Pro-Trucker Magazine | November 2018

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

novEmbEr 2018

November 2018

do you hAvE somEthinG to sAy? EmAil john@PtmAG.cA

PM #40033055

Rig of The Month Featuring Dale Howard Starting on Page 16

Proudly

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PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

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november 2018

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK... BY JOHN WHITE

VOLUME 20, ISSUE 10 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 Greg Evasiuk • Mel McConaghy Ed Murdoch • Colin Black • Cyn Tobin 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.

PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #40033055 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. 9693 129th Street.

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

Lest We Forget…

On November 11, 1918, an Armistice was signed to end hostilities of World War 1. The Armistice was signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente (The UK, France and Russia). It is referred to as the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because hostilities formally ended at 11 AM on that day in the UK. The first Armistice Day was observed on the grounds of Buckingham Palace on November 11, 1919 by King George V. “In Flanders Fields” written by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae was what prompted the adoption of the red poppy as the emblem of the Armistice often referred to in Canada as Remembrance Day. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I and their brilliant red colour became a symbol for the blood spilled in the war.

On November 11th many Canadians will stop and with 2 minutes of silence, pay their respects to those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice, in all wars, in defence of our country and way of life. No group will be better represented at that time than the men and women who have served and continue to serve in our Armed Forces today.

Another group that will attend, at a cenotaph, in front of cameras, are the politicians past and present who have eroded and with-held the help and support that many of our veterans so desperately need.

In a speech, while on the campaign trail in 2015 Justin Trudeau said, “We owe a sacred trust to veterans and their families – all of them. It is an obligation that we must meet with respect and gratitude.” He went on to say how the Harper government, “… left more than 1 billion dollars of money unspent that was allocated by parliament to Veteran’s support. Canadian’s know that this is wrong. A government led by me would make it right.”

Yet in the 3 years since taking office in November 2015, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has left more than $372 million unspent. This works out to leaving money unspent at the same rate as the Harper government.

Trudeau also campaigned on no longer fighting veterans in court yet in 2 years his government has spent over 38 million in ongoing fights against veteran groups.

After talking to veterans on the Rolling Barrage Ride I found that on top of the sting of broken promises the single comment that insulted veterans the most was when in February 2018, during a town hall meeting in Edmonton, retired corporal Brock Blaszczyk, who lost his left leg in Afghanistan in 2009, asked Trudeau about the prime minister’s broken campaign promise not to fight veterans in court.

Trudeau replied, “Why are we still fighting against certain veterans’ groups in court? Because they’re asking for more than we are able to give right now.”

Corporal Blaszczyk then forcefully stated, “I was prepared to be injured in the line of duty when I joined the military. No one forced me, I volunteered. I was prepared to be killed in action, what I wasn’t prepared for Mr. Prime Minister, is Canada turning its back on me.” ~ Lest We Forget

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PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

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LETTERS to the EDITOR

e Whit John azine

Mag cker u r T Pro

John White Magazine Pro-Trucker

John, Poor driving habits and unsafe practices are rapidly becoming a norm. What was entertaining was this truck, a Black Kenworth with a white van step-deck trailer that went past me at 80th ave and highway 17, southbound in Delta BC, doing 110 + in the 80 km zone. It was weaving in and out of traffic, only to arrive at the BC Ferries terminal in the lane opposite me. I had no need to exceed the posted speed limit at any time and still arrived with time left over.

What made it more interesting, it that it was the same driver who nearly ran over the company production supervisor with his pick-up truck in the yard less than 20 minutes earlier.

The timeline just confirms that no commercial vehicle pre-trip was done and there was a total disregard for both equipment and public safety.

We have a problem in this province. There needs to be better CVSE and police attention to the entire of British Columbia’s highway 17 from 176 Street and the Trans-

Canada highway all the way to BC Ferries. There are far too many cars and trucks who completely disregard speed limits, drive erratically and all without any visible police presence to curb these poor practices.

Regards James Editor’s note: As far as truck drivers are concerned these drivers are often weeded out when their driving record gets to the point that no one will hire them. Unfortunately, this sometimes does not happen until there has been an accident.

Traffic laws in BC are being ignored by everyone on the road and with good reason. There is very little chance of getting caught due to the lack of police presence not only on the highways but also in the cities and towns. BC seems to have the fewest officers on the road than any other province.

Even with the huge debt that ICBC, BC’s mandatory vehicle insurance company, is facing because of the high number of accidents, our politician’s focus is on how much they can raise insurance rates. They are making the public pay for their reluctance to address the root of the problem and that is proper enforcement of our traffic laws.

The saying that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” is no more prominent than when politicians show reluctance to upset the vocal whiners of our society who say that the enforcement of our traffic laws is just a tax grab. I prefer to look at the enforcement of our traffic laws as a “stupidity tax.”

“Lest we forget”

novEmbEr 2018

do you hAvE somEthinG to sAy? EmAil john@PtmAG.cA

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PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

Communication

By Greg Evasiuk Greg is a third generation trucker with over a million miles and 20 plus years in trucking. He now sells trucks for Nortrux.

