September 2010 Volume 21, Issue 9 Delivering daily news to Canada’s trucking industry at www.trucknews.com
Safer Roads
Paying it forward
Good deeds help O/O earn top industry award
B.C. government, industry partner to improve road safety By Jim Bray LANGLEY, B.C. – A quartet of initiatives from the B.C. government aims to help increase safety for the trucking industry in the province, while also recognizing the province’s best carriers and raising public awareness that the industry is already very safe. The initiatives were announced in mid-June by B.C. Transportation Minister Shirley Bond and stem from a report by the Truck Compliance Advisory Panel. “We put (this panel) in place to work with industry and labour in finding ways to improve commercial vehicle safety,” Bond says in a government press release announcing the move. “The result was a number of recommendations that ensure we can focus attention to where it is needed most and get unsafe vehicles of the road, and keep them off.” Bond says all of the panel's recommendations are being implemented. Keeping unsafe vehicles off the road is only part of the plan, however – the ‘stick,’ as it were. There’s also a Continued on page 25
By James Menzies FERGUS, Ont. – Howard ‘Bulldog’ Brouwer had a pretty good hunch he would be named the 2010 Truck News /Truck West Owner/Operator of the Year. Not because he’s cocky; he’s anything but. However, just days after being notified he was being considered for the prestigious award, he went to a Chinese restaurant with another driver. After his meal, he cracked open his fortune cookie and received the following message: ‘You will soon be awarded in public.’ “I said ‘If that’s not an omen, nothing is,’ and I kept it in my wallet,” Brouwer recalls. Brouwer, owner of H&G Enterprises out of Welland, Ont. was named the 17th annual Truck News / Truck West Owner/Operator of the Year during a special ceremony at the Fergus Truck Show July 23. Often, the national award goes to an owner/operator borne of a trucking family with a lifelong passion for driving. This year, not so much.
It’s in the cards: Truck News/Truck West Owner/Operator of the Year, Howard Brouwer, received a fortune cookie that foretold of his achievement. ‘You will soon be awarded in public,’ it read. Photo by Adam Ledlow
Safety systems take centre stage
Continued on page 5
Inside This Issue...
Mark Dalton O/O
• Green for green:
Alberta fleets and owner/operators can now reserve cash rebates for fuel-saving devices and equipment, thanks to a government program. Page 9
• Keeping score: Cross-border carriers are getting up to speed on CSA 2010 but do they really know where they stand? We look at several scorecard options. Page 21
• Guess who’s 50: A major Canadian fleet celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
See pg. 26
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• ‘Fluid’ economy?: A war is brewing over the fuel, err…fluid economy of several Class 8 trucks.
Reach us at our Western Canada news bureau E-mail Jim Bray at jim@transportationmedia.ca or call 403-453-5558
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