Issuu

February 2017 Volume 37, Issue 1

TRUCK NEWS Keeping pace Industry veteran Mike McCarron explains why fleets need to update their traditional sales strategies.

Test drive We take the new Mack LR refuse truck for a drive on garbage day in Allentown.

Delivering daily news at trucknews.com

Page 59

Canadian Tire has stepped up its pursuit of 60-ft. containers thanks to a Canadian invention.

Page 24

Going long

Page 19

Page 17

Canada’s Trucking Newspaper Since 1981

Meyers Transport closes

GPS for truckers On-road editor Harry Rudolfs test drives a new GPS device designed for professional drivers.

RE T ADVERTAIL ISING PAGES 47-52

Weak conditions blamed for closure of LTL business with 90-year history BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO After 90 years in business, Meyers Transport announced that it will be ceasing its LTL operations. The news of the closure came in early January with final closing planned for Jan. 20, when the company said it will officially stop moving freight. Natalie Meyers, chairwoman of Meyers Transport, admitted that the closure was “not the best way to start the year” however, it was a difficult decision that had to be made. Meyers said the main reason for the closure of LTL operations was economical. “The profitability just wasn’t there,” she told Truck News. “The current conditions with the volume of freight, increased competition, and a downward pressure on rates…it was hard enough to keep your lights on. So we decided we would rather make the decision to close the company on our own terms than to have that decision made for us. We’ve seen that happen with other carriers.” Continued on page 57

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Ramandeep and Harwinder Dhaliwal

Happily ever after

How a 20-something couple is finding success – and happiness – through their shared experiences from behind the wheel By Sonia Straface BRAMPTON, ONTARIO

lmost every professional driver will tell you, one of the worst aspects about being a truck driver is that it can be a lonely occupation. Days turn into weeks on the road and if you have a spouse waiting for you back at home, things can get stressful. So it only made sense that somewhere along the line, a driver had the idea to invite their spouse with them on the road, not only to keep them company but to earn some extra cash as their team driver. Usually, the average 50-something driver invites his wife on the road (Women in Trucking Association says the average age of a female truck driver is 52) with him after the kids are out of the house. Together they can earn more money and travel North America without missing each other. This trend has caught on, and more and more husband and wife driving teams are popping up across North America. Some say it could help solve the driver shortage by getting more people into the industry and could also assist in getting more women get behind the wheel. But husband and wife driving team Harwinder and Ramandeep Dhaliwal, are different. What makes the Dhaliwals noteworthy is that they are the ideal drivers almost every fleet in North America is looking to hire. They’re young – both just 29 years old. They’re both visible minorities – Harwinder was actually

born in India. And they both have a passion for learning and driving trucks with an ambition to grow their careers in the industry. Today, they drive for Speedy Transport as owner-operators and are loving every minute of it, forming a team both on and off the road. So what brought them into trucking in the first place? “The money,” admits Harwinder. Harwinder moved to Canada in 2013 from India when he decided that he’d give trucking a go. “In my community, a lot of people were trucking and they told me it was good money so I figured I would try it out too,” he recalls. “I got my licence and started doing long-haul because I didn’t have much experience. I was on the road for five days at a time and I was only home with my wife for a day-and-a-half.” Eventually, Harwinder got a gig as a short-haul driver at a company that had many husband and wife driving teams. Curious, he asked his company if he could train his wife so she could join him in the truck. “They said I could train her and she wanted to learn, so I did,” he said. Ramandeep started her driving career as a team driver in 2014 and so far, she loves it. What attracted her most to the career is something a lot of other millennials could find intriguing about the job: the independence she gains from the open road and the fact she can travel on the job. Continued on page 42

2017-01-13 10:23 AM

DRIVING THE FUTURE Trucking visionary Leland James couldn’t find a truck with the freight efficiency he believed was possible back in 1942… so he built his own. That bold endeavor led to the birth of Freightliner Trucks, a company fueled by innovation and driven by customer input for 75 years. We continue to serve our customers by pushing technology and efficiency to new heights, to always provide the best commercial vehicles in the industry. freightliner.com/75years

Competitive financing available through Daimler Truck Financial. For the Freightliner Trucks dealer nearest you, call 1-800-FTL-HELP or visit www.freightliner.com. FTL/MC-A-1450. Specifications are subject to change without notice. Freightliner Trucks is registered to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004. Copyright © 2017 Daimler Trucks North America LLC. All rights reserved. Freightliner Trucks is a division of Daimler Trucks North America LLC, a Daimler company.

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FOR 75 YEARS.

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS

PURCHASING DECISIONS

Eastern Canada’s owner/operators reveal plans to purchase new iron in 2017

Owner/operators from Ontario to the Maritimes have been hard hit by the lackluster growth in freight volumes of the past couple of years. Are they more optimistic about 2017 and looking to replace their older trucks as a result? Our annual Equipment Buying Trends Survey probed their new truck purchasing intentions for the year. Current trade-in cycle for heavy duty vehicles

Plans to purchase new trucks in 2017 by region

2-3 years 10 years or more

8% 4-5 years

38% of respondents

22%

19%

6-7 years

27% of respondents

Atlantic Canada

14%

Quebec

29%

Ontario

28%

Overall Eastern Canada

28%

Overall Canada

35%

8-9 years

Plan to replace heavy duty vehicle(s) by end of 2016

Yes

26%

74% of respondents

Plan to replace heavy duty vehicle(s) by end of 2017

Yes

28%

72% of respondents

Main brand of heavy duty vehicle currently drive 16% of respondents

Freightliner International

Kenworth

15%

Mack

Peterbilt

24%

Volvo

24%

Western

Other

NEITHER RAIN, NOR SNOW NOR 23 HOURS OF DARKNESS NOR THE FAILED MISSIONS OF TRUCKERS’ PAST NOR ACTS OF GOD. . . SHALL STAY ME AND THESE CHAINED-UP WHEELS FROM REACHING THE FINAL OUTPOSTS OF THIS VAST FRONTIER ®

Lisa Kelly on History Network’s Ice Road Truckers

Delo user since 2005 ®

UNCOMMON JOBS REQUIRE UNCOMMON TOUGHNESS

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2017-01-13 4:31 PM

TRUCK NEWS

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

62 The Last Word Linamar Transportation has expanded its scope beyond auto parts.

7 Editorial

35 Karen Bowen - Health

Your vehicle as a personal health device? It could happen sooner than you think.

41 Al Goodhall - Opinion

Winter is a good time to up your intake of Vitamin D-rich foods, since you likely aren’t getting enough sun.

Al takes a millennial for a longhaul trip and gains a better appreciation for their plight.

8-21 Business

43 Electronic logging 36 Chris Singh - Health

Port news from Montreal and Nova Scotia, drivers comment on recruitment and retention and an industry veteran says it’s time to ditch outdated sales strategies.

With a US ELD mandate slated to take effect this year, a recent seminar highlights the requirements.

Going on a winter vacation this year? Chris Singh talks jet lag and offers tips on how to minimize the effect.

44 Transmissions 37 Bill Cameron - Opinion Bill blames mergers and acquisitions for the drop in rates and wonders why the industry can’t get on the same page.

22-23 Video technologies In-cab cameras are gaining in popularity. A case study with a US fleet and a recent safety meeting highlight why that’s the case.

Why remanufacturing is worth considering next time you need to replace a transmission.

54 Health A Fleet Safety Council session examined the important role mental health plays in trucking.

38 Mike Millian - Industry

24 Test drive

The PMTC awards season is now open and your participation is requested.

We travel to Allentown, Pa. to drive the new Mack LR refuse truck on a rainy, chilly garbage day.

Scott highlights changes to CRA regulations you need to know about before filing your taxes.

Mack’s vocational trucks benefiting from engine updates and Mercedes reimagines final mile delivery via robots and drones.

Truckers without borders

TRUCK NEWS

On-road editor Harry Rudolfs test drives TomTom’s new trucker GPS.

39 Scott Taylor - Tax Talk

25-29 Equipment

Mark Dalton in...

59 New Products

40 Mark Lee - Opinion While temporarily returning to his roots in the UK, Mark Lee compares the trucking industry there and here and reveals who has it better.

31 David Bradley In its pre-budget submission to the feds, the Canadian Trucking Alliance explains why low-carbon trucking should be a priority.

In every issue

47-52 Marketplace 57 Ad Index 55-57 Fleet News 60 Newland Transport 61 Announcements

February 2017 Volume 37, Issue 1

On the Road

ISSN 0712-2683 (Print) ISSN 1923-3523 (Online) Truck News is published monthly by

Newcom Business Media Inc.

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2017-01-16 11:48 AM

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TRUCK NEWS

EDITORIAL

Editorial Comment JAMES MENZIES

In early January, I visited for the first time the sprawling Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nev. This event is the global showcase for new and future technologies that will change the lives of consumers. Vehicle manufacturers had an enormous presence at this year’s show, as they look to integrate their products into the Internet of Things through greater connectivity. I was most captivated by Mercedes-Benz and its vision to make its vehicles double as personal health devices. “We see enormous potential for cars to support your health,” said Ola Kallenius, member of the board of management for Daimler AG, responsible for research and development, when discussing the company’s vision with media. This can be done by controlling the “music, light, climate control, seating and more from sensors in the car and from wearable devices,” he explained. “In the future, our cars will be able to read your state of mind and to react accordingly to keep you relaxed and safe.” The vision, Kallenius explained, is to ensure drivers leave their vehicle feeling better and healthier than when they first climbed behind the wheel. Envision this scenario: you get cut off

February 2017

Your vehicle as a health device on the highway by an aggressive driver. Your heartrate and stress levels increase. The vehicle can respond by changing interior lighting, temperature and even the music to create a more relaxing environment. I’d tread carefully when it comes to

Future generations of trucks will be designed to enhance their operator’s health. music selection, however. If I’m cruising down the road listening to Metallica, I won’t be happy if Ride the Lightning is suddenly interrupted by some soothing Vivaldi. You don’t mess with a driver’s music! Joking aside, future generation cars – and yes, trucks, too – will be designed to enhance their operator’s health. Mercedes is already working on a concept called “motion seating,” in which the seat will automatically ad-

just periodically to keep the driver’s body in motion on long drives. Sensors will be able to detect driver fatigue and adjust the seat position and/or activate massage capabilities to stimulate blood flow and alertness. “Side effects include stress relief and an uplifted mood,” Kallenius claimed. Motion seating will first be rolled out in Mercedes-Benz cars but it’s a concept that professional drivers could benefit from the most, due to their longer periods of sitting. Mercedes is also working on a shirt, specifically designed for professional truck and bus drivers, that could determine when a health issue is present or imminent. The shirt would monitor a driver’s heartrate for any abnormalities. “If this predictive emergency defense system detects irregularities, the vehicle will ask if you are okay. And if you don’t react, it will brake and place an emergency call,” said Kallenius.

With an aging demographic, driver health has in recent years come to the forefront among the issues facing the trucking industry. Vehicle manufacturers have an ability to greatly improve the health of drivers. While the concepts Mercedes discussed at CES may seem futuristic, maybe even surreal, the future truck will have the potential to contribute to a driver’s health in ways we haven’t even begun to imagine.

James Menzies can be reached by phone at (416) 510-6896 or by e-mail at james@newcom.ca You can also follow him on Twitter at @JamesMenzies.

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2017-01-16 11:43 AM

BUSINESS

Lack of parking costing drivers thousands

Ontario carriers lacking optimism

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

TORONTO, ONTARIO

A lack of truck parking is costing professional drivers in the US an average of US$4,600 in lost wages each year, as they spend time looking for parking spots that otherwise could have gone towards revenue-generating driving. That’s a finding from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), which asked drivers to keep a Truck Parking Diary as part of its study. The study was conducted over 14 days of driving and represents 4,700 unique parking stops. The study also found drivers looking for parking between 4 p.m. and midnight ran into a confluence of challenges, including increased search times and parking spaces taken up by non-commercial vehicles, forcing truckers to park on roadway shoulders or highway ramps. On average, drivers spent 56 minutes of revenue drive time per day looking for parking spots. That means drivers are losing about 9,300 revenue-earning miles a year. The study also found drivers using electronic logging devices (ELDs) were more likely than those using paper logs to spend over 30 minutes looking for a place to park. “The lack of available truck parking creates a lot of stress for me and my fellow drivers,” said Stephanie Klang, a professional driver for CFI. “And, as ATRI’s diary research shows, it’s a number of things – from lack of capacity, concerns over running out of hours, time limitations on parking in public rest areas and customers not letting us park in their facilities – that all combine to make this a perennial issue for us.” You can download a copy of this report on ATRI’s website at www.atri-online.org.

Ontario motor carrier executives are less optimistic about their business prospects over the next quarter than they were three months ago. The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) Q4 business conditions survey found only 49% of respondents felt good about their overall prospects for the next three months, down from 55% in the previous survey and well off the 86% who were confident in the first quarter of 2015. One-third of respondents said they were “unsure” about their prospects, marking the highest level of uncertainty seen since 2009. Twenty per cent reported being “pessimistic,” more than twice the number who felt that way two years ago, the OTA reports. Respondents said the “peak” pre-

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holiday shipping season was subdued this year. Forty-three per cent of fleets said northbound freight volumes have decreased, the second highest number to report that since the fourth quarter of 2015. The majority of respondents (61%) said there has been no fluctuation in intra-Ontario freight volumes. Those carriers reporting an increase in loaded miles, at 14%, are the smallest percentage to do so since 2009. Sixty-two per cent of respondents reported no change in loaded miles, while 23% reported a decrease. Looking further ahead, 81% of respondents predicted no change to intra-Ontario freight volumes over the next six months. Only 19% of carriers expect improved volumes, down from 26% last quarter. Similarly, 77% expect no interprovincial freight volume changes. Seventy per cent of respondents expect no improvement in southbound loads, marking a new high for this category. Carriers also reported stagnant rates. Only 6% of respondents conveyed pricing growth in the last quarter while 27% reported worsening rates. Fifty-three per cent of respondents reported no shift in capacity over the past three months and aren’t expecting a turnaround over the next quarter. Respondents indicated more shippers (46%) are looking to lock in capacity, marking an all-time high. “This is perhaps an early indication shippers feel the brink of a transportation cost surge on the horizon, likely in the form of fuel prices, new environmental equipment and salary raises in a market short of truck drivers,” the OTA reported. Fleets also reported they continue to grapple with rising costs. Eighty per cent of fleets reported the cost of tractors and engines has gone up 10% or more. Also, a third of respondents said their fuel costs have gone up. The three top concerns cited by respondents were, the driver shortage, the economy and rates/capacity.

Mackie joins Atlas network OSHAWA, ONTARIO Atlas Canada announced it has added Mackie Moving Systems as an agent of the company effective March 1. Mackie will represent Atlas in Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, Whitby, Halifax, Middleton and Fredericton through its head office in Oshawa, Ont., providing household moving and storage services. “As a world-class van line, Atlas continues to showcase its status as a leader in the moving and storage industry,” said Scott Mackie, CEO of Mackie Moving Systems Corporation. “We are thrilled to join the Atlas network and provide the level of quality that is synonymous with the Atlas brand.” “Associating with Mackie Moving Systems will provide a tremendous boost in operational capacity for the Atlas agency family and our valued clients in the household goods moving industry in Canada,” added Barry Schellenberg, president and COO of Atlas Canada.

2017-01-13 1:05 PM

TRUCK NEWS

Truckload pricing could rise 4% this year: FTR Spot market pricing could be even more volatile, with price swings of 15-20% possible By James Menzies BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA Trucking rates in the US will increase by about 4% this year, according to a projection from industry forecaster FTR. In its monthly State of Freight webinar Jan. 12, FTR transportation economist Noel Perry said truckload contract rate increases could take hold as early as the first quarter of this year. The spot market is four times as volatile, he noted, meaning spot market prices could swing as high as 15-20%, “so there is real exposure if you’ve got a lot of spot market business.” Perry also said there’s about a 60% chance of a “major truck shortage” in the next four to six months. This is being driven by a tightening of capacity that’s expected to occur as fleets install electronic logging devices (ELDs) ahead of the December 2017 mandate. Capacity utilization sits at about 97%, but could exceed 100% this year or next. “If utilization gets above 100%, there’s going to be some real stress in the marketplace,” Perry said. “That is why our pricing forecast is going up.” FTR does not expect the incoming

Trump administration to derail impending regulatory requirements such as the ELD mandate. “That’s a statutory requirement that has pretty wide acceptance, so he’s unlikely to do much about that,” Perry said of the ELD mandate. “The real question is enforcement and to what extent will people cheat on this requirement?” However, Perry conceded cheating on the ELD requirement will be difficult and risky. “If you have an accident, what do you think the plaintiff attorney is going to do first?” he reasoned. “Let me see your ELD records. If you don’t have any, you are then in violation of the law and can be assumed by a jury to be a careless trucker. The same goes for customers in that scenario.” Perry said shippers are already asking carriers for proof they are, or will be, ELD-compliant. He also questioned the trucking industry’s ability to ramp up its capacity to compensate for the lost productivity the ELD mandate will create. FTR predicts the industry will have to hire 100,000 more drivers in 2018, above and beyond its usual hiring rate.

THIS MONTH’S CROSSWORD PUZZLE

2018-2019 of the chance of recession,” Perry said. “What that means to truckers is a price drop of 5-10% and a drop in volume that’s about the same.” Looking at longer-term risks, Perry said if Trump comes through on promises to rebuild US infrastructure, the trucking industry will incur a share of the cost. Trucks today pay about three cents a mile in taxes in the US. That could double if the Trump administration commits to fixing aging bridges and could climb to as much as 20 cents a mile if highways are also upgraded. “At some point, we’re going to have to stop borrowing this money and pay for what we spend,” he reasoned, pointing out in Europe trucks pay more than a dollar a mile in taxes. “As we look out five to 10 years, there is major cost exposure here,” he cautioned. And Perry also urged forward thinking trucking executives to consider the effect automation will have on their businesses. “Right now, a truck spends more than half of its time resting or sitting,” he reasoned. “If you automate that truck one way or another, you don’t have to stop it to let the driver rest and it doubles productivity. It could halve truck pricing. These kinds of technological improvements won’t be mature for 15 years but they’re moving faster than you think. We will probably find the first quantifiable effect of (automation) by 2020. By 2025 there will be significant changes and by 2035 it will be history.” Through the 2020s, Perry predicted, the transport sector will shrink, not grow, due to automation.