I need to buy batteries. Batteries for my recorder. That was a note on my phone and I wished I would have paid some attention to it before I hit the road last week. You see I often come up with my best ideas on the road and if I don’t say them into the recorder… well, my memory isn’t always the clearest. Oh, and before you start sending me messages to say I can use my phone to record, I know I can but it’s not as easy and I like my recorder.

There’s not a lot to my recorder, its small has 5 buttons and if it has batteries it will record what I say. The simplistic nature of it is what makes it so appealing. Now if I would have used the old reliable sticky note for my battery reminder I would be writing about more than a voice recorder. Oh, the ideas I had… the thoughts about bygone days… all lost never to be written! All of this because I forgot to click: add a reminder on my phone.

Like I was saying I had plenty of good thoughts and stories come back to me because I was out in another simple machine. A machine that took me back to a simpler time

in my life, 1995 to be exact. I got to spend time with a 1995 379L Peterbilt with a fresh 5EK Cat and an 18 speed.

It brought back memories for me of when I first got my license and I would just kick back in my single stack ’86 General and dream that it was a shiny new Pete! Now don’t get me wrong driving the old General built character and it was a huge step up from S-line International I started on. Those long noses with their big bunks, twin stacks and chicken lights, they were like high-end sports cars to me.

The powers that be in the family business were against all things chromed as well as any option on a truck that didn’t help efficiency. Big bunks, well that was for long haulers, they weighed too much and besides for years nobody even had bunks!

My one respite was that no one ever wanted to drive the rental trucks or the demo trucks that we would get because they would have to give up their own truck. Now the rentals were pretty ho-hum Cornbinders and Freightliners but they generally had stand up bunks on them. The demos though they were always cool, dolled up with all the options and bling meant to persuade you to tell the boss you need that truck! That’s how I got to drive my first long nose, it’s also how I got my first words in a magazine. Ok it was a long nose Western Star and the magazine was put out by Cummins to promote their products but I was still proud of both.

It was the first Signature 600 Cummins and it was Cummins own demo truck. Some of you may remember

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it, black with bright red stripes and the new style big constellation bunk. Oh, I remember it well the seats had 6 adjustments, every switch, every available chrome gauge and it had an Alpine stereo! When I pulled out of the mill with my regular load of rough lumber I felt like a rock star - like everyone was looking at me. While some truckers undoubtedly were envious it was mostly a feeling that I carried. What I learned that week though was that horsepower is addictive and while a plain truck will do the exact same job some bling and a shiny truck will make you do it with a smile.

Where does the simplicity come in? I know that’s what I started talking about and it is where I am coming back to. Before the other day, I had been driving all new trucks.

Trucks that were aerodynamic, that had collision avoidance, automated transmissions, and robust emissions systems and these are the trucks that are no longer simple. There will be a time in the not so distant future where you will rarely see a “traditional” style truck on the highway. Our beloved W900’s and 389’s will be history along with the clutch pedal and that makes me sad. I hadn’t realized how much I missed the old school truck until I drove one.

When you have 132” to your front bumper it requires that you pay attention to your surroundings. The slightly noisier cab of the ‘80s or ‘90’s truck communicates sounds from the engine to you, it communicates via real analog gauges that don’t have anything between them and the sensor except november 2018

wire. The whole truck just asks you to be more engaged with driving. I think in the interest of making the task of driving simpler we are losing the interaction that keeps the driver’s interest where it should be. I know for a fact if you take away shifting, assist my steering to keep me in my lane and keep my speed adjusted to traffic around me, I will tune out.

Now I don’t want to be as engaged as driving a ’57 B-model Mack! As cool as that is it would wear me out in 3 hours, the happy medium is somewhere in the middle. For me, it’s that old Pete.

It’s like my old recorder or the sticky note; while there are newer faster ways available nothing else works as nice for me! *****

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:

• No matter how hard you try, you can’t baptize cats..

• When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don’t let her brush your hair.

• If your sister hits you, don’t hit her back. They always Catch the second person.

• Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.

• You can’t trust dogs to watch your food..

• Don’t sneeze when someone is cutting your hair..

• Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.

• You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.

• Don’t wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.

do you have something to say? email john@ptmag.ca

PAGE 7

PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

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novEmbEr 2018

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PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

Mile After Mile

By Cyn Tobin Cyn has been driving trucks for 34 years. She has hauled loads all across North America and specializes in expedited perishable freight.

Long-distance truck driving is a demanding job. We often find ourselves away from home for long periods on end.

Working upwards of 60 hours per week. As I travel along I get caught up in the complaining and feeling hard done by in this industry. Like so many drivers out here Mile after Mile, we forget how lucky we actually do have it. I recall my own days of driving in other countries and although we may feel taken advantage of and utilized as a tool it’s hard to not understand and see why our country and, particularly this industry, is so appealing to many looking to better their lives...

Keeping in mind cost of living, overseas, the average working week is 48 hours of driving, which can be extended to up to 60 hours. In the UK, a lorry driver earns an average of £2,060 [$2,700] a month before tax, while the average in the Netherlands is about £1,500 [$2,000] and in Germany about £1,650 [$2,100]. It doesn’t look like working conditions or wages will ever improve there, given that shipping agents from Western European countries are employing more drivers from Middle and Eastern Europe who do the same work for half those wages.

