july 2008 volume 19, issue 7 moving closer · 2019. 12. 11. · july 2008 truck west page 3 july...
TRANSCRIPT
July 2008 Volume 19, Issue 7
Delivering daily news to Canada’s trucking industry at www.trucknews.com
Reach us at our Western Canada news bureauE-mail James Menzies at [email protected]
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www.trucknews.comPM40069240
Mark Dalton O/O
Page 28
self sitting at his desk in Mississauga,prepping for a meeting after oneheckuva whirlwind afternoon. Nottwo hours before, Cushing had become the 20th recipient of Volvo’s
Canadian Fleet Maintenance Man-ager of the Year award, one of themost coveted awards in the field.
After being swept away by trade
Inside This Issue...Inside This Issue...Inside This Issue...• How secure are you?: A look at how Schneider National is
increasing fleet security and how the RCMP wants Canadiancarriers to help in the fight against crime. Pages 10-11
• Staying profitable: A quick survival guide for carriers mired inan ugly industry downturn. Page 12
• Road test: The Freightliner Cascadia, Detroit Diesel DD15pairing is generating a lot of interest. So we travel to Portland toput one of these combinations to the test. Page 20
• Trainers wanted: Bison Transport steps up a program to develop in-cab driver trainers. Page 23
By Adam LedlowTORONTO, Ont. – It was businessas usual by 3 p.m.on May 29 for DanCushing, director of maintenancefor Ryder Canada, who found him-
Ryder fleet exec named Maintenance Manager of the Year
By James MenziesTORONTO, Ont. – Mistake. Un-safe. Incredulous. Those were someof the words used to describe Ontario’s speed limiter legislationduring public hearings June 5 atQueen’s Park.
However, a well-oiled PR ma-chine led by the Ontario TruckingAssociation (OTA) was also on-hand to present some compelling ar-guments of its own as the two sidessparred all day over Bill 41, whichwould mechanically limit truckspeeds in Ontario to 105 km/h.Theiraudience was the Standing Commit-tee on Justice Policy, consisting ofMPPs from the governing Liberalsas well as Opposition parties.
Representing the pro-speed lim-iter crowd were: the OTA;CanadianTrucking Alliance; Brian Taylor ofLiberty Linehaul; the Ontario Safe-ty League; the Insurance Bureau of Canada; the American TruckingAssociations; and Jeff Bryan of Jeff Bryan Transport. They insistedspeed limiters would improve roadsafety and reduce greenhouse gasemissions.
Countering, from the anti-speedlimiter corner, were: the Owner/Operators’ Independent Drivers’
Ontario holdspublic hearingson speed limiters
Continued on page 7 ■Continued on page 5 ■
Movingcloser
PASSION: Dan Cushing is photographed with his award before he hustled back to the shop to continue with his duties. The Ryder maintenance manager was named this year’s Maintenance Manager of the Year. Photo by Adam Ledlow
Why saving a fewbucks on LEDsmay not be abright idea
See pg. 19
Seeing the light
pg 1, 5-7 tw july 6/12/08 10:18 AM Page 1
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Caterpillar 6/11/08 12:45 PM Page 1
TRUCK WEST Page 3July 2008
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Everyone’s been griping aboutthe cost of fuel lately. And forgood reason.
The cost of diesel and gasolineis affecting everyone. You can seeit everywhere you look.
Owner/operators are going outof business. Plant workers are los-ing their jobs as auto makerscome to realize that the marketfor gas-guzzling trucks and SUVshas evaporated.The prices of foodand goods are increasing.
It appears that we’re on a veryslippery slope that’s not going tolevel off any time too soon.
While some insist our economyis going to avoid a recession, Ihave a hard time believing that.I’m not an economist, but evenmy elementary understanding ofeconomics suggests otherwise. Itdoesn’t take a rocket scientist towork it out.
It costs me over $40 to fill up myreasonably fuel-efficient ToyotaCorolla. It used to cost less thanhalf that. That’s over $20 everytime I fill up that doesn’t go towards dinners out, a night at the movies, home improvementpurchases at Canadian Tire – youname it.
