January 2011 Volume 31, Issue 1 Delivering daily news to Canada’s trucking industry at www.trucknews.com
Economic outlook
The (new)
S o c i a l
Why the driver shortage may be the trucking industry’s best friend
By Lou Smyrlis TORONTO, Ont. – The driver shortage, which is expected to get much worse in the years ahead, could prove a vital aid in helping trucking companies improve their profitability and find a way to pay their drivers better, according to Rick Gaetz, head of Vitran. “As crass as it may sound, the driver shortage is your friend,” Gaetz told OTA members gathered for the Lessons of the Recession session at the association’s 84th annual convention, held in Toronto in November. “Somehow in 2005, things got so good we became consumed with increasing the driver pool, which has one single effect: to drive down price.” Gaetz led a panel of industry experts which included: Jeff Bryan, president, Jeff Bryan Transport; Greg Rumble, president and COO, Contrans Group; Rolly Uloth, president, Rosedale Group; Rosalyn Wilson, author of the Annual State of Logistics Report; and John Tittel, head of Hot Freight International and past chair of the National Transportation Brokers Association. There were 143,000 drivers lost during the recession in the US as carriers downsized or went out of business. The new CSA legislation may remove another 10-15% of the current driver force, according to Wilson. As a result, by 2012 the US market could be in need of 400,000 drivers. In Cana-
Is CSA just days away? By James Menzies WASHINGTON, D.C. – If all goes according to plan, and in government that’s never guaranteed, the US Federal Carrier Safety Administration’s new carrier safety measurement system CSA will be in place any day now. The program was supposed to be launched Dec. 6, but it was pushed back to “no earlier than Dec. 12” as Truck News was going to press after a lawsuit was launched by a coalition of small carrier groups including the National Association of Small Trucking Companies. The gist of the lawsuit, Sloan Morris, director of client services with Vigillo said during a recent Webinar, was that publishing percentile rankings would result in a public branding of carriers as unsafe, which is ultimately for the FMCSA – not the public – to decide. Lawsuit aside, the FMCSA is still forging ahead with the new safety measurement system (SMS). And when it finally goes live, five of the seven BASICs measured under CSA will be made public. The FMCSA recently said it would withhold from the public scores related to the Crash Experience and Cargo-Related BASICs, which had both been of concern to industry stakeholders. The decision not to publicize CargoRelated scores came just weeks ago, since it was decided certain types of trucking companies – such as flatdeck haulers – may be subjected to higher scrutiny due solely to the nature of their business and the fact their loads are more visible.
Network: trucking’s
unexpected f l i r tat i o n w i t h
social m e d i a The (new) social network: No, not the recently-released movie about Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, The Social Network, but rather the trucking industry’s somewhat unlikely infatuation with various forms of social media in recent years. Pictured above is Al Goodhall, trucker, Truck News columnist and social media junkie, doing his best Zuckerberg impression from the movie poster.
By Adam Ledlow TORONTO, Ont. – “Trucking driving: a great job for people who hate people.” While you probably won’t see this slogan included on the cover of a trucking company’s recruitment
brochure any time soon, this was the argument made in a recent article on a US-based online careers site, which provided a collection of the “perfect careers for misanthropes, introverts, Continued on page 22
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If tires could talk See pg. 48
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Inside This Issue...
• Alberta a nanny state?: Alberta introduces the country’s most “comprehensive” distracted driving rules. And it’s not just cell phones they’re after – it affects the CB as well. Page 20
• Headwinds for trailer tails: Relaxing restrictions on trailer tails can save the Canadian trucking industry billions. Will regulators listen? Page 21
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• Exec view:
We catch up with Brian Taylor, head of Liberty Linehaul and the new chair of OTA. Page 50
• A Very Merry Dalton: Horror sets in as Mark Dalton realizes his load of toys for charity has been stolen.
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Careers 2, 3, 30-41
Ad Index 47 PM40069240