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Call Al 604-882-7623 These drivers from countries like Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Belarus, or Ukraine are often on the road for weeks or even months and sit, eat, and sleep on less than three square meters during that time. For many of them, it’s the unemployment at home that forces them to drive for any wage—which some carriers will gladly use to their advantage. Sound hauntingly familiar?

A fellow driver from overseas writes, “I started driving on the 3rd of September, 1976—over 40 years ago. The business has gotten tougher, but that’s the case everywhere. The lack of respect these days, that really gets to me. It used to be that drivers really were something out on the road, I used to feel proud to drive a truck. I made so many friends and we all used to look out for each other.

“These days, everyone just looks out for themselves. It’s no wonder: many people drive for breadline wages. They work for carriers who try to squeeze everything out of their drivers—the most important thing for them is that it doesn’t cost much. It’s modern-day slavery, basically.”

These conditions sound about as familiar as the ritualistic black top I find myself rolling along each week. Not problematic specifically for Canada or North America in general...but rather a global issue.

Well—things like this that often cross my mind during those long journeys.

So as I travel along I keep these things in mind while I get frustrated with our countries lack of proper integration and training for these people looking to better their lives here.

After all I don’t think I would be any different than them in wanting a better life for my family. I could only trust that I am properly trained to become a professional and contributing member of my new countries social structure. So I find myself asking a few rather rhetorical questions like, “can this be fixed?” And... “if so, how?” ...”where do we begin?”

Just a few thoughts as I travel along Mile after Mile.

Fate Shows when Least Expected ***** Father: Son, you were adopted.

Son: What?! I knew it! I want to meet my biological parents!

Father: We are your biological parents. Now pack up, the new ones will pick you up in 20 minutes.

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novEmbEr 2018

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PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINE

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.

Living Remembrance

The sacrifice that no one sees, lies deep within the soul of those who come home from war. They live every day with the searing memories of times that would be best forgotten.

Many appear to have moved on; after years separated from the battlefield have passed. But their stares belie the truth found within their hearts.

Gone are the lighthearted steps of boys on their way to a place that isn’t defined by the ground they walk upon, but by the dangerous and uncertain environment that they are immersed within.

Trepidation is nearly non-existent amidst the energy of bravado which soon turns to disgust for the depravity of the human race.

Yet, these men and women, wouldn’t have it any other way. They know the things they’ve seen and done have left scars upon their hearts. Even in light of all that, they understand the commitment they made so that we wouldn’t have to know those very things. Although Remembrance Day can be a sombre affair, the troops who gave their lives or those who live each day with their sacrifice, did so, so that we can live in freedom and with joy. They do not wish for us to grieve so deeply that it hurts our hearts. That is their eternal mission.

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of November and you stop for your two minutes of silence, be sure not only to remember the sacrifice of so many but also to smile a little inside. For those who sacrificed, would want it that way.

For me personally, I’ll be tipping a pint in honour for all of those fine young men and women because that’s what they want us to do. Remember the sacrifice, never forget it, but to remember that the sacrifice was made for us to live.

I

n 1992, while the world’s eyes were on the Persian Gulf, 900 Canadians were exposed to acts of barbarism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide on a scale not seen since the Second World War. They found themselves grossly outnumbered, completely surrounded, and regularly engaging in close infantry combat. To Canadians at home this was called a “peacekeeping mission,” that could not have been farther from the truth.

Many war stories are told from an officer’s point of view. In this 100,582 word true account I, Corporal Scott Casey, expose the truth that was Operation Harmony. I dare you to feel my feelings and to see the Balkans War through my eyes at the ground level frontline perspective.

Follow me, a member of November Company, The Royal Canadian Regiment into the depths of Hell. It will be a challenge not to change the way you look at humanity.

Whether you are a Canadian or not, this gripping tale of GHOSTKEEPERS, will give you a new respect for the soldiers who put their lives on the line “In the Service of Peace.”

Order your copy today from chapters.indigo.ca or amazon.ca PAGE 12

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Rig of the Month

By John White Our November Rig of the Month driver is Dale Howard who has been writing very informative articles for ProTrucker for the last few months. Dale is very knowledgeable

and has had a varied work life but he has always returned to his love of driving.

My dad had a road building company so I was introduced

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PAGE 16

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to Trucking at a young age. I loved spending time with him around the gravel crusher and also riding in my Uncle George’s gravel truck. My dad instilled a strong work ethic in my formative years and I always strive for perfection in all I do.

When the road building company was sold my dad semiretired and bought a farm. That gave me the opportunity at an early age to drive grain truck and tractors and I was soon hooked.

In high school, I washed trucks on the weekend for my cousin John Henderson until I turned 18 and went into the motor vehicle branch in Calgary and got my Class 1 license.

That was back when licensing was done right in Alberta and the inspectors were all government employees, not private company employees. As soon as I got my license John gave me my first driving job. Henderson Trucking was primarily a flat deck company running Alberta.

I gained a lot of experience hauling concrete slabs, fertilizer and running a broken arm picker. Being a flat deck company I can honestly say I can haul anything on a deck. We hauled a lot of precast material that was always a challenge to secure. I remember many loads that I used every chain and strap I had in my possession. Bag fertilizer was always a treat (insert sarcasm) because they were 50-pound bags and you would handle every bag on the trailer. The only saving grace is I was young and in the best shape of my life. I was paid percentage and it was a good rate and so I made pretty

Dale Howard good money.