We’re a consumer-driven econ-omy and now that consumers arediverting an unprecedented per-centage of their disposable in-come towards the cost of gas,there’s a lot less left over for non-essential purchases.
How long can our economyhold up, when billions of dollars isbeing diverted from the purchaseof goods, or even personal savings,towards the cost of gas?
I spend a lot of my driving timelistening to XM 171 – the truckingstation on XM satellite radio.
The stories I’m hearing fromsouth of the border are downrightscary. Guys are foreclosing ontheir houses and living out of theirtrucks.
They’re going broke, becausethey have no equity in theirhomes or in their trucks, credit’sno longer available, and in somecases they’re even having a hardtime finding driving jobs. Nobodywould have predicted that, even afew years ago.
What happens in the US, usual-ly works its wayto Canada aswell. I shudderat the thought.
A recent re-port suggestedthat globaliza-tion is rever-sible and thatthe high cost offuel may, in fact, reverse theg l o b a l i z a t i o nthat has takenplace in recentyears. Maybethat’s a goodthing.
Maybe we’llrevert back tosimpler timeswhen we grewour own food,took care of ourneighbours andsupported local
businesses.Maybe it’ll force us to come up
with ways to lessen our depend-ence on oil that’s produced half aworld away. We’ve had the blind-ers on for far too long and havedug ourselves into a real hole.
Now, more than ever, we needour leaders to help get us back outof it and to provide us with alter-natives to the usual way of doingthings.
Every crisis presents opportuni-ties. Here’s hoping some of ourbrightest young minds can devel-op the answers we need to get usback on track. ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:861;
The true costs of record fuel prices
– James Menzies can be reached byphone at (416) 510-6896 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Going over my speaking noteswhile flying to Vancouver to hosta half-day session on the impactof fuel price volatility on trans-portation, I couldn’t ignore thestrong sense of deja vu.
That’s because, I hosted a seriesof similar events across Canadajust two years ago.
The only differences were theorganization I was working with(CITT this time rather thanMarkel) and the audience (mostlyshippers rather than carriers).
The one constant between thisevent and the previous events twoyears ago, unfortunately, is thatcarriers have not done enough todeal with the elephant in theroom – the price of crude (up to$130 a barrel this time).
The main conclusion from oureducational events two years agostands true today: the only cer-tainty about fuel pricing is contin-ued uncertainty and volatility.
While carriers have done therespectable thing by protecting
themselves through fuel sur-charges, I don’t think they’ve gonefar enough.
When fuel prices get so highthat carriers have to charge theircustomers 40% to move theirgoods it makes me wonder if:
A) Such high surcharges aresustainable over the long-term.Our annual shipper researchshows that a combination of highrates and surcharges have causedalmost half of the nation’s ship-pers to change their mode ofchoice for at least some of theirshipments. Trucking has both lostand gained freight due to thistrend;
B) Carriers, during this time ofslumping freight volumes, arestarting to eat some of the in-crease in fuel costs because theydon’t dare go to some customerswith yet another surcharge in-crease.
Carriers that have taken steps toimprove their fuel efficiencythrough driver training, fuel-saving equipment and turning onthe speed limiters in their fleet oftrucks are to commended but
there’s one more obvious strategythat needs pursuing: A financialstrategy that protects both carri-ers and their customers againstdiesel price volatility.
That strategy – a fuel hedgingsolution called a call option – has been used successfully fordecades by the airlines, rail, ma-rine and agricultural industries.
A call option caps fuel pricesover a set period of time – say, sixmonths or a year.
Motor carriers enrolled in suchan option pay a protection fee andget reimbursed if prices rise abovethe cap.
If prices drop below the cap,they don’t get their protection feeback but they do get the benefit ofthe lower fuel prices – they’re notlocked in to buying fuel at thecapped rate.
Considering carriers could passon the cost of the protection feeto shippers and give them peaceof mind in the process, it’s beyondmy understanding why this strate-gy has not caught on in the motorcarrier industry. ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:861;
Viewpoint
Lou SmyrlisEditorial Director
– Lou Smyrlis can be reached byphone at (416) 510-6881 or by e-mailat [email protected].
