June 2012 Volume 32, Issue 6 Delivering daily news to Canada’s trucking industry at www.trucknews.com
CTA issues landmark report Provides honest assessment of driver shortage
OTTAWA, Ont. – The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) has released a new report focusing on the shortage of qualified commercial drivers, touting it as “arguably the most comprehensive and honest” attempt to tackle both questions surrounding the shortage as well as solutions for fixing the problem. The CTA’s board of directors has endorsed the report from the CTA Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Driver Shortage, a group established in 2011 to provide leadership on what many carriers say is the industry’s greatest long-term challenge but where little consensus has emerged in terms of finding solutions to the problem. While the report highlights “systemic issues” behind the shortage – such as driver demographics, public perceptions of the occupation, an unpopular lifestyle, not being deemed a skilled occupation, and regulations – it also holds up a mirror to the industry and attempts to incite a naContinued on page 45
Ontario has promised to end its discriminatory licence renewal practices for senior drivers. One question remains…
Will they come back?
gone for good?: Norman Moore is one of thousands of senior professional drivers who struggled to pass the annual road test once turning 65 and left the industry. Now that the province has promised to change the discriminatory rule, will those experienced drivers come back? Photo by Adam Ledlow
By Harry Rudolfs TORONTO, Ont. – The proposal to end the discrimination against Ontario senior truck drivers has been welcomed by trucking companies and drivers alike. Ontario is the only province that mandates annual road tests for Class A drivers when they
The TRUth about Tier 4
reach 65 years of age. Although the proposed amendments will probably not go into effect until 2013, they can’t happen soon enough for those drivers reaching that threshold. The required annual road tests for senior tractor-trailer drivers, in effect since 1984, have long been a
bone of contention. Overwhelmingly, retested drivers reported a sense that the province’s Drive Test examiners were especially strict with them – as though a secret directive had gone out to “get tough” with this group. At 68 years of age, Norm Hurdle Continued on page 21
Inside This Issue...
• The natural gas payback:
Does it pay to convert a fleet to natural gas? A new Conference Board of Canada report says so, provided it remains untaxed. Page 25
• CSI Recruiting:
Fleets are becoming more sophisticated when recruiting drivers. Our on-road editor takes three behavioural assessments to test their accuracy. Page 34
Our mufflers are stronger, last longer and save you $$$!
• Mixing and matching: Is it safe to mix and match disc and drum brakes? It depends on who you ask.
• Taxes can be so taxing:
Page 38
Things go from bad to worse as Mark Dalton and the tax man butt heads. Page 76
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