My early years of trucking were in the days of regulation meaning you could only haul certain commodities in certain lanes so there were lots of empty unproductive miles. Like many of you, when I first started driving there were a few drivers who stand out as people that taught me valuable tricks of the trade that helped me along the way. Two of my mentors in trucking that really stick out in my mind were, Larry Jesperson and Lin Hardisty. They not only taught me how to

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drive but they also taught me so much more about trucking.

With persistence, my cousin put me in a brand new 1979 Louisville 318 Detroit, 13 speed and I was in heaven. At that time there were no hours of service rules in Canada so if you slept at all it was poor planning on dispatch’s part. The truck I was driving had no sleeper so you got what sleep you could across the seats and after hand-bombing 50,000 pounds of fertilizer, it was not that hard to go to sleep.

I did that for a year or so and decided it was time to be an owner operator so I bought my first truck. It was a 1978 F model Mack, my first truck with a sleeper, 300 plus ten speed which was leased onto Trans Mutual Truck Lines hauling flat decks and convertible hopper trailers in Alberta, BC and the western US. I felt like I had hit the big time. I was only 20 years old and my first trip was a load of bulk fertilizer to Dawson Creek. I loaded in the afternoon and headed north stopping for the night in Beaver Lodge Alberta. With this being my first sleeper truck naturally, I slept in and didn’t get to Dawson creek till 11 am. I was scared as I had just bought a truck and I was late with my first load and now I thought I was going to be fired. Fred the dispatcher didn’t help when he told me to be sure and see him when I got back as we needed to talk. Gulp... I reloaded grass seed for Camrose Alberta and slept that night across the gate so they had to wake me to get into work I unloaded and then came back to the yard to face the music.

Fred and John Ruteck, the owner, explained to me it was

easier to call a customer and tell them the load would be late rather than phone them and tell them the truck was involved in an accident and their freight was scattered all over the highway. What a relief - no more panic.

I had to stay in Canada until my 21st birthday before I could go south and my first U.S. trip was a load of cedar to Fresno California and then I had to pick up bulk potatoes out of Bakersfield California to take back to Calgary for old Dutch foods - now I was really in the big league.

In 1980 I ordered my first new truck a 1980 Transtar 4300 IHC 380 cat and I got to pull “B” trains when they first came out. At Trans Mutual, we primarily hauled lumber south then drilling mud from Montana or Wyoming up to Fort Saint John and Fort Nelson. We would also haul cedar down to Denver Colorado then head over to Rockport Missouri to haul bulk corn back to Canada. Tarping lumber was a weekly job and I took great pride in doing it right. To this day it makes me crazy to see a load poorly tarped.

I left Trucking and went into the burglar and fire alarm business for a bit with ADT security systems installing and maintaining burglar and fire alarm systems. I progressed in the industry to the inspection of burglary and fire alarm systems. We had a distillery as one of our customers and it would take three days to check their sprinkler alarms. The smell of alcohol in the rack houses where they stored barrels of Whiskey to age was overwhelming and you would always leave a little light headed. Loomis armoured car service was

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one of our customers and they noticed my work ethic and offered me a part-time job on the weekends. Since I enjoyed driving it was a great job so I left the alarm business and took a full-time position with Loomis. One of the perks was that I got to haul a substantial amount of high-value jewelry to Nakisa, the ski resort that was built in preparation for the 1988 Winter Games. We had a team of 5 and spent the weekend all-expense paid and paid around the clock. I also got to hob knob with the stars that were at an event to highlight the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Calgary and raise money for the Canadian and USA ski teams. Brooke Shields and William Shatner I must say were the most down to earth stars I have ever met.

In 1994 I left the armoured car service and ventured into law Enforcement with the Alberta sheriffs court and prisoner services I progressed quickly in my career and was promoted to the chief firearm training officer writing our training manual for the transition from revolver to auto loader handgun. This won me the Premiers Award for excellence in 2000. The deputy chief of commercial vehicle enforcement made a deal with our department to do some training for them. Seeing the value in us, seven officers were convinced to jump ship and transferred over, much to the dismay of the chief at court and prisoner service, but a real win for CVE. The last seven years of my career were spent with Commercial Vehicle Enforcement (CVE) in Alberta.

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instructor and as part of the job, I conducted hundreds of roadside inspections on trucks, school buses and motor coaches. Greyhound Canada approached me to travel across Canada with the compliance manager to deliver a lecture on pre-trip inspection to their employees. This is something I really excel in and have delivered hundreds of driver meeting lectures on compliance to help our industry with compliance issues. Contrary to popular opinion our goal was always “compliance through education” and yes sometimes that education did not come cheap. I really enjoyed working with a problem carrier and helping them get back on the road to safety and compliance The call of the road was too strong and in 2007 I left CVE and crossed over to the dark side, or came to the light depending on who you talk to, and purchased a used Kenworth T2000 leased onto Bison Transport. This was an easy move as for the previous 9 years I had worked part-time running Canada and all over the United States when on my holiday’s and I did local driving on weekends.

After deciding that I wanted one more new truck I purchased a 2010 Peterbilt 386 still leased on with Bison.

This was a unique truck as it had a Cummins test engine in it equipped with def. It was nice to have two engineers cell phone numbers for problems and when you pulled into a Cummins shop you moved to the top of the list. I would pull into a shop and have the service writer tell me they were booking out to next Tuesday then after getting them to run the

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engine VIN number it was kinda humorous to see them get a puzzled look and tell you to go to bay 6. Following this, I decided I wanted to do more refrigerated work so I left bison and leased on with Traffix, a smaller company, which was extending its business into Alberta.

Then the 2013 flood hit High River AB hard and I lost everything including my home. So I sold my truck and drove a company truck for Traffix. Needing to spend some time at home rebuilding my life, I left the highway and took a local job with “Bear Excavating “ hauling heavy equipment and gravel around the area doing acreage development and septic systems but since this was seasonal work the call of the road came back and I am now driving for Don Needham Trucking out of Claresholm Alberta hauling produce out of California in the Orange T680 Kenworth I’ve affectionately named the “Great Pumpkin” hauling a 53 foot utility reefer.

My predominant lane is Calgary to Los Angeles so look for me on the I15 corridor and if you see me don’t forget to wave with all your fingers. I love hauling produce it’s nice to have a challenge and loading a six picker in California is always a challenge. thankfully we have great customers and things normally go smoothly.

I am part of the Let’s Truck tribe care team with Kevin Rutherford who hosts the Trucking business and beyond shows on SIRUS XM Road Dog 146 Monday to Friday 9-noon Mountain Time and I also speak at the CMC conference in Council Bluffs Iowa on Safety and Compliance and surviving roadside inspections. It is so nice to hear from a Conference attendee who gets a level one inspection and passes with flying colours. I have been involved with Kevin for 8 years now and for a time did a monthly podcast on compliance In my off time, I love riding my mule, Diesel, out in Kananaskis Country. A mule is a cross between a horse and donkey. Mom is a horse and in Diesel’s case, mom was a Percheron Draft Horse and dad was a Mammoth Jack Donkey so he is a big guy. Mules have so much more personality than a horse and are just a lot of fun to be around. A fun fact is the Percheron was the most fuel-efficient draft horse of the day, they did the most amount of work with the least amount of feed. Sadly diesel has forgotten this and loves his groceries.

We have all heard the term stubborn as a mule but nothing could be further from the truth they are a very giving and willing animal but they are thinkers so they only do things that are in everyone’s best interest. Hold my beer and watch this just don’t happen to ride a mule. Anything you can do on a horse can be done on a mule. Another fun fact is the mules won the battle of the breeds at Spruce Meadows a few years ago. So don’t forget, “if it’s not half-ass - it’s just a horse.”

I look forward to chatting and sharing some compliance tips in the upcoming issues so stay tuned. If you have any questions please reach out to me on facebook and I will do my best to help you out. My passion is teaching and education in an industry that I enjoy giving back to.

Safe travels, stay compliant and look forward to seeing you next month.

PAGE 22

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.

Wildlife The story about Fred, the freeloading fly, in the July issue of Pro-Trucker got me thinking about wildlife affecting a driver’s working day. It doesn’t need to be something big like a moose or deer to give a driver cause for concern, trying to get rid of an annoying insect has the capability to be just as dangerous.

Over here we do get the occasional deer running across the highway, but mostly it’s smaller stuff, like rabbits and badgers. Badgers are on the chunky side and can do a bit of damage to your car if you hit one, I’ve been quite fortunate and never hit much in my years on the road.

I was heading back to the depot in the early hours of the morning with my trailer load of car parts when a Tawny Owl failed to look both ways before crossing the highway. It hit the windscreen just above my head and jammed up into the tinted plastic sun visor of my Mercedes Axor. Luckily it didn’t break the windscreen or the visor, probably just broke its neck, poor soul.

It stayed there for the rest of the trip back to base with one wing flapping in the wind, for some reason the movie Moby Dick came to mind. When Captain Ahab was tangled up in the ropes on the back of the great whale, one arm was flapping as if beckoning to his crew to follow him. One young driver of a 7.5 ton GVW box van was not so lucky one early morning. At one time these vans could be driven with just a car licence, so more often than not it was a young driver at the wheel.

In fact, back in the days when there was a bunch of us on the CB, a couple of young guys came on looking to join in with the conversation. They were double manning a 7.5 tonner with urgent parcel freight, non-stop to Birmingham and back, they asked what our “handles” were, but back then we didn’t bother too much about handles. The guy with the mike said they were, Batman and Robin, but that was the only time he ever used their handles, maybe due to our reaction, I don’t know.

But back to the unlucky young driver, I was heading north again when I saw the tail lights and four-way flashers of a truck up ahead, it was a two-lane highway and he was in the right-hand lane. I slowed down and passed him on his left, it was a 7.5-ton box van with the front badly damaged. On the road in front of it was a large dark coloured horse that had escaped from a nearby farm, I would imagine the horse was as big as some of the moose you guys get over there, minus the antlers. So you can picture the damage to the truck hitting a horse at 70MPH.

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november 2018

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At least in the cab of your trucks, there’s a certain degree of protection. When I was delivering parcels as a young trucker I was always wary of being bitten by dogs when delivering to homes. Although what had me on my guard were farm deliveries, farm dogs were usually friendly enough, what was never usually friendly were geese. If you’re walking across the yard with an armful of parcels to the farm house and six or seven geese come squawking at you that’s a worry.

Those big beaks are at just the right level to inflict serious pain to the most tender, vulnerable parts of a man’s body. In fact, there’s a bonded whisky warehouse in Dumbarton that keep a flock of geese in addition to human security guards.

Oh yes, a trucker’s life is not all beer and skittles.

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.

Maritime Excursion It was early Friday morning a while back when I pulled a load headed for Vancouver Island. I loaded on the ferry, parked my rig and after checking all my lashings I headed up to the restaurant for a coffee and breakfast.

I just nicely got sat down and started on my meal when I got a slap on the back and a big “Hi You old fart” and there stood Don. Now Don and I went way back but I had lost his phone number and had not seen him for a couple of years so I was pleasantly surprised to see him and told him to sit down. We chatted and brought each other up to date while we ate.

It was great to see him again and I was not surprised to meet him on a ferry as Don was the type of person that was never far from tide-water. After I told him about my load and my rig and my Friday afternoon delivery date he asked what I was doing for the weekend. I told him I would probably catch a ferry back to the mainland and look for a load Monday. We walked down to the car deck so Don could see my Rig, which was a big conventional Freightliner with a 48-foot step deck. Don said that he had a load that would get me back to the mainland and

PAGE 24

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EMAIL: truckwest@shaw.ca WEBSITE: truckwestcollision.com he would pay all expenses to go from Nanaimo, where I had to drop my load, up to Port Alberni and then back to North Vancouver if I was interested.

It seems Don had acquired, through salvage, a partially wrecked aluminum gillnetter and wanted to get it back home so he could fix it up as his next boat project. Well, I did like the idea of free Ferry travel and I am always ready to help out a friend so I agreed.

Don waited for me in the ferry parking lot and followed me over to Madill Logging - yes I am the black sheep of the family - where we were quickly unloaded. We then slipped his old Land Rover on my deck and headed out to Port Alberni and down to the Marina.

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Well, Don had found himself quite a boat. It was a 30-footer but the back 3 or 4 feet was a crumpled mess as it had been sandwiched between a steel hulled tugboat and a concrete piling and the aluminum boat had come out second best. All the equipment had been taken off the boat, and the mast had been stepped so it was not over ten feet high but it was a good nine or ten feet wide so there would be a little bit of overhang.

It took us all day to load this unit and so we stayed at one of Don’s friend’s place that night and started out the next morning.

Somehow Don managed to get us on the ferry without paying for a wide load – he knew everybody and it seemed like they all owed him a favour. We were soon back to the mainland and into Mosquito Creek Marina in North Vancouver where we worked until midnight unloading it before hitting the sack. Sunday was a great day of rest and we managed to pop a couple caps and generally just took it easy at his Dads place in North Van. I called in Monday morning and dispatch said that they had a load for me so I was soon back on the highway. I didn’t see that boat again for almost two years, however, I did keep in touch with Don and was always told that he was still working on it.

I finally got a load into Van which unloaded on a Friday and that gave me a free weekend so I phoned Don. He came and picked me up and said we were going fishing. Down to the dock we went and there was the boat I had hauled. Don had cut the back section off and re-welded on all new skin and had completely reworked the boat so that it was now a live-aboard with just an open deck on the back four feet and all the rest

NEW Extended Hours Mon-Fri 8 am- Midnight • Sat 8 am- 5pm enclosed in a cabin with births (bedrooms). There were 2 Bunks per room except for the Captain’s cabin and a large lounge and kitchen area and one full bathroom (head). He had also removed the old engine and installed two six-cylinder Fords. He fired things up let me tell you when he opened up both engines that thing almost lifted out of the water. It didn’t take too long to get to where we were headed and we had a great weekend fishing before Don got me back to my rig in one piece and on time. When I look back on the whole thing I realized that I had never ever been paid for all my work or my fuel and I had paid for most of the beer and food but I had helped out a friend and had an enjoyable time doing it.

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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 The latest surprise in the industry comes from The North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s Executive Director Mike Roeth who admitted in a conference call, “In this followup report, our team forced itself to understand the benefits, challenges of electric truck adoption over gasoline and diesel trucks. And that effort fell apart almost at once because there are so many fleet operational variables in play when you switch to electric trucks. It’s a really big change. And we discovered that there are still a lot of generally unknown factors when it comes to electric truck adoption – some of which could have higher costs compared to diesel trucks. But there are also attractive opportunities, as well.”

He didn’t elaborate on the “attractive opportunities” but as an example, he did use the unknown cost of maintenance which has been touted in promotional propaganda to be 75% less than for gasoline & diesel powered units. “Those figures haven’t been validated,” Roeth cautioned. “And it’s a prime example of what we don’t know because the field history of electric truck operation is minimal, total-cost-of-ownership modelling

for electric battery vehicles involves a number of projections, estimates and guesses that this report seeks to clarify.”

The 20 or so factors that require validation are grouped into four categories, a) market issues, b) battery issues, c) regulatory issues, and d) power/charging issues, however, despite the lack of stats to support the technology, carriers … mostly P&D companies like UPS, IKEA and Coca-Cola … are still acquiring units in order to establish those mysterious figures for future reference and to compare the net benefit once the dust has settled. Certainly before electric vehicles become a major component in the transportation industry there will have to be an enormous increase and improvement of the infrastructure necessary to “fuel” the protocol.

Next is a topic which has dominated social channels for months already and the effluent is about to hit the fan! What, if anything, has changed, or is going to change, in your personal daily routine? And you know I’m not talking about Hours of Service or the Daily Truck Inspection Report … I’m talking about the legalization of cannabis, pot, weed, Mary Jane, grass or whatever. Has anyone figured out yet how much dope one has to smoke, chew, swallow, rub or stick up one’s butt to equal 5 nanograms? Well apparently that is the amount over which one could be charged with an indictable offence and if one has more than one of those charges on one’s record, that is a very serious situation indeed and constitutes Impaired Driving.

Period!

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one needs to wait before consuming the next 5 ngs, measuring the level of impairment by enforcement officers is at best tricky and at worst completely unreliable and often errs on the false side of the spectrum. The residual effects of cannabis can remain in the body for up to a month so even if one has not ‘used’ for a couple of weeks a negative fluid sample could be interpreted as being in violation since it cannot be determined when the intake occurred. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould had this to say, “Police officers have the opportunity to go through a series of tests. They can conduct standard field sobriety tests.

We are training drug recognition experts to be able to determine whether or not they are of the view, or see probable grounds, that someone is impaired by drugs, and can build the probable grounds to take a blood sample to determine whether someone has been impaired by drugs.” Those experts will not likely be stopping one on the highway but may well be called in case of an incident.

Regular daily users will continue to regularly use daily and if they go to the Excited States and admit or are tested and found positive, may face a lifetime ban from entering said confused kingdom. Unless a Canadian driver does something terribly loopy he/she will likely survive the initial transition and carry on as before … as long as one is AWARE of the possibilities and the monumental bureaucratic frustrations that will likely prevail. If one thinks justice moves at a snail’s pace now - just wait!

There is a school of thought within the transportation sector that promotes zero tolerance. To me that simply is not possible,

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nor is it ethical. If a driver has a valid prescription for medicinal cannabis & knows how to apply it responsibly then for what good reason ought that person be denied the relief gained from a healthy natural product that is proven to be of benefit when used sensibly? Probably a case will have to work its way through the overburdened justice system sometime in the future … sighhhhh!

Gear change … there seems to be a mountain of miss & disinformation surrounding the entire assisted and autonomous vehicle culture. It’s happening and it’s happening much more rapidly than predicted but it ain’t gonna happen overnight folks! Driverless vehicles are not yet here nor will they be for a looooong time … except perhaps for the odd small conveyance with a very limited proprietary purpose. The industry will not face a huge influx of truckless drivers looking for a steering wheel to grasp anytime soon, if ever. In actual fact, the opposite is and will likely be true for quite a stretch down the freeway … a critical shortage of qualified gear jammers … what’s a gear, daddy? … ready and willing to go through all the paces before and after certification which is predicted to get much tougher right across the nation in light of recent tragedies involving big rigs.

The cavalier lifestyle and freedom of the road are not the attractions they once were when I was a newbie driver back in 1950 on up to the modern explosion of technology that has changed the vocation forever. The applied science of the driverless vehicle phenomenon is currently struggling to remain at Level 3 which severely limits what the vehicle can and cannot do without human intervention and true autonomy is just out of reach at Level 5 although the mechanics of the protocol are available now. By invoking the notwithstanding clause, I revise my outlook slightly perhaps by suggesting that short hauls and local urban and suburban delivery vehicles will require human operation, maybe forever, because of the nature of the service, but the longer runs may well be given over to autonomous vehicles as has already been demonstrated to be successful, but only from freeway access to freeway exit so far. A driver still needs to negotiate municipal traffic. “Right now, we’re on a path where tech developers and big companies decide what technologies get introduced, while workers and the public bear the cost of those choices,” said Derecka Mehrens, executive director of Working Partnerships USA. “If we want innovation to benefit all of us, we need a more balanced approach: one where workers and the public play an active role in guiding innovation, and those who profit from new technology also take responsibility for its impacts.”

Remember SafetyDoesn’t Happen By Accident but if yer havin’ fun then There Ain’t No Feelin’ Like 18 Wheelin’! 10-4!

C’ya! ***** A man was telling his neighbor, ‘I just bought a new hearing aid. It cost me four thousand dollars, but it’s state of the art.

It’s perfect.’

‘Really,’ answered the neighbour. ‘What kind is it?’

‘Twelve thirty.’

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In Remembrance MEDALS Don’t envy a man his medals All those ribbons on his chest He did not try to get them They’re not there at his request They were earned in stinking hell holes Where no man would like to go Or in cold and wintry places Where there’s only ice and snow He did not know he earned them Till they were awarded at parade And they were bright when he first got them But in time the colours fade He was told he had to wear them And to wear them all with pride But when the memories come to haunt him Those same medals make him hide Cause those medals will not bring back All those guys he left behind And he would trade them all forever For a little peace of mind So don’t envy a man his medals You don’t want to take his place Thinking back to long gone battles And meeting dead friends face to face.

-author unknown

novEmbEr 2018

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Delivering The Goods, Safely

By Lane Kranenburg Lane is a former driver, fleet owner and former Executive Director of the AMTA Canadian Financial Crisis It is with concern that I read about the National debt which has grown to nearly one trillion dollars and that translates to each Canadian man woman and child owing more than twenty-seven thousand dollars. This is the National debt and does not include Provincial and Municipal debts.

I look at this with great concern, not for me as I am old and will die before reckoning but for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There seems to be no problem with this debt from a politician’s point of view as they continue to spend and increase this debt with continual borrowing. Our current Prime Minister stated that the budget will balance itself which goes to show you his level of financial intellect.

Take just a billion dollars, which is one thousand million and trying to put that into perspective one billion credit cards would weigh as much as seventy-eight brachiosaur and one billion pennies would cover fourteen square miles and in time if we took one billion seconds we would have to go back to 1959. By the way, brachiosaur weighs seventyfive tons. Does this really mean anything, well certainly not to our Canadian leaders who have put us into one thousand billion in debt Nationally.

Is it too late to do anything about this debt, no but our leaders must quit the ridiculous spending and wanton disregard for the need to be re-elected. I would wager that if a leader had the internal fortitude to revisit the past and realize the waste of money on programs that mean nothing to the general population but a lot to a few and look ahead.

For instance, our immigration policy with reference to refugees, we should have housing and English learning

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programs in place prior to letting hundreds of thousands reach our shores and be disappointed having to stay in places that offer no future.

I must be very careful when I talk about immigrants because I am an immigrant arriving in Canada in 1951 from the Netherlands with no English language skills and no money. However, my father arrived here with three children and soon learned the language and the social structure and adapted, we did not want all Canadians to wear wooden shoes and plant only tulips.

The Provincial governments are not at all fiscally responsible either with huge budget overruns than show no signs of abating, Alberta is spending millions on social programs with no follow up on how these millions are being managed. Waste is evident to us as citizens, why does the politician not see this.

Calgary is spending five million plus to study the feasibility of the 2026 Olympics with a committee consisting only of pro-Olympic individuals. Think about five million dollars, the decision to hold these games has already been made by our Mayor and that five million would feed a lot of homeless. Guess what that decision that will be, but I digress our Calgary city council is spend happy and are constantly wasting our money on simply stupid things.

Back to our financial situation, we must write, call, text or e-mail our government and let them know we are

very concerned about it and ask for them to spend like the money is coming out of their pockets which by the way it is. Social and financial responsibility must be revisited, and major correction must be made if we do not want our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to inherit this mess.

Oh, to be young again and run for office and attempt to convince other leaders to look seriously at this mounting problem!

By Dale Howard Dale Howard has been a Truck Driver, Armoured Truck Driver, and Alberta CVSE. He returned to driving truck because as he says, “The call of the road was too strong and in 2007 I left CVE and crossed over to the dark side or came to the light depending on who you talk to.”

He now drives, “The Great Pumpkin.”

Border Security Well with a new trade deal all but done I thought it would be a timely reminder to talk border crossing.

Make sure you “ACE or ACI manifest” depending on the direction you are travelling is in your possession and the load you are carrying is cleared customs prior to your arrival at the border.

Be truthful in your declaration to the customs officer and always remember if you are headed south you are going to a foreign county not another province and NO they don’t have to let you in. The interviewing officer has the power

Our Nation We have traveled across this land, from sea to shining sea, The highways of our nation are home to those like me.

From Orchards to the Grain Fields up to the Arctic snow, From summers gentle breezes to the deadly winters blow.

Briefly do we linger at stops along the way, Then travel ever onward forever and a day.

We see the best and worst of life from our steads of shiny steel Travel through the chaos with deft turns upon the wheel.

We had had our troubles but one thing I am proud to see, No matter what may happen , our nation is still free.

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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and authority to refuse you entry into their county.

Don’t get pissy with the officer, I have witnessed this several times while in the US customs office and it never ends well for the pissy party With the legalization of marijuana in Canada remember it is still illegal federally in the United States so you may want to be careful around people who are using marijuana, if the drug dog hits on you or your vehicle the crossing experience may be less than desirable. Also if you admit to ever being a drug user whether it is in the distant past or currently it is a lifetime ban and you will not be entering the United States.

Prior to crossing the border, you are required to do an inspection of your truck this includes seal and load Integrity, ensuring they have not been compromised and that you are not carrying anything you shouldn’t be into the county you are entering.

Many times there are drugs that have been hidden on

Picture #1

your truck or people hitching a ride across the border that you are unaware of. Some of the places that get overlooked by drivers are the roof of the cab if you have a roof fairing.

See Picture # 1 On the southern border, it is not uncommon for illegal immigrants to hitch a ride up there to get past the border patrol checkpoint. Also, check behind any aerodynamic additions that have been made to a trailer as illegal immigrants have been found hiding there also.

See Picture # 2 These places, as well as the spare tires, are also places that smugglers have been known to hide contraband.

The important thing and I can’t emphasize this enough, is not to get complacent in your inspection, remember it’s going to be you in handcuffs if anything is found.

Personally, I carry a small mirror that has an extendable handle to help me check the out of the way places. They are really inexpensive and readily available at any auto parts stores.

Picture #2

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november 2018

do you have something to say? email john@ptmag.ca

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