“Can they expand their recruiting apparatus by 40% in a single quarter? The answer is no. So, we are likely to get shortages as this crisis matures,” Perry explained. FTR’s projections of healthy rate increases are in spite of muted expectations for freight and economic growth. “Our economy has shifted from a high growth, cyclical economy to a slower growth, more consumer oriented economy where it grows at about 2%,” Perry said. He’s predicting more of the same for 2017, with freight growth of about 2.5%. FTR isn’t count-

“

February 2017

I utilization gets If above 100%, a tthere’s going tto be some real sstress in the marketplace.” m Noel Perry, FTR

ing on the economy getting a huge boost under president-elect Trump, because the US economy is already riding a wave of seven years of strong business investment activity. Examining downside risks to the economy, Perry noted the global economy remains weak and that the US economic recovery is “getting very stale.” It is one of the longest recoveries in history. “We are increasingly concerned in

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TRUCK NEWS

BUSINESS

February 2017

The win-win PORTal A new trucker app is improving fluidity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Port of Montreal By Carroll McCormick MONTREAL, QUEBEC With neither pain nor cost to carriers, trucks moving containers in and out of the Port of Montreal will pollute less, thanks to an application the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) launched in October. Called Trucking PORTal, it lets drivers and dispatchers – anyone with a smart phone or computer, actually – see wait times, in real time, on port property. Some 1,900 trucks a day squeeze into the port to do business at the Cast, Maisonneuve and Racine container terminals. Wait times can be long. But with real-time information on wait times at each terminal, drivers and dispatchers can make strategic decisions. For example, a driver may note a 109-minute transaction time at Termont, but only 37 minutes at Cast. Thus informed, if he has pickups at both terminals, he’ll likely want to choose the terminal with the lower wait time first. Or perhaps a dispatcher notes that Maisonneuve, where, say, nine loads need picking up, has a long wait time. Knowing this, he can allocate more trucks to be sure that enough turns can be made to fetch all nine loads by closing time. Licence plate readers and the biometric cards that drivers swipe serve to note when every truck hits different locations; ie., the port entry, staging lanes, terminal entries and exits, and the port exits. Processing these time stamps reveals the progress of every truck heading to and from the terminals, and thus the wait times. “With this system, I have visibility over every single transaction in the port,” says Daniel Dagenais, vicepresident, operations, MPA. And since users can create personal profiles on their smartphone or web Trucking PORTal, including alerts when wait times exceed pre-set levels and his-

tories of their wait times, drivers and dispatchers now know exactly how long they spent on port property. “The port clocks you when you arrive and when you leave. It is a good way to respond to perceptions with facts,” Dagenais says. App downloads were nearing 500 – equivalent to about 12% of the active trucks – in the first three weeks. The 53,000 web hits during that time suggest that dispatchers are consulting it heavily. Interestingly, the MPA is logging hits from faraway places such as New York and Halifax, suggesting that other ports are interested in what the MPA has achieved. In fact, Lane Farguson, communica-

TRAILER

A new app shows wait times for truckers using the Port of Montreal.

tions advisor, Halifax Port Authority, says “We are actively looking at truck tracking in addition to our existing container tracking system.” The MPA, with the help of the City of Montreal and Transport Quebec, will

be expanding Trucking PORTal’s data collection capabilities out into the city road network to even better assist carriers with their trip planning, and further reduce greenhouse gases. The free app can be downloaded from Google Play.

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US truck tonnage surges in November ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA The American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index jumped up 8.2% in November, after a 0.3% drop during October. Year-over-year the index increased 5.7%. Year-to-date, compared with the same period in 2015, tonnage was up 2.8%. “2016 has been an interesting year for truck tonnage, with monthly gains and decreases as large as I can remember, which suggests seasonality is different this year,” said ATA chief economist Bob Costello. “November’s substantial increase continued with the seesaw pattern that has persisted for much of the year. “While I think the November gain overstates the strength in the freight market, I do believe we are seeing some improvement that will continue into 2017. Retail sales are good, the housing market is solid, and the inventory overhang throughout the supply chain is coming down, all of which will help support truck freight volumes in 2017.”

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BUSINESS

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Ports America to operate new Nova Scotia mega-terminal By Sonia Straface SYDNEY, NOVA SCOTIA In mid-December, Ports America and Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) announced they had reached an agreement to work together to promote, develop and manage Novaporte – a planned mega-terminal – in the Port of Sydney. The project, which has generated a lot of buzz recently, is set to be the first deepwater, semi-automated port on North America’s East Coast that will be designed to accommodate the largest container ships in the world. To date, the port project has all permits in place and is shovel-ready, according to Albert Barbusci, a founding partner of SHIP and port developer. According to the deal, Ports America is set to manage and operate the 500-acre terminal for 40 years. It is the largest US terminal operator, with operations in 42 ports and 80 terminals. And SHIP is thrilled to sign it

“

both Canadian and offshore investors. “Most recently, the local First Nations in Nova Scotia also announced they fully support our project and are aligned with us,” said Barbusci. “Which is also terrific.” In the meantime, going into 2017, Barbusci said SHIP is ready to complete the design work for the project and continue to focus on working with Ports America and securing customer volume commitments. “For Ports America to make the move to join forces with us and see the Sydney Harbour as the perfect location to create this gateway…it’s just the most exciting news Cape Bretoners have received in a long time. We could have had any operator join us, but to have Ports America, it’s like winning the lottery,” Barbusci said.

I all goes well, we’ll If be putting a shovel b iinto the ground in 2018 and we’ll be 2 up and running in u 2021.” 2 AAlbert Barbusci, SHIP

on to operate Novaporte. “We had met with a number of operators and we settled on Ports America because they were the most strategic fit for us given that our gateway would be a North American one, and we wanted the strongest and largest operator,” Barbusci said. “So we’re very excited to have them on board. They’re global leaders.” “Novaporte is a uniquely located deepwater port able to handle the largest of the next generation of ultra-large container vessels,” said Peter Ford, chief strategy officer at Ports America in a news release. “Geographically, it is the first stop for vessels on the Great Circle Route from Europe and Asia via the Suez. It has abundant land, an adjacent 1,200-acre logistics park and is located in a foreign trade zone. Add to that abundant power, road and rail, as well as a skilled workforce, and you have the makings of an East Coast gateway for the next generation of super ships.” Construction on Novaporte is estimated to take two years, added Barbusci, but it won’t likely begin until 2018. Novaporte has to secure a minimum volume commitment before construction can officially begin. “If all goes well, we’ll be putting a shovel into the ground in 2018 and we’ll be up and running in 2021,” he estimated. Not only has SHIP secured its operator but it also received support from former Prime Minister Jean Chretien who is the project’s international advisor. The project received endorsements from Canadian municipal, provincial and federal government officials, while funding for the construction part of the project is coming from

pg 13 tn feb v3.indd 13

2017-01-17 9:23 AM

BUSINESS

Lakeside deal demonstrates healthy appetite for Canadian logistics companies OAKVILLE, ONTARIO

Canada’s eastern provinces have harmonized long combination vehicle regulations, a move that was applauded by the trucking industry.

Provinces harmonize LCV rules TORONTO, ONTARIO Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have harmonized their requirements for long combination vehicles (LCVs). Harmonizing these rules will now allow carriers to transport goods more easily and efficiently across the four provinces while reducing emissions and lowering shipping costs. LCVs are made up of a single tractor pulling two full-length trailers, effectively replacing two tractor-trailers. They are best suited for freight that is light and bulky, weigh no more than standard tractor-trailers and do less damage to transportation infrastructure. Harmonizing the requirements allows for the free movement of LCVs across these provinces, providing both economic and environmental benefits. “The benefits for Ontario are clear: this agreement will help our economy, reduce congestion and fuel consumption, and lower GHG emissions – all while improving road safety. We are removing barriers so that goods can be transported more easily and safely between all of our provinces,” said Steven Del Duca, Ontario’s Minister of Transportation. According to the Ontario Trucking Association, the Ontario LCV program conditions were a leading contributor to this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Specifically, the MoU covers 10 key items related to LCV operations and establishes the minimum set of requirements carriers must meet to operate LCVs in all four eastern provinces. These include: • Carrier eligibility (ie. experience, insurance coverage and safety rating); • Driver qualifications and training; • Operational restrictions (ie. 90 km/h speed limit); • Rear signage requirements; • Special equipment requirements (ie. stability control for tractors); • Overall length limits (40 meters); • Exclusions from overall width measurements (to bring in line with National Weights and Dimensions MoU for all vehicles); • Exclusion from overall length of semi-trailer and effective rear overhang measurements (to allow boat tails); • Allowing MoU track width for wide single tires contained in the National MoU to apply to semi-trailers in LCV configurations; • Highlighting general provisions for vehicle weights and dimensions as well as harmonization for semi-trailer configurations repositioning converter dollies.

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The Canada Safety Council reports that LCVs are involved in at least 40% fewer collisions than regular tractortrailers.

The recent sale of fourth-party logistics provider Lakeside Logistics to US heavyweight Transplace, shows there’s a healthy appetite for Canadian transportation and logistics companies. That’s the opinion of Doug Nix, vice-chairman of Corporate Finance Associates, who orchestrated the auction-style sale on behalf of Lakeside. “We had a really strong response rate from potential buyers expressing an interest in Lakeside,” Nix said in an interview with Truck News. “I think, in part, because Lakeside had a unique business model where they were not freight brokers, they’ve moved into the 4PL space, bringing significant value added into the supply chain.” Nix said the auction sale was chosen because a number of suitors had al-

ready expressed interest in Lakeside. “The shareholders concluded, and it’s a strongly held belief I have as well, that when you’re selling a business like that, having multiple bids at the same time is an effective way of deciding what the market really is,” Nix explained. “It shortens timelines and imposes a discipline on the buyers.” What made Lakeside so attractive to buyers? Nix said it was a combination of an outstanding customer base, a strong management team and a proven ability by Lakeside to entrench itself into its customers’ business operations. Lakeside Logistics will operate as part of Transplace’s transportation management business, which is led by president and COO Frank McGuigan, and all employees will report to Transplace senior vice-president of operations, John Kelly.

2017-01-12 3:45 PM

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Drivers weigh in on what makes the career attractive Don’t be condescending when marketing to women, one panelists warns By James Menzies TORONTO, ONTARIO A panel of professional drivers and trainers recently weighed in on how the industry can better attract and retain drivers, while speaking at Northbridge Insurance’s Full Circle customer appreciation event. The panel included: Guy Broderick, a drivertrainer with Apps Transport; Michael Foster, driver with Challenger Motor Freight; Helen Thorpe, corporate trainer with Seaboard Transport; and Chantelle Bomberry, flatdeck driver with Contrans. When looking for a driving career, Broderick said he sought out a com-

pany that demonstrated respect for its drivers. “After I got my licence, I started to travel around Ontario and really noticed the level of respect some companies gave their drivers and that some did not give their drivers,” he said. Foster said many carriers don’t do enough to develop their new hires, especially new A/Z drivers. “You start like a seedling,” he said of entry-level drivers. “A seedling might not take roots and can cause you a lot of troubles…company owners have to make sure they train and develop their drivers.” Women are an underrepresented segment of the population in trucking, comprising just 3% of pro drivers in

Canada. Bomberry was attracted to the job because of the challenge doubleclutching an 18-speed presented. She chose flatdeck because of the opportunity to be more active and get out of the truck frequently throughout the day. “I didn’t consider driving in high school,” she said. “A lot of trucks were going by and I thought that would be something neat to try. I had just purchased my first car, which was a standard, and I liked shifting. I decided I wanted to do more of this.” Thorpe got into the industry after being laid off from her first career choice in photo-journalism. She said she was welcomed into the industry. She said some carriers try too hard to appeal to women and have the opposite effect. “Market to women, present it as a valid career option, but where we fall down is that marketing can sometimes be seen like we’re being talked down to

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or accommodated,” she said. “When doing your marketing, reach out to us, but I’m going to scream if I hear one more ad that says we can make this more femalefriendly, we have automatics. I drive stick shift in my car because I choose to, I enjoy the challenge of double-clutching. I want to be treated as a driver, as a professional capable member – I don’t want to feel like girls can do this too, because we have automatics.”

“

W need to We rromanticize tthe job.” Michael Foster, Challenger

While Thorpe and Bomberry are passionate about their chosen careers, Bomberry admitted there are still unique challenges facing women. “Sometimes there are no women’s washrooms,” she says of trucking facilities. “Maybe down the road they might change that.” She said her personal safety is a top concern. “When you go to the truck stop are you going to be safe?” To draw new people to the industry, employers need to better educate teachers and guidance counselors and spread the word that driving is a viable career, Broderick suggested. “They don’t know what’s involved in it, the training that’s involved, the ongoing training. To educate those educators is what we need to do,” he said. Foster agreed that the career has a lot to like and that it’s a matter of better getting the word out. “This is the greatest career I’ve ever had,” he said. “What would I have done if I didn’t start driving? Drivers need a better voice so we’re all heard… it’s very rewarding when you help somebody and get them to the level where they’re working, making an income, buying their first house. We need to romanticize the job. Transportation makes the world go around.”

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BUSINESS

Canadore College churns out prospective technicians By Sonia Straface NORTH BAY, ONTARIO The first ever graduating class of Canadore College’s pre-apprenticeship truck and coach technician program celebrated its graduation in December. The program was a product of Canadore College’s proposal to the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development Pre-Apprenticeship Training early last year. “In 2015, we decided to write a proposal geared to First Nations and any other indigenous students interested in taking a pre-apprenticeship program in truck and coach,” said Judy Manitowabi, manager of communitybased and contract training in Canadore College’s First Peoples’ Centre. “We were successful in the proposal and our students started the program in April 2016.” More than half employed

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The program was in partnership with Wikwemikong Unceded Territory and was designed to help students learn how to inspect, repair and maintain commercial trucks and other vehicles like buses and ambulances. Normally, the program would have 240 hours of in-class training, but the college extended it to 380 hours. “Only because these were students who had no experience at all being a truck or coach technician,” Manitowabi explained. “So we added more hours to the program.” All those hours paid off as a total of 10 students graduated the program on Dec. 10 and more than half of the students have already secured full-time employment, according to Manitowabi. The majority of the students who took and graduated the program lived in First Nations communities on Manitoulin Island. The program ran from April to November 2016 and the certifications the students received upon graduation are matched with a Level 1 apprenticeship training, which eliminates the need for employer release time. According to Manitowabi, the program generated a lot of positive feedback from students. Hands-on training

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“What we heard a lot was that they liked the hands-on aspect of the program and getting down and dirty with the trucks the most,” she said. “Also, the professors…often they can make or break the program and we had great professors that definitely made the program.” “We are so proud of our graduates,” she added. “Many of them had to move out here to take the program, so they gave up a lot but they did it.” Because the program was a product of a call for proposal by the ministry, it won’t be available next year, but Manitowabi hopes it will run in 2018, if the industry demands more technicians.

2017-01-17 1:23 PM

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Canadian Tire continues push for 60-ft. containers Max-Atlas’s invention of a 53/60-ft. extendable container chassis brings vision closer to reality By James Menzies SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, QUEBEC Canadian Tire’s vision to widely deploy 60-ft. containers took a huge step forward in December, with the Canadian invention of an extendable chassis that can carry both 53- and 60-ft. containers. Neil McKenna, head of transportation for Canadian Tire, got his first look at the new extendable chassis at Max-Atlas’s manufacturing plant on Dec. 20 and invited Truck News to accompany him. Also along for the demonstration were: Gary Fast, associate vice-president, international transportation operations and support with Canadian Tire; Gary Kunzli, account manager, CP Rail; and Jimmy Zborowsky, an Ontario-based Max-Atlas sales rep. McKenna tasked Max-Atlas with developing a container chassis that could handle both sizes of containers and though the manufacturer set an internal deadline of seven months, just two months in it had two partial prototypes to demonstrate. Both models featured an extendable gooseneck. One featured a fabricated trombone and cam rollers while the other was a “tube-within-tube” design, also with cam rollers to facilitate

Using 60-ft. containers could allow Canadian Tire to reduce fleet size by 1,000 units. the extension. Both were easy to operate with one hand, a key design requirement. The operator just flips a lever and then easily extends or retracts the gooseneck to switch between 53- and 60-ft. configurations. The only additional maintenance required is greasing of the cam rollers. Tibor Varga, president of Max-Atlas, said both designs will work, but seemed to favor the tube-within-tube design, due to its lower manufacturing costs and relative simplicity – fewer rollers, and less welding is required. The tube-withintube design adds about 200 kgs compared to a conventional 53-ft. container chassis. Canadian Tire reps were clearly delighted with both designs. “I was very impressed with the MaxAtlas team,” McKenna told Truck News afterwards. “I saw a prototype of a unit that was very impressive. It’s not often you get a chance to lead the world in innovation in any field, and to have a Quebec and Canadian manufacturer able to bring something like this to market is exceptional and something to be commended.” The patent-pending extendable gooseneck chassis won’t be brought to market immediately. First, the prototypes will be finished and then delivered to CP’s Montreal yard for testing. Canadian Tire is hoping to place an order in January and begin deploying 60-ft. containers where it’s legal to do so. Not all provinces allow the 60-ft. boxes on the roads – ironically, Quebec, where they’re built, does not allow them on-road – but in provinces that regulate total combination length, such as Alberta and Ontario, the containers

pg 16-17 tn feb v3.indd 17

can be deployed right away. In fact, Canadian Tire already has one 60-ft. prototype container in use and is about to take delivery of another four 60-ft. chassis. “Our partners at CP Rail have taken this (prototype) unit to Vancouver and back with no problems on the rail network,” McKenna said. A modified Volvo tractor is used to pull the container on the road. Fast said the wheelbase was extended to accommodate the deep set kingpin. “We took our existing (tractor) spec’, brought it to Volvo and literally severed the wheelbase and added extra length to it to be able to accommodate the kingpin,” Fast explained. The extendable chassis will need to be pulled in a modified tractor while in 60-ft. configuration, but any tractor will work when it’s set up for 53-ft. cans. Canadian Tire is enjoying a 13.7% increase in payload using its first 60ft. container, compared to traditional 53-footers. “That’s significant,” McKenna said. “For a fleet our size, if we were to convert to a complete 60-ft. fleet – and by no means will this happen anytime soon – but if we could convert, we could take close to 1,000 containers and chassis out of our fleet and move 14% more payload with reduced greenhouse emissions as an additional benefit.” He thinks it’s the future of intermodal transport in Canada.

Canadian Tire officials, including head of transportation Neil McKenna (left), evaluate a new extendable container chassis at Max-Atlas’s plant.

“I don’t think that there’s anything stopping this,” he said. “I believe once we’ve proven and demonstrated the 14% improvement it will be too much of a competitive advantage to not want for anyone moving payload – especially light payload – to seek that added capacity.” McKenna notes Canadian Tire pioneered the use of 53-ft. containers a quarter century ago and he fully expects other retailers to follow suit once Canadian Tire has proven the viability of 60-footers. “I fully expect they will,” he said. “Retail is competitive and you can’t fall behind. Once we demonstrate we are moving our payload with this equipment and our carriers are on-board, I think competitors will be asking their rail and overthe-road carriers for a similar product.” Kunzli said CP Rail has had no diffi-

culties accommodating the prototype 60-ft. container across its network. It rides atop conventional containers on CP’s intermodal flatcars. McKenna has been pursuing the use of 60-ft. containers for several years now. It began as an idea to transition to 57-ft. containers, capable of accommodating two additional pallets, but he upped the ante when he saw another retailer was pulling a 60-ft. trailer on Ontario roads. “When we understood Ontario would accept 60-ft. (trailers) on the road several years ago, we decided if that was the case, why stop at 57? We began the design process of designing a 60-ft. container and chassis,” McKenna said. “We’re excited. We are seeking to grow the fleet starting in 2017 and if all goes well, will begin a conversion to a uniform 60-ft. fleet over the next decade and a half.”

