Pro-Trucker Magazine June 2019

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

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June 2019

junE 2019

Mark Rosenau

Rig of The Month Driver

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK... BY JOHN WHITE You Gotta Be Kidding Me!

VOLUME 21, ISSUE 05 OF 11

PUBLISHER/EDITOR John White john@ptmag.ca PRODUCTION/CIRCULATION Tori Proudley tori@ptmag.ca ADMINISTRATION Donna White donna@ptmag.ca ADVERTISING/MARKETING John White john@ptmag.ca Tori Proudley tori@ptmag.ca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dave Madill • Scott Casey • Cyn Tobin Greg Evasiuk • Dale Howard Ed Murdoch • Colin Black • David Rusk Bill Weatherstone • Lane Kranenburg PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Proudley David Benjatschek wowtrucks.com HEAD OFFICE Phone: 604-580-2092 Published eleven times a year by Pro-Trucker Magazine Inc., The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of the publisher. The advertiser agrees to protect the publisher against legal action based upon libelous or inaccurate statements; the unauthorized use of materials or photographs; and/or any other errors or omissions in connection with advertisements placed in Pro-Trucker Magazine.

The publisher can and will refuse any advertising which in his opinion is misleading or in poor taste. The publisher does not endorse or make claim or guarantee the validity or accuracy of any advertisement herein contained. All materials submitted for publication are subject to editing at the publisher’s discretion. The act of mailing or e-mailing material shall be considered an expressed warranty by the contributor that the material is original and in no way an infringement on the rights of others.

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SURREY, B.C. V3T 3G3 Email: tori@ptmag.ca

Fact: According to a study in Alberta the accident rate on volume per mile carried by LCVs is 80% lower than conventional trucking.

In the U.S. their studies shows their accident rate is 91% lower.

Here is a scenario that just boggles the mind. Let’s say you are a BC trucking company that has been operating in the province for 10, 20 or 50 years. You are a family business and have been a good corporate citizen participating in and supporting local charities, sports and initiatives. You have faithfully paid your taxes and you employ local people from your community. The provincial government decides to legalize LCV vehicles in the province for solid environmental reasons such as reducing the number of trucks on the road. The products you haul are relatively light so you look at this as a good way to stay competitive in a very competitive market. Of course you now have to investigate how to license a driver to haul your freight. You call Victoria and ask how you can do this and they bluntly say it can’t be done. You have to be a interprovincial carrier with offices outside BC in order to be licensed to pull LCV’s.

Yes – you read that right. As a B.C. based carrier there is no possible way to get a LCV attachment to your license. Conversations with I.C.B.C., the official provincial licensing agency, have lead nowhere. To make this even more frustrating - they do not even seem to have any interest in this matter. They do however refer you to the BCTA who they say was to write a program in 2015 but have not done that yet. A quick google search brings up and interesting quote from the BCTA website posted 2010-12-16 that reads: “Effective immediately, permits for operating Rocky Mountain Doubles (RMDs) and Turnpike Doubles (TPD) are available to qualified carriers operating between the Lower Mainland and Kamloops or Kelowna.

BCTA has been working with the provincial government to test and develop guidelines for these long combination vehicles (LCVs) in BC, to promote both increased efficiency and environmental benefits. RMDs have an overall length of up to 32 m, while TPDs can be as long as 41 m. Drivers of these combinations require recognized training and certification for operating LCVs. BCTA will be offering the approved training course for BC drivers beginning in 2011. LCV Driver’s Certificates issued in other jurisdictions – including Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – are acceptable in BC.” Upon further calls to Victoria they advise you that that BCTA is behind in their work load and they have no time frame on when this training course will be completed.

It is easy to see that somewhere in this system there is a huge disconnect between the provincial government, ICBC and the BCTA. These are BC roads paid for by BC taxpayers. BC based, provincial taxpaying carriers, should be offered the same if not more opportunities in business as companies based outside of BC. Furthermore even if you are an interprovincial carrier the BC government puts an additional cost burden on BC companies by forcing them to send their drivers out of province to be qualified to pull LVCs.

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LETTERS to the EDITOR

e Whit John azine

ag ker M c u r T Proite

John Wh Magazine Pro-Trucker

Hello John, I saw this story in the Daily Record, our national newspaper here in Scotland and was stunned, have a read and see what you think. This is an example of truck drivers not being able to do right for doing wrong. There was a story in our national paper about a truck driver in the north of Scotland who came around a bend on a country road and was faced with an accident. There was a pickup truck in the middle of the road and a car off to one side.

As there were no emergency services there at the time he stopped to see if he could help, after making sure no one was seriously injured and police and ambulance had been called, he did his best to alert oncoming traffic to the smash. Then he got a brush from his truck and cleared the debris from the road so the traffic could get moving.

An ambulance came, and 15 minutes later the police arrived, when he tried to move he found his fully loaded truck had sunk into the soft edge of the road and would

need a tow truck to get him out. A police officer then told him he was causing an obstruction and would be summonsed to court where he would probably get three points on his licence and a £100 fine. As you can imagine this good Samaritan was shocked, while he was waiting for the tow truck he took some photos of the scene. The officer asked him what he was doing, the driver said he was gathering evidence as he didn’t believe he was causing an obstruction. Then the officer came back and said, I’ve had a change of heart, I’m just giving you a fixed penalty notice.

You don’t need to go to court, and the fine will only be £50, the story in the paper said although the driver complained to the police he did pay the fine, so I’ll need to keep my eyes peeled to see if the paper reports the outcome of his complaint.

Unbelievable, eh?

Colin Black Editor’s note: It seems that no one country has a corner on the market when it comes to little men with big badges somehow getting hired and then wanting to show the world the power that they hold. This police officer obviously thought he was going to get away with writing the first ticket and then had second thoughts when he saw the driver was going to fight the charge. By the way you’ve only been in Canada twice yet I see you picked up the accent – eh?

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John, I see that the BC Court of Appeal in a unanimous decision has upheld Ottawa’s right to approve interprovincial pipelines. This decision of course has been appealed to the Supreme Court and I hope this means that we will finally get an answer to whether the oil will be shipped by pipeline, rail or road. One thing you can count on is that it will ship, one way or another, and statistics show that pipelines are by far the safer choice.

The environmentalists have a lot to lose in this battle in way of their pay checks. The money they currently receive to delay the pipeline, from big oil in the U.S., who buy our oil at approximately a 35% discount, will soon dry up if we can get it to the world market. The building of the pipeline would be great for Canada as a whole and the provinces that benefit the most from Canadian equalization payments should take note of where the money that keeps them afloat comes from. Here is an interesting fact: “In 2018-19, equalization payments will rise to a new high of $19 billion. Sixty-two per cent will go to Quebec, while Alberta taxpayers will contribute about $3 billion.

This amount is actually only a portion of approximately $20 billion of net federal transfers out of Alberta this year.

S. Williams, Calgary

would make absolutely no difference in world production.

All other oil producing countries would be more than happy to make up the difference. Forestry and oil has always been a big part of Western Canada’s economy. If we are ever going to break free from the clutches of the U.S. politicians that are paid off and led around by the nose by lobbyists - we have to find new markets.

Psyche Scars and Lessons Learned

By David Rusk

David started his career in 1989 with Trans-X. He has run team, hauled reefers, general freight, logs and chips.

