after they have completed a run to find out if there were any problems. After three months, they are considered fully productive, but we always have a live dispatcher available to them 24/7.”

Kriska has hired hundreds of drivers out of driving schools through Ontario’s Commercial Tractor Trailer Driver Apprenticeship Program. The company is one of the biggest users of the CTTDAP which sets benchmarks for driver competence and takes about one year to complete (2,000 hours). This is a fairly new program affiliated with the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities and can include several weeks of instruction with one of Kriska’s 16 driver trainers.

Kriska’s work is mostly north/south, involving border crossings.

Company scouts fan out to driving schools to explain what a driving job with the company entails. “Usually, out of a whole class there are only a few graduates who fit our expectations,” says recruiting manager Caroline Blais. “Sometimes there might be one, other times none.”

The industry continues to struggle to attract young drivers. As the profession doesn’t appear on young people’s radar, they overlook the excellent opportunities and wages that are available. Young people are also under the misapprehension that you have to be 25 to drive a big truck, but this is not the case: international carriers require drivers to be 21 to cross the border, but otherwise there is no impediment for an 18 year old to get a Class A or Class 1 licence.

To compound the problem, the industry is aging faster than the national average, and the graduates emerging from driving schools are not young either, quite often they’re mature adults looking for a new direction. So as the last of the baby boomers gets set to retire, the nagging question remains, where are we going to find people to drive trucks in the next decade?

“That’s the $64 million question,” says Les Rozander, director of contractor optimization for Trimac. “There’s a whole host of different ideas—carriers are trying to be more flexible, changing work patterns so drivers have more home time, more shuttles, switches and regional work. There’s been a lot of discussion about Ontario having to commit to mandatory training (for drivers). This is a good first step but we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Rozander suggests some under-represented communities like aboriginals and women might be a possible source of future drivers.

Currently, people seeking a second career and retirees from the Canadian military are considered to be good prospects.

“Ideally, a new three-year program being developed at NorKam High School in Kamloops, BC, by the BCTA and the ministry of education could work in conjunction with something like Ontario’s apprenticeship program. Interested high school students are steered towards a transportation career and have a position waiting for them at the end of their studies,” says Rozander. “The best way to attract young people is by adopting formal training and recognition of the profession as a trade.”

Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

15-05-29 1:08 PM

ing trucking jobs. “Just depicting males and females doing the same job in advertising can make it easier for young people to see themselves in that position,” she says.

“Whenever our company is actively advertising Commercial Driver positions (career websites, social media, radio, etc.), I generally get anywhere from 50-150 resumes sent to my inbox daily, with an approximate quarter being from women,” writes Phillips via email. “Rebel Heart does not specifically look to recruit female drivers, but we are more than eager to offer them the same chance at interviews and positions as men, as we’ve been quite lucky to have better overall retention with our female drivers.”

Jennifer Ducharme currently has a dedicated run for Mackie Transportation between Whitby, Ont., and Pt. Huron, Mich. She got into trucking after being laid off as a dispatcher during the recession of 2008. “I had hit rock bottom and was going through a divorce,” she says. “But the first place I worked after driver school, I was given a patient, kind, intelligent woman instructor who built up my confidence and helped me a lot. I’d definitely like to sit down with Penny and tell her I’ve been to 46 states.”

Ducharme has some advice for women starting out in trucking. “Talk to another woman about the job. If there’s nobody where you work you can contact Women in Trucking at their website and they can put you in touch.

And take all the courses and training that you can. It will help you with your confidence. I never worry too much about my own safety, but when I’m on the road I text my boyfriend every night from where I stop.”

Jasvinder Sangha owns a 2013 Volvo 64T with her husband Manjit.

They work on the open board for Mackie and stay out four or five days at a time. She admits that getting her licence and going on the road with her husband in 2001 raised some eyebrows. “My mother-in-law was not ready for this,” she says. “I had two boys 8 and 9 and she didn’t want me to be away. Now they are university age and it’s no problem. All the men in my family and my husband’s family are involved in trucking so that helped. Now I have a sister-in-law who wants to drive by herself.”

Canadian carriers are definitely interested in recruiting and hiring women drivers. Initiatives like Women With Drive, sponsored by Trucking HR Canada, are working to make the industry more accessible to female drivers. And as mentioned above, just having a female driver-trainer on staff to act as a mentor can make a world of difference to a young woman learning the ropes.

“Women generally don’t want ‘special treatment’ in the workplace (maybe just a separate washroom in the shop!), especially in a male dominated industry; they just want to be equals - receive fair treatment, hours, and pay,” concludes Dakota Phillips of Rebel Heart Trucking.

AN UNTAPPED RESOURCE Women Truckers—making inroads in a male-dominated industry

By Harry Rudolfs

Women represent a great untapped resource for Canada’s trucking industry.

They are 48% of the nation’s work force but only a small number choose to drive truck. At least part of the problem is the perception that trucking is man’s work. Since women haven’t traditionally done this job, they don’t really consider it a career option. Child care complications, issues such as personal security and lack of washroom facilities are often cited as other factors. But women have long-since become the majority in school bus transportation. So how can trucking culture become more inclusive so that women are comfortable behind the wheel of a big truck?

