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June 2014 Volume 25, Issue 6
King of the hills: Touring Southern Alberta in the GMC Sierra HD and Chevy Silverado HD.
Page 40
Celebrity truckers: What does it take to truly stand out in an industry filled with characters?
Page 36
Fighting back: A group of B.C. carriers is suing the feds for getting involved in setting driver wages.
Page 34
Page 16
Western Canada’s Trucking Newspaper Since 1989
A new approach: We chat with newly installed interim AMTA executive director Richard Warnock.
trucknews.com
Saying bye to Bob By Lou Smyrlis WINNIPEG, Man. – It’s hard to believe but after 43 years in the industry, 17 of them as head of the Manitoba Trucking Association, Bob Dolyniuk has retired. Publisher and editorial director Lou Smyrlis travelled to Winnipeg to spend some time with the industry icon a few days before his final day on the job. TW: After 43 years in the industry, 17 of them with the MTA, can you believe the moment to leave is actually here? Continued on page 10
Gene Orlick said he wanted to pay tribute to his family’s history in trucking when he rebranded the fleet.
A tribute to the past
Reach us at our Western Canada news bureau Contact Jim Bray at: jim@transportationmedia.ca or call 403-453-5558
Gene Orlick honours family’s history with fleet’s new paint scheme
PM40069240
By Jim Bray
pg 01, 07, 10-14 tw june v3.indd 1
CALGARY, Alta. – It may not be “Back to the Future,” but Gene Orlick’s move to rebrand his fleet to honour his family is meant as a way to tip his corporate hat to those who came before him as he guides the business into the great unknown. Orlick cut his trucking teeth working for his uncle Tom’s original Orlick Transport, a company that began in 1948 and kept the young Gene employed through the 1970s and 80s, before being shut down in 1990 when Tom retired and sold the company’s assets. Gene Orlick set up his sequel company in 1995 with two trucks and four trailers, transporting pop bottles for Coca-Cola and since then, the company has grown to where it now employs about 55 people, with 30 trucks and
150 trailers. The Orlicks, Gene and his wife Nancy, bought and sold real estate and saved their pennies to get the new company up and running. “We sold a big house and lived in a holiday trailer for a year and invested in the trucking company,” Orlick said. As for using the family name, with its long but not necessarily strictly related history, “I actually asked (Tom) and got his blessing. There’s goodwill attached to that but Tom and I had a famous relationship so that was never really an issue and now we are trying to give back and show we respect what they had.” He credited Nancy with the idea of going to red trucks when they purchase new tractors, saying “That’s our family colour from way back, so I got together with my brother Continued on page 7
Careers: 18, 26, 29, 30, To view list of advertisers see pg. 45 32, 34, 37, 38
Cuts were bad, but future’s bright: Drysdale By Jim Bray BANFF, Alta. – Alberta’s provincial government may be undergoing a period of serious navel gazing as the ruling party searches for a new leader, but according to the province’s new Minister of Transportation the party’s problems won’t prevent the province from moving full speed ahead into the future. Speak ing at the Alberta Motor Transportation Association (AMTA)’s annual conference in Banff at the end of April, Wayne Drysdale also decried cuts that were made to his department’s budget previously. “We had to make some tough choices in the last couple of years,” he said, pointing to some $900 million that were cut out of previous budgets, “and of course it seems like the first thing that gets cut is maintenance. I’m committed to making sure that we get that money back into maintaining our roads.” Drysdale, the second term MLA for Grande Prairie-Wapiti – who took over the portfolio after a December 2013 cabinet shuffle – also noted that, while it’s important to ensure the province’s roads are Continued on page 14
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