He currently hauls B Train tankers both on and off road out of Fort Mac.

A Right of Passage I met Jerry Johnson in Winnipeg during orientation for my first ever driving job at Trans-X ltd. It was 1989 and I had never been so far away from my home back in Ontario and I was feeling quite anxious about it all. Stepping into an unknown job that was full of regulations and responsibilities with so much to learn and not to mention, the threatening prospect of driving an 80 foot behemoth down the road. Hell, just being in Winnipeg was freaking me out.

I knew truckers worked long days but really, I had no idea Editor’s note: If Canada stopped selling oil tomorrow it what long meant. The trip through Ontario in the jump seat

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of a company truck and then the sleepless hours waiting for the compa-nies first day of orientation filled me in quite nicely.

After nearly 40 hours of nerves and apprehension, I was gutted after that first day in the class-room.

When in Winnipeg, Trans -X housed employees at The Canadiana Hotel, a semi scuzzy motor-inn located in a semi scuzzy part of town. Lots of shady happenings went down in those rooms and the bar/lounge/strip club in the basement provided many blotto drunk nights and half forgotten misadventures. Stories for another time perhaps. Jerry and I gravitated to each other right away and along with several other new recruits, we roamed the halls of the Canadiana and jousted with the local drivers while matching the regular patrons in cheap draft and other impairments. We fit in rather well and for the sheltered me, it was a watershed time when I began to experi-ence the world.

Trans-X was in need of replacement drivers for the fairweather fleet, so we jumped in a team truck and began running freight through British Columbia’s winter weather.

Jerry had been dragging logs around central BC and the Fraser Canyon for his long career but after something happened with a load of sticks, something that frightened him, he decided to join the cookie cutter crew out on the highway. He once confessed that his nerves were fried from the ever steepening log roads as the landings kept moving june 2019

higher up the mountains. He paused and his hand trembled a little as he ran it through his thinning hair. He would never mention it again.

I had a natural affinity to mountain roads and Jerry recognized that as we began hauling heavy over to Vancouver and then empty from The Beach out to the Okanagan for apples and then east, out the Crowsnest. This was before number 1 had been upgraded and the curves above Golden and the 2 bridges east of there, six and ten mile were still a gnarly section of road. To think about it, the whole province between Canmore and Hope is challenging and in the winter months, pretty dam sketchy.

Jerry sat up for countless hours out of his bunk time and taught me every inch of BC roads and the Canyon was our favorite because he lived in the heart of it all, in Boston Bar. I would end up living there also. Then one afternoon he asked me to tell him what was around that next corner and without hesitation I did and again, a while later.

“Ha, nice try Jerry!” it was dark now and snowing so heavy it seemed like we were a lost firefly searching the dark and dumb to what waited for us outside of our pathetic understanding of the world. “Why are you speeding up?” he asked me but with no concern in his voice because he knew it was the right thing to do. The open flat space to our right and the impression of a tower-ing mountain palisade beyond told me we had just trundled east, past the village of Field and it was time to speed up. Beside us was an expanse

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PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

of river rock under the snow, the river delta and Field was nestled out there somewhere in an oasis of trees, its electric light drowned by the ocean of falling snow.

“We’re inside Yoho national park” my answer, even though the sign had been invisible, “and Field hill is at the end of this straight away. Lift off a little for the right turn onto the hill and don’t screw up any downshifts because she’s extra slippery tonight. It’s a long hill that flattens for a short piece half way up, enough to get back some momentum.”

Jerry smiled at me, paused to make sure I knew his thoughts and crawled into the bunk to finally sleep.

We picked up his wife and young daughter, she was 8, in Hope one day and as they climbed into that Mack, Jerry handed me the keys. Between Hope and Boston Bar lies a stretch of road that ranks near the top of the danger scale and I paused, unsure of the responsibility he bestowed up-on me. As driving duties, represented by an ignition key were passed, Jerry winked at me and climbed aboard to join his family on the edge of the bed.

Later, he told me that there would be no one else, ever, that he would trust with the lives of his family. I knew then that no matter if my license said Ontario, I was now a mountain driver.

There is something very important that is missing in the young truck driver of today. I’m not talk-ing about that natural “feel” that can be coaxed into a professional because I’m sure that is still there. It’s the mentorship of a seasoned

hand passing down the hard won and impossible to learn wisdom of a life spent behind the wheel. Things like how road conditions change according to altitude in the Rockies and not lateral distance and how to manage your brakes properly. Where it will snow meters at a time and what bridge decks to watch for. I was so fortunate to meet my mentor and I am left a little hollow and definitely unsettled by not recognizing my own prodigy or even seeing many nowadays. ***** The Irish are always the first ones to come to the aid of their fellow man.

Shortly after take-off on an outbound, evening Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Boston, the lead flight attendant nervously made the following painful announcement in her lovely Irish brogue: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m so very sorry, but it appears that there has been a terrible mix-up by our catering service.

I don’t know how this happened, but we have 103 passengers on board, and unfortunately, we only received 40 meals for dinner. I truly apologize for this mistake and inconvenience, as well!”

When the muttering of the passengers died down, she continued, “Anyone who is kind enough to give up their meal so that someone else can eat, will receive free and unlimited drinks for the duration of our 10 hour flight.

Her next announcement came about 2 hours later: “If anyone is hungry, we still have 40 dinners available.” r

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1/28/2019 2:21:29 PM

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

Plan Ahead

By Stan Shields Well, I hope everyone has survived “Road Check 2019.”

For those that did, job well done. For those that didn’t, it’s a time to reflect and figure out what we are doing wrong. Pre Trip, Pre Trip, Pre Trip, I can’t harp on that enough. Most experienced drivers are well aware of the things I talk about so this is just a reminder to them and hopefully a bit of an education for new drivers. A good Pre Trip will save you countless hours of aggravation in the long run. A good Pre Trip will also help you manage maintenance costs and lower your overall cost of operations. As an industry, this is one area where we have to do a better job.

Construction season is in full swing so don’t forget to build some extra time in those trips to account for delays.

While experiencing those frustrating traffic delays it is good to remember that the construction projects are going to make things better in the long run. It is a little short term pain for long term gain. While on the topic be sure to pay extra attention as you enter construction zones. Watch out for the flag people and those working around equipment. They often preoccupied with their job and so not always paying attention to their surroundings. You never know when they may get startled by a machine and back into traffic. Every year too many die in construction accidents, so let’s do our part as professional drivers and respect the “cone zone” For those of you following that horrible tragedy in

Colorado where the driver drove past three runaway lanes while out of control and then took several lives when he crashed into a line of stopped traffic. Here is a wake-up call for all drivers to play the “what if” game, in your mind, while going down the road. What if that car pulls out in front of me? what if I lose traction where am I going to wind up?

Remember, “If we fail to plan we plan to fail.” If you don’t practice mental training you automatically resort to panic, and no good decision is made in panic mode.

If you do find yourself in trouble and the runaway lane is available, take it, drive straight into the lane or arrester bed and don’t try and steer out when you are slowing down.

You won’t jackknife or roll as long as you are centred in the arrester bed. It will get busy, but you will survive and go home in one piece. Remember they build trucks every day, you - only once.