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18 BUSINESS

How to successfully roll out new fleet technologies Communication is key to a successful rollout By Sonia Straface NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

when it comes to introducing new technologies to your fleet. The panel included Byron Holland, senior business process specialist at Mohawk Industries, James Wilkinson, director of midstream systems at Bridger Logistics and Jane Whitmore, director of master data at Bridger Logistics. Holland explained that the most important part of a successful rollout is communication between all employee

When it comes to rolling out new technologies within your fleet, communication is key, according to fleets that spoke at the in.sight user conference hosted by PeopleNet and TMW Systems. In a educational session, titled Rollouts: How to Effectively Launch a New Product or Feature, three panelists explained how to avoid failure

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levels – from the CEO to the drivers. “Communication was one of the main things that made our rollout successful,” he explained. “At Mohawk we learned early that driver acceptance was going to be a big part of whether the rollout worked or not, so we made sure that they knew exactly what the rollout was about.” Holland said that the company, which had more than 500 tractors at the time of its rollout, sent out letters to employees explaining the goals of the new technology. “We really needed their buy-in,” he said. “And on the executive level, we made sure our management team met weekly to talk about pot holes and speed bumps in the project and how to address that…You have to keep people

“

three, they’d say, ‘Well we don’t have to do step one, we can just skip to step two.’ So we had to work on getting them to do it the right way.” Wilkinson said to work on the communication issues, the company decided to hold daily 15-minute scrum meetings to discuss the successes and failures during the rollout stage in order to identify key areas that the business needed to work on. Essentially, he said, the meetings let everyone get on the same page with what was working and what wasn’t. Another important aspect of a rollout is to have a leader in every department accountable during the process, Whitmore added. “I think the number one thing you have to have from the beginning (of

W learned early that driver acceptance We was going to be a big part of whether the w rrollout worked or not.” Byron Holland, Mohawk Industries

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involved throughout the process. We learned early on that acceptance is a hard thing. We had to make sure that the drivers especially were informed and aware and comfortable with the technology. We didn’t just turn it on and force them to use it. We had training videos, and different web content to help the drivers learn it. After that, the drivers started buying in.” Mohawk also organized conference calls during different hours of the day at the start of the rollouts, so overthe-road drivers could call in and ask questions when they experienced a problem. Holland said this helped the drivers feel more comfortable and to trust the new technology. Wilkinson echoed Holland’s view, adding that without driver buy-in, rollouts can crumble. He said that the struggle he faced in rolling out the new PeopleNet/TMW systems at his company had to do with communication failures between operations and IT. “Operations thought they knew better than IT did,” he said. “There were a lot of fights about what the drivers should be doing, and why they should have to log in every day. We had to get it through to them to do it the right way. Because when something new comes along, everyone thinks they can do it better than the right way to do it. So if we tell them you have to do step one, step two, step

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a rollout project) is you have to know what success looks like for you and your company,” she said. “And then…making sure every department has a leader and knows about what the goal is for the project. That means IT, ops, dispatch, back office…there needs to be one key person from each team to hold accountable for the success of the project.” She remembered her experience with rolling out the PeopleNet system at her company when dispatch wasn’t buying into the technology and the problems it created for the project. “Dispatch wasn’t buying in,” she said. “And they’re such an important group. Everything starts with them and we always heard from them that the system didn’t work. For me, it’s all about having the right leader in each department and making sure they know their expectations and role in the project. Once we got the right leader in each team and department who could get on board, things really came together.” Finally, the panelists agreed that with a rollout, speed bumps are natural and shouldn’t be feared. “Be flexible,” said Holland when asked what his best advice was to fleets thinking about rolling out new technology. “And don’t be scared to fail. There will always be speed bumps and pot holes along the way.”

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2017-01-12 2:12 PM

TRUCK NEWS

Adapt or go broke Industry veteran Mike McCarron says transportation providers must evolve their selling processes, embrace technology or go extinct By James Menzies TORONTO, ONTARIO The Canadian transportation industry is way behind the times when it comes to adopting new technologies and evolving sales processes, which creates challenges but also opportunities. That was the message from Mike McCarron, president of Left Lane Associates, who spoke recently at a Delta Nu Alpha transportation club luncheon. “Our industry is way behind the times,” he said. “To me, that’s an advantage. It’s an advantage to those who embrace technology.” To make his point, McCarron placed older-generation cell phones at everyone’s place and asked attendees to compare them to their current iPhones. “That is how much sales has changed the last five years. As an industry, I don’t think we’ve adapted,” McCarron said. He suggested the traditional outsides sales rep model has passed. “It doesn’t work anymore,” he said. He described an outside rep making $60,000 a year, with $20,000 in desk costs and incurring another $20,000 in business expenses. For a transport company with a 10% margin, he said that rep would have to bring in a million dollars in his first year just to break even. “There is also the reality that the rep owns the accounts,” he said, warning that they can take them to a competitor or start their own competitive business. McCarron said transportation buyers have evolved. Many are now millennials and they go online to find service providers. Seventy-three per cent of today’s buyers won’t answer cold calls, McCarron said, and 90% make buying decisions based on online research. But too few transportation companies put any focus into their online presence. In essence, transport companies must go from hunting prospects to becoming hunted by prospective buyers. In a survey of transportation company websites, McCarron’s firm found

95% were not mobile-friendly and most had no updated content. “The website is not an online brochure,” he insisted. It should serve three purposes, McCarron said: to distribute company content; to optimize search engine performance; and to track customers. If your website is ineffective at retaining visitors for more than a few seconds, it will perform worse in search engine queries. “With this new age of customers, they’re going to Google ‘Toronto to Western Canada.’ If your company is on the 14th page of Google, you’re never going to get the phone call,” he explained. McCarron also said companies should have a well managed social media presence, but only if they’re committed to it. “You’re in or you’re out,” he said of social media. “It’s a lot better to be out than to have incomplete stuff.” McCarron said social media should be thought of as an LTL carrier for your business’s content. Posting relevant information shows you’re committed. Social media is a great way to connect with prospective customers, McCarron said, because of the “power of

acceptance.” They have already accepted your request to connect on social media, which isn’t the case via e-mail. When you land a new customer, that’s when the real work begins. “You’re not getting a new customer; you’re getting an opportunity,” McCarron emphasized. “And it’s what you make of that opportunity that makes the difference. You have to provide service on the first few opportunities.” When he ran MSM Transportation, McCarron said he’d often price-match to get the first load and then differentiate based on service. Rate increases would follow. He also offered advice on how to get rate increases. Focus on add-on services with existing customers, he suggested, and always put expiry dates on price quotes. “As an industry, we give lifetime rates,” he said. “We say yes to everything. Every customer should get an anniversary date. Every quote you give this customer expires on that date. You may not get the rate increase every year but you have to have that conversation every year and even if you don’t get the increase, you can leverage it into new business. They realize you’re not a weak link.” If you aren’t raising rates, McCarron said, tell the customer why not. “It’s about sending a message,” he said. “It’s a message you’re sending to the customer that you’re serious about doing business and if they perceive you as a weak link, they’ll push you around all the time.” McCarron offered five “quick fixes”

Critique your online brand, McCarron advises, and shift your focus from hunting new business to being hunted by prospective new customers.

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attendees can easily implement in their business. Leverage cash: “Cash can be used to create margin,” McCarron said. You can negotiate better rates by offering quicker payment terms, you can offer factoring services for less than factoring companies do and you have greater flexibility to make deals. McCarron said you can start building cash by focusing on billing. “Billing should be done the day the shipment is delivered,” he said. Focus on your brand: McCarron encouraged business owners to Google themselves and their company. “You have a brand the day you open the door,” he said. “It is defined by two things: Keeping your promises to customers and it’s about what people say about you when you leave the room.” Company e-mail signatures should be consistent, LinkedIn profiles up to date and accurate. “Ask yourself, if you were looking for a service, would you do business with yourself?” Stop submitting bids: “They’re an absolute waste of time,” McCarron said, noting he started winning more business at MSM Transportation when he told customers why he refused to submit bids. “You can’t run a business doing this.” Put expiration dates on quotes: “Every rate needs to have an expiry date,” he said. “Do not give lifetime rates. Give anniversary dates and all customer pricing expires every year on the anniversary date.” Don’t fear technology: “It’s the way of the future,” McCarron said of technology. “It’s so powerful and so userfriendly. Embrace it or you’ll be out of business. I’ve seen what very inexpensive, easy-to-use apps have done for businesses. If you don’t have a CRM (customer relationship management) system, get one. The power it will bring you is staggering.”

#sts17

BER

OCTO

MARK YOUR CALENDAR pg 18-19 tn feb v3.indd 19

February 2017

2017

11 2017-01-12 2:12 PM

20 BUSINESS

What are the secrets of high-performing fleets? Panel at in.sight user conference looks to reveal what the most successful fleets are doing right By Sonia Straface NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE It seems that in trucking, though there are countless fleets big and small across North America, the same ones receive awards and recognition within the industry. So what are these fleets doing to keep their drivers on-board and to keep their good standing within the transportation industry? That was the goal of the educational session titled Secrets from High Performance Fleets at PeopleNet’s in.sight user conference in Nashville, Tenn. The session centered around two information technology ‘titans’ who shared with the audience what they are doing with technology to make their fleets successful. The panelists included Bill Brown, manager of fleet telematics at Southeastern Freight Lines and Joe Neal, director of information technology at Heniff Transportation.

with the driver with this program,” he said. Brown of Southeastern Freight Lines said the company uses the data collected by PeopleNet to improve its maintenance efforts, which in turn helps improve the company’s overall safety. Like many in the industry, Southeastern was having issues concerning diesel particulate filters and re-gens. “We realized it wasn’t the particulate filter that was the problem. It was something upstream like the engine,” Brown said. “Well, we wanted to cut down breakdowns. We discovered there are two reports that helped us in that regard on the PeopleNet system. So every day we run the alarm report

and we’ve turned on the DPF alarm setting within the settings screen. So now every time the engine tells the driver to pull over and do a re-gen, a light comes on and tells the driver to do a parked re-gen.” The problem, however, was that there wasn’t a way to tell if the driver actually pulled over to do a re-gen. So Brown and his team used the data in the system to solve this issue. “In a report, you can see the life to date fuel consumed, so what we did was start monitoring it,” he said. “So we could tell if they performed the regen or not. If you look at the life to date fuel consumed, you can compare it to when he starts moving again. If in whatever period of time he stopped and he has consumed the equivalent of more than one gallon per hour, he did a parked regen.” After they discovered they could see if the driver did a re-gen or not, they would

then follow up with the driver directly. “We discovered some drivers would do a re-gen, and so we could take it into the shop and figure out what’s wrong,” he said. “Other times, we would realize that the driver wouldn’t do the re-gen and we’d follow up and ask why they wouldn’t do it. Some drivers wouldn’t know what the light meant. Some would say I pushed the button and nothing happened.” After following up with the drivers on the issue, Brown said the company cut its breakdowns by a third in just one month’s time. “We also monitor our drivers with the speed alarm that alerts us when trucks hit 75 mph,” Brown said. “And we ran weekly reports of that, and brought it to our safety department and they brought those speeding incidents down by two thirds. At the end of the day, we believe that safety is its own ROI.”

Engaging drivers

Neal kicked off the session by explaining how Heniff used the data it was collecting with its PeopleNet system to engage drivers and management instead of turning them off with new technology. “One of the challenges we had from the very beginning when we started implementing the PeopleNet tablets… was really negative feedback from the drivers,” he recalled. “We got a lot of pushback because lots of people thought we were trying to be big brother. And for us, that was unexpected. We didn’t see that coming. So we had to think of ways to turn that negative into a positive. So what we did is, we thought of how could we get the drivers, driver managers and management team engaged so we can show them that this was a good thing? And we did this by developing a driver incentive program.” The incentive program works by using the data collected by the system like idle information to score the driver on his/her performance. “So if the driver is doing everything right, then he or she is up for a monthly bonus,” Neal said. “In the beginning it was a slow start but now it has really taken off. It’s gotten to the point where 80% of our drivers are hitting that bonus each month so it’s been a real big win-win for us.” Overcoming pushback

Initially, the pushback from the PeopleNet system was from not only the drivers, but the management team, especially those in the finance department, said Neal. “In the very beginning, when we were developing the program, we got a lot of pushback from finance saying ‘You can’t do this, we’re going to spend through the roof with this program,’ but we were able to show that for every dollar we paid out with the program, we recouped $7 back in ROI, whether that be maintenance, fuel savings, tire savings, etc. Ultimately, the success of it has been unbelievable for us.” Neal added the program has helped not only with ROI, but with driver retention as well. “Essentially we’re really partnering

pg 20-21 tn feb v3.indd 20

2017-01-13 9:43 AM

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Locations of Canadaâ€™s worst traffic bottlenecks revealed

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Toronto, Montreal home to worst congestion points TORONTO, ONTARIO The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) revealed the findings of its studyÂ Grinding to a Halt, Evaluating Canadaâ€™s Worst BottlenecksÂ on Jan. 11. The study, the first of its kind, found that the countryâ€™s top 20 most congested traffic bottlenecks cover just 65 kilometers, collectively cost drivers more than 11.5 million hours and drain an extra 22 million liters of fuel a year.Â â€œTraffic congestion is a major source of stress for Canadians. Our study concludes that traffic bottlenecks affect Canadians in every major urban market, increasing commute times by as much as 50%,â€? saidÂ Jeff Walker, vice-president of public affairs for CAA National. â€œReducing these bottlenecks will increase the quality of life for millions of Canadians, save millions in fuel costs and reduce greenhouse gases, helping contribute toÂ Canadaâ€™sÂ climate change commitments.â€? CAA said that other studies show that bottlenecks are the single biggest contributor to road delays, far outpacing traffic accidents, inclement weather and construction.Â Its study, however, includes the cost to Canadians of these bottlenecks in terms of lost time, productivity and added greenhouse gas emissions. According to the data, TorontoÂ placed 10 bottlenecks in the top 20.Â Â MontrealÂ placed five,Â VancouverÂ placed four andÂ Quebec CityÂ placed one. Other markets such asÂ Calgary,Â Edmonton, Regina,Â OttawaÂ andÂ HalifaxÂ also experience serious traffic delays. Compared with US bottlenecks using a similar methodology,Â TorontoÂ andÂ MontrealÂ bottlenecks rank among the worst inÂ North America. The study found that Canadaâ€™sÂ worst highway bottleneck is the

stretch of Hwy. 401 that cuts across the north part of Toronto. This bottleneck alone costs commuters over three million hours of annual delays. In total, five of the top 10 bottlenecks are found in theÂ TorontoÂ area. As well, the stretch of Hwy. 40 into downtownÂ MontrealÂ is the third worst bottleneck in the country, costing commuters nearly two million hours of annual delays. And even though VancouverÂ does not have non-signalized highways serving the downtown core, stretches of two main arteries (Granville St. and West Georgia St.) are congested enough to fall within the top 10 bottlenecks â€“ and produce the slowest driving speeds in the country.

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2017-01-13 9:44 AM

22 VIDEO TECHNOLOGY

US fleet sees safety improvements using in-cab video Preventable crashes, speeding violations and use of mobile devices all decreased with cameras installed, Davis Transfer reports By James Menzies CARNESVILLE, GEORGIA Davis Transfer president and CEO Todd David was going to have lunch to discuss implementing a video safety program into his fleet when he got the call every fleet manager dreads. One of his trucks was involved in a fatal accident with a cyclist. “What we had heard about the accident and the details we knew were very foggy,” he recalled. “That immediately persuaded me that we needed to know as soon as something happened or very quickly after, what we were dealing with.” Davis Transfer’s trucks operate mostly in congested areas and the company has seen an increase in accidents involving litigation over the past eight years, Davis said. “One of the problems trucking companies face is, when we are involved in an accident we have no idea the type of accident or the severity of the accident,” Davis said. “A lot of the information we get right away from the driver is incorrect.” Davis Transfer opted for the SmartDrive video safety system, with forwardand driver-facing cameras, or as Davis prefers to call them, event recorders. Up to 80 different events can trigger a recording, which is first sent to Smart-

Drive’s review experts for analysis. If the event requires intervention from the fleet, the file goes into a coaching queue and the fleet’s safety department takes it from there, reviewing the footage with the driver and providing additional training to address the behavior. “Davis Transfer was very specific about the risks they wanted to go after and we were able to customize that general response center to help them focus in on the events and types of risks they wanted to coach out of their fleet,” said Garland Yarborough of SmartDrive. The company piloted the program across 20 trucks and found even some of its top drivers had developed bad habits, even though they had maintained clean driving records. “One driver in particular had great miles, but he kept getting an event. He was running his truck off the road, which is one of the things that triggers the event recording system,” explained Brittany Britt, safety director with Davis Transfer. “He had a habit of looking at his phone while driving. We developed a coaching program specific to his need.” The company has since rolled the program out across its entire fleet of 350 trucks. The system has also exonerated drivers of blame in certain crashes, Britt pointed out. During a webinar with SmartDrive recently, she showed a video in which a motorist pulled di-

Up to 80 different events can trigger a recording on the SmartDrive video safety system.

rectly in front of a Davis truck that was traveling along safely, below the posted speed limit. Davis Transfer uses an online training program from Mindflash to train drivers on the behaviors that are causing events. Davis said drivers typically fall into two categories: the operationally excellent drivers who’ve become complacent and can correct their behavior; and the drivers who aren’t operationally excellent and are also unsafe and aren’t able or willing to adjust their driving behaviors. “On the more experienced guy that’s good operationally, we’re going to work with him and give him every chance to improve,” Davis said, noting about 80% of drivers improve with coaching. The results of the program have been impressive. Davis Transfer has a turnover rate of about 48%, including terminations, which is well below US standards. It saw its ratio of preventable

crashes drop from more than 70% of all crashes in 2014 to less than 40% in 2016. Its crash indicator BASIC under CSA was over 80% when it launched the program and has now been driven down to 20%. It has seen a 90% decrease in unsafe following distances, a 40% decrease in speeding and a 51% reduction in drivers using mobile devices. SmartDrive Systems has also announced recent upgrades to its platform. It has doubled video capacity to more than 16 days; it introduced enhanced coaching workflow with contextual driving analytics, improving usability and unlocking driver performance insights; it added a skills-based coaching mode to event-oriented coaching, enabling an individualized approach to every driver; and it offers video on-demand capabilities with full mobility support and a “shopping cart” video ordering experience.

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2017-01-16 11:26 AM

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Handling motor collisions the right way

understand what (the video system) is and how it is going to be used.”