Flexibility is top of the list. “One of the biggest attractions about our organization to females may simply be that working here will allow them to be home every night,” says Dakota Phillips, administrative assistant at Rebel Heart Trucking. Her company hauls water and aggregates in the Edmonton area, and has a very large component of female drivers, about 20%, compared to an industry-average of 3%.

Phillips points out that the situation is slightly different in Alberta, since men and women are used to working side by side in heavy industry, and she suggests that promotional material should show both men and women doSponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

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TOMORROW’S TECHNICIANS How to find’em, train’em and keep’em

By James Menzies

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oday’s trucks are highly complex and the shops that service them increasingly high-tech, but it would be wrong to think that’s what’s scaring young people from pursuing careers as heavy-duty technicians.

“If you’re working on a piece of equipment that’s got four or five on-board computers, you’ve got to know your stuff. But I see a lot of people getting hung up on that,” said Colin Ruthven, chair of the Heavy Equipment Technician Programs at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. “The guys entering the trade, who grew up in our digital age, take to that technology like ducks to water.”

The skills gaps that tend to exist with today’s entrylevel technicians are more often the basic fundamentals, Ruthven explained, noting they tend to overlook simple solutions such as a ground fault or electrical problem in the pursuit of something more complicated.

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“They chase more complex solutions like a faulty emissions system when in reality, the issue is as simple as a plugged air filter,” he explained.

Today’s entry-level heavy-duty technician is usually comfortable with technology and often enjoys working with computers more than turning actual wrenches. Employers need to understand technology is not overly daunting to young technicians, and focus on some of the other ways they can make the career more attractive and rewarding to new entrants, Ruthven said.

Mark Belisle, president of Navistar Canada, agrees that to attract technicians in the future, shops will have to develop a longterm plan and not rely on traditional methods such as poaching existing talent from competitors or hoping walk-ins will show up at the door, resume in hand, to fill the void. He knows. He did a quick straw poll of Canadian International Trucks dealerships and concluded very quickly they are collectively short about 200 heavy-duty technicians today.

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“I think this is probably going to be the difference between those dealers and those fleets that continue to grow and really elevate their level of success, and those that flounder and go away over time,” he said. “You need a long-term plan for your technicians. You’ve got to build a pipeline all the way, in my mind, from the schools in your local neighbourhoods all the way through to getting apprentices, to getting those apprentices trained, to getting those apprentices up to speed, and then building a career path for them that gets them to where they want to go. It’s a three- to five-year vision in order to make that happen; you can’t just start that overnight.”

The reality, however, is that developing technicians to fill today’s needs as well as those of tomorrow, is a costly proposition.

“Apprenticeship is expensive,” acknowledges Edwin Roeder, director of transport maintenance with Loblaws Canada. “It can be frustrating as hell. But I do encourage fleets to hire an apprentice because if we don’t hire, train and give back, the shortage (of technicians) is going to kill this industry.”

Marc Poland, service manager with Volvo dealer Sheehan’s Truck Centre, said it costs the dealership more than $40,000 to develop each of its Volvo Master Technicians. This accounts for additional schooling, lost revenue when they’re in training, transportation and other expenses. And technicians today and in the future are also more expensive to equip with the tools they need to do the job. It’s no longer simply a matter of ‘bring your own wrenches.’

“Laptop computers are generally part of the repair process,” Poland said. “Normally what happens is, the truck comes in, and one of the first things we’re doing is connecting it to a laptop.”

Quality tools and equipment and clean, safe working environments will be crucial to attracting the next generation of technicians, Navistar’s Belisle claims.

“The perception out there is that it’s a dirty job,” he said. “I think a lot of shops have changed today. A lot of shops you go into today are beautiful, clean shops, well lit, the floors are clean and everything’s polished. It’s a great work environment. Heated floors. I think those dealers and fleets that are going to be successful are going to have the nice shops. They’re going to have an environment that people want to come to work in and they’re going to be happy to come there, whether it’s that they have a gym in the back or they have a really nice clean place to work or a great lunchroom.

There’s a lot of different ways to attract people and to keep them there and those that invest in having all those great workplace environments are going to be successful.”

But even though the work environment in many cases has improved and the job offers above-average pay - with many seasoned technicians pulling in six-figure incomes after overtime - the numbers still tell a troubling story. Belisle, citing 2011 data, pointed out only 0.7 people are entering the trade for every one who retires or leaves for other reasons.

“So, for every 1,000 people that retire, only 700 are coming back into the trade today,” he said.

One of the barriers that has yet to be overcome is that the people young folks turn to for career advice – their parents and guidance councilors - are often eager to push them in a different direction. Informing parents and educators of the transformation Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

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Employers need to understand technology is not overly daunting to young technicians, and focus on some of the other ways they can make the career more attractive and rewarding to new entrants that has occurred within the trade and educating them about the income that can be earned and the career opportunities that exist, remains a challenge in a society predisposed to thinking a university education is paramount to enjoying a rewarding career.