If you are new in the industry, take a big breath, STOP AND USE THE BRAKE CHECKS, get out and check over your equipment. If you have never been down the hill before, PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD SIGNS, sit back and enjoy the ride at a safe and prudent speed. Highways like number 3 in BC has its challenges and every hill needs to be driven with respect. Again a good attitude and Pre Trip will go a long way in keeping you safe. Remember, first thing in the morning when everything is cold and your air pressure is at 120 PSI, release your brakes and make a full hard brake application. Hold for a few seconds, release and

nnual

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keep doing this until the low air warning comes on. Then hold the pedal to the floor and watch your air gauges, they should build air with the engine at an idle. If they do you have just accomplished three tests, assuming our auto slack adjusters are working, you have just adjusted your brakes, you checked your low air warning device and you will know if you have any major air leaks, like a blown diaphragm, that would prevent you from making air. You should only do this when the brakes are cold. If you do this at the bottom of a grade when the brakes are hot, the brake drum expands and if we adjust to an expanded drum as it cools and shrinks we will have brake drag.

Also if you are new, or even if you have been around the block and working for a small carrier that doesn’t have a training department, reach out to your provincial trucking association. They have some great training both online or in the classroom. None of us are too smart to learn something new.

By the way, I challenge all of “us” dinosaurs on the road, and you know who we are, to mentor and help out the upcoming generation of drivers rather than complain on Facebook about how poorly they are trained. We can play a big part in the solution to this, so regardless of who the driver is, or who they are working for, let’s be the solution We have had enough tragedy in the industry.

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the Ark … professionals built the Titanic.” r

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idLe tiMe

By Scott Casey Scott, our Rig of The Month for May 2003 has written “Ghostkeepers” a book about his years as a gun toting truck driver while serving as a Canadian Peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia.

Professionalism Did you know that police officers in British Columbia have a nondescript Jaguar as an unmarked police interceptor? It’s pretty cool when you see it light up and go Code 3, emergency lights and siren, as it moves in to follow a vehicle nonconforming with the law.

Even more entertaining is seeing the look on the drivers face as they realize they’ve been busted by an exotic cruiser.

I recall a number of years back, that north of Cache Creek, a green Chrysler Intrepid with a Budget rental car sticker on the trunk, could often be seen pulling drivers over.

Then of course there is the jacked up white Chevy pickup with the aluminum checker plate truck box in the back and the “I love Alberta Beef” sticker on the tailgate, that loves to pull over those drivers who need to pass everything in front of them.

Some call it dirty pool. I don’t. I call it smart. And I say

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that with 5 years of driving experience in Europe, where I commuted at 180kph to and from work. The roads, and honestly, driving skill, far exceed Canadian standards.

I call it smart, because as I drive the Coquihalla corridor a few times a week. And because of the amount of drivers I witness travelling in excess of 130kph. When I say drivers, I mean commercial drivers. There was a time when doing 110kph was really railing on it. But now... 130 plus is the norm. It’s one thing to let your truck and trailer roll out at the bottom of a hill occasionally, but to intentionally drive with your foot pinned in it, is a recipe for trouble.

As the temperatures increase in the summer months, the dangers of recapped tire failures becomes a dangerous reality. Those long strips of blown tire you see, “Roadgators” as they are often called, are nothing more than shrapnel to the other motorists and motorcycles on the road. And they occur more so from driving too fast. They have a temperature/speed rating from the manufacturer.

These increased speeds encompass a few more things.

Fatigue to start. I don’t care how much of a Johnny Straight Pipe you think you are, driving that way burns you out.

Secondly, it sends a horrific message to the average motorist that this is just the way it is and that they are in danger anytime they are near a trucker. And thirdly it deteriorates our profession on all levels. Everyone gets painted with the same brush wielded by the small percentage that think this is acceptable driving behaviour.

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

So why did I mention the unmarked police vehicles?

Two reasons. Number one is simple. If you are driving in the above mentioned fashion and you get pulled over by an unmarked, suck it up. You played the game and lost.

Number two. I brought up unmarked police vehicles to also draw attention to the fact that driving like a professional means conducting yourself in a manner that remains a high standard when you are in the public eye, but even more so, when no one can see you. Because it is those moments, when you least expect it, that someone will show up unbeknownst to you -- like an unmarked police vehicle does -- and they will see that you are a true professional.

Manual or Auto?

One of my Canadian Facebook friends had his normal truck swapped for an automatic Volvo. The truck was going ok until the automatic gearbox decided it didn’t want to play anymore, so, with a few well-chosen words in his post, he decided to sleep on it. Low and behold in the morning the truck was ok, well, until the next time.

But, just like most old school drivers do, he had a bit of a poke about and a wiring fault was discovered, so a temporary fix was made with the use of a bungee and he got the job done.

The company I worked for before I retired eventually replaced all the manual tractor units in the fleet with automatics, in fact, over here there are very few manual gearboxes in top weight trucks. But when the fleet was still mixed, some drivers would do just about anything to get one of the remaining manual transmission trucks. Hold their breath until they turned blue, stamp their feet, and just generally throw the dummy out the pram.

I think most drivers who cut their teeth on a manual

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box think the same way, you don’t have the same control with an automatic, and to a certain extent it’s true.

Backing into a warehouse on an uphill slope or pulling away from a junction, different trucks have a different feel and reaction from the accelerator pedal. Our fleet was a mixture of Renault, Mercedes and Man, the last truck I got before I retired was a brand-new Man. It was the only truck they gave me where a depot trainer sat in the cab and tried to explain how everything worked.

The Man was a great truck, but the Renault had a few problems. They used 420 HP Volvo engines, and I suppose Volvo gearboxes as well. Normally it got the job done with no fuss and as I was night shift it was a matter of getting it on the highway and up to its limited speed of 56mph. When the volume of traffic allowed, I put it on cruise control as per company policy.

One night, I was north bound going back to base and decided to make a pit stop, I touched the brakes to cancel the cruise control and nothing happened. I switched the cruise control off manually, but the gearbox wouldn’t come down the gears and stayed in top. The off ramp was an uphill ramp, but with 420 power under me and a light load in the trailer, it didn’t slow down much.

I braked hard at the top of the off ramp and the engine stalled so I put the park brake on and switched the ignition off. After a couple of minutes I fired it up, everything seemed normal. I decided not to push my luck and left the

june 2019

cruise control off until I got back to the depot. The dayshift driver took the truck to the main dealer for a computer check, but no faults were found. That’s the trouble with intermittent faults, sometimes you need to have a mechanic on scene at the time, the same thing happened another couple of times while I had that truck. But after the first time I knew what to do, get it stopped and switch it off for a minute.

Many years before that incident I had a Seddon Atkinson, again I was pulling off the highway into a truck stop for a short break. The Seddon was a great truck, it had a 250 Cummins with a Fuller box but when I put my hand on the gearshift to change down, it was just flopping around. But when you’ve got a clutch to disconnect the drive train you’ve got some control so I let the momentum take me into the truck stop and parked. I got out and looked under the front wing, I could see the end of the gearstick that should’ve been in the shaft that came from the gearbox. Looking at the rear of the engine I could see the engine mounting was away from its bracket on the chassis, so that side had dropped leaving the gearstick in mid-air. The truck had just come out of the garage for some repairs so I supposed that the engine mounting hadn’t been properly tightened and the nut dropped off.

I got my hydraulic jack and raised the engine back up to meet the chassis mount, then wound rope around and around to hopefully get me home.