Oil’s not well with today’s fuel costs
EditorialCommentJamesMenzies
pg 3 tw july 6/12/08 10:21 AM Page 3
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Monthly total sales never climbed above the 3,000 mark last year, after doing so seven timesin the previous record-setting year. It’s highly unlikely to see such strong monthly figuresthis year either. The 2,586 Class 8 trucks sold in April mark the strongest sales so far this yearand make for one of the best sales performances of the past 12-month period.
After a stronger than expected April, Class 8 sales for the first four months were at 8,272. The total may be below last year’s less-than-impressive total and way off the record sales posted in the first quarter of 2006, but it has closed the gap on the five-year average. Currently, 2008 is shaping up as the fifth worst (or fifth best) sales year in the past decade asthe pre-buy strategy employed by many fleets combined with a slowing North American economy is giving fleets second thoughts about adding capacity.
International jumped out of the starting blocks strong once again taking the lead withcontrol of about 22% of market share after the first quarter. With a very strong Aprilshowing, International now controls almost a quarter of the market with Freightlinercontrolling 20% and Kenworth 17.5%.
Canadian Class 8 sales started off quietly in the first quarter, not surprising considering the impact of the pre-buy strategy and the serious doubts about the economy’s health on both sides of the border. Both of these are creating excesscapacity. However, sales for March did climb above 2,000 units, avoiding the steep declines of 2001 to 2003 and April’ssales were higher than last year’s. Five of the eight OEMs managed to increase their sales from the same period last year.
Source: Canadian Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association
Monthly Class 8 Sales - Apr 08
Class 8 Sales (YTD Apr 08) by Province and OEM
12 - Month Sales Trends Market Share Class 8 YTD
Historical Comparison - Apr 08 Sales Motor Vehicle Production to Jan 08
Historical Comparison - YTD
With the days of coping with parts and materials shortagesand record demand for new trucks nothing but a memory,truck manufacturers instead now face continuing to bringtheir operations in line with the reduced sales. They also arepreparing for the next jump in sales volumes as fleets andowner/operators respond to the next round of engine emissions standards in 2010 and the anticipated reboundof the North American economy.
OEM BC ALTA SASK MAN ONT QUE NB NS PEI NF CDAFreightliner 149 265 75 98 732 216 69 37 0 10 1,651
International 92 252 39 126 905 503 64 31 1 27 2,040
Kenworth 185 514 81 60 280 294 0 26 0 0 1,440
Mack 52 69 41 50 199 86 17 22 0 0 536
Peterbilt 113 296 112 53 168 116 81 9 0 0 948
Sterling 85 106 35 15 216 149 7 23 0 3 639
Volvo 44 129 43 70 246 99 20 23 0 2 676
Western Star 77 82 16 7 88 53 6 11 0 2 342
TOTALS 797 1,713 442 479 2,834 1,516 264 182 1 44 8,272
OEM This Month Last Year
Freightliner 433 412
International 770 452
Kenworth 447 354
Mack 167 156
Peterbilt 291 274
Sterling 199 279
Volvo 161 204
Western Star 118 203
TOTALS 2,586 2,334
May June July August September October November December January February March April2,477 2,142 1,872 1,726 1,952 2,132 1,763 1,742 1,687 1,859 2,140 2,586
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1.000
500
0
2007 2008
Page 4 TRUCK WEST July 2008
Chevron class 8 July 6/11/08 12:42 PM Page 1
media for pictures and interviewsand shaking hand after hand in con-gratulations, Cushing hopped intohis black pick-up and was on his wayback to work.No beers with the guysfrom the shop. No long weekendtaken to celebrate. No, any celebra-tion Cushing had planned wouldhave to wait until after hours, whenthe job was done.
Cushing was presented with theaward during the Canadian FleetMaintenance Seminar.
Just before Ryder’s director ofmaintenance learned of his win,DonColdwell of Volvo Trucks Canadaread off a list of Cushing’s accolades,saying he was “well-respected by hispeers in the industry” and that “hisknowledge has both breadth anddepth.”“While preparing for tonight’s pres-entation, in speaking to associates ofthe individual, one word came upover and over, and that word is pas-sion,” Coldwell said. “This gentle-man has a sincere passion for hisprofession. And the passion is trulydemonstrated by his actions.”