Fleet Safety Council offers insights on how to react to a collision

Dr. Flynn spoke to attendees about what to do if a driver in your fleet does get into a collision in terms of communicating with the media. He said having this sort of a crisis communication plan is new for fleets because of how technology has changed around us. Today there are millions of people being citizen journalists because they have access to typing a single 140-character Tweet that could ruin the reputation of business. “Our behavior is being monitored at every moment,” he explained. “We didn’t have to worry about this 30 years ago. If there was an accident, there was a process for communication. But now, how are your crisis response protocols dealing with this new arena of communications? Because the game has changed.” Dr. Flynn explained that fleets need to start thinking about how quickly their reputation can be ruined and how to communicate effectively with the media when disaster strikes. He explained the seven deadly sins of crisis communication: unpreparedness, absence, ignorance, silence, distance, fabrication, and naiveté. “When an incident happens, first responders are in control,” he said. “So you will not be able to interject, but that doesn’t mean that in the hours after, you’re not going to be asked questions. Don’t think of a response as a news release or speaking to the media. (Responses) should go on for a long period of time especially if it’s a fatal incident.”

By Sonia Straface MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO Being in a collision is always a startling and stressful experience. Even when no one is seriously injured, drivers have to rack their brain trying to remember what exactly happened to cause the situation, the police are involved, premiums are raised as soon as a phone call is made to insurance and damage to your vehicle means you just lost some money in the bank. And in the case of the professional driver, that stress is multiplied considering they just got into an accident on the job, where the name of the game is safety. The way motor vehicle incidents are handled is changing thanks to technology. Today, trucks can be equipped with dash cams, or video technology that can record the moments leading up to, during and after a collision. To talk about the topic at the Fleet Safety Council’s 25th annual educational conference at the Centre for Health and Safety Innovation, were Hernan Medina, director of enterprise sales at Lytx and Dr. Terry Flynn of McMaster University. Medina talked about the benefits of having video installed on trucks as well as some common misconceptions about video technology. He spoke first about how video al-

lows fleets to identify risky behavior within the cab, so executives can adjust driver behavior before it develops into an accident. “We really need to work at the brain level of the driver because as we all know it is hard to change human behavior,” Medina said. “And that’s ex-

“

I not meant to It’s be an invasion.” b Hernan Medina, Lytx

actly where video comes in. It goes inside the brain of the driver…what a lot of companies do today, the ones who are not using video technology, they go bottom down. They start with the collision, and then try to understand what happened to cause the accident in the first place. But with video, we go the other way around. We are proactive and don’t wait for the accident to happen before we react.” Medina reminded attendees that commercial vehicles are safe for the most part. According to research from the American Automobile Association Foundation, 75% of accidents involving Class 8 vehicles are not the fault of the professional truck driver. So another benefit of the video system is that it could exonerate a driver in the event of a collision. But though there are a lot of benefits

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to putting video in your trucks, like preventing insurance claims, keeping your drivers accountable, promoting ongoing driver training, and saving the company money, drivers are Lytx’s biggest obstacle. “The biggest challenge is how do we sell this to drivers?” said Medina. “Many think it’s big brother watching them, but it’s not that. We have selectively chosen not to have that technology because we want the driver to be in control.” Medina said that the Lytx drive cam only collects 12 seconds of recorded data and only if it is triggered by an event. So if there is an accident, fleet executives only have access to the eight seconds leading up to the collision and four seconds after the collision. Because it is only 12 seconds, Medina says this also solves the other common complaint he hears from drivers that cameras are an invasion of privacy. “It’s not meant to be an invasion,” Medina said. “It is exception based… only used to improve safety and nothing else.” Ironically, once implemented, drivers become the camera’s biggest fan, as they see the results. Medina played several testimonials from real drivers who said the camera helped exonerate them in the event of a collision and showed them some behavior that had to be fixed. “Drivers become our best advocates,” Medina said. “As soon as they

What to do with the media

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2017-01-16 11:26 AM

24 TEST DRIVE

Driving the new

MACK LR

REFUSE TRUCK Mack LR brings greater comfort, ergonomics and safety to the refuse truck segment By James Menzies ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Refuse trucks are built to operate in all conditions, so who can complain when a little rain dampens a test drive? Or when sheets of unrelenting, driving, torrential, cold, November rain, for that matter, soak through everyone who dares step outside. The trash still has to be collected, so there were no complaints from me when I visited Mack Trucks’ Customer Center in late November to drive the company’s newest refuse truck, the LR model. In fact, the pouring rain helped me gain an appreciation for some of the subtler design enhancements built into the LR model that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. For example, a new drip rail above the door that keeps the rain from cascading into the passenger compartment every time the door is opened, which could be more than 1,000 times a day. The LR model brings to refuse truck operators amenities and creature comforts that were previously unavailable in the company’s LEU model, which the LR replaces. The LR was shown for the first time at last year’s WasteExpo show in Las Vegas and Canadian customers got to see one up close at this year’s Canadian Waste & Recycling Expo. It’s a comprehensive update, especially as it relates to two key areas: driver comfort and safety. In terms of comfort, an improved HVAC system featuring 16 vents offers better temperature control and window defrosting. Interior and exterior LED lighting is now offered. A new tilting/ telescoping steering column provides greater operator comfort and the gauge cluster is mounted to the steering column to provide good visibility, whatever the position. The driver display is more modern, vibrant and colorful, making it easier to find at a glance the information you’re looking for. Power windows and locks are now standard. The mirrors can memorize two posi-

pg 24-25 tn feb v3.indd 24

tions, which is especially handy when the truck is configured for left- and right-hand driving. A simple flip of the switch positions the mirrors exactly where you want them for driving from either side. The LR I drove was set up as a dual sitdown configuration – seats, steering wheel and pedals on both sides. A toggle switch allows the operator to switch between modes while the vehicle’s parking brake is activated. The gauges and controls on the selected side light up, and away you go.

Mack is seeing more demand for trucks with right-hand drive capabilities, so that operators can service an entire collection route on their own, according to Curtis Dorwart, Mack’s refuse product marketing manager. “We’re seeing more and more demand for that every day,” he said. “The smaller the crew, the better the efficiency is. The key is having a flexible truck and body configuration that allows them to be as productive as possible.” The truck I drove was fitted with a Labrie Expert automated side loader

body. When working the controls to pick up a blue bin, I quickly gained a new appreciation for refuse truck operators. Driving the truck is the easy part. Working the side arm controls – as intuitive and well designed as they are – is a learned skill. And I have lots of learning left to do. It’s hard to imagine operators doing as many as 1,200 pickups in a day. It took me about three minutes – okay, maybe five – to unload a single bin, meaning it would take me about 100 hours to do what some pros do in a day. In right-hand stand-up configured LR trucks, the operator can be in and out of the truck hundreds of times a day, so Mack has made entry and egress as easy as possible. There’s a short 16-inch step from the ground to the first step. “Our ground to floor height is the lowest in the industry among major manufacturers,” Dorwart claimed. After finally dumping the imaginary contents of a blue bin into the box, we set out for the Allentown subdivisions near the Mack Customer Center. As luck would have it, it was garbage day. With so many bins and trash cans set out for collection, I realized the width of a cul de sac and the turning radius required to navigate it is seriously compromised. Sometimes, backing is necessary, even with the LR’s impressively tight turning. This is where collection companies and municipalities get nervous – and rightfully so. I can’t think of another segment of the trucking industry in which the vehicles operate in such close proximity to citizens. It takes only a second for a kid on a bike to dart out behind a reversing trash truck. As soon as I put the LR in reverse, the ceiling-mounted monitor inside the cab switched from the view of the inside of the body to one of what was behind the truck. It was comforting to see a clear view of the area immediately behind the truck. How can you order a refuse truck without installing cameras? Another nice improvement built into the LR is the B-pillar wraparound glass on both rear corners of the cab. I glanced through these new windows frequently, especially at intersections or when changing lanes out on the highway. I took the truck for a lengthy jaunt along the highway to get a feel for

its on-road handling. It’s a wide truck, which takes some getting used to, but it rode well considering it was empty. Power was more than sufficient. This truck featured the Mack MP7-345R engine, designed for this application. That engine is being replaced with a new MP7-355A, which will produce 10 additional horsepower and the same 1,280 lb.-ft. of torque. The transmission was an Allison 4500 RDS six-speed. Mack doesn’t offer its proprietary mDrive automated manual in this vehicle, because this is an application where the Allison really shines, Dorwart said. “It works very well considering the duty cycle of a refuse truck,” he said of the Allison automatic. “These operators tend to be fairly binary in their throttle position. They’re either 100% or nothing. An automated manual transmission could do that, but it’s probably going to suffer some clutch life issues and productivity may not be as good. The torque converter with the Allison works well in this application.” In addition to being a safer, more comfortable truck to operate than its predecessor, attention has also been spent on making it more user-friendly for body builders. That’s not simple, since there are so many body builders to placate. “It’s very important to get trucks through the body upfit process as quickly as possible,” Dorwart explained. Mack provides convenient wiring channels for upfitters and an additional wiring channel that runs up the middle of the windshield for easy installation of a camera system. Fuses are easily accessed via the top of the dash. Design improvements, such as flush lighting and corner guards, protect the most breakable items on the truck from damage. Mack announced recently that it is extending its GuardDog Connect telematics platform to the LR model. It monitors fault codes and then sends them to Mack’s OneCall service center for analysis. From there, the fleet manager is advised on the best course of action. They can even be directed to the nearest dealership with the required parts in stock. Telematics has established a devout following – and proven its worth – in the on-highway segment, but do its benefits exist even in applications where the truck returns home every night? “Uptime support is as important for our refuse customers as for our highway customers,” Dorwart insisted. “GuardDog Connect simplifies the diagnostic and service process and combines purposeful telematics technology with Mack experts who can keep the customer on the job.” He noted GuardDog Connect will be especially beneficial to customers who are seeing more than a single digit percentage of their total maintenance costs spent on unscheduled maintenance. “If you’re pushing more than that, a system like this can be an even greater help to you, to give you a head’s up if something is going south,” he said. It’s offered as standard, free of charge, on all new LR trucks for a period of two years. The LR brings to the refuse segment several safety enhancements and previously unavailable creature comforts that drivers in other segments take for granted. The LR is a more refined vehicle than what many trash collectors have been accustomed to. And just because the stuff you haul may stink, doesn’t mean your ride has to.

2017-01-13 1:16 PM

TRUCK NEWS

EQUIPMENT

Driving the Mack Granite, MHD with 2017 power

Latest emissions standards bring performance benefits, without adding complexity

point we can hardly measure it now.” A new intake throttle valve assembly improves the flow of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and a new single box aftertreatment system reduces weight by 17 lbs and gives back about 11 inches of frame rail space. All these enhancements will provide a fuel savings of about 3%, Dorwart said. “This is one emissions regulation where this is a lot of upside,” he added. Mack is also boosting the power output of its 11-liter MP7 engine to 425 hp with 1,560 lb.-ft. of torque, while also reducing weight by 25 lbs. The 2017 MP8 will be 44 lbs lighter. So, more power and greater fuel economy in a lighter-weight package will be delivered, according to Mack. The redesigned ClearTech One aftertreatment system makes more room for chain hangers, additional air tanks and tool boxes. The updated engines will be available across Mack’s vocational and on-highway product line, but

By James Menzies ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Changes made to Mack engines for 2017 will bring benefits to its vocational customers, without the added complexity that normally accompanies government-driven emissions standards. GHG17 regulations called for about a 3% reduction in CO2 output, but Mack says it exceeded the minimum requirements and achieved the corresponding improvement in fuel economy. Curtis Dorwart, Mack’s refuse product marketing manager, said most of the changes are found under the skin of the MP7 and MP8 engines. Among the most significant of these is a new common rail fuel system and a patented wave piston bowl design

that’s designed to improve combustion efficiency. “It’s stupid simple,” Dorwart said, when asked to explain how the wave piston bowl improves fuel economy. “In a conventional combustion bowl, you squirt the fuel in, six plumes of fire hit the side of the bowl and then collide with each other and fight for oxygen, which isn’t there. The oxygen is closer to the point of injection. So, the wave piston makes little small pockets where that fire front from each individual plume goes. It pushes the flame front back to the center of the cylinder where the oxygen is. It lessens the soot load to the

it was the vocational trucks that were the focus of a recent visit to Mack’s Customer Center in Allentown. I drove a Mack Granite axle back with the MP8 engine rated at 445 hp and 1,815 lb.-ft. of torque on the pun-

February 2017

ishing off-road track at Mack’s Customer Center. One of the more interesting features was the new 14-speed mDrive HD automated manual transmission, featuring two new lower gears for improved startability and performance at low speeds. This new AMT effectively pulls the mDrive into vocational applications previously thought to be the sole domain of fully automatic transmissions, such as concrete mixer. The Granite I drove was a dump truck but I was able to appreciate the lowspeed handling of the 14-speed mDrive HD, especially on steep grades which I could slowly descend in full control and climb with ease. I also drove the Granite axle forward MHD (medium heavy-duty), the Granite’s “Baby 8” cousin that allows customers to obtain the ruggedness Mack’s known for in a lighter-weight package and at a lower price point. It’s intended for anything from light dump, mixer and snow plow applications, Dorwart explained. “It’s still the all-steel Granite cab,” he pointed out. The key difference is availability of a 7-mm frame rail, but the full range from 8- to 11-mm frame rails are also offered. The MHD is powered exclusively by the Cummins ISL9 engine, rated up to 345 hp. The truck I drove in a mixer configuration featured an Allison 4500 RDS six-speed automatic transmission. Weight savings of 500-1,000 lbs are possible compared to a traditional Granite, depending on how the MHD is spec’d. The steel cab makes for a quiet interior and offers the durability vocational customers are looking for. The MHD has proven popular with municipalities, small fleets and large fleets that want a lighter-weight truck to more efficiently handle the less demanding jobs within their operations. “It’s a great way to get into a Mack chassis at a lesser price point, but to still get the durability aspects of an all-steel cab,” Dorwart said.

Drones, robots a part of Mercedes-Benz’s vision for final mile deliveries LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Mercedes-Benz continues through its van division to reimagine how final mile deliveries will be completed in the future. Last fall at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Hanover, Germany, Mercedes-Benz showcased its Vision Van, complete with rooftop drones capable of delivering packages to their final destination. That van was shown at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev., where Volker Mornhinweg, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans, said the company is bringing more “holistic” solutions to its commercial customers. “With this product, we would like to show what’s possible in the near future when it comes to transportation,” Mornhinweg said. “We are putting our vans as an instrument into the Internet of Things.” The Vision Van concept was developed in response to increasing urbanization and virtualization, which will require delivery companies to become more efficient. The drones can be used to deliver packages from the van to nearby residences and businesses, or even to deliver a package from a distribution center to a van that has already departed on its route. During CES, Mercedes-Benz also demonstrat-

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ed for the press a Sprinter Van loaded with robots capable of delivering packages to their final destinations. The Vans and Robots project featured robots built by Starship Technologies. They had a range of two miles and could carry payloads of up to 20 lbs. The robots have undergone more than 15,000 hours of testing over more than two years, according to Henry HarrisBurland of Starship Technologies. Andreas Raptopoulos, chief executive officer at Matternet, the company that manufactures the drones used by the Vision Van, said drones are likely to first be deployed in heavily populated cities where they can assist with crucial timesensitive deliveries, such as medications or test results required by hospitals. “I see an inflection point with this technology in around 2020,” Raptopoulos said at CES. “I believe we are going to be seeing drone delivery projects in the next several years and will see an inflection point.” But he cautioned against expecting to see a drone-filled sky anytime soon. “A drone will be involved in the transportation chain, maybe not where you see it,” he said. Matternet’s drones can carry payloads of less than two kilograms or three liters.

2017-01-16 10:10 AM

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EQUIPMENT

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Glasvan Great Dane makes ThermoGuard standard spec’ MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO Glasvan Great Dane announced recently that it is now spec’ing ThermoGuard as a standard option on all its new in-stock tandem high cube swing door refrigerated trailers. “Continuing to offer more value to our customers is consistent with our approach to providing better equipment and better service,” said George Cobham Jr., vice-president sales and marketing at Glasvan Great Dane.

IMT sells axle business

“The ThermoGuard liner is a proven performer and has many advantages, with the most critical being it works to retain the trailer’s insulating capability as the equipment ages.” Glasvan says the ThermoGuard liners include better temperature control, lower operating costs by reducing cooling unit run-time, better puncture-resistance and a reduction in moisture intrusion, among other benefits. It also leads to improved resale value, the company says. In addition to in-stock equipment for immediate delivery, Glasvan Great Dane says it will continue to customorder trailers to specific customer requirements and can offer the ThermoGuard liner as an option on all production order Great Dane reefer trailer equipment.

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CAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO The IMT Group has announced it has sold its light-, medium- and heavy-duty axle business to Dexter Axle Company. The divisions included in the sale include the Ingersoll Axles division of IMT Partnership in Ingersoll, Ont. and Indianapolis, Ind., and the light-duty axles division of IMT Standen’s Limited Partnership based in Calgary, Alta. “This is a very positive development for IMT’s axle businesses,” said Jim Hacking, chief executive officer of the IMT Group. “Ingersoll Axles and Standen’s are leaders in the axle business in Canada. Dexter is a global leader in highly engineered trailer products and chassis assemblies. This transaction will represent another significant expansion for Dexter and will give our IMT axle products increased market exposure.” IMT says there will be no disruptions for customers, suppliers or employees during the transition. Dexter manufactures trailer axles and brakes at multiple facilities in the US. The acquisition marks its expansion into Canada.

UAP acquires Buy-Rite MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO UAP has announced its acquisition of Buy-Rite Truck Parts, representing its second purchase in Ontario in the past 12 months. Buy-Rite Truck Parts, based in Mississauga, Ont., is a parts distributor serving the Greater Toronto Area. “This important acquisition is part of our strategy to expand our presence in the Ontario market, to better serve Traction’s growing client base in the province,” said Pierre Rachiele, executive vice-president of the Heavy Vehicle Parts Division of UAP. “We are excited at the opportunities this acquisition will bring for our division as we will leverage the expertise acquired by Buy-Rite over the last 28 years.” UAP said Buy-Rite’s clients will benefit from the same level of service and knowledge base to which they have become accustomed while benefiting from Traction’s network and programs. “We will continue to operate at the present location until we transition the business to our Traction facilities,” the company announced.

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TRUCK NEWS

EQUIPMENT

February 2017

PacLease adds three B.C. locations

Truck, trailer sales on the rise

DELTA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA

PacLease has added 10 new locations across North America, including three in B.C. Its dealer network now includes 454 locations in the US and Canada. The

new Canadian locations are: Inland PacLease, West Kelowna, B.C.; Peterbilt Pacific Leasing, Lantzville, B.C.; and Peterbilt Pacific Leasing, Delta, B.C. “PacLease had another strong year and we’re finding increased demand for those wanting to rent and lease Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks,” said Jake Civitts, director of franchise operations for Paccar Leasing Company (PacLease). “With the opening of our new PacLease locations, including three in the major markets of the Detroit and Philadelphia areas, along with Birmingham, we’re well situated for continued growth. Our customers have been pleased with the high quality and performance of Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks powered by Paccar engines, and the service capabilities being delivered by our highly-trained dealers.”

FTR released the preliminary Class 8 net orders for December, and at 21,200 units, numbers are up from November and spot on the forecast. FTR said the solid December order activity is consistent with the order demand of the last two months. Discounting October’s cancellations, Q4 month-to-month orders were stable. Class 8 backlogs should rise significantly in December, giving the market some modest momentum starting off 2017, FTR reports. Net orders were only 164,000 for all of 2016, but production was aided by the large backlog at the beginning of the year. Don Ake, vice-president of commercial vehicles at FTR said, “Another decent month that met expectations. Orders have been following stable, traditional, patterns for six months now, which is great news after the large drop-off in 2016. Production was weak in December, but based on the Q4 orders, it should begin a modest recovery in February. The most recent economic news has been positive, so freight demand should keep orders propped up for a few more months. 2017 still looks to be a tough year, but now backlogs are growing and that means the worst should be behind us for now.” Trailer orders also rose, according to the latest data from ACT Research, indicating the buying season has begun. Climbing 71% month-over-month in November, the increase was mostly due to dry van orders, and was also helped by a drop in cancellations. “Dry vans were also nearly equivalent to year-ago levels,” said Frank Maly, director, commercial vehicle transportation analysis and research at ACT. “Even with that surge, total trailer orders for the month still trailed last November by 7%, and year-to-date net orders are down one-third from 2015 volumes.”

The Ontario Trucking Association is calling on the province to help trucking fleets transition to cleaner natural gas-fueled trucks.

OWNER OPERATORS WANTED

Help fleets move to nat-gas, OTA urges province TORONTO, ONTARIO The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) has released a report, Natural Gas as an Alternative Fuel for Canadian Truck Fleets: A Roadmap Toward Implementation, to assist the provincial government in the design of a heavy truck natural gas program. The report underscores two areas where funding is required for fleets to make the transition to natural gas vehicles: vehicle and station costs; and ancillary costs. The OTA said though vehicle and station costs are well understood, ancillary costs, such as management time for fleet transition evaluation, required facility upgrades, driver training and other management expenses are not. And the OTA is calling on the government to fund up to $60,000 per natural gas vehicle to help offset the cost differential of a diesel engine, as well as provide carriers with access to the same incentives given to fuel suppliers to build fueling stations. “These ancillary expenses can make up to 10% of the overall cost of switching to natural gas vehicles. Without assistance and funding in these critical areas, fleets can easily become frustrated, making a successful conversion to natural gas vehicles less likely,” said OTA president Stephen Laskowski. “Trucking companies are in the business of moving freight; we are not fuel transition experts. The more the Government of Ontario’s program assists the industry in making a seamless transition to natural gas, the greater the likelihood the program will be successful.” A study commissioned by the OTA and completed by the Rustbelt Group estimates the vehicle and infrastructure cost for a 20-truck fleet to be $3.4 million, with ancillary costs adding $325,000.

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TRUCK NEWS

INSIGHTS

Industry Issues DAVID BRADLEY

ach fall, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) participates in the federal consultations on the following year’s federal budget. The 2017 budget will likely be tabled sometime in February or March. The focus of our submission this year is on greenhouse gas (GHG)-reduction. The industry wants to transition to lower-carbon heavy trucks, trailers and fuel. Why wouldn’t it? Diesel is the second largest component of operating costs. But, there are significant obstacles and costs associated with the transitioning from initial stage adoption to a mature lower-carbon market. For example, currently the only alternative to diesel fuel for large heavy trucks showing some potential – at least for some applications – are natural gas tractors which produce 17% less GHG than diesel, but which are about $60,000 or 30-40% more expensive to purchase than a conventional diesel tractor and require a major retrofit of maintenance shops. Add to that the lack of distribution and re-fueling infrastructure in Canada and you see the problem. Trucking is unique in that unlike other sectors, it is subject to both federal GHG reduction regulations and carbon pricing. The Government of Canada has announced it will not only implement aggressive Phase II GHG-reduction standards for heavy trucks/trailers, but it will also introduce a minimum price on carbon of $10 per tonne in 2018, rising by $10 per tonne per year to $50 per tonne by 2022. Both measures are bound to increase the costs of new tractor-trailers and of the cost of diesel fuel. In going down the carbon pricing road in Canada, CTA would have preferred a consistent, national approach. But, that horse has left the barn. Several provinces have already introduced (or are in the process of introducing) carbon pricing mechanisms. B.C. and Quebec have a carbon tax. Quebec also has a cap-andtrade system that Ontario is joining. Alberta is taking a hybrid approach. The federal government is coming somewhat late to the game. It needs to avoid adding further to the burden on the Canadian supply chain, which must remain competitive continentally and globally. It is also imperative that revenues generated from federal carbon pricing and from the federal excise tax on diesel fuel do not simply flow to the black hole of general revenue or are simply handed over to the provinces (which appears to be the federal government’s approach), but are dedicated to supporting early adoption of GHG-reduction equipment, technologies and alternative fuel in the industries affected. Trucks consume about 18 billion liters of on-road diesel fuel annually. The excise tax generates an additional $750 million a year from the trucking industry. A federal carbon pricing program could generate $2 billion in government revenue. These funds should be plowed back into accelerating GHG reduction by the industry. In its pre-budget submission, CTA recommends three measures. The first is to accelerate the capital cost allowances (CCA) for new, GHG-compliant/natural gas powered tractors and trailers. In Canada, tractors are currently depreciated at a 40% per annum rate on a declining balance basis. (By compari-

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Budget should focus on low-carbon trucking son, in the US tractors are depreciated on a double declining balance basis; threeyear asset vs seven years in Canada). Trailers are depreciated at a 30% declining balance rate. There are several precedents for this in other industries. The federal income tax regulations provide accelerated CCA (30% and 50%, respectively, on a declining-balance basis) for investments in specified clean energy generation and conservation equipment as an exception to basing CCA rates on the useful asset life. The 2006 federal budget accelerated the CCA for energy generation equipment using renewable fuel in the pulp and paper sector. The 2008 budget introduced accelerated CCA for new railway locomotives to 30% from 15% “to encour-

age rail operators to acquire newer, more fuel-efficient fleet of locomotives.” Our second recommendation is to establish a Trucking Industry GHG-Reduction Fund from the proceeds of carbon pricing and the federal excise tax on diesel, to provide an additional capital injection to assist investment and allow the market to mature. Such a fund would complement programs that exist in some provinces such as the $28-million, threeyear, Quebec Programme Ecocamionnage introduced in 2014, which provides financial assistance (up to $1 million per applicant per year) to freight transportation for the installation of technologies to reduce GHG emissions. Or the Ontario Green Commercial Vehicle Program, which will, starting in 2017-2018, provide

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$125-$170 million to buy low-carbon vehicles, including natural gas trucks and shop conversions, aerodynamic and antiidling devices, electric trailer refrigeration, etc. The federal NRCan Anti-Idling Device Program which existed from 2003-2006, provided a 20% rebate to trucking companies for installing pre-qualified cab heating/cooling systems is a good precedent. A $5.8-million injection from NRCan generated a $30 million industry investment (13,280 units) reducing idling time by 2,200 hours per truck and reducing GHG by 200,000 tonnes per year. Finally, the federal government should restore the longstanding excise tax exemption for diesel fuel used by antiidling devices. Will Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, act on any of these recommendations? Time will tell.

David Bradley is CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the Ontario Trucking Association.

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TRUCK NEWS

HEALTH

Preventive Maintenance KAREN BOWEN

s winter drags on, you are probably looking forward to the longer days of spring. The short days and long nights of winter can impact your deliveries. They can also impact your health, since sunlight is necessary for your body to create its own vital nutrient: Vitamin D. Low levels of Vitamin D can lead to a variety of conditions, as Vitamin D plays an important role in reducing inflammation, utilizing calcium to maintain strong bones and muscles, and maintaining your brain’s balance of two mood-regulating chemicals: serotonin and dopamine. Some common conditions caused by a lack of Vitamin D include: rickets, bone pain, muscle weakness, depression, cognitive issues, frequent respiratory and urinary infections, prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease, tooth cavities, and/or sleep apnea. Ongoing Vitamin D deficiency may play a role in developing Type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, high blood pressure, stroke, osteoporosis, psoriasis, and/or glucose intolerance. Unfortunately, unless you frequently drive long-haul to the warmer states, most winter driving in Canada prevents you from getting enough sun exposure to produce the amount of Vitamin D required for good health. Since the sky is often overcast with limited direct sunlight – and even on bright, sunny days, low temperatures make it necessary to layer clothing for warmth and protection – you don’t get the required 10-15 minutes of direct sunlight connecting with your face, back, and arms or legs three times a week. For proper assimilation, this sunlight cannot be filtered through your windshield or sunscreen. So, it is important to include Vitamin D-rich foods in your diet over winter. Good sources of Vitamin D are fatty fish (salmon, trout, tuna, halibut and mackerel), fish liver oils, beef liver, egg yolks, and Vitamin D-fortified foods, like milk, orange juice and grain products. Your daily requirement is at least 600 IU; when you reach 70 years of age, this requirement increases to 800 IU. As well, you may consider increasing the dosage if you have a pre-existing condition which impacts your body’s ability to absorb Vitamin D from foods, such as: celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis and obesity. If you follow a vegan diet, you are particularly susceptible to a Vitamin D deficiency. When you recognize that you aren’t exposed to enough sunlight and your diet lacks Vitamin D, you may consider taking a Vitamin D supplement. Be sure to read the product labels and to stay within the recommended daily requirements. Taking too much Vitamin D orally has been associated with kidney stones, nausea, constipation and other health concerns. Since Vitamin D can impact blood sugar levels, use caution if you have diabetes or low blood sugar, or if you take herbs or medication that affect blood sugar. Since supplements may also affect blood pressure, be care-

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Increase your Vitamin D intake this winter ful if you take blood pressure medication or related herbal remedies. As well, consult with your doctor before taking Vitamin D supplements if you have these conditions: a Vitamin D sensitivity/allergy, chronic headaches, immune disorders, heart disease, kidney disease, lung conditions, and/or musculoskeletal, skin, stomach or thyroid disorders. Vitamin D supplements may cause drug interactions, so if you have prescribed

medication for a chronic condition, or if you take other supplements, confirm supplementation with your doctor or pharmacist and avoid if you

February 2017

have abnormal calcium excretion or calcium levels. For skin conditions, Vitamin D cream may be applied topically to the skin alone or in combination with corticosteroids for up to three months, as prescribed. However, stop if you experience an allergic skin reaction, inflammation, rash, irritation and/or skin thinning, Ensuring you get the appropriate amount of Vitamin D during the winter months can help you boost your strength and maintain a healthy attitude. So, if packing a lunch, consider a salmon or tuna sandwich; when stopping for a meal, choose fish with fortified milk for a change; or, consider supplementing your diet with Vitamin D – until you find your summer place in the sun.

Karen Bowen is a professional health and nutrition consultant, and she can be reached at karen_bowen@yahoo.com.

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36 HEALTH Back behind the wheel DR. CHRIS SINGH

Managing jet lag

ow that we are in the middle of winter, many of us will travel south in search of sun and sand. In most cases, these sunny destinations are far away and so a plane ride is often required. When crossing multiple time zones quickly, we can sometimes suffer from jet lag. This condition is defined as a temporary problem or disruption in sleep patterns. Jet lag generally occurs when you cross more than two time zones quickly. Essentially what happens is our bodyâ€™s internal clock is still set at the original time zone and will take some time to sync with the new one. Symptoms may include: fatigue (especially during the daytime); a disturbance in sleep patterns; and mood and concentration changes. These can be problematic when you return to work as

a professional driver. The good news is that the symptoms of jet lag usually subside on their own within a few days of being in the new time zone. There are a few simple steps that you can take to help minimize the effects of jet leg. First of all, due to the fact that our internal clock is heavily influenced by daylight, regulating the amount of daylight that you are exposed to in the new time zone may help your internal clock adjust gradually. Research has shown that dehydration increases the risk of jet lag. It is important to stay hydrated while traveling on planes, as the air on-board tends to be very dry. Another common remedy for jet leg is melatonin supplementation. Melatonin is a chemical in our brains that signals it is time to sleep. By taking melatonin at specific times, you may be able to reset your internal clock. Finally, some individuals start to modify their sleep schedules before they go on a trip. For example, if you will be traveling to a destination that is three hours ahead of your home time zone, try gradually staying up later the week before you leave. As you can see, jet lag is more of an inconvenience than a serious medical condition. I personally feel that it is a small price to pay for the sun, sand and beaches of vacation destinations. Until next month, drive safely.

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TRUCK NEWS

XXXXXX INSIGHTS

Small Fleet, Big Attitude BILL CAMERON

ast year, I read an article quoting a so-called “transportation expert,” and his reaction to some 2015 transportation mergers. He felt these mergers could only improve freight rates. This helped me remember an alternative definition of “expert” that I heard almost 40 years ago. ‘Ex’ refers to not current, or no longer relevant. A ‘spurt’ is a drip under pressure. Is that too harsh? We’ve only seen downward pressure on rates recently, at least partly because of these mergers. I’m not even entirely blaming the merged companies. Some, obviously, are at fault – not all. These large mergers seem to terrify the other significant-sized carriers, who were locked out of the acquisition lottery, which seems to fuel some sort of ridiculous challenge to see who can work the cheapest and still remain in business, apparently in the name of retaining market share. Forgive my antiquated attitude, but if the market in question is just marginally above the break-even point, I don’t want a share of it. There’s no long-term winner in these foolish freight rate bloodbaths. Trucking revenues remaining pitifully low, just maintaining the opportunity to deny drivers and owner-operators the substantial pay raises they deserve. This, as we all know too well, floods the industry with even more underexperienced, underqualified, and often unmotivated drivers as older, experienced, and established drivers throw up their hands in disgust and leave

Any carrier of any size that slashes rates to starve out their competition is hurting everybody, including themselves in the long run. the business. And that nasty, destructive snowball continues to roll and grow, as productivity drops at the same rate as the recruiting door revolves. If you are a bank, or substantialsized retailer, you can’t merge with another substantial entity within the same industry without government approval, based on the ensuing economic impact. The health of any industry overrides the financial desires of the merging companies. It seems to be unfortunately approaching the point where our industry would benefit

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An industry divided, even on rates from such intervention. Are we ready to relinquish that kind of control to the government, with their amazing records of fair and productive response to everything else they’ve touched? Speed limiters and annual senior driver exams, anyone? We urgently need to sensibly selfgovern, while still maintaining a deregulated industry. We need to stop freight rates from either dropping or remaining stagnant as operating costs increase. Every other industry gradually increases pricing accordingly; strangely, ours rarely does, even in times of favorable capacity. If higher rates and pay are ever at-

tainable, now is the time to do it. Those working for low rates are running out of excuses to continue doing so, and infuriating those of us trying to nudge up rates. If we’re legitimately trying to improve the fortunes of this industry for all concerned, rates and the treatment of drivers – not limited to pay must go up, and not by microscopic increments. Any carrier of any size that slashes rates to starve out their competition is hurting everybody – including themselves – in the long run. Ever see the cartoon with the progressively larger, open-mouthed fish following smaller ones, all intent on eating the one in front of them?

February 2017

You’re one of those fish. Eventually, in this scenario, you’re lunch. We should all be here for profit, not exercise. Seriously, if the large carriers through their associations can continue to agree to lobby for speed limiters, electronic logging devices, etc., why can’t they agree to raise freight rates, industry-wide? We smaller outfits are already trying, so we sure aren’t going to fight it. This would allow higher driver pay and will reduce the shortage of qualified, safe drivers. It’s such a basic starting point if the interest is really there to try it. I don’t get the impression the interest is legitimately present, though. It’s time to work together for the greater good, which benefits everybody.

Bill Cameron and his wife Nancy own and operate Parks Transportation. Bill can be reached at williamcameron.bc@gmail.com.

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2017-01-16 10:26 AM

38 INSIGHTS

PMTC awards season is now open

Small Fleet, Private Big Attitude Matters MIKE MILLIAN

Now that the calendar has turned to 2017, we are in full planning mode for the 2017 Private Motor Truck Coun-

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to once again be one of the best educational and networking values in the industry. (Full conference details can be viewed on our website at www.pmtc. ca). The conference is being held June 15-16 at the Crowne Plaza Fallsview in Niagara Falls, Ont. One of the highlights of our conference each year is our awards program. Most people don’t give a second thought to the professional men and women who safely pilot commercial motor vehicles up and down our highways for millions of accidentfree miles each year. Despite the lack of praise from most of the public, those of us in the industry know what a huge role professional drivers play in keeping our roads safe. In addition to being major contributors to our economy, these professional men and women also ensure that essential products and servicers are delivered seamlessly so we can enjoy the benefits of the lifestyles we live. The PMTC awards program, in my view, is one of the most rewarding portions of our conference, as it is one of the few times that drivers and fleets are recognized in a positive light for what they do. Here is a brief overview of the awards program for the PMTC: The Hall of Fame for Professional Drivers inducts up to four professional drivers each year. This award recognizes the superior over-the-road performance of drivers employed by PMTC member companies. The Hall of Fame resides on our website and a visitor can review the outstanding records of all our inductees, dating back to 1990. The Private Fleet Safety Awards are open to all private fleets in Cana-

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da – membership in the PMTC is not required to enter this award. These awards recognize companies with a superior over-the-road performance who have successfully integrated detailed safety programs as a key component of their operations. The Vehicle Graphics Awards add color and drama to our annual awards luncheon. These awards are open to all fleets – private and forhire – and attract entries from across the country. Once again, PMTC membership is not required to enter this award. The PMTC Young Leaders Education Bursary will provide up to two PMTC young leaders with the funds to cover two of the four courses that are required to complete the PMTC Logistics Management Program. The courses have been selected from CITT’s extensive library of logis-

tics programs. Each bursary has a value of roughly $1,800. This program, when completed, will arm the new leader with the skills and confidence necessary to climb the ranks in his or her company and to become a successful leader in their organization. The Professional Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Training Scholarship covers the costs for the recipient to complete a full driver training program through a recognized training provider. This program is an intensive 200-hour course, which when completed, will arm the new professional driver with a high level of training, meeting Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario (TTSAO) and Professional Truck Driver Institute (PTDI) mandatory requirements. These standards will provide the student with the skills and confidence necessary to become a successful professional operator and will help to promote investment in the training needs of our great industry. All entry forms, applications, and criteria are available at www.pmtc.ca or by calling the office at 877-501-7682. You can also e-mail info@pmtc.ca. Please consider nominating someone from your company, and share this information with others in the industry who you think have fleets or employees they may want to consider entering. There are many drivers and companies who deserve the chance to be recognized in front of their peers – let’s give as many of them as we can this opportunity.

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pg 38 tn feb v3.indd 38

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Mike Millian is president of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, the only national a ssociation that represents the views and interests of the private fleet industry. He can be reached at trucks@pmtc.ca.

2017-01-16 10:28 AM

TRUCK NEWS

TAX TALK

Tax Talk SCOTT TAYLOR

ast month, I wrote about the new requirement to report the sale of real estate on your personal income tax return. In the past, you had to report real estate sales other than your principal residence. Starting with your 2016 filing you must report all sales, period. In my opinion that’s the biggest change on personal income tax filings this year. But there are actually many other changes to know about as you prepare your 2016 return: Children’s fitness tax credit: You can claim up to $500 per child for eligible fees, down from $1,000 last year. This credit has been eliminated for 2017, so this is your final chance to claim your kid’s participation in such things as hockey, soccer, baseball, and swimming. Children’s arts amount: The maximum eligible fees per child under the age of 16 is $250 for 2016. This amount has also been reduced

Talk to your accountant about how the new tax rules affect your personal life and your business. There’s no better time to do it. from last year and will also be eliminated for 2017. Organize your receipts for your kid’s music lessons, art classes, and Girl Guides one last time. Family tax cut: This is gone entirely now. It was a tax reduction or leveling of taxes if one spouse made $50,000 more income than the other. If that’s you, you’ve lost up to a $2,000 tax reduction. Eligible educator school supply tax credit: If you’re a teacher at an elementary or secondary school, you can claim a 15% refundable tax credit on outof-pocket expenses for up to $1,000 of classroom supplies. Tradesperson’s tools expense: You can deduct the cost of eligible tools bought in 2016 to earn employment income as a tradesperson. You have to spend more than $1,161 to qualify, and then only $500 is eligible. So as a tradesperson, you have to spend almost $1,700 to get a $500 deduction, but a teacher can spend only $1,000 and get to claim it all? Does anyone else see an inconsistency here? Home accessibility expenses: If you renovate your home to make it safer and more accessible for someone with a disability or who is over 65 years of age, you may be able to claim up to $10,000 of eligible expenses including building materials, permits, and labor. Public transit amount: You can claim the cost of monthly public transit passes for yourself, your spouse, and your kids under 19 as long as the passes allow unlimited travel. Check with CRA

pg 39 tn feb v2.indd 39

Tax checkup: The more things change to make sure you have the right documentation to back up your claim. Medical premiums and other expenses: I always remind people that if you or your spouse pay into a private healthcare plan, either through an employer or directly, the premiums are deductible medical expenses the same as a drug prescription or an eye exam. CRA publishes quite the list of eligible medical expenses on its website (www.cra-arc.gc.ca, search for Medical and Disability-Related Information). The agency also lists expenses that are not allowable, like health club

February 2017

Another thing that hasn’t changed is there are CRA auditors who are out of touch with reality. I had a rather loud conversation with a GST/HST auditor who disallowed approximately $6,000 of HST on a client’s trailer purchase because the financing was in his personal name and not the corporation’s name like everything else. We’ll file a notice of objection and months from now the client will get his money. Sometimes even a square peg doesn’t fit into one of CRA’s square holes. So, talk to your accountant about how the new tax rules affect your personal life and your business. There’s no better time to do it.

memberships and over-the-counter meds. Some things never change at CRA. The vehicle capital cost limit for CCA expense for business or for employment expense remains at $30,000. It’s been that way since the year 2000.

Scott Taylor is vice-president of TFS Group, providing accounting, bookkeeping, tax return preparation, and other business services for owner-operators. Learn more at www.tfsgroup.com or call 1-800461-5970.

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2017-01-16 11:37 AM

40 INSIGHTS You say tomato I say tomahto MARK LEE

Appreciating the trucking life in Canada

’m sitting writing this from back in my old 20. The family and I had to come over to the UK to do some family stuff, so here we are. Landing at Heathrow means that our journey begins on the M25 London Orbital Motorway, an interstate ring road type of thing. Some of you may have heard of it, as it has a reputation for being very congested. Twenty mile back-ups are part and parcel of life on the M25. Fortunately, we landed on a Saturday morning, so the commuters were thankfully absent and progress was good. I was in my element, as I could see all the new lorries (the British version of a truck) up close, rather than in pictures. There some big differences compared to the trucks I usually see and drive and I have to say, we have the better deal by far in most respects, especially cab size. Sure, the lorries may have fullwidth cabs and high roofs that allow you to stand up on the seat. They also have storage cupboards and cubby holes up in the roof space, but they have tiny bunks, literally cut out behind the seats with a slightly wider section in the middle.

I slept in similar or worse during my 20-plus years of trucking over here, but since I’ve had the luxury of North American sleeper berths, there is no way I would want to go back to sleeping with the back of a seat inches from my face. Drivelines are pretty much the same. Daimler, Paccar and Volvo all have European products that use the same engines we do. Transmissions differ – most here are autoshift, but their standard transmissions are synchromesh and they shift a lot slower and more ponderously than our Eaton Fullers. It’s pretty much like stirring a pail

of oatmeal with a hockey stick. One area in which they do have the edge on us is in the stopping department. Apart from construction trucks, everything is on discs and has been for quite some time. That’s good because with high traffic volumes and speed-limited trucks (90 km/h is law in all of Europe) they drive far too close to one another for my liking and with thinking and reaction distances severely reduced, the stopping distance itself has to be shorter to avoid massive chain reaction wrecks. We stopped off at a service station, much like an OnRoute on the 401. Facilities inside are very good. You

have a choice of cuisine from Chinese, fish and chips, Indian, KFC, McDonalds, Noodles, Starbucks and a high-

I like disc brakes and the choice of food, but I’ve got it far better in Canada. end grocer that has the most delicious nibbles, all at a very reasonable price compared to what we would have to pay in Canada, if such things were even available in the first place. However, there’s a downside – isn’t there always? Parking is not free. If you stay more than two hours you can be charged anywhere up to $50 per night. Yes, that’s right, fifty bucks! They do give you a voucher to go towards food or drink on site, but at most that’s worth $20 and the rest goes towards renting the asphalt for the night. So, in summary, I like disc brakes and the choice of food in some of the service areas, but the rest of it, no thanks, I’ve got it far better in Canada.

A fourth generation trucker and trucking journalist, Mark Lee uses his 25 years of transcontinental trucking in Europe, Asia, North Africa and now North America to provide an alternative view of life on the road.

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2017-01-16 10:29 AM

TRUCK NEWS

Over the Road AL GOODHALL

ooking for happiness today derived from the golden days of the past is a fool’s errand. We do that in our politics, in our personal relationships, and it’s a practice we follow in the trucking industry. Even if we could duplicate past experiences that our minds have enshrined as golden oldies, we have no way of duplicating the circumstances from which they grew. Times change and our wellbeing is dependent on our ability to adapt. I had the pleasure of taking a young “millennial” with me on one of my weekly Winnipeg rounders just before Christmas. This new young driver has been working for our company part-time in a variety of warehouse positions and just obtained his learner’s permit for a Class A (Class 1) truck licence. He has been shunting trucks and trailers around our yard for a few years and was eager to see the open road and visit one of our other facilities. When we talk about millennials and boomers, we often reinforce stereotypes around the generation gap that exists between us. But what I took away from our short trip together was how we share the same values across the generations. It was easy to see within the first few

I am sure that many young people look at the world as a fixerupper that has been neglected by the previous tenants. hours together that young people today are no less passionate about their interests than boomers such as myself were in our youth. But through our conversations over the course of the week, I learned there is one stark difference between our generations. When I was a young man at 20 years of age, I faced a world that was filled with opportunity and riches yet to be discovered. That was how we viewed the world, or perhaps it’s better to say that is the way the world was presented to my generation. It was a very positive outlook. I thank my parents for that every day. Now, contrast that to the world we are handing off to our young people and the prevailing attitudes of today. It’s very much every person for themselves in a world where the social contract between business and the individual has been severed or is on life support. I am sure that many young people look at the world as a fixer-upper that has been neglected by the previous tenants.

pg 41 tn feb v3.indd 41

It’s a different world for millennials The structure is sound but it needs gutting and retrofitting. This is a metaphor that fits the trucking industry perfectly. Fully half of us that drive today are of the boomer generation. Changes are being rained down on us on what feels like a daily basis. Our expectations as young people were of stability and growth. We would commit to a job for life and in return for that sweat equity and loyalty, there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Well, we never allowed for any twists in the plot and here we are.

February 2017

on the road, but he recognizes that change is imminent. He is not looking at driving a truck for life to provide for himself and a family. He recognizes that driving is just one of the skills you need. Tomorrow’s trucker will need a skill set that extends far beyond the inside of a truck’s cab. In fact, a trucker up to this point has been viewed as a lone wolf, independent and free from the constraints of a regular “job.” Drivers of the future need to be connected, not isolated, if they want to prosper. I have no idea what trucking in 2050 is going to look like. I’m certain it will be very different from today. That’s a safe bet and an understatement.

It’s time we take off our rose-colored glasses and recognize that young people today face a more difficult road than we did at the same age. My young friend that made that trip with me was filled with the same passion for trucking as all the old dogs

Al Goodhall has been a professional long-haul driver since 1998. He shares his experiences via his ‘Over the Road’ blog at http://truckingacrosscanada.blogspot.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at @Al_Goodhall.

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2017-01-12 2:05 PM

42 PROFILE

Speedy team enjoys life on the road together Continued from page 1

“What appealed to me was that there is no boss around to constantly watch you,” she said. “I used to work security before this and my boss was always around watching over me. I couldn’t go on my cell phone or anything, but on the road, you’re on your own. I really like the independence. Plus you get to travel and see things.

The pay attracted them to the industry. The independence has kept them going. You’re not stuck in the office all day.” Harwinder said his favorite part of the job, especially as an owner-operator, is there is room for him to grow… and to grow as much as he wants. “In trucking, there is lots of opportunity,” he said. “Most of the time you can choose your runs and it’s flexible. You can plan your goals and realistically achieve them in trucking.” Harwinder’s goal of becoming an owner-operator happened late last year when he and Ramandeep joined Speedy Transport. “We chose Speedy initially because of their rates,” he said candidly, but added they were willing to sign him and his wife on as owner-operators, something his previous company wouldn’t do. “When we met with them, they were also professional and it seemed like they had good management.” Today, the couple runs from Speedy’s Brampton, Ont. facility to Charlotte N.C. and then back up to the company’s terminal in Montreal. They are normally gone for five days – they leave early afternoon on Monday and are back home Saturday mornings. Being a young couple in the trucking industry, the Dhaliwals certainly turn some heads. “When we’re at Customs, a lot of the officers will joke with us and say ‘You’re married? Still?’” Ramandeep said. But if there’s one thing the couple has figured out it’s how to be a husband and wife both in and out of the truck. “We’ve been driving team for two years now, so we know how to take

Ramandeep Dhaliwal (inside the cab) and husband Harwinder have remained close by driving team together.

care of each other,” Ramandeep said. “I still like to be a wife and so I do the wifely duties in the truck, like the cooking and the cleaning.” She also takes credit for bringing nutrition goals into the truck for the benefit of both her and Harwinder.

“

does the heavy lifting and the loading and unloading, especially in the cold weather.” “We work well together,” Harwinder added. “If I’m getting sleepy I can always ask her to take over…and she learned to drive very quickly and al-

O goal is to own a few more trucks Our and have a business. There’s a lot of big a ttrucking companies that started off with jjust one truck, so you never know.” Harwinder Dhaliwal, Speedy Transport owner-operator

“When Harry was driving single he was out of shape and gained some weight,” she said. “But when we started working together I helped with his diet and made meal plans, including smoothies and salads, so he wouldn’t be eating those gas station goodies. And he takes care of me, too. He

ways gets compliments when we’re on the road. She’s been doing such a great job.” Ramandeep said that as a woman she feels empowered in her new career. “I haven’t found it to be discriminating at all,” she said. “It’s empowering, really. People look at me all the

time and say ‘Oh my god, you’re driving a truck?’ And that feels good because so many drivers are men and so when they see me driving a truck too, it’s kind of like a hit on their ego because I can do it too.” And while the couple does find comfort in the fact that now they are together all the time on the road, it still gets hard when they miss family events. But the couple says their family understands why they are away so much and supports them entirely. “And it gets hard running errands and things like that. But we’ve learned to use our time wisely on the weekend,” Ramandeep added. Looking into the future, the Dhaliwals say they are going to continue their careers as drivers with the ultimate goal of owning a few more trucks in the next five to 10 years. “Our goal is to own a few more trucks and have a business,” Harwinder said optimistically. “There’s a lot of big trucking companies that started off with just one truck, so you never know.”

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2017-01-13 9:49 AM

TRUCK NEWS

ELECTRONIC LOGGING DEVICES

Are you ready for ELDs? Canadian fleets operating in the US will have until the end of this year to comply By Sonia Straface NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Attention Canadian fleets who operate on American soil: Are you prepared for the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate? With the US ELD mandate deadline coming sooner than many fleets are prepared for, PeopleNet took the time at its in.sight user conference at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville to inform fleets in attendance about what they should be keeping in mind before the Dec. 18, 2017 deadline. Leading the information session in a crowded conference room was Elise Chianelli, PeopleNet’s director of product management, who summed up and cleared up the most important parts of the 516-page final rule. She reiterated to the crowd that fleets still running paper logs have until Dec. 17, 2017 to transition to e-logs. For those fleets who are using some kind of e-log today, they have until

PIT Group verifying ELDs

Dec. 16, 2019 to comply. “Essentially, those fleets would have an additional two years to go from the way e-logs work today to this new world of ELDs,” she said. Chianelli added there are some exceptions to the rule and that not all

“

She stressed that there are no exemptions for rental or leased vehicles, as many in the industry have speculated. “So, for example, if you have a driver who has to rent a truck for two days, they will be required to use an ELD under the final rule,” she said. Another aspect of the final rule that was outlined was that ELDs do not have to remind the driver when they are coming close to going over their hours-of-service. “However, we (PeopleNet) feel this is a huge value to add in order to help drivers maintain compliance,” Chi-

F FMCSA said it was the due diligence of the ccarrier to make sure the solution they are purchasing is compliant.” p Elise Chianelli, PeopleNet

truck drivers have to be on ELDs with the upcoming mandate. “The first is the short-haul exemption,” she explained. “So for those drivers that are qualified and driving within 100-150 air miles, they will be exempted from using the ELD…however, in the event that the driver is required to use a paper log eight days in a rolling 30-day window, they will be required to use an ELD to complete the trip.” As well, there is an exemption for drive-away and tow-away drivers (who drive the commodity they are delivering) and for commercial vehicles that are older than model year 2000.

anelli said. “FMCSA just said it’s not required.” She added that PeopleNet will continue to go forward with ‘safe mode’ on its systems, where the display isn’t constantly changing and only displays pertinent information so as to not distract the driver. Chianelli also reminded fleet owners that ELDs have to be fixed-mounted onto the dashboard and within arm’s reach of the driver. “This really goes back to distracted driving,” she explained. “We don’t want devices sitting on a seat and slipping and drivers to go and reach for them. FMCSA was very clear about

February 2017

the devices being fixed-mounted and within arm’s reach of that driver while the vehicle is moving.” The devices do need to detach and come out of the vehicle, however, during a roadside inspection, as officers will not climb into the cab to check the ELD personally. In the event that the ELD malfunctions and doesn’t work correctly, motor carriers have a total of eight days to replace or fix the device, according to Chianelli. As well, the final rule now permits drivers to do yard moves that do not count towards their drive time. “Essentially the motor carrier, if you so choose, can enable the use of personal conveyance or yard moves,” Chianelli said. “The driver can declare a yard move status, and it won’t be declared as drive time, but rather on-duty, not-driving time. But here’s where that gets a little scary. Say a driver is in yard mode and then they take off driving and they pull into a scale house and they forgot to put themselves in drive mode instead of yard move mode. So PeopleNet is continuing to work on how to prompt drivers to remind them to log out of yard move mode.” Finally, Chianelli reminded fleet executives who are looking to purchase ELDs to check on the FMCSA website to make sure the device they are purchasing is compliant. “FMCSA said it was the due diligence of the carrier to make sure the solution they are purchasing is compliant,” she said. To learn more about the final rule, visit www.fmcsa.dot.gov.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA PIT Group has announced it will be verifying the compliance of electronic logging devices (ELDs) with the impending mandate in the US. ELD suppliers are allowed to self-certify their devices, but PIT Group says its verification will allow customers to be assured the devices are compliant. “In advance of the ELD mandate in the US, a growing number of suppliers are self-certifying ELDs,” said Yves Provencher, director of the PIT Group. “But suppliers that come to us for ELD verification will differentiate themselves in the market because our testing is thorough and unbiased, and it will cover the most up to date requirements in the ELD rule.” Suppliers that work with PIT Group will receive a certificate of verification that assures customers the devices meet FMCSA requirements. “PIT Group’s expertise in testing ELDs can also benefit trucking companies by helping ensure that company drivers and owner-operators are only using a fully verified ELD,” Provencher added. EROAD has announced it will be the first ELD provider to work with PIT towards certification. “PIT Group’s expertise in vehicle technologies, telematics and regulatory requirements made it uniquely qualified to demonstrate the feasibility and value of independent testing and verification,” said EROAD chief operating officer Jarred Clayton. “They understand fleets. Having worked with fleet managers and manufacturers to provide and select the best technologies for the past eight years, they know it’s about more than just meeting technical specifications. What matters most is ease of use and how it can help the business overall.”

pg 43 tn feb v3.indd 43

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2017-01-12 2:01 PM

44 TRANSMISSIONS

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Remanufactured transmissions bring benefits to fleets But ‘rebuilt’ and ‘remanufactured’ are two terms that can’t be used interchangeably By James Menzies OTTAWA, ONTARIO Canadian customers have new choices when it comes to remanufactured transmissions, as Eaton brought its FLEX Reman program to the Canadian market in early January. Customers can now select from two tiers of Eaton Factory Remain products: standard reman transmissions with clutch housings and FLEX reman transmissions without clutch housings. “We were looking for one transmission, covering more individual parts and we made it easier to do business with our customers,” Jack Rutty, operations manager, remanufacturing for Eaton, told Truck News in an interview. “We took some content off as well, such

as the clutch housing. A lot of times our customers like to use their clutch housing and by taking it off, you can lower the price a little bit as well.” “FLEX eliminates the need to stock the entire portfolio of Eaton replacement transmissions yet still allows participants to maintain a healthy inventory with a wide range of available torque ratings for multiple trucking applications,” said Bill Fouch, manager, aftermarket marketing, Eaton. “Fleets also benefit from the FLEX program’s competitive pricing and enhanced access to the many models that are available through the program.” Eaton’s offering same-day and nextday shipments from distribution centers in Airdrie, Alta., Moncton, N.B. and Ottawa and Brampton, Ont. Rutty said the remanufacturing of

Eaton brought its FLEX Reman program to the Canadian market this year.

mechanical transmissions continues to gain popularity, as customers enjoy cost savings over replacing transmissions with brand new ones, without compromising in reliability. But he also cautioned remanufacturing isn’t the same as rebuilding. “You have very similar dependability on a reman product (compared to

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new),” Rutty said. “We replace a lot of components every time – input shafts, bearings, synchronizers, air system components – a lot of these wear items we replace 100% of the time. All that stuff is new, so you get a truly remanufactured transmission. Rebuilders will re-use some of those items we replace 100% of the time.” When a transmission is received by Eaton for remanufacturing – National Remanufacturing Centre in Ottawa handles this in Canada – it gets completely disassembled. All bearings, gears and shafts are cleaned and the grey iron is burned and blasted. Parts are then inspected to determine whether or not they are acceptable to re-use. Missing or unsatisfactory parts are replaced and the transmission gets completely rebuilt. In addition to the cost savings enjoyed by customers, remanufacturing also has an environmental benefit. “I can tell you, any parts we do not re-use, we recycle,” said Rutty. If using a rebuilder, make sure to inquire about the warranty coverage. Remanufactured transmissions are backed by a warranty that’s typically about a year shorter than brand new. However, some rebuilt transmissions have inferior coverage, which can lead to disappointment if a problem with the transmission arises. Rebuilt transmissions from thirdparty suppliers also frequently use non-genuine parts, Eaton warns. It has found that some rebuilders use just 3540% genuine parts. Why is that an issue? The parts within a transmission were all designed to work in concert with each other. And using genuine parts also affords the opportunity to get the latest design enhancements built into a remanufactured transmission, so effectively the transmission can be better post-manufacture than it was before, Eaton claims. The remanufacturing of automated manual transmissions has yet to take off, but Rutty said he’s not sure why. It’s a viable option but so far the growth in remanufacturing has remained in the mechanical transmission segment. Volvo, however, is stepping up remanufacturing activities on its I-Shift AMT. Sherman Williams, remanufacturing director with Volvo Trucks, said Volvo is transitioning its rebuilt activities on the I-Shift AMT to a remanufacturing process. “It is becoming the accepted practice that provides the best possible upside to a transmission repair event,” Williams said of remanufacturing. One of the biggest benefits is that “We provide the highest quality with all the updates for the least amount of downtime with a Volvo factory reman unit,” Williams explained. “It has the best warranty coverage also and are on the shelf at all our parts distribution centers. This is the best way to go.”

2017-01-16 4:18 PM

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2017-01-11 10:17 AM

46 WINTERIZATION

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

GETTING YOUR TRUCK

WINTER-READY Avoid downtime this winter with these simple maintenance tips By Sonia Straface Now that the cold weather and snow has settled in across Canada, drivers and owner-operators should be taking their winter maintenance requirements seriously. To avoid downtime, experts and driving vets will tell you that winterization service is crucial before the freezing temperatures even begin. We spoke with some maintenance experts who provided tips on how to keep your equipment in top shape during the icy winter months so you’re not stuck on the side of the road in the cold this year.

Focus on batteries The biggest focal point for drivers during the winter months, according to Bert Downton, the regional used truck/trailer sales manager at By James Menzies Custom Truck Sales in Regina, Sask., should be battery maintenance. “Keeping batteries up and running is crucial for all trucks, especially in the winter. As a driver, you want to make sure they are clean and free from corrosion. I always say that as a truck driver you have to be proactive, not reactive, when it comes to maintaining trucks,” said Downton, who has been in the trucking industry for 38 years and has two decades of experience as a heavy-duty mechanic. “To clean them, you can buy a special battery cleaner, but even more than that, I would suggest charging and testing the battery even before winter sets in fully.” Hardeep Bhogal, the service manager at Tallman Truck Centre in Oshawa, Ont., echoed Downton’s recommendation as it concerns batteries. “Testing batteries is such an easy step for drivers, but it’s often one that is overlooked,” Bhogal said. “You just have to take them to your local shop and ask for a load test. I find batteries

pg 46 tn feb v3.indd 38

are always overlooked because they work fine during the warmer months and drivers think they’ll function fine even if they don’t check them. They think that they don’t have to spend the money on testing the batteries or replacing the batteries, but ignoring them completely ends up costing them more in the long run. I always tell drivers who come in here for winter maintenance to replace old batteries before problems set in.”

Keep air systems in mind Bhogal said the second most overlooked aspect of winter maintenance is the air system. “Especially the air dryer,” he said. “You want to make sure it’s functioning properly or change it before the cold temperatures.” Tony Costa, fleet manager at Carmen Transportation, agreed. “We used to think that we could get away with changing the air dryer every two or three years, but that’s just not the case anymore,” he said. “And that’s an issue I’ve seen time and time again. So now we have it on our maintenance schedule to change the air dryer cartridge when drivers come in for a safety.” Experts at Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems will tell you that proper maintenance of your air system is crucial, because it can affect so many other parts of the truck. “It’s really not the cold itself that brings the most potential for air system trouble – it’s the moisture that’s brought in with it when the compressor draws in air,” said Richard Nagel, Bendix director of marketing and customer solutions. “If enough moisture makes its way through the air dryer, it creates potential for condensation within the air tanks – and from there, it can travel downstream, affecting the braking system and other technologies.” Bendix recommends draining air tanks manually every three months

to keep the system moisture-free in the winter. It also recommends replacing the air dryer cartridge in the fall well before the cold weather sets in because “the right cartridge can be one of the easiest and most costeffective means of preventing moisture from getting into your air system.”

Tires Another thing to keep in mind in the wintertime is tires, explained Carmen Transportation’s Costa. “Drive tires that are still technically safe at 5/32nds (tread depth) are not helpful in snowy and icy weather,” he explained. “If it was June or August and I had a set of drive tires with 5/32nds, I’d be leaving them on. But I’d definitely be changing them out before the first snow fall. Of course, 5/32nds is completely legal, but we would recommend a customer change them because of the snow and traction you need in the winter months.” As well, depending on where you travel, it’s good practice to keep tire chains in your rig in case you need them when you least expect it.

Stay stocked To keep your fluids and winter kit stocked in the cold months seems like a no-brainer, but Costa said that it is an often overlooked maintenance tip. “Come the fall, we order all of our windshield washer fluid for the whole

year,” he said. He said drivers should make sure to use a formula that is meant for extremely cold temperatures. “We also order our wiper blades, batteries and gloves at that time, too,” he said, emphasizing that drivers should be inspecting wipers often. It’s also a good idea to keep wiper blades, gloves, water and food in your winter kit. It’ll come in handy if you’re ever stuck, he said.

Heaters Costa also noted that block heaters need special attention, too. He noted that in particular, the block heater cord should be checked for damage or exposed wires. “In the summer, fleets take in their cords, so the upkeep of that would have to be checked to make sure there is still power and that a breaker hasn’t tripped,” he said. “Another tip would be if the fleet is running any type of auxiliary cab heater, that a lot of times, they really have no use in the summer months, so if they’re not checked or run in the summer, they won’t work when they’re needed in the winter,” Costa added. “It doesn’t take much to just run them once in a while in the summer. But if you don’t run them regularly throughout the year, they won’t work as they should when it comes time to use them in the winter.”

2017-01-13 10:11 AM

Feb TN MK Pages 2017-01-16 11:22 AM Page 47

February 2017

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February 2017

54 HEALTH

The important role mental health plays in trucking By Sonia Straface MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO Mental health is a topic some people are not comfortable discussing. However, studies show that one in five Canadians are suffering from mental illness each and every day, and most are doing so in silence. At the Fleet Safety Council’s 25th annual educational conference in Mississauga, Ont. Nitika Rewari of the Mental Health Commission of Canada enlightened fleet executives on mental health and the role employers play when it comes to mental illness. “Sixty per cent of the time, we are in the workplace,” Rewari said. “And people take conversations and stresses from work home with them so workplaces do have a place in terms of mental health employees.” Rewari said many mental health issues that employees suffer never get brought up to management, because of the stigma attached to illnesses like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. She asked those in the room to pick out words that they associate with mental illness – “inability to cope,” “street people” and “faking it” were shouted out. But then when asked if people personally were affected by a mental illness or if they’ve have known someone who has suffered from a mental illness, nearly everyone in the room confirmed they had.

Nitika Rewari of the Mental Health Commission of Canada says employers need to put a mental health plan in place so employees and drivers can feel safe discussing mental health issues at work.

Need a plan

“It’s true that 500,000 Canadians aren’t going to work this week due to a mental health problem,” she said. “If it’s affecting all of us how come we treat people who have a mental illness with words like ‘You just need to buck up?’” Rewari stressed that workplaces, including those in the trucking industry, need to implement a mental health plan into their workplace so employees can feel safe discussing mental health issues without fear of being judged. “Workplaces have a role to play,” she said. “Employers to have a duty to care. There’s seven branches of law...that tell us that you do have a responsibility to your employees to address their health and safety concerns which includes mental health. By not doing that, we’re costing employers, individuals and Canadian society on the whole a lot of money. Stigma remains

“This is a very male-dominated industry. Also an industry where you’re driving for hours and hours in length. So issues that come up: loneliness, boredom, fatigue, obesity, PTSD, depression and because this is an industry that is so focused on the safety and health of the driver…a lot of times, I’ve been told that drivers undermine their illness because there’s a lot of stigma. If they do speak to their illness, they are scared they won’t be able to work.” Rewari said employers should start researching ways to help support drivers at the terminal level but also have a way for them to connect with someone in the event they are on the road when mental illness strikes. “If you’re on the road and there are ways to support your driver psychologically, let’s look at that,” she said adding that drivers can simply feel less stressed through recognition in the workplace.

pg 54-55 tn feb v2.indd 54

Show Organizers:

Confirmed 2017 Exhibitors:

2017-01-16 11:39 AM

TRUCK NEWS

FLEET NEWS

February 2017

Purolator first to take delivery of Volvo’s 2017 engines MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO Volvo Trucks North America recently delivered 19 D13-powered Volvo VNL 300 models to Ontario-based Purolator. The occasion marks the first Canadian delivery of trucks equipped with Volvo’s new 2017 engines. “Our 2017 engines offer several engineering enhancements to deliver significant fuel savings,” said Jeff Lester, senior vice-president of sales for Volvo Trucks North America. “And we were able to do it without sacrificing power or performance, a win-win for our customers.” Purolator is one of Canada’s leading integrated freight and logistics solutions providers. It currently operates a fleet of approximately 460 power units, of which more than half are Volvo models. “We depend on our fleet of more than 4,777 vehicles to deliver goods to

Purolator fleet manager Serge Viola is pictured with the new Volvos.

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Volvo said the 2017 D13 received a number of updates to improve efficiency by up to 2.5% compared to the previous D13. A patented wave piston design helps maximize fuel efficiency by improving flame propagation, while a proven common-rail fuel system enables finer control of the fuel injection, allowing for faster, more accurate injection. The D13 also features an updated EGR flow sensor with a new double-wall casing, helping reduce condensation and soot buildup in cold weather, while an improved aftertreatment dosing module has been integrated into the fuel filter housing for easier serviceability. Upgrades were also made to the two-speed coolant pump, helping to reduce parasitic losses. Purolator’s new Volvo models are equipped with Volvo’s latest 12-speed I-Shift automated manual transmission.

This will be a ‘year of growth’ for Mullen Group OKOTOKS, ALBERTA After two very challenging years, Mullen Group chairman and CEO Murray Mullen said 2017 will be a year of growth. “I believe the outlook for the economy and the oil and gas industry has changed for the better and as such Mullen Group will benefit. South of our border a new administration has been elected, generating optimism that the US economy will enter a new faster growth phase,” Mullen said. “Furthermore, the oil and gas markets appear to be strengthening based upon improving supply/demand fundamentals along with the announcement by Saudi Arabia that they will essentially abandon a market share strategy in favor of a higher oil prices. Under this scenario our business will begin to recover after two very challenging years. In addition, we are well positioned to pursue acquisitions and recapture market share from competitors that have mispriced their services and are over leveraged. The timing of the recovery or acquisitions is somewhat elusive but I have a high degree of confidence that 2017 will be the beginning of growth for our organization once again.” The company announced it is allocating a capital budget of $25 million for 2017, exclusive of corporate acquisitions. The money will go towards replacing trucks, trailers and specialized equipment in the trucking/logistics segment. Mullen said he expects Canada’s GDP to expand moderately in 2017. He thinks pricing pressure will decrease through the year as capacity tightens and competitors leave the market due to cash flow issues. The year ahead should also see improvements for the oilfield services segment, Mullen said, but it will be the latter part of 2017 before competitive prices are eased and supply/demand normalize. Mullen said the company will complete more acquisitions in the year ahead.

2017-01-16 11:40 AM

56 FLEET NEWS

Titanium rolling out BlackBerry Radar across fleet BOLTON, ONTARIO Titanium Transportation is the latest fleet to commit to BlackBerry’s Radar trailer tracking platform. Titanium announced it will be deploying Radar across its entire trailer fleet in an effort to increase revenue per trailer and improve profitability. BlackBerry Radar monitors trailer location via GPS and delivers custom, real-time alerts about events, such as when a trailer has crossed a user-defined area or when a trailer door has been opened or closed. It also monitors temperature, humidity and the presence of cargo. “BlackBerry Radar will provide Titanium with better utilization of trailers, which will result in better revenue per trailer and improved profitability,” said Titanium CEO Ted Daniel. “The technology is highly innovative and stood out amongst its competitors. We

Ted Daniel, CEO of Titanium Transportation Group (right) and chief operating officer Marilyn Daniel, chose BlackBerry because it’s wireless and also because of the company’s Canadian roots.

are excited to be one of the first to take advantage of their new asset tracking solution and look forward to growing with BlackBerry.”

In an interview with Truck News, Daniel said Titanium evaluated several tracking systems and was drawn to BlackBerry Radar because the compa-

Print is Not Dead... In Fact

ny has its roots in Canada and also it had key advantages, most notably the lack of any wires. “What they have is a battery-based product. It is incredible because there are no wires,” Daniel said. “It mounts to the door and what it does is, it actually reverse-looks at the trailer. It measures humidity, it measures temperature, it checks how full the trailer is, and all that through a very, very ergonomic portal. They are leading edge.” Another differentiator, Daniel noted, was the availability of unlimited pings while competitive offerings offer as few as one to three pings a day. “I think they’re a great piece of technology and they are going to help us improve the utilization of our trailers, which improves profitability,” Daniel told Truck News. “We’re going to give it a go.” Titanium is rolling it out across its entire trailer fleet. classifieds CLASSIFIEDS classifieds classifieds d clasds clas ifieds classifieds CLASSIFIEDS S cl cclassifieds assifieds classifieds claassifi fied fi e sifieds classi ssiifie fieds d CLASSIFIEDS ds CLA L SSIFIEDS classifieds cla l sssifi fied fied edss CLASSIFIEDS CLAS CL AS SSI S FI FIED EDS S cl clas asss classifieds classified eds ed ds CL CLAS ASS AS SIFI SI FIED EDS ED S classifieds classsi cl sifie fieds eds classifieds claass ssifi ified ifi edss classifieds ed clas cl assi sifie si fied d fieds CLASSIFIEDS cl las assi sifie fieds ds CLASSIFIEDS CLA LASS SSIF SS IFIE IF IEDS IE DS classifieds cla lass ssifi ss ified ifi fied edss classifieds ccllassifi ifieds cla c classifieds

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2017-01-17 5:15 PM

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Zavcor Trucking launches driver training academy FORT ERIE, ONTARIO Zavcor Trucking is getting into the driver training business. The company announced it is launching the Zavcor Professional Driver Training Academy in February. “There are endless opportunities for men and women entering the industry,” said Kirk Zavitz, head of Zavcor Trucking. “As we looked at those opportunities, we decided to take the natural next step to control our destiny as we continue to grow our company. There are massive labor opportunities in the transportation industry. A/Z drivers are in demand. Truck driving is a respected, and fulfilling career and offers high paying jobs for both genders.” Zavcor is an approved Registered Private Career College and says it will deliver a curriculum that exceeds Ontario’s impending mandatory entry-level training requirements by 80 hours. Christine Trombley is director of the Zavcor Professional Driver Training Academy. Graduates of the program will have the opportunity to work for Zavcor or another of the company’s carrier partners. For more information contact Trombley at 905-382-3444, ext. 209.

TFI International buys National Fast Freight BRAMPTON, ONTARIO TFI International has announced the acquisition of National Fast Freight from Calyx Transportation Group. National Fast Freight provides LTL intermodal services across Canada and has generated $80 million of intermodal revenue over the past 12 months. TFI International, formerly TransForce, says the acquisition will bolster its intermodal density. National Fast Freight will continue

to operate as a standalone business under its current management as part of TFI International. “Today’s announcement of the acquisition of National Fast Freight is a strategic step which builds upon our existing foundation in the intermodal segment,” said Alain Bédard, chairman, president and chief executive officer of TFI International. TransForce announced in December its name change to TFI International.

Meyers Transport shuts doors Continued from page 1

Including brokers, Meyers said that 190 people would be losing jobs with the closure, though she assured the layoffs would be staggered and gradual. Meyers added that the company’s main focus now is to ensure that none of its customers suffer with the closing and still receive the quality of service they expect. Despite the closure, Meyers said that the family will still be active in the trucking industry through its related businesses, Mortrans and Mo-

saic Logistics. Mortrans, based in Belleville, Ont. will still provide truckload services, Meyers said. The business will be owned and operated by Larry and Natalie Meyers, while non-asset logistics provider Mosaic Logistics, based in Peterborough, Ont., will be led by Jacquie Meyers. “It has been 90 years and it’s been a good run and I want to give a big thank you to all the employees from the Meyers family, it’s been a pleasure and honor,” she said.