And it did, automatics, who needs them, give me a simple manual gearbox every time. r

alberta big rig weekend July 6/7 in edmonton email john for details john@ptmag

PAGE 15

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

Rig of the Month

By John White Mike Rosenau from Calgary Alberta is our June Rig of the grew up in Leduc.

Month. This is his story: With a last name like Rosenau, my future was more or less I was born at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary Alberta and sealed and I was into trucking from a very early age.

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junE 2019

My grandfather, Gus, started Rosenau Transport in 1957. My Dad, Len, was the oldest of 7 kids and he started driving at 16. They had a great system going. Dad lived in Calgary and Grandpa lived in Edmonton. They both had pickup trucks and they would spend their days going around their respective towns collecting freight to be delivered in the other’s city. At the end of the day they would drive to Red Deer where they would swap trucks and go home. Next morning they would do their deliveries and then start all over doing pickups for the next day’s deliveries.

That may sound pretty slick and quite a simple run until you realize that back then the highways and the trucks were nothing like they are today.

My Dad used to have a steady run hauling freight up to Yellowknife with a W900 Kenworth and me and my older brother, Mike, who many of you know as Motor, and younger one, Tony, used to fight over who got to go on runs with him. I also have a younger sister Cory who wisely stayed out of the truck.

Sometimes 2 of us were allowed to go at the same time and then Dad would put a stool between the seats for one of us to sit on. As you can see safety was not a big factor back then but somehow we managed to live through it all. At night Dad took the bunk while we were more than happy to sleep on the floor. It was like camping out!

Whenever we ran into road construction, which was quite often, the flag girls would always stop Dad because they knew that one thing they could always count on was that Dad would have a cooler filled with Pepsi Cola on ice and he would always give them some. Now at first glance this doesn’t seem to be all that unusual but the funny part is that he drove a Rosenau truck delivering Coca Cola. Over the years he never did acquire a taste for Coca Cola and the girls all got a real kick out of that. I don’t know it if was from those trips or maybe something in our genes but I’ve always preferred Pepsi myself.

We worked in the yard with Dad from an early age. Doing the little things we could do and gradually moving up to bigger tasks. One of the pieces of equipment Dad had was a 1948 Lawrence Hayes forklift that he bought from the Nanaimo Air Base just north of Edmonton. He used to tie the back of the forklift down to a truck so that they could lift the real heavy stuff off a trailer. Back then my little brother Tony and I were just little goofs who wanted to mess around all the time and we used to fight to see who could operate the forklift. This kind of fits in with my earlier comment about safety not being a big factor back then. In reality, it boiled down to doing what you had to in order to get the job done.

In the meantime, while we were messing around my brother Mike was usually in there putting his time in helping Dad and learning the trade.

On the weekend that I turned 16 I borrowed a friend’s 250 Honda and drove it from Leduc to Edmonton to get my motorcycle license. When I got there all the other guys that were waiting to take their licence were riding big Honda Gold Wings and Harleys. This was back in the day when you ran around a dinky little course in the parking lot marked out with pylons which wasn’t an easy thing to do if you were riding a big heavy motorcycle. As I waited my turn one of them failed and then I whipped through the course with no problem with the little 250. The other riders started complaining saying it wasn’t fair me using that little bike but the instructor told them that it didn’t matter what size bike a person had, the test was the same and all motorbikes were legal.

I laughed and jokingly said that for $50 they could use my bike to take junE 2019

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

Mark Rosenau the test. Surprisingly a couple of them took me up on it and then when more came and saw what was going on they wanted to use my bike too. I ended up staying there a good part of the day and when I got back to Leduc I split the proceeds down the middle and handed my buddy $300! This should have prepared me for the future of trucking as even back then you could “buy” a license. The following weekend I went and got my Class 5 license.

I have to say that my Dad is the person I admire most. He worked hard his whole life raising us four kids and he was a great driver who eagerly passed on his knowledge and instilled in me his work ethics which greatly helped to make me the driver I am today.

Dad’s little brother, Tim Rosenau, gave me my first job. It was driving a 5 ton Hino in Calgary doing LTL. I would run around town doing pickups and then, at the end of the day, go back and

AlbErtA biG riG wEEkEnd july 6/7 in Edmonton EmAil john For dEtAils john@PtmAG

PAGE 17

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

empty the body job into a destination trailer. I really wanted to be a real truck driver so when people asked me what I drove I would casually say “a cab over” - it sounded a lot better than admitting I drove a Hino. Uncle Tim was a great mentor, he showed me a lot when it came down to doing the job and he always had me come in on weekends to do the maintenance on my truck.

I moved around a little in my late teens and early twenties I lived in Edmonton, Lloydminster, Calgary, back to Edmonton, then finally back to Calgary when Tim called me and offered me a job there. At the time I was a powerlifter – not a bodybuilder – I liked lifting heavy stuff - so he jokingly said he needed me because he was going to retire the forklift and he wanted me to replace it.

I drove for Rosenau for a while but then life happens and just about then Rival Express offered me a job driving a body job around town. I was with them for about a month when one day they needed a Class 1 driver and gave me the keys. They didn’t even ask if I had my license. I didn’t say a word just jumped in the truck and drove it for about six months before I decided I should get my license before I got caught.

I got my Class 1 license through AAA Driving whose office was off Memorial Drive right beside an ice cream shop.

I drove the tractor-trailer over there by myself and when the examiner came out he asked me where the guy was that came with me. I told him he went for ice cream. He gave me one of those looks like he had heard that story before and then

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looked at the name on my license. He mumbled something about this going to be a waste of his time and then took me out onto Memorial Drive and down the road about a block into the parking lot of the old motor vehicle branch. When we got there I had to do the backup blindside, which I did with no problem, and then I pulled back onto Memorial and headed west. We only went about 6 blocks before he told me to head back as I was good.....

After a while, the boss and I at Rival didn’t see eye to eye so I moved on to Westcan where a buddy, Mike Hanson, wanted to team with me hauling jet fuel. Yellowknife was our main route but we also went to Prince Rupert BC. It was pretty fascinating out there. We went out onto the port where the Coast Guard parks their ship and ended up driving right in front of the massive boat. It doesn’t look like much when you see it on TV but in person – WOW! When we got to where we needed to be there were helicopters taking off and landing all around us. It was crazy in the fuel industry it seemed like they go by the Big Bang Theory we came in with a bang and we were going to go out with one...lol.

Westcan always gave us maps with our running orders and on this one run through Prince Rupert we had to drive through a residential area and up a massively steep hill. Right on the very top of the hill there is a T intersection and on the map they gave us it said in big red lettering “When coming to the T intersection at the top of the hill there is a stop sign but do not stop you will not be able to get going again.” Luckily

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SPECIAL SPECIAL PEOPLE PEOPLE CREATING CREATING EXCE EXCE

OCEAN TRAILER IS WESTERN

OCEAN TRAILER COME COME SEE SEE US US AT AT THE THE BOOTH BOOTH #P-38 #P-38IS & &WESTERN THE THE B B PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE SPECIAL PEOPLE C

OCEAN TRAILER IS IS WESTERN CANADA’S TRAILER SP OCEAN TRAILER WESTERN CANADA’S TRAILER when we got to the top nothing was coming and we could slip on through.