An initially speechless Cushing,who was “a little in shock” at the announcement, said he was “hon-oured” to receive the award, andthanked a variety of people duringhis speech, including members of the Automotive TransportationService Superintendent Association(ATSSA), CFMS members, his wife,his co-workers, and his students, twoof whom were in attendance.
“It’s very nice (to win),” the fatherof two later told Truck West. “Youknow, all you want is a thank-youfrom people that know you for whatyou do and I do give a lot extra and Igive it every day.”
Cushing was surprised to find hiswife, Audrey, in attendance, andgave a comical “Hi Audrey” whenhe spotted her during his accept-ance speech. His wife had beenalerted to Cushing’s win severaldays before the actual event, butCushing didn’t take heed of hersubtle fashion tip.
“When I left the other night, shesaid, ‘Don’t you need to take a tieand a shirt and all that?’ And I said,‘Nah, not this year. It’s usually in thecooler weather.’ We used to havethis event in April,” said a tie-lessCushing shortly after his win.
As winner of the award, Cushingreceives a sapphire ring, plaque, apaid trip to a Volvo assembly plant,and also has his name added to thelarge glass trophy that sports thenames of all past winners.
Cushing has been employed byRyder for 28 years, but has been inthe industry for more than 36 years.During that time,Cushing has held avariety of production and manage-ment positions, having been most recently promoted to director ofmaintenance.
Cushing is responsible for all as-pects of commercial vehicle main-tenance activity at 42 Ryder facili-ties across Canada, with a fleet thatconsists of 7,000 Class 8 straighttrucks, 4,200 Class 8 tractors, and3,500 trailers.
Cushing is responsible for a stag-gering 550 maintenance employees,380 licensed technicians and 70 apprentice technicians. With Cush-ing overseeing the process, Ryderoffers a variety of training programsincluding ones that focus on preven-tive maintenance; air conditioning;OAP certification; OEM-specifictraining; brake, air and hydraulic
systems; and suspensions and drive-trains.
Vic Wintjes of V.W. Transcon Services, who nominated Cushingfor the award,says Cushing has been“instrumental” in the developmentof the Toronto District SchoolBoard CITI Motive Power co-opprogram.
Cushing has also served on theMinistry of Education’s industry ad-visory committee for the truck andcoach apprenticeship program, iscurrently serving as chairman of ed-ucation and training for the Torontochapter of the ATSSA, and is an ac-tive member of the Ontario Truck-ing Association (OTA) membercouncil.
The word “passion” came upagain in Wintjes’s nomination letterwhen talking about Cushing’s en-thusiasm for promoting the skilledtrade of commercial vehicle me-chanic, through his involvementwith schools, training institutes, andjob fair days across the country.
As part of this work, Cushing hasspent a great deal of time coun-selling students and parents on themerits of a career in maintenanceand has organized student tours ofshops and manufacturing plants inan effort to recruit new apprenticesinto the industry.
“I like passing on our informationto younger people,” Cushing toldTruck West, but he is quick to deflectcredit for his success to his boss, whoCushing says gives him a lot of lati-tude when working with students.“He wants us to work with theschools. He wants us to support co-op programs, job shadow programs,summer jobs, anywhere we can helpout young people get started ontheir careers.”
Cushing says that one of the bestpractices a maintenance managercan follow is properly training hisemployees. “I try to look at all myemployees and say,‘Could they sit inmy chair next week or next year?’That’s what I have to do.”
In addition to training, Cushingsays that knowing your customer iskey to being successful in the field.“You’ve got to know your customer,what he wants, what his hot buttonsare, and that way you can deliver.”
But Cushing says that the numberone issue that both he and Rydertake to task is vehicle safety.
“Our company drives safety, so it’sup to us guys in the shop, or myself, Iguess, to start with and get it filtereddown, to deliver a safe truck on theroad. We are very concerned aboutthat at all times,” he says. “I knowwhen our trucks are overdue or arecoming up for their inspections, andwe have systems that trigger that thistruck is overdue, and I’m on thephone with those guys. There’s justzero tolerance.”
But Cushing says that in order totake home the Canadian FleetMaintenance Manager of the Yearaward, a great deal of dