February 2010 Volume 21, Issue 2 Delivering daily news to Canada’s trucking industry at www.trucknews.com
Giving back
By Jim Bray LANGLEY, B.C. – The owner of a Langley-based trucking company has come up with a creative way to help people who fall through society’s cracks under normal circumstances. Rob Reid, president of Shadow Lines Transportation Group, conceived the Temporary Homeless Relief Shelter project and runs it in conjunction with a local street ministry with a long history of helping the homeless. The project uses an old 40-foot shipping container to provide up to 16 homeless people with a temporary roof over their heads on any given winter night. “I see a lot of homeless people,” Reid says, “and I’ve always wanted to do something, like maybe give up Christmas dinner and cook for the poor, something
along that line. Then I thought, why not just give them a warm, dry secure place to sleep at night? That would probably be something of more value than anything they could get other than food.” The container-based shelter looks kind of like those “multistation porta-potties” seen at various venues and features eight separate rooms with bunk beds for up to two people each. It also features reading lights, a handicapped-accessible washroom and a furnace to provide heat and hot water. “It would have probably been better to have used a new container,” Reid admits, “because it wouldn’t have the wrinkles and dents, the patina on it. But this way we’re using something that already had a life cycle and it’s still
Shadow Lines converts shipping container into mobile homeless shelter
Trucking industry has many connections to Olympic Torch Relay By Jim Bray VANCOUVER, B.C. – Few people reach the brass ring of Olympic success, but the Olympic Torch Relay is giving thousands of Canadians a chance to live the dream vicariously. And Canada’s transportation industry is playing a big part, both behind the scenes and publicly. “From the transportation side it’s absolutely fascinating to look at, from a logistical standpoint, how many vehicles are involved,” says Katie Hammill, RBC spokesperson, Olympic Torch Relay. She says those vehicles, their drivers, and the people and items they transport have to follow a detailed (nearly to the minute and centimetre) plan for where everything, including the torchbearers, is dropped off Continued on page 8
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A tribute to the troops
Mark Dalton O/O
Inside This Issue... • An Olympic-sized plan: Trucking companies and drivers who will be making deliveries in Vancouver during the Games are Page 10 hoping traffic plans are well-executed.
• Rate wars: Western Canadian fleets are being undercut by rogue carriers that don’t play by all the rules, the B.C. Trucking Association blasts. Page 11
• Swarm intelligence: How humans look to ants to learn about route optimization.
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• A different view: Thoughts from a second career driver who has found happiness on the road.
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E-mail Jim Bray at jim@transportationmedia.ca or call 403-453-5558 PAP Registration No. 11065
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