“That’s a huge challenge,” acknowledged NAIT’s Ruthven. “The councilors at the junior high and high school levels, what’s their background? They all come from a university background and their message is, if you want to be successful, do as I did and go to university.”

Sheehan’s Truck Centre has gone to great lengths to overcome this. Poland, citing a survey that found 60% of parents would not encourage their children to consider a career in the trades and 71% of students claimed their guidance councilors didn’t encourage a career in the trades, has tried to access these kids directly, knowing they’re the future of the industry.

“I’ve even gone so far as to take a brand new, fully-loaded Volvo down to a school and have the kids go through it and see it, just to try to get some interest in it,” he says. This approach really resonates with young people, Ruthven agrees.

“One of the things that is still lost on a lot of people is the tactile rewards (of the trade),” he agreed. “If you can be the guy standing back at the end of the day, watching that piece of equipment roll out of the shop that you fixed with your bare hands – put back together and repaired - that’s usually rewarding, as opposed to pushing paper across your desk all day.”

The ideal technician of the future, according the Ruthven, will be a problem-solver, someone who enjoys working through challenges. Ideally they’ll have done well in Grade 12 math and physics, but English skills are equally important, he added. “You need to have strong communication skills.” The ability to work in a team environment is also something employers should look for.

But at the end of the day, Ruthven added, to be successful, “It’s got to be something they love and enjoy.”

When they get into the shop, provide them with variety, adds Al Thompson, coordinator of the truck and coach programs at Centennial College.

“They don’t want to be shelved in the corner, just doing a job.

They don’t want to be the oil change person for the rest of their lives,” he points out.

Once you find new technicians who are a good fit, Poland said it’s important to treat them well. Compensate them better than the industry average if you hope they’ll stick around and offer them continuous training and advancement opportunities.

“I can’t put enough stress on the importance of keeping your people, versus trying to hire people and then hoping they work out,” he said. “It’s much easier to grow and retain a technician than it is to hire a good one. Make sure you’re in touch with your people in order to meet their expectations.”

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In demand skills: Five tips for hiring and training your future workforce

By James Menzies Heavy-duty truck technicians are leaving the industry more quickly than they’re being replaced and the only way to reverse this trend is to attract more young people to the trade and to work harder to ensure their success.

Here are five tips from professional educators and employers on how to hire the right technicians for your business’s future needs and how to effectively develop those professionals into long-term employees and future leaders.

1 Look for the diamonds in the rough When employers are looking for a new entry-level technician, too often they

are fixated on the academic performance, according to Colin Ruthven, chair of the Heavy Equipment Technician Programs at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

However, some of the most successful technicians didn’t sport the best grade point average in the class, yet thrived with some proper tutelage in the right shop environment. “(Employers) think the new guy they hire needs a Mensa-level IQ and so when they’re looking to hire, they’re looking for the top guys rather than the diamond in the rough that they can invest some time in and train and bring along,” said Ruthven. “Hire that guy, put him in the wash bay, the lube bay, let him spend some time there and find a good journeyman to mentor him and bring him along.”

2 Hire for the future When looking to hire a technician, don’t just ask yourself if they’ll make

a good mechanic, but also what other roles they can develop into in the future. That’s the advice of Al Thompson, coordinator of the truck and coach programs at Centennial College.

“We have to start thinking, this is not a job we’re hiring for, it’s a career,” he said. “You have to figure out where these people are going to be in one year, two years, five years and 10 years and then do a gap analysis - what skills do they need, what skills do they have? - and develop them.”

Try to visualize new technicians in more senior roles, such as branch manager, and give them the tools and training they need to get there, Thompson suggested.

“This is one of the weakest parts of our business,” he added. “We haven’t spent a lot of time succession planning or strategic planning.”

3 See and be seen Lloyd De Merchant, the 2014 Volvo Trucks Canada Maintenance Manager of the Year, emphasizes the importance of being present on the shop floor - not holed up in an office.

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“If you’re not walking the floor, how can you pat them on the back?” pointed out De Merchant, who now oversees maintenance for Midland Transport. “When I was coming up through the industry…there was not a lot of patting on the back. You called a technician in when he did something wrong. I can tell my people my door’s always open, but do you think they’re going to come up here? When I’m in the shop, they’ll talk to me.

It helps me understand my technicians and the emotions in the shop. If they’re stressed or they’re tired or they have something going wrong at home – that’s what I care about.”

4 Train, train, train Technology on today’s trucks is increasingly complex and evolving rapidly.

Technicians need to be given the training tools that will allow them to stay up to date.

“Electrically in my fleet, on any given day - and in reasonably good weather - 8% of my power units are down due to electrical issues,” said Edwin Roeder, director of transport maintenance with Loblaws Canada.

“Throw a little bit of cold weather into that and you can be at 12-15% of your power units down on any given day. It doesn’t matter how technical the truck is at that point - if it can’t do its work, it’s no good to anybody, and if we can’t fix it, that’s an even bigger challenge.”