SPECIAL PEOPLE CREATING EXCEPTIONA SPECIAL PEOPLE CREATING EXCEPTIO TRAILER IS IS WESTERN CANADA’S TRAILER SPECIALIST. OCEAN TRAILER WESTERN CANADA’S TRAILER SPECIALIST. By the time Mike and I were makingOCEAN the runs to Yellowknife OCEAN TRAILER IS WESTERN CANADA’S TRAILER SPECIALIST. COME SEE US AT PEOPLE THECREATINGPLACES. BOOTH #P-38 SPECIAL EXCEPTIONAL PLACES. SPECIAL PEOPLE CREATING EXCEPTIONAL the road had changed a lot from when we wereCANADA’S kids.

It had TRAILER SPECIAL PEOPLE CREATING EXCEPTIONAL PLACES. OCEAN TRAILER IS WESTERN SPECIALIST. OCEAN TRAILER IS WESTERN CANADA’S TRAILER SPECIALIST. been straightened out a lot more than what I remembered. OnOCEAN TRAILER IS WESTERN CANADA’S TRAILER SPECIALIST. COME SEE USUS ATAT THE BOOTH #P-38 & BOOTH THE BOOTH COME SEE THE BOOTH #P-38 & THE BOOT SPECIAL PEOPLE CREATING PLACES. COME SEE US AT THE BOOTH #P-38 & THE #501 SPECIAL PEOPLE CREATING EXCEPTIONAL PLACES. SPECIAL PEOPLE CREATING EXCEPTIONAL PLACES. our first trip in there was a lot of buffalo on the road and theEXCEPTIONAL drivers ahead of us would just sit back and wait for them to COME SEE US AT THE BOOTH #P-38 && THE BOOTH #501 COME SEE US AT THE BOOTH #P-38 THE BOOTH #501 move which was pretty frustrating. When we stopped at the COME SEE US AT THE BOOTH #P-38 & THE BOOTH #501 NEUSTAR DEMO BOX NEUSTAR OCEAN IS&& WESTERN TRAILER SPECIALIST. EESEE AT THE BOOTH THE BOOTH #501 diner across from the ferry I madeTRAILER a#P-38 comment about it andCANADA’S COME SEE DEMO US AT BOX THE SEEUS US ATjust THE BOOTH #P-38 THE BOOTH #501 CREATING EXCEPTIONAL PLACES. the guy in the diner asked me how muchSPECIAL I liked myPEOPLE truck. He then explained that if you make the buffalo mad they are more than capable of destroying your truck.

COME SEE US AT THE BOOTH #P-38 & THE BOOTH #501 We were pumping off at the airport in Yellowknife on that fatefull Tuesday, September 11, 2001, when an alarm went off that meant we had to stop pumping and disconnect from the tank farm. Then the main guy from the tank farm came running out and told us about the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. We couldn’t believe it. We pulled away from the pumps, disconnected from our trailers, and bobtailed into downtown Yellowknife where we found a RadioShack. It was Wilson WilsonQuad QuadFlats Flats Titan TitanSuper SuperBBWalking WalkingFloor FloorChip ChipHauler Hauler Tridem TridemCombo ComboC the only place we could find where we could watch the news on TV. Everyone was in shock - it was unbelievable.

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Wilson FlatsFlats TitanTitan Super B Walking Floor ChipChip Hauler Tridem Combo Chassis - In S Wilson Quad Super B Walking Floor Hauler Tridem Combo Chassis When I left there I went to work forQuad Rainbow Transport Delta Delta Nanaimo Nanaimo Drop Prince PrinceRupert Rupert Edmonton Edmonton Calgary Calgary Fontaine All Aluminum Flat Fontaine Double ! where I started pulling pikes. I also did a couple of other jobs (800) (800)891-8858 891-8858 (877) (877)878-5979 878-5979 (250) (250) 627-1981 627-1981 (800) (800)610-1019 610-1019 (877) (877)720-71 720-71 Fontaine All Aluminum Flat Fontaine Super B FlatsBCall ForSuper Great Pricing!

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I liked working there - the Schneider’s were good people toChip work for.

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Then one dayTitan mySuper uncleB Carl offered me Hauler a job as an owneroperator. I jumped at the chance and Rosenau financed my Fontaine All Aluminum Flat Flat Fontaine Double DropDrop Super Ban Flats CallCummins For Great Pricing!

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(800) 891-8858 (877) 878-5979 (250) 627-1981 (800) 610-1019 (877) 720-7171 (866) 397-5524 (800) 891-8858 (877) 878-5979 (250) 627-1981 (800) 610-1019 (877) 720-7171 (866) 397-5524 Winnipeg (866) 397-5524 WWW.OCEANTRAILER.COM On one such trip,Rupert there was two of us taking a couple of WWW.OCEANTRAILER.COM Nanaimo Prince Edmonton Calgary Winnipeg Nanaimo Prince Rupert Edmonton Calgary Winnipeg Frac Trucks and Trailers to Pennsylvania.

It was in the middle 58 (877) (800) (877) 858 (877)878-5979 878-5979 (250) (250)627-1981 627-1981 (800)610-1019 610-1019 (877)720-7171 720-7171 (866) (866)397-5524 397-5524 WWW.OCEANTRAILER.COM WWW.OCEANTRAILER.COM of winter and the one thing those trucks weren’t lacking

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junE 2019

Chip Trailers

PAGE 19

Wilson Trid

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

was traction. The roads between Moose Jaw and Weyburn Saskatchewan were glare ice with trucks and cars spun out everywhere but we didn’t spin once.

For some reason, Cruz did not buy permits for us to travel through Iowa and that turned out to be a big expensive mistake. As soon as the front wheels hit the 1st Iowa scale the red light came on, “Park, being papers.” Iowa is the only state where, when it comes to over-dimensional or overweight units, in order to run there, you have to register your entire fleet with the state.

When we went inside the D.O.T officer proceeded to give us a $5500.00 ticket each and then went off dutry. Another officer showed up right away and asked how much our fines were. I told him and then he asked if we had paid them. I told him no and he said we got off easy. He said that if it was him we would have been thrown in jail till the tickets were paid.

At the time I was pretty new to running down south so I said a couple of things I shouldn’t have and then he piped up and asked if I knew what Iowa stands for? I said no and he said, “It stands for, I Otta Went Around.” This guy was a real prize and a prime example of a small man with a big badge.

We couldn’t move the trailers ourselves so we ended up calling a cab to take us into town to a hotel. Next morning caught a cab back and waited for the Cruz Carriers truck that they had dispatched to come and move our trailers out of state so we could continue on our way. Cruz had a small fleet that was registered in Iowa but the driver had to travel across 4

PAGE 20

Open 6:00 am to 7:30 pm Mon to Fri 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturdays

Canyon Cable 1988 Ltd. 930-6th Ave., Hope, BC 604-869-9036 Toll Free 1-800-588-8868 states to get to us. We then had to wait another 7 hours for permits before we could leave. The Cruz truck finally showed up and moved one trailer out and then came back for the other.

He didn’t actually move them right out of state like he was supposed to, he just moved them to a point where there were no more scales between us and the state line. We hooked up again and continued on our way. l loved hauling in Texas the most. It was like driving in the late 80s and early 90s. You put your Signal light on and people actually let you in or they would speed up to get by you faster so they were not holding you up.

I was sitting in a truck stop in Fort Worth one time when the waitress asked me how my day was going I told her, “It’s great, I’m in Texas,” She said, “Well that’s great to hear.” I said, “It’s nice to come to a place where people on the road still respect the truck driver.”