Action Trailer Sales ...............................47

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ALPHABETICAL LIST Accutrac Capital Solutions .....................13

Laidlaw Carriers Tank LP...................... 39

BF Goodrich – The Last Word ................ 62

Liquid Capital Midwest Corp ...................56

Bison Transport................................. 35

Lockwood ........................................15

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Mack Trucks Canada ............................ 6

BTC Express Inc ................................ 38

Michelin ......................................... 58

Burrowes Insurance Brokers ................. 16

NACVS .......................................... 55

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Newcom Events ................................ 7

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Ontario Drivers Medical ....................... 56

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Child Find Ontario ............................ 61

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Country Transport .............................. 36

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Doyle Transportation........................... 40

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Texis Truck Exhaust ...................... 9,52,57

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Toronto Transportation Club .................. 45

Freightliner Trucks .............................2,3

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Globetrotter Logistics .......................... 37

Trailer Wizards ...................................11

Haldex ........................................... 23

Transport Financial Services.................. 57

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Uniroyal – Newland Transport ................ 60

Howes Lubricator Products ................... 16

Villeneuve Tank Lines .......................... 36

Hyndman (A Celadon Company) ............. 27

Volvo Trucks Canada........................... 64

International Trucklines........................ 41

Walmart Logistics .............................. 44

International Truckload Services ............. 37

West Trans Auto ................................ 36

J-Line Transport................................ 40

Wilson’s Truck Lines ........................... 41

K.D.I.Transportation ............................ 33

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Kindersley Transport ........................... 43

Young Transportation System ................ 38

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58 FICTION

MARK DALTON : OWNER/OPERATOR

By Edo van Belkom

THE STORY SO FAR Bud asks Mark to start taking loads for a new company. At first Mark isn’t interested, but Bud convinces him it would be good for Bud’s other drivers, many of whom are looking for regular, steady loads. Mark takes the first load for the company, but the paperwork is all wrong and Mark ends up having to drive the load back to Toronto because he had taken the wrong trailer. Mark’s second load is also held up at the border, but this time it’s just a clerical error and Mark is across the border and on his way in less than 15 minutes… • On the Friday afternoon of a long weekend, Mark picked up the third load of the week from the new company he’d been working for. So far, of the two loads he had delivered, one was turned around at the border because Mark had mistakenly taken the wrong trailer and the other was delayed because of an administrative error. However, the error was fixed in just a few minutes and Mark spent less than 15 extra minutes at the border. With any luck, this third load would prove that the third time was a charm and he’d drive right through the border without a problem or delay. He hoped. But hope alone wasn’t going to get him into the US, so he spent most of his time in the yard asking questions of people, many of which people didn’t know the answer to. “Am I going to have a problem at the border this time?” he asked the shipper. “I think so.” “What do you mean, you think so?” “Well, anything can happen between here and there. You could break down on your way, or you could be hijacked by a gang of truck thieves who divert you to another destination, or you might have something in your past that comes to light and you’re denied entry into the US, or there could be a terrorist attack on US soil and the border could be shut down indefinitely, or…” “Okay, okay,” Mark said. “I get the idea. As far as you know there is nothing about this load that should prevent me from passing right through Customs.” “The broker would know that for certain,” the shipper said. “But they’ve assured me that this one is perfect.” It wasn’t exactly what Mark wanted to hear. He wanted assurances that left no doubt. “Can you give me a guarantee?” The shipper shook his head. “You know there are no guarantees in this life.” Mark considered that, then said, “But you don’t foresee any problems?” “Correct.” “Okay. I guess that’s going to have to do.” “Call us if there’s a problem.” “Don’t worry,” Mark said. “I’ve got you guys on speed dial by now." • As Mark drove down the QEW, heading for the Fort

PART 4 As Mark closed in on the border, he was buoyed by the fact that traffic was light and he wouldn’t have to wait in line to learn his fate. Within minutes he was at the border and speaking to a Customs officer, the very same one he’d dealt with a few days ago when he was hauling the first load for this new company. “Everything looks okay,” the officer said. Then he smiled, “Even got the right trailer this time and everything.” Mark didn’t appreciate being made sport of. Sure, it had been his fault, but it had been an honest mistake. “I don’t believe it,” Mark said. “Check it again…Make sure there’s no problem. I don’t want to be pulled over five miles down the road, you know.” The officer looked at Mark for the longest time, the expression on his face suggesting that he was wondering if Mark was pranking him. “You want there to be a problem?” the Customs officer said. Mark shook his head. “I don’t want there to be a problem, but there probably is a problem. There always has to be a problem.” The officer took another look at the paperwork and then at his computer screen. “Well,” he said at last. “Now that you mention it, there is no entry on file.” Mark felt vindicated, and a little bit superior to the shipper, broker and everyone else who was involved with this load. “Aha!” he exclaimed. “I was right! I told you there was a problem.” The officer shook his head. “No. There’s no entry file required on this one. See, you’ve got a load of spare parts going to a military warehouse outside of Chicago. That makes it a government shipment and because of that, there are no taxes on it. So,” a shrug, “no entry file required.” Mark could feel the blood drain from his face. “Oh,” was all he could say. “Okay.” “Yeah, so, I guess this is the load you’ve been hoping for,” the officer said. “Better be on your way, then.” Mark pulled out of Customs and spent the next few kilometers wondering why he felt so lousy about getting over the border without a problem. There had been no delay, no headache, and all the paperwork had been in order. “Then why do I feel so let down?” he said aloud. And then it came to him. Mark Dalton actually likes it when things are difficult. If things were always easy or went smoothly, where would the fun be in that? Although he hated to admit it, he’d enjoyed the past few days because always wondering what might happen when he reached the border had made life more interesting. There was only one thing to do. He dialed up Bud. “Hello?” “Bud, this is Mark.” “Mark who?” “Mark me off the case…These guys have got a handle on the border now. It’s time for me to find a real problem to solve.”

Erie crossing into the US, Mark thought about the past two loads he’d taken over the border. The first load screw-up was totally his fault. He could make excuses or try to blame the shipper all he wanted, but he was the one who’d been in a hurry and had taken the wrong trailer. It had been an honest mistake – identical trailers with a code number off by a couple of digits – but not a mistake that Mark was prone to making. In almost 20 years of driving, Mark had only taken the wrong trailer once before, and that had been as a result of being given the wrong paperwork. Both honest mistakes, but absolutely avoidable with patience and diligence before heading out on the road. And the second load’s delay at the border wasn’t as bad as it could have been. There had been no entry on file and a new entry was made up in no time at all. It had never happened to Mark before, but he’d heard stories of other drivers who were carrying loads where the broker was unable to complete the entry because of a lack of information about the load. In those cases, the drivers had to leave their trailer and the goods at a border facility where there were plenty of fees and penalties to be paid. That would have been a worst-case scenario – on par with having to turn around and take the load back – and he was glad he didn’t have to do that again. Overall, he decided, this new brokerage had been doing alright, which gave him confidence that everything would be in order at the border this time around.

Illustration by Glenn McEvoy

Truckers without borders

Mark Dalton returns next month in a new adventure.

THE SINGLE BEST WAY

TO IMPROVE YOUR BOTTOM LINE

pg 58 tn feb v3.indd 58

2017-01-16 12:33 PM

TRUCK NEWS

NEW PRODUCTS

TomTom’s newest GPS geared for truckers By Harry Rudolfs Dutch navigation provider TomTom has jumped into the North American truck GPS business with its Trucker 600. TomTom is a giant in Europe but this is its first attempt to crack the truck navigation market on this continent. This device folds around a six-inch screen and comes with a secure locking mount so it won’t come tumbling off your windshield when the defrost fan is turned on. More important, it’s meant to be paired with a smartphone (either iPhone or Android system) to enable the traffic function and comes with an embedded chip so you won’t be dinged for roaming. This is probably a clever move on TomTom’s part. Most truckers carry smartphones, and I daresay many are reliant on the navigation apps available on the small screen – talk about distracted driving. So, pairing the phone to the GPS via Bluetooth makes sense. The device functions well enough without the phone-driven traffic function, but it’s worth connecting since it does come with lifetime traffic as well as lifetime trucking maps of Canada and the US. Also, TomTom’s MyDrive app allows you to plan a route on your home computer,

Tires & Wheels Cooper Tire & Rubber Company announced recently that it has added two new sizes to its Roadmaster RM272 commercial tire line. The RM272 is now available in sizes 11R22.5 and 295/75R22.5. The tire features a four-belt steel casing and has a slightly rounded tread footprint, along with a reinforced shoulder to help withstand extreme side forces. Its tread compound has been formulated to provide optimum balance between resistance to side forces and maximum wear. • Stemco has released its new Zip-Torq single-piece axle fastener, which aims to simplify the wheel-end bearing adjustment with its unitized design. The Zip-Torq eliminates special tooling and loose components like

TomTom’s new Trucker 600 unit was designed for professional drivers.

send it to your phone, and when you start the truck in the morning the route will be automatically downloaded to the GPS. The machine asks for your vehicle’s dimensions and GVW as well as supplying a separate platform for Hazmat. This should keep you on the truck routes and away from low bridges and residential areas. The unit switches easily between truck, van, auto and bus modes, and has tons of data points. For instance, I was supposed to meet someone at a certain restaurant near Pearson Airport and to my surprise it was listed

(it wasn’t Hooters, but I’m sure that’s there, too). Tap the Parking function and multiple municipal lots pop up, good for motorists but not so much for big rigs as most of those are inaccessible to Class 8 trucks. The voice control is pretty neat as you can ask it to guide you to a pre-planned destination like work, or home, or a fuel stop. It will answer about a dozen commands like “When will I get there?” and “What’s the next instruction?” You can also choose a voice from a surfeit of accents. Right now I’ve

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harsh road conditions and chemicals for added corrosion resistance and durability. The AX150 Alumilight series includes a 10-year low-maintenance warranty. The sliding suspension can be moved from the widespread position to close the tandem distance and be California-legal. The axle separation distance can be 61 inches, 73 inches or 121 inches. More details can be found at www.GreatDaneTrailers. com/freedom-xp.

Trailers Great Dane has announced it has added new options to its Freedom XP allaluminum flatbed trailers. Now, it will feature the Jost AX150 Alumilight landing gear and a new sliding suspension option. The Jost AX150 Alumilight landing gear is an aluminum hybrid series built for a maximum static load rating of 160,000 lbs and a rated lift capacity of 55,000 lbs. The landing gear has silicone-sealed steel covers and a polyester-coated HSLA steel lower leg that provide protection from

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Components Ridewell Suspensions has updated a self-steer auxiliary truck suspension for I-beam axle integration, the company announced. First released in 1997, the RSS-236 suspension has been updated for lighter weight and lower maintenance. The parallelogram design allows customers to in-

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got an Irishman named Sean telling me when to turn, but the Trucker 600 also can communicate in 22 languages, from Danish to Latvian to Arabic. When it comes to layout, simple is better, rather than besieging the operator with a plethora of options. One arrow takes you back to the previous screen, and the “...” icon brings you to the menu. The mapping is truck friendly and doesn’t try too hard to include buildings or scenery. Which is good, I like maps to look like maps. One unique feature is the “route” bar, which appears as a translucent strip of data on the right part of the screen, providing information such as a changing ETA and traffic jams or construction on the way. I like the functionality of the unit: the interactive voice is effective and the directions are solid. More crucial is that it connects quickly to satellites. I suggest taking it out of your vehicle and playing around with it while plugged into your computer or laptop. There are lots of intriguing functions to check out. With a price tab of $399 it’s about competitive with the other top-ofthe-line trucker GPS units. As I mentioned, it’s new to the marketplace so it’s currently only available from Amazon or from TomTom.com. A one-year warranty is offered directly from the manufacturer.

tegrate their own I-beam axle into the self-steering auxiliary axle suspension. As well, the RSS-2361000 offers an adjustable frame width and low maintenance polyurethane bushings. An integrated air tank kit is available for this suspension. The RSS2361000 suspension is designed for single wheel applications (no duals). The suspension is rated for a 13,500-lb capacity; however, the tire and wheel combination used may dictate the suspension’s gross axle weight rating (GAWR). For more information, visit www.Ridewellcorp.com. • Alliance Truck Parts has expanded its fan clutch and clutch product lines, with the fan clutch line now featuring more than 2,000 part numbers and the clutch line offering over 300. Alliance’s all-makes fan clutch product line now includes complete fan drives, rebuild kits, spring-engaged DM-style fan clutches and airengaged fan clutches.

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TRUCK NEWS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

February 2017

Fastfrate Group has a new president; longtime OTA employee to leave association; Stemco promotes execs; and PeopleNet taps Osiecki The Fastfrate Group of Companies has announced longtime employee Manny Calandrino has taken over as president and chief operating officer as of Jan. 1. He now oversees the entire Fastfrate group, consisting of Fastfrate, Fastfrate Integrated Logistics, Canada Drayage and Bruce R. Smith. He reports to Ron Tepper, executive chairman and CEO. “Manny has been with us for over 30 years and has his finger on the pulse of our organization. He was most recently executive vice-president for eastern Canada and was extremely successful in managing and accelerating growth in the region,” Tepper said. “I am confident Manny will be well received by our management team and the marketplace. He has a passion for getting things done and done well.” The company also announced Alfonso Triolo is assuming the role of vice-president of the Quebec region. He has been with the company for 18 years in several management positions, most recently serving as general manager of the Quebec region. • After 29 years as the office manager and executive assistant to OTA/CTA CEO David Bradley, Jackie Dobrowolski announced she is leaving the association to pursue other interests. Dobrowolski said, “The decision to leave OTA was very difficult and bittersweet. I grew up here and it has been a large part of my life. Working with David, the staff and the members has been a wonderful and invaluable experience for which I am forever thankful. I have met so many great people who I am proud and grateful to call my friends. With David’s upcoming retirement, it’s an opportunity for me to try something new.” Jackie’s last day at OTA will be Feb. 28. In addition to preparing for her departure, she looks forward to making time to say farewell to all those in the industry she has come to know over the years. • Stemco announced that it has pro-

moted Jim Reis to the position of vicepresident of strategy and Doug Hix to the position of vice-president and general manager for Stemco’s Brake Products Group. In his new position, Reis will lead the company’s overall strategic efforts, especially in the areas of inorganic growth. He will partner closely with business and functional leads to develop new market opportunities that enable Stemco to accelerate business growth and planned future development. Reis has more than 30 years of heavy-duty industry experience. Most recently, he led the Brake Products Group as vice-president and general manager. As the new vice-president and general manager for Stemco’s Brake Products Group, Hix will carry forward the group’s established strategy to effectively strengthen and further grow the business. Hix will report directly to Reis and work closely with him to transition into this new role. • PeopleNet has brought on Scopelitis Transportation Consulting president and CEO David J. Osiecki in an attempt to help its customers strengthen their safety and compliance efforts. Osiecki’s new consulting venture will focus on providing advisory services and implementation of programs to companies in the transportation industry. PeopleNet said Osiecki’s deep understanding of the needs of fleets was a key factor in its decision. While with the American Trucking Association (ATA), Osiecki helped drive industry-focused change in the area of regulation and compliance, and most recently served as executive vice-president of the ATA. During his 30 years in the industry, Osiecki has also worked with the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Motor Carriers, the predecessor to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

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62 THE LAST WORD

TRUCK NEWS

February 2017

Linamar Transportation: Delivering more than just auto parts Private carrier now offers for-hire services and focuses on attracting and retaining drivers through sound HR strategies

hat started off as a few trucks to move automotive parts from Point A to B has turned into one of southern Ontario’s most successful trucking companies. Linamar Transportation was founded in 1986 as a part of Linamar Corporation, an automotive parts manufacturer based in Guelph, Ont. At first, Linamar was used to transport its own materials, but many are surprised to learn it hauls more than just car parts and is actually registered as a for-hire carrier. Though Linamar primarily hauls its own automotive parts, it also moves general freight, dry goods and provides third-party logistics services. Today, Linamar has a total of 90 trucks. Two-thirds of its drivers execute cross-border services, while the rest stay in southern Ontario. “We haul anywhere from southern Ontario to Minnesota to Tennessee to North Carolina, through Ohio and Michigan,” said Michelle Drew, the company’s human resources manager. “We do a lot of work in Michigan because Linamar Corporation does a lot with the automotive industry.” The company has its main facility in Guelph, though it also has yards in Michigan and Windsor. Last year was a special one for the company, as it not only celebrated 30 years in business, but was crowned Trucking HR Canada’s Top Medium Fleet at the Top Fleet Employers gala. It boasts a 99.5% on-time delivery and pick-up rate. It’s not hard to see why Linamar was chosen for the award when you delve a little deeper into its business model and you understand how its drivers and staff are treated day in and day out. Drew says the trucking company has really put a large focus on communication and it has done so for some time. “We’re also very fortunate to have a passionate and dedicated team

of drivers and staff here,” she said. “They’re really great. Everyone here works well together and even though we’re 140 in staff in total, it’s like we’re one big family.” For example, though many companies claim they have an open-door policy these days, Linamar puts its money where its mouth is, claims Drew. Every month the company hosts a driver forum meeting. “It’s an open invitation to all drivers,” Drew explains. “We host them on Saturday mornings, when most drivers are likely to attend. “We take them all out to breakfast and then come back to the boardroom. In the boardroom we have representatives from HR and management. We tell them about sales targets and any upcoming changes they can expect. And in turn, they talk to us openly about any concerns they have and what’s working for them and what’s not.” Drew explained that this is much more than an open-door policy, it’s a way for the business to work with its employees and come together as

“

Linamar Transportation

when it comes to technology. It rolled out electronic logging devices (ELDs) in January 2016 and has never looked back. “Like anything new, it took a little while to get everyone up and running, but now it’s great,” she said. “All the drivers love it…I haven’t heard of anyone with an issue. The biggest kickback is when their truck is broken down and they have to use a truck without an ELD and they have to go back to paper logs. ELDs have been really good for us and it makes a driver’s job that much easier.” Linamar drivers are quite happy where they are too, says Drew, who adds that the turnover rate is low at

W really do encourage employee suggestions. We IIn fact, we reward them. Anyone can give a ssuggestion...if we end up implementing it, we give tthem a monetary reward.” Michelle Drew, Linamar Transportation

one. These meetings have generated so much momentum for Linamar that now it rewards suggestions from employees during these monthly meetings. “We really do encourage employee suggestions,” she said. “In fact, we reward them. Anyone can give a suggestion on how to reduce costs or reduce waste, and if we end up implementing it, we give them a monetary reward. It has made our business better. We implement hundreds of suggestions a year.” Linamar is also forward-thinking

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the moment. And that’s because of a number of things. “We have great equipment that our drivers love to drive,” she said. “All of our equipment is five years old or newer, including trailers. We make sure to spec’ the trucks so they are comfortable. They’re all automatics as well, which we know our drivers like.” Drivers also appreciate being directly involved in the company. Not only through the monthly driver meetings, but by joining management at industry events.

“We were able to bring some drivers to the (Trucking HR Canada Top Fleet Employers) gala,” Drew said. “And that was really great.” In terms of recruiting, Drew said the trouble isn’t filling trucks, rather replacing her older drivers. “We have a low turnover rate and so my problem isn’t filling in trucks, it’s that my demographic is getting older and I have to replace those who are retiring and there’s more and more every year,” she said. The company accepts and hires newly-licensed drivers and finds that a successful route to go when hiring, because they can groom them into a Linamar driver that is successful. “We have a very successful finishing program in place for new graduates,” Drew said. “That is an eight-week long program that our newly-licensed and hired drivers take. That’s worked really well for us. We did implement a sign-on driver bonus for drivers that brought on a driver with two or more years’ experience, but we found that we had more success when we trained and groomed newly-licensed drivers.” Linamar will be taking that approach when it looks to hire more drivers in 2017, as the business looks to exceed its ambitious growth goals. “We are attached to the manufacturing side of our business, but looking at what’s going on in 2017, we are looking to grow by 10% for the new year,” Drew said. “And that’s organically. It’s all just a matter of finding the right people, training them well and hoping they stay.” – Sonia Straface

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