Roeder said a technician’s ability to get those trucks back in service is “all about training…training and patience on an employer’s part to allow these people to get better at what they do.”

Centennial College’s Thompson added this goes beyond referring technicians to a service manual. He noted reading and comprehension are often the most significant skills gaps that exist with today’s technician. They learn better by being shown how to do a job, whether it be in person or by video.

“They learn by doing,” he said.

5 Lead them to the trade In order to keep pace with attrition and fill the void that’s being left by retiring technicians, employers need to be more proactive about reaching out to young people and encouraging them to consider the trade.

“We need more people sent to our doors,” said Centennial’s Thompson.

“We can’t train them if they don’t come to us.”

Mar Poland, service manager with Volvo dealer Sheehan’s Truck Centre, suggested reaching out to high school and co-op students.

“Technicians don’t grow on trees,” he said, “but you can plant some seeds and nurture them to grow. I find it really beneficial to get in touch with the local high schools so they can tell me if they have somebody that’s suitable.”

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PC-11 may require new oil strategies in the shop

Only one of two categories within PC-11 is expected to be backwards-compatible

By James Menzies One of the greatest challenges for technicians and maintenance managers is keeping pace with the rapid change of technology. Another example of this will come in December, 2016, with the introduction of the PC-11 heavyduty engine oil category.

The new category will bring potential fuel savings to fleets, but could also bring some added complexity to the shop. That’s because there will be two sub-categories within the new standard and it’s expected only one will be backwards-compatible.

Stephanie Jaworski, senior field technical advisor with Mobil Delvac, says the changes are required to keep pace with requirements from governments in the US and Canada to improve the fuel economy of heavy-duty vehicles and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“The lubricants industry responds to changes mandated by OEMs who must respond to the EPA in terms of emission and fuel economy standards,” Jaworski explained. “For PC-11, the next proposed commercial vehicle oil category, the major focus is on fuel economy, due to NHTSA regulations aimed at reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and improving average fuel economy.”

Within PC-11, there will be a high temperature/high shear viscosity category and another for low high temperature/high shear viscosities, which will bring fuel economy benefits. The high temp/high shear category, will be a direct replacement for today’s oils and will be backwardscompatible with existing equipment but it’s expected the fuel economy oils will only be compatible with new engines.

This means fleets will have an important decision to make: forego the Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

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fuel economy benefits of the low high temperature/high shear oil in favour of simplicity and the ability to stock a single oil. Or carefully plan and manage a two-oil strategy, so that fuel economy is maximized on newer engines while older engines in the fleet continue to get the protection they require from high temperature/high shear oils.

Managing two oils within a shop can be done - but may require some technician and driver training to ensure only the appropriate oil is put into the fleet’s vehicles.

PC-11 is also expected to usher in the more widespread use of lowerviscosity engine oils, which have proven to bring significant fuel economy improvements while also maintaining wear protection requirements. Many fleets are using 10W-30 and 5W-30 heavy-duty engine oils today, having been convinced wear protection isn’t sacrificed. Moving from a 15W-40 engine oil to a 10W-30 has provide fuel savings of about 1.6% for some carriers.

Because a lower-viscosity engine oil is thinner, there is less friction within the engine and less resistance to movement. An often-used analogy is to imagine swimming through water rather than honey. It requires less energy to move through water because of its thinner viscosity.

There are other benefits to lower-viscosity engine oils as well. They boast greater cold-weather startability, drawing less energy from the batteries, starter and alternator when cold-cranking the engine.

So while there’s nothing to fear about PC-11 and there’s lots to gain in terms of performance and fuel economy, technicians and maintenance managers will want to start thinking about how they’ll manage the new category oil when it comes to market late next year.

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How the rise of telematics and remote diagnostics are driving down downtime

By James Menzies

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oran Nyberg envisions a day when unscheduled mechanical downtime is as rare on trucks as it is today on aircraft.

“For an airline, it’s a prerequisite that you cannot accept any unplanned stops, so why should we (in trucking)?” asks the president of Volvo Trucks North American sales and marketing. “In this industry, on the operator side as well as the dealer side, we repair trucks when they break instead of trying to change the mindset and trying to attend to trucks before they break.”

Returning to the airline analogy, Nyberg continues, “For all sensitive systems, they have backup systems that can continue to carry the aircraft if something goes wrong, if it’s a systems-related issue. They have quality checks on components at certain intervals before they

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break to ensure everything is okay. We need to change the mindset on our side, to be more predictive and with the technology we have now, we can be more predictive.”

Nyberg is referring to remote diagnostics, now available in various forms from all North American heavy-duty engine manufacturers. Remote diagnostics refers to the capture of engine fault codes, which are then transmitted to a call center where they’re interpreted by a professional, who then advises the truck’s operator on the most appropriate course of action. In some cases, the operator will be instructed to continue on with the delivery and tend to the issue the next time the truck is in for scheduled maintenance. Other times, the driver will be advised to proceed to the nearest dealership with the necessary parts, but before he gets there, ideally an appointment time will Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

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already have been arranged and a service bay will be available.

This emerging technology is the single most effective weapon in the war against downtime, and the industry is just now scratching the surface of what can be achieved through remote diagnostics. Probably sooner than you think possible, remote diagnostics will evolve into ‘predictive’ diagnostics, where the technology can be used to warn of potential problems before the Check Engine light even comes on.

“We have far more data we can use now to be more predictive,” Volvo’s Nyberg explains. “Customers need to understand with an alternator that is 46 months old, when the dealer says that alternator is coming to the end of its life, that it’s time to change it and that the right thing to do is to change it before it breaks. We don’t fix it until it breaks, normally in this industry.”

With reams of data about the life cycles of various components now being collected and analyzed, dealers will in the future be able to more accurately advise fleets on how long they should expect parts to last. Replacing them in the shop near the end of their anticipated lifespans will reduce breakdowns, tow bills and the added cost of repairing trucks far from home.

When it comes to engine oil and filters, sensors will be able to monitor their condition and communicate to the operator via remote diagnostics, the real-time condition of the oil or filters. This will provide fleet owners with the ability to extend service intervals and save money by no longer draining oil or pulling filters prematurely based on industry standard recommendations.

“If you go back 20 years ago, you got your oil changed, they put a sticker on the side of the windshield that said you better be back here in 5,000 kilometres and everybody believed that,” explains Mark Belisle, president of Navistar Canada. “Well today, the oil change is determined by your vehicle and you can go 14,000, 16,000, 18,000 kilometres between oil changes. It depends on your use. That sort of change is going to happen in the trucking industry, thanks to the evolution of diagnostics.”

Matthew Pfaffenbach, head of telematics with Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), says the concept of remote diagnostics itself is not new, but its application in the trucking industry is.

“The concept of it is really quite old,” he explains, noting technicians and engineers have for a long time been capturing diagnostics data from the engine’s control units by plugging into the ECUs using their computer or diagnostic tools. “There was always this concept of, wouldn’t it be great if we could take that data and transmit it back to Detroit and do it from our desk? It was the advent of cellular communications and the reduction in costs of those communications that facilitated bringing the concept to reality.”

The benefits of remote diagnostics are already beginning to be felt by the fleets. Conal Deedy, director of connected services with Volvo Trucks North America, says customers have seen a 71% decrease in diagnostic time and a 22% reduction in repair times compared to traditional processes. Daimler’s Pfaffenbach said these figures are tricky to substantiate because “you have to have the same type of equipment equipped with and without remote diagnostics services and you have to have access to a fleet’s maintenance records and downtime.”

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Even so, Daimler recently did a study with a large fleet and concluded that by using Virtual Technician, it was able to improve uptime by 6% and slash repair costs by 20%.

“A major part of that is, you get a more accurate diagnosis,” he says. “Sometimes if you don’t have good information, you repair what you believe is the cause, send the truck back out and find out you didn’t fix it and have to put more time into that particular repair. With Virtual Technician, we are able to get a more accurate diagnosis the first time.”

Currently, every remote diagnostics solution in the market monitors fault codes generated by proprietary engines. Most cover aftertreatment systems. Some now monitor transmissions too, and others are being rapidly expanded to cover fault codes generated by third-party components, such as braking systems. The opportunities to expand the technology are nearly endless - everything with a sensor has the potential to one day be monitored through remote diagnostics.

“We have placed our focus on where the biggest need is - the engine and aftertreatment,” says Pfaffenbach. “But we’re able to capture a fault code event from any component on the chassis that has a controller that reports diagnostic events.”

Adds Volvo’s Deedy: “The combination of connectivity and vehicle computerization will drive a fundamental shift in how the industry thinks about uptime, by affording the opportunity to prevent component failures rather than just respond to them. Our vision is the capability to determine the best time to replace a component for maximum life without a failure and to establish schedules based on customers’ specific duty cycles.”

When will all this happen? Bill Kozek, president, North America Truck and Parts, said the ability to predict the failure of say, an alternator, through Navistar’s OnCommand Connection is “less than two years away.”

Of course having all this predictive data at hand is only useful if the fleet has the resources to stay on top of it and respond to what the systems are reporting. And the dealers have a role to play too, by ensuring commonly required parts are always stocked and that the systems are in place to efficiently get a truck in, get it fixed and get it back out on the road.

“We’ve got to do it all together,” Kozek said. “We can be really good at it (as an OEM) but if the dealer body’s not, that’s not good.

Ultimately the customer won’t see the value in it.”

“You need a dispatcher for watching fault codes, just like you need a dispatcher for dispatching trucks,” Belisle adds, of the fleet’s role. “If no one’s looking at (the data) at the fleet level, it really is a lot of stuff that’s not providing any value to anybody.”

While there is still much to figure out in terms of how fleets and dealers can best utilize remote diagnostics and how great the potential is to reduce or eliminate downtime, the vision, for Nyberg at least, remains an airline-type performance.

“I think we’ve only scratched the surface on connectivity and the benefits this can bring us,” he says. “We need to look at trucks and trucking in a different way. We need to focus on uptime and make sure we do whatever we can to make sure we don’t have any unplanned stops.”

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ACTIVE SAFETY TECHNOLO IS EVOLVING

SOMETIMES FASTER THAN REGUL

By James Menzies

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he trucking industry’s rapid shift in recent years from passive to active safety systems has not only saved lives, but significantly reduced costs for fleets. And we may just be scratching the surface of what active safety systems can achieve.

Passive safety systems such as seatbelts and collapsible steering columns were intended to reduce fatalities and the severity of injuries once a crash has occurred, but did nothing to prevent them from happening in the first place. However, active safety systems - which can intervene when a crash is imminent and prevent it from happening altogether – are seeing widespread adoption because of their ability to not only save lives, but also to deliver a tangible return on investment.

“The demand for passive safety systems is not market-driven,” says Wilfried Achenbach, senior vicepresident of engineering and technology with Daimler Trucks North America. “They came with some cost and sometimes an ambiguous or negative payback because it only becomes engaged after the vehicle is involved in a collision. Active safety systems become engaged prior to a potential collision, hopefully to avoid the collision altogether.”

Examples of active safety systems include anti-lock braking systems (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC) and adaptive cruise control (ACC). Achenbach says the North American trucking industry has reached a tipping point, and customers are now demanding - and paying for - active safety systems.

“We have crossed the tipping point in market penetration and market acceptance of active safety systems,” he said.

Some of the more commonly spec’d active safety systems employed by fleets today include:

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Electronic Stability Control: Sensors detect when a truck rollover or other out-of-control situation is imminent and then apply the necessary brakes to bring the unit back under control before the crash occurs.

Lane Departure Warning: A camera recognizes lane markings and sounds an alarm or provides a haptic (vibration) warning to the driver if the truck strays from its lane without the turn signal activated. This is especially effective at reducing crashes resulting from driver fatigue or distraction.

Adaptive Cruise Control: Radar measures the distance to the vehicle in front of the truck and then applies the brakes and/or accelerator to maintain a safe following distance. Since it can activate the service brakes, it’s effective at reducing rear-end collisions when cruise control is turned on.

Active Brake Assist: Provides the same features and benefits of adaptive cruise control, whether or not the truck’s cruise control is active.

Sign recognition: A new option available for the first time this year, Bendix Wingman Fusion offers sign recognition capabilities. Cameras mounted in the cab read the speed limit signs along the highway and warn the driver when the posted speed limit is exceeded by 5 mph or more. A more egregious speed violation is recorded and transmitted back to the fleet owner or safety manager to help enforce speed control.

All the above technologies working together form the basis of autonomous trucks – those that under certain conditions and environments can drive themselves without driver input. Freightliner in May was the first truck manufacturer to introduce a road-legal autonomous truck dubbed Inspiration. Nevada was the first jurisdiction in the world to license the vehicle for use on public roads.

In addition to the safety systems described above, the Inspiration Truck adds autonomous steering so it can drive itself down the highway when in Highway Pilot mode. Autonomous trucks Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

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EGULATIONS for the foreseeable future will still require a driver - but by taking control from the driver in monotonous driving situations, safety should be improved.

While it will be some time before autonomous trucks are common on North American roadways, the technology exists, has been well tested and promises to significantly improve highway safety, since 90% of all truck crashes are the result of driver error.

“The autonomous vehicle technology we are showcasing in the Freightliner Inspiration Truck will help reduce accidents, improve fuel consumption, cut highway congestion, and safeguard the environment,” said Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, board member for Daimler AG overseeing trucks globally. “In an autonomous truck the system never gets tired, never gets distracted.”

Another potential safety benefit attainable through the use of autonomous trucks is truck platooning, where three or more trucks can connect via vehicle-to-vehicle communications and then travel in a tightly packed convoy. The lead truck’s braking and acceleration will be communicated to the following trucks so that each truck in the platoon brakes and accelerates in unison. Average fuel savings can be as much as 5-9% in a truck platoon, since less air becomes trapped between the vehicles causing turbulence for the following trucks.

Safety is also expected to improve since the trucks travelling in a platoon will be able to ‘talk’ to each other in real-time.

Volvo Trucks North America is also intrigued by the benefits of truck platooning, and recently took a financial stake in Peloton Technologies, a truck platooning pioneer.

“Volvo Trucks has long been a leader in offering advanced technology to our customers, and we were the first OEM to lead a platoon,” said Goran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks North America. “We look forward to working with Peloton Technology as they work on a platooning solution that will improve safety and fuel efficiency, while also combating the costs associated with congestion.”

Truck platooning was demonstrated last year at the ITS World Congress in Detroit, Mich. The trucks in the demonstration travelled within 13 metres of each other, which seems counterintuitive Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

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to truck safety. However, the quick reflexes of the technological system prevented any risk of rear-end collisions while contributing to greater fuel economy.

Truck platooning on major highways, however, remains a few years away – at least.

“The big picture is two or three years out for lane-keeping, parking assist, traffic assist and technologies like that. Then manned vehicle platooning,” said Bill Kahn, Peterbilt principal engineer and manager of advanced concepts. “Then we step out a little bit farther and we give the truck the ability to manoeuvre around items. Stepping out a bit farther, that’s when we get the possibility of the truck being able to drive urban duty cycles with input from the driver.”

In some instances, truck safety technology is outpacing regulatory change. The autonomous truck introduced by Freightliner is for now limited to freeways and interstates in Nevada, because no other states or provinces have approved its use.

The use of small cameras in place of mirrors, with screens that display the view located inside the cab, has the potential to improve visibility while also improving aerodynamics, as demonstrated by Daimler through its $80-million SuperTruck project. However, regulations still require traditional-styled mirrors to be mounted on the exterior of the vehicle.

“The current law mandates how we achieve the visibility goal,” explained Sean Waters, director of compliance with Daimler Trucks North America, adding fuel economy can be improved 1.5% by eliminating exterior mirrors while also providing the driver with greater visibility of the truck’s surroundings. “It requires us to have a mirror and in this case, the law has not caught up with the technologies. Mirrors should be an option.”

Regulatory change moves slowly, but technological change does not. Truck safety systems are making major advancements and progressive fleets are beginning to see the value in investing in such technologies. While an uncrashable truck may never be invented, the advanced active safety systems available today and in the near future have come close to achieving this.

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SUCCESSFULLY OPTIMIZING OIL DRAIN INTERVALS REQUIRES THE RIGHT PLANNING PROCEDURES

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stablishing an optimized oil drain interval is a lengthy process. It can be labor and time intensive. But the potential benefits can be exceptional.

In addition to helping to save money on maintenance costs, a successful, extended oil drain interval program can help trucks and commercial equipment run more miles or operate longer with each gallon of oil, which is good for a company’s bottom line and the environment.

As a senior field technical advisor for Mobil Delvac, Stephanie Jaworski knows that when trying to extend oil drain intervals, having positive results are a direct result of having the right process in place.

“Our ultimate goal is to help identify the oil drain interval that will yield the lowest total operating cost without sacrificing engine reliability – or the resale value of trucks,” Jaworski said. “But it’s important to understand that each fleet’s needs, equipment, and maintenance protocols are different.”

That’s why Jaworski says she and her team seek to customize drain interval targets for each fleet they work with.

For example, Jaworski and her colleagues worked with the maintenance team at Danfreight Systems (DFS), a Quebec-based fleet that specializes in refrigerated transport and operates more than 130 tractor trailers, the majority of which are Peterbilt’s with PACCAR MX-13 engines.

Working together, Jaworski and her colleagues helped to determine a lubricant solution capable of helping the company reduce both operating costs and environmental impact.

“Our analysis of the fleet’s operations supported the recommendation that switching from a conventional, mineral-based engine oil to Mobil Delvac 1TM ESP 0W-40 synthetic diesel engine oil, would deliver significant benefits for the DFS fleet,” Jaworski said.

Since making the transition to a synthetic engine oil more than two years ago, the company has reported that it has successfully extended oil drain intervals to 100,000 km for the majority of its fleet, reducing fuel consumption and lowering maintenance costs.

Used oil analysis results have shown that even with the extended oil drain intervals, the engines have exhibited normal wear patterns, with some parts of the engines exhibiting no wear at all.

Jaworski says, the Imperial Oil team uses a comprehensive, data driven approach that employs a wide range of tools and expertise to support fleets that want to extend oil drain intervals, including: 14 FAST FORWARD

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• State-of-the-art lubricant technologies, laboratories and facilities; • Data-driven methodology and analytical tools; • Specialized engineering services; • Dedicated and experienced engineers; and, • Close working relationships with leading OEMs.

Typically, Jaworski said, the work occurs across four distinct phases, which are central to Imperial Oil’s approach to optimizing oil drain intervals. They include: Stage 1: Feasibility analysis A thorough analysis of the fleet’s cur-

rent duty cycle and maintenance practices helps determine different optimized oil drain interval scenarios that should be tested in order to quantify potential cost savings and sustainability-related benefits. At this stage, the key items evaluated are: • The type of application the fleet is used for; • Climates and terrains in which the equipment is operating; • The equipment type, age, and emission compliance; • Experience of the maintenance staff; and, • If available, the fleet’s used oil analysis history.

This is also a time to engage the fleet’s OEM partner/s. Doing so, right from the start, can play a critical role in helping understand any engine warranty and policy implications of the extended drain intervals.

A series of in-service testing programs, which may continue for a year or more, can help determine whether the fleet or company can operate efficiently between the proposed, targeted service intervals.

Stage 2: Field test

Stage 3: Evaluating results A thorough data analysis will help ensure that the service interval recommendations are safely achievable.

Stage 4: Ongoing program maintenance Periodic reviews and con-

tinued customer education will help ensure that business objectives are being achieved and program protocols are being followed.

To learn more on how the team behind Mobil Delvac approaches the process of optimizing oil drain intervals, go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZwhgeDnCRI Did You Know? Imperial Oil is an affiliate of ExxonMobil.

Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

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NATURAL GAS DEVELOPING A FOLLOWING

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While adoption rate has slowed, some Canadian fleets are all-in on natural gas

By James Menzies elly Hawes doesn’t want to hear there’s no benefit to running natural gas trucks. As he sees it, Hawes, president of Vancouver Island-based Cold Star Freight, the savings are great enough that it’s almost as though the gas company is giving him free trucks.

“The way I put it, with 40% savings on 40 trucks, that means I could buy a natural gas truck in cash every three months with the savings,” Hawes said. “I can’t do that with the margins I had before. The other way to look at it is, if I wanted to put that kind of money on my bottom line, the amount of top line revenue that I would have to grow is in excess of $5 million in sales, which means more staff, more drivers, more buildings, more everything. Or I could buy new trucks, which I need already.”

Hawes is one of this country’s strongest proponents of natural gaspowered trucks. He has been converting his fleet over to natural gas for the fuel savings, the environmental benefits, the ability to run quieter trucks on early morning deliveries in neighbourhoods and with a longterm view that eventually diesel prices will once again spike and natural gas prices are projected to remain stable and significantly lower.

Hawes opted for the Cummins ISX12 G engine in Mack Pinnacle tractors and became the first trucking company on Vancouver Island to run natural gas-powered trucks, delivering food products to the Island.

However, the movement, despite progressive leaders like Hawes, is taking longer than some anticipated, thanks in part to softening diesel prices and the absence of a 15-litre natural gas engine in Canada.

ACT Research acknowledged in a recent paper that market penetration of natural gas trucks is falling short of expectations made two years ago. Original projections were for natural gas trucks to account for 5% of the Class 8 truck market in North America, but ACT now says that projection is “optimistic.”

“With the price differential between diesel and natural gas narrowing, the ROI to convert from diesel to natural gas is moving in the wrong direction: payback periods are lengthening,” said Ken Vieth, ACT’s senior partner and general manager.

Stephanie Jaworski, senior field technical advisor with Mobil Delvac, agrees diesel will remain the predominant fuel source used by the trucking industry for the foreseeable future, but still sees a bright future for natural gas.

“We do see that diesel will continue to be the most common and widely used engine technology for a number of Sponsored by Imperial Oil - Mobil Delvac

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years to come,” Jaworski said. “However, long-term, we see the global trend toward natural-gas engines continuing to grow.”

Natural gas engines require a special oil and Imperial Oil last year moved to fill this need with introduction of its Mobil Delvac CNG/ LNG 15W-40 engine oil, designed for use in spark-ignited CNG and LNG engines. “Mobil Delvac CNG/LNG 15W-40 protects against wear, oxidation and nitration, which can result from the high operating temperatures found in natural gas engines,” Jaworski said. “Tests have also shown that CNG/LNG 15W-40 can help operators extend oil drain intervals for their natural gas-powered engines.”

While the lack of a 15-litre natural gas engine and falling diesel prices may have caused interest in natural gas to wane, several fleets are finding the ISX12 G is suitable for their application, even though it’s limited to a GCW of 80,000 lbs. One such fleets is C.A.T., which has ordered 100 trucks powered by the ISX12 G and will use them to serve a lane between Montreal, Que. and Laredo, Texas. It is currently waiting for the complete network of fuelling stations along the route to be finished.

Ryder System is one of North America’s largest users of natural gas trucks and Scott Perry, vice-president with supply management, is charged with overseeing that fleet. He said the ISX12 G is proving to be a reliable and productive engine for fleets that can stay within its 80,000-lb GCW limitations.

“We’ve gotten really good feedback from drivers and operators (of the ISX12 G),” Perry said. “Uptime has been very good, reliability is good. The opportunity is still there to work on fuel economy but I know that Cummins and Westport are focused on that as well.”

Perry’s convinced that, even though diesel has come down in price, there’s still a place for natural gas.

“We think that it’s going to be a piece of the commercial vehicle portfolio going forward,” he said. “Our crystal ball is no clearer than anyone else’s as far as what that adoption rate is going to look like.

There are way too many global variables that can impact on that, up or down. We’re building the infrastructure to continue to support it. We’re answering the requests from customers to help them convert their fleets over and giving them information so they can make good decisions.”

Natural gas engines require a special oil such as the Mobil Delvac CNG/LNG 15W-40 engine oil, for spark-ignited CNG and LNG engines.

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City traffic, mountain passes and arctic tundra — they all put stress on a truck’s engine. Mobil Delvac™ heavy-duty diesel engine oil is formulated for long life and helps protect against sludge and deposit buildup.

To learn more, visit us online at mobildelvac.ca

Out here it’s survival of the fittest engine

Copyright © 2015 Exxon Mobil Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Exxon Mobil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries unless otherwise noted.

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