There was a trucker sitting at the table beside me and he asked in his deep Texan drawl, “Do you want to know why that is?” I said, “sure.” and he said, “Down here when they see trucks moving freight they know times are good, especially when they see trucks from other countries.”

I love hauling big loads.

The coolest loads I’ve ever hauled were 130ft cement bridge beams. Most of the beams I hauled were for the ring road in Calgary but there were a few that went from Edmonton to Saskatoon. It was quite the procedure. We had to drive over to Con-Force Concrete Products, drop the back part of the trailer and then stretch it out until the guy on the lift told you when you were long enough. The beam itself then became the frame of your trailer connecting the front of the trailer to the back. The number of wheel combinations was also ridiculous. The set up they used was called a 60 wheeler bunk and dolly.

Airlines and electrical cables are then run along the beam and plugged into the rear dolly. The rear pilot car guys had a remote control to steer the back of the dolly around tight corners but the public did not know how it all worked. It was awesome looking at the people that were sitting at the lights with eyes as big as softballs until the back wheels started to turn and the beam moved away from them.

A close second in the coolest load category would have to

Find our magazine archives at www.Pro-truckermagazine.Com

june 2019

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

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AlbErtA biG riG wEEkEnd july 6/7 in Edmonton EmAil john For dEtAils john@PtmAG

PAGE 21

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

be windmill blades. At 140ft long, they made for some fun cornering. The first time I was pulling windmill blades they told me I was going to Miami! I was jacked! What a trip!

They waited a few minutes for this to sink in and then they said it was Miami, Manitoba. What a burn!

The road I had to take was a 2 lane that turned onto a gravel road and it was very different than what I was used to. Being able to make those corners with a trailer that was stretched out with no pivot point in the middle was awesome.

The trailer wheels turn when you start to turn and you’re right in the middle of the road with the dotted line going down the middle of your truck. The remote control for the trailer wheels was operated by the pilot car, or the yard supervisor, depending on where you were.

Life is Good!

I have 2 great kids from my first marriage, Mathew who is 16 and Jessica who is 13 and a real Daddy’s girl. They both live with their mother in Calgary. I had been single for a while when I met a girl, Tami, on a dating site. She lived in Pincher Creek and for the first year we were just friends talking back and forth a lot. We finally got together and started dating about 3 years ago. As time went on we spent more and more time together. We would alternate where I would go to Pincher Creek one weekend and she would come to Calgary the next.

Then last February she planned a weekend in Banff for my birthday which worked out great as I was looking for a time and place to propose. I made reservations at the Keg and told them that I wanted them to write “Will you Marry Me” on a dessert plate. During the meal I got up and passed my phone to one of the girls so she could videotape the proposal. When they brought the plate out she didn’t even notice the writing until I got down on my knee and then she finally caught on.

Today Tami and I and her 17-year-old daughter Rhianna live together with our 11 months out boxer/bulldog Sabastion, aka Schredder because he shreds everything. Tammy and I plan on getting married this August.

Both my brothers are still driving truck. Mike, aka Motor, is driving a gravel truck in Kelowna and Tony is driving for Rosenau Transport in Edmonton.

I’m still driving for Rosenau and up until just last week I was driving a 2013 T6060 18-speed automatic but they just put me into a 2019 Peterbilt with an 18-speed automatic paired with a 500 horsepower Paccar motor. I’m not a fan of the automatics – I‘m still old school and like the feel of working my truck through the gears, but I guess it’s the way things are going now...

Stats Canada...

*****

A recent study found that the average Canadian walks about 876 miles a year. Another study found that on average Canadians drink 10 gallons of pure alcohol a year. That means that the average Canadian gets about 87.6 miles to the gallon!

PAGE 22

Reflections Thru My Windshield

By Dave Madill Dave Madill was Pro-Trucker Magazine’s Rig of the Month in June of 2001 and he has been entertaining us with his poetry ever since. Dave has published three books of poems that are available by special order through Chapters Book Stores.

MADGE Back in the old days, (50’s and 60’s), when some of us were just starting out things were a little different. Credit was hard to get so if you needed a new truck you scraped and scraped and sometimes you rebuilt whatever you had. I had leased a 350 acre farm the previous year and in the fall 0f 1960 I harvested over 10,000 bushels of the best wheat you had ever seen, and my hay crop for next year looked like it was going to be great. Wheat prices were down so we only sold a little more than half of what we had in order to pay our bills. I knew I would make a fair profit when I sold the rest but for next year I needed a truck to haul hay, and trucks were pricey.

Back behind the barn we had a 52 Mack frame, engine, transmission and running gear that we had picked up for parts and everything still worked on it so Dad thought that if we put it in the shop he could find a cab and we could lengthen the frame and put a twenty foot bed on it that would haul 200 square bales all without breaking the bank.

I started working on it right away and in a couple days had the engine purring like a kitten. When winter hit most of our crew were off so they would congregate around the shop to socialise and work on their own cars or pickups.

This always led t lots of help and plenty of “advice” from the guys as to what I was doing right and of course what I was doing wrong.

Dad took a load of 30 of our hogs to market in Toronto and stayed over at his brothers place. When he came home he had a receipt for 28 of those hogs and a 1957 C model Dodge cab, hood and grille. He said he did some swapping but he figured the cab would work. Well it was rough but somehow I got it on the frame, got a steering box hooked up, holes in the floor cut for my Mack twin sticks and then removed all the badges etc. and got it sanded in prep for paint.

Everybody helped out and Andy stayed over one night and painted it a real nice Navy Blue. I stayed up that night and kept the furnace roaring so the paint could dry. In the morning Pop took over the furnace duty while I took a day off and caught up on my sleep.

Next we had to build the bed. We had salvaged about 500 feet of 2 inch angle iron from a job earlier that year so that was to be my edges and we had lots of 10 foot 2X6 rough cut Elm so that would be my deck. I then had to spring for 2 sheets of checker plate and 12 winches and straps but after a lot of work I almost had a truck.

Meanwhile Mom measured up the cab for me, stitched

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june 2019

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

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away for a couple days, and came up with a roof liner, back cab wall cover and custom made floor mats. I had just installed a driver’s seat and was installing the passenger’s seat when we got visitors. Now the little lady who came in with her dad was more than welcome around me at any time. Karen was a year younger than I was but she was REAL easy on the eyes and had a great personality to go with it and I used to make up any excuse just to be with her.

Her Dad walked over to join the boys around the stove and Karen walked over to check out my work. She looked it all over and said it looked great but it was missing its name. I explained that I had taken the letters off to sand and paint and could not find them. She went over to her dad , took a shoe box from him and stated maybe these letters would work. I found out later Len had taken my old letters and had cut out a couple new ones and had taken them over to the plating shop one day when he was delivering steel there.

Karen explained that they had fell into the chrome plating tank and since no one knew whose they were or where thy TRUCK BODY belonged she thought I might be able to use them. There in a little box were the chrome plated letters M,A,D,G,E. She insisted LIFT that it would be a good name for a truck that was YOUR BUSINESS half Mack and half Dodge and then proceeded to help me TO A NEW LEVEL! install them.

About a week later the truck was taken in to Hart Motors to be certified as it was a rebuild and everybody got a good laugh about her name but it passed certification with no

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780-933-0037 don@carouselgroup.ca problems and was registered as a Mack. Mr. Hart told me that if I ever wanted a job as a mechanic that he would hire me and see that my apprentice was short as he said he liked the work I did. I explained that I had a lot of help but if I ever wanted work I would call. I hauled hay with Madge until I joined the service and used her on the farm after that for a few years until we sold out. MADGE ended up selling for more than twice what I had paid to get her running and actually lasted as a farm truck for another 12 years until she was scrapped and recycled. *****

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A senior citizen said to his eighty-year old buddy: ‘So I hear you’re getting married?’

‘Yep!’ ‘Do I know her?’

‘Nope!’

‘This woman, is she good looking?’

‘Not really.’

‘Is she a good cook?’

‘Naw, she can’t cook too well.’

‘Does she have lots of money?’

‘Nope! Poor as a church mouse.’

‘Well, then, is she good in bed?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Why in the world do you want to marry her then?’

‘Because she can still drive!’

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MiLes of sMiLes

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

This article is for the new drivers out there who are going through the back up blues. If you have ever seen the movie, A League of Their Own” with Tom Hanks, you will know there is a famous quote in there. One of the female ball players starts crying and he says, “Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball!!” Well let’s back up about 10 years and this is the voice I hear in my head when I was having a super difficult time trying to back in at a dock off of a busy street. I was still fairly new to driving and all the dock workers just stood there laughing because I was having such a hard time. I eventually got it backed up but the whole time I had tears running down my cheeks. In my head I heard Tom Hanks voice saying, “Are you crying? There’s no crying in trucking!!” From this point on I knew I needed to buck up and grow a thick skin!!

Backing skills are ones that I will forever struggle with and some days you have it, and some you don’t. And on the good days, that’s when you hope the dock staff are watching!

One of my first trips to Chicago I went to a customer that our

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Call Al 604-882-7623 company regularly picks up at. I got there just fine but then I looked at their dock and thought, “There is no way I am ever going to get backed in there.” The customer must have had several drivers encounter the same anxiety because they said if you pay the guy at the neighbouring business, he will back it in for you. I thought that was great to know in the event I needed that service but first I wanted to try it myself and feel accomplished for doing it. That being said I was not above asking someone to do it for me. So I gave it the good ol’ college try and I tried and I tried and eventually frustration took over. I set out to find this guy at the next business and of course he wasn’t there that day. That would be my luck I thought. Now I really have to get this done myself.

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So I got back in my truck and started over and after many horn honks and very unfriendly drivers, I managed to get it backed in without hitting or damaging anything. I can look back on it now and be thankful I was forced to do it myself because this is how confidence and experience are built.

I get asked by new drivers from time to time how I in fact learned to back up. All I can say is 10 years of practice and many more to go. I tell them every dock is different, every street has a different amount of traffic and every customer has a different size of parking lot. Therefore you can’t just teach backing because every day and situation is different.

Practice makes perfect they say. The one most important piece of advice I can give is to get out and look when you are unsure. That alone can save you so much time and money.

You may feel silly at the time for getting out but you will look a lot sillier if you damage something.

Another piece of advice is to just try to remain calm. I think we all know how much harder it is to complete a task when our nerves are running sky high. Now I know this is easier said than done but it helps to just take a minute to focus and start over if possible and reset your position.

On the certain occasions when I’m doing an exceptionally horrible job of backing I just tell the customer it’s my first day. Unfortunately I don’t think anyone believes me but never hurts to try, right? I’m sure we have all had those instances where we have shown up at a customer and they say, “Just back in over there.” They point to where they want

you and you think, “Hmmm...you want me where? Looks like there is only enough room for horse and buggy!” And they will 100% of the time reply with, “Trucks and trailers get in here all the time.” I’m sure they are failing to mention it’s with a day cab and a pup trailer. After these situations you really do learn to appreciate the places that have that famous “40 acres” that you can turn a truck around in!

Backing up is an admirable skill and I often envy the drivers who make it look so easy by backing in just about anywhere on the first try, they obviously have a knack for it. *****

Shhh!

A young ventriloquist put on a show in a small town. With his dummy on his knee, he started going through his dumb blonde jokes. Suddenly, a blonde stood on her chair and started shouting, “I’ve heard enough of your blonde jokes.

What does the color of a woman’s hair have to do with her worth as a human being? It’s men like you who keep women like me from being respected at work and in the community, and from reaching our full potential as people. It’s people like you that make others think that all blondes are dumb!

You and your kind continue to perpetuate discrimination against not only blondes, but women in general, pathetically all in the name of humor!”

The embarrassed ventriloquist began to apologize, and the blonde yelled, “You stay out of this! I’m talking to that little guy on your lap!”

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junE 2019

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

driVinG throuGh My MeMories

By Ed Murdoch

Ed has held a commercial drivers license for 65 years and has spent the better part of 50 years on the road.

You can get Ed’s new book at www.drivingthroughmymemories.ca Sharing cab space with a companion traveler can sometimes be a bit challenging, regardless of their species or gender. The first human to occupy space in the shotgun position of one of my first trucks was a young friend of my sisters who wanted a ride from the Center of the Universe to Winterpeg in 1956. Back then it took 27 hours in a cab without the benefit of a sleeper berth, if you can imagine it. I’ve done it in just over 23 hours since but somehow it wasn’t the same 30 years later while in a truck with all the comforts of home, including a bed, in a climate-controlled cockpit with 18 gears rather than 5 with a splitter. Back then I was a “Truck Drivin’ Man”, yeah!

When my third child, a daughter was born, and in order to give my wife some relief, I took my oldest boy at 3 years of age, the most active, with me on a trip to New York City.

He threw up his breakfast in one of those old chrome street car diners that are iconic structures scattered around NYC but the waitress was very accommodating. I delivered my loads all on time, never had any incidents and arrived back

at the home terminal safe and sound but was immediately terminated by one of the owners. Like most companies we had a standing rule about passengers and apparently one of the other drivers (read snitch) saw my son with me and called it in. Yes I knew it was against the rules but under the circumstances I had little choice at the time. That was the one and only time that I was dismissed from any job.

Today I could sue for “wrongful dismissal”.

Hitchhikers must be chosen carefully even back in the good ol’ days. Events such as world fairs (Vancouver ‘86), sporting occasions (Grey Cup), the Calgary Stampede for instance and entertainment spectaculars like music fests, etc., all attracted the professional sex therapists that plied their trade among some of the truckers along the dusty roads. But oh no, not me … I‘m with Dave Dudley who sang, “It seems like a month since I kissed my Baby goodbye … I could have a lot of women but I’m not like some of the guys … I could find someone to hold me tight but I can never make believe it’s alright, 6 days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight.” I’ll have more about hitchhiking next month…you’ll be surprised!

Many truckers have pets that travel with them. Some couples have one or two dogs, others prefer cats. Remember “BJ and The Bear” back around 1980? It was a TV series about a trucker and his pet monkey who got into a variety of adventures. Some were good and some not so good but each escapade usually ended with the hero, rescuing or

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being rescued by a comely maiden somewhere along the highways of America. If you are waiting for that to happen to you I can only say don’t hold your breath…

My dog Woody accompanied me on travels around North America and was a great companion who never complained and expressed his love for me by wagging his tail and licking my face. Both US and Canada Customs officers got used to him being by my side and some would even give him a treat they saved for such moments.

The one incident that leaps into my mind whenever I think of Woody in the truck was one Saturday when we stopped at the Flying J at Cheyenne, WY to fuel, take on some groceries, catch up on some paperwork and relax for a bit. It was a nice warm day in spring and we pulled out of the FJ and then backed down the little dead end street where there was a mechanical shop with no customers and the lone mechanic was washing the floors. When it was time for us to leave I looked around and Woody was nowhere in sight. I looked out the passenger window and there he was in a field that was empty except for one Brahma Bull that had the hugest set of deadly horns I’d ever seen. The bull was lying down wagging its tail as Woody licked his nose, while also wagging his tail.

Woody was an Australian breed of herding dog so this was instinctively all old hat to him. After a few minutes I whistled and he came running eager to get on with his day. When I opened the door to let him jump up I suddenly

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got a whiff of a barnyard smell that I had gotten used to on the farm but was not in a hurry to get used to again.

I quickly shut the door and headed over to the mechanics shop where I asked the fellow if I could borrow a hose for a few minutes. At first he thought I had a rad leak until I pointed to the dog. When he stopped laughing he said, “I see your dog has been introduced to our bull!” and pointed to a sewer where I hosed him down for several minutes, as he had really packed it on.

I never had to restrain Woody as he would visit other truckers and was very adept at running under a moving trailer to get back to our truck, which, sometimes made me catch my breath.

One time we stopped at a roadside parking area to make a minor adjustment under the hood. There was one other semi there and not going anywhere fast. Finishing my task I closed the hood, looked around and whistled but again Woody was nowhere in sight. The other semi had departed and when I looked to the west I could see it disappearing into the sunset but I also noticed four short legs losing ground as they attempted to keep up. No contest so I whistled. Woody stopped, turned to look back then proceeded to keep running after the truck. I whistled again as loud as I could and when he turned to look back I whistled once more and this time to my relief he did return wagging his tail after him. I’m still not sure if he thought the other trailer was me leaving him behind or if he just wanted new company. One word of advice – if you are going to take a dog as a companion - learn to whistle - it’s mandatory.

You also have to be cautious when tying one’s pet to the outside of your vehicle. One of our owner-ops tied his dog to the frame between the drive axles and left without checking. When he looked in the rear mirror to merge with traffic, he saw his cherished pet ... I will spare you the gory details. Very, very traumatic, poor guy! I have heard of other similar incidents.

We have yet to take on traveling with the wife or girlfriend, which is a whole other topic that will require an entire column to do it justice. See you in July. Drive safely and perform at least one random act of kindness a day … every day. Change the world around you … you can do it and that’s all you can do ... 10-4! *****

Bedtime Stories....

MARILYN TAYLOR IS OUR COMMERCIAL TRUCKING SPECIALIST! Marilyn has over 30 years experience in providing insurance for Owner Operators & fleet transport companies operating in Canada & the U.S.A. PAGE 28

A little girl was sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately stroking her own cheek, then his again. Finally she spoke up, “Grandpa, did God make you?” “Yes, sweetheart,” he answered, “God made me a long time ago.” “Oh,” she paused, “Grandpa, did God make me too?” “Yes, indeed, honey,” he said, “God made you just a little while ago.” Feeling their respective faces again, she observed, “God’s getting better at it, isn’t he?”

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PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

june 2019

alberta big rig weekend July 6/7 in edmonton email john for details john@ptmag

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Reflections Thru Thru My My Windshield Windshield Reflections Thoughts of Home Alone out on the highway, I contemplate my youth, Though it is hard to do, I must admit the truth.

This life I have chosen and these highways that I roam, Have given me my freedom, but a truck is not a home.

No sitting in the backyard, listening to my children play, Or resting on the front porch at the closing of the day.

No working in the garden, planting peas and corn, Kneeling in the back shed while a kitten is being born.

I’m the one that made the choice, I have no one else to blame, Still this old truck is not a home. The two just aren’t the same.

Dave Madill was Pro-Trucker Magazine’s Rig of the Month in June of 2001 and he has been entertaining us with his poetry ever since. Dave has published three books of poems that are available by special order through Chapters Book Stores or amazon.com PAGE 30

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junE 2019

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

associate editor GreG eVasiuK Greg is a third generation trucker with over a million miles and 20 plus years in trucking. He was also our Rig of The Month for Febrauary 2018

MAKE A DECISION How many times have you asked a yes or no question and got the answer, I don’t know? I’m guessing it’s a large number or you can’t calculate it. Have you ever been offered the opportunity to go do some fun activity only to have someone else call with an equal or better offer? At your favorite restaurant “Man the pasta is sooo good here but so is the steak…”

Decisions, decisions, I could fill the magazine front to back with the ones I made last week. I’m beginning to be convinced that the secret to life is to find a way to make them as simple as possible.

Buridan’s ass… sounds like a Slovakian rear end but is actually a fable about a donkey. The donkey is both hungry and thirsty equally. He stands an equal distance between a pile of hay and a bucket of water.

He looks left and thinks of drinking the water to quench his thirst. He looks right to see the delicious pile of hay that would quell his hunger. Left to right, back and forth, he continues to weigh the decision between hunger and thirst until… he drops dead from both!

This 14th century cautionary tale is a perfect illustration of what happens to people every day. While out doing some temp driving the other day I watched while the “senior man” in the crew spent almost twenty minutes debating the merits of which google route would get us there faster. Google showed a difference of 12 mins between the two, which our fearless leader (I use the term loosely), was sure didn’t take into account the traffic. While being dismissed as the new guy I laughed inside at the irony of losing time deciding while we could be getting closer to our destination. Had he discussed it with himself much longer we would have been late to make our delivery.

My decision making process is simple, I follow my gut and I have default answers for simple stuff. It junE 2019

is absolutely amazing how much this has freed my mind to do more important things. It looks like this in practice. When it comes to eating I know what I like and my default answer, double Cheeseburger, (while boring and maybe fattening) it fills me up. No agonizing about where to go, what’s on the menu, just simple food to fuel my body.

To allow me to eat what I want I have to work out and that’s simple too I walk a half hour morning and evening with 100 push-ups throughout the day.

No decision just an automatic routine that keeps me active.

When things spring up to go and do if I’m excited to go then I go.

If I have two things that equally make me happy I do both!

Becoming decisive is the most freeing trait I’ve ever learned and the hardest part for me to learn was to say no. If something doesn’t jump out to me and send my mind racing I say no. If I’m just kinda interested, I say no. Once I realized all the time it saved me doing things I only half wanted and the money saved buying things I only kinda wanted… it was easy. The other realization I came to was that saying no to people is ok. If you say no to someone and they shun you or are upset with you for longer than an instant, you may be better off without them.

“Don’t be an ass” or “you’re such an ass” has new meaning to me now! I am always making decisions and recently I made a couple big ones. I’m now the Co-founder of Job Site Logistics, a forward thinking venture designed to help trucking companies with staffing, payroll, sales, and profitability. The other was when John asked if I would be associate editor of Pro-Trucker. Easy decision. I can’t put into words how excited I am for the opportunity and for the new things we will be rolling out! Stay tuned!! r

AlbErtA biG riG wEEkEnd july 6/7 in Edmonton EmAil john For dEtAils john@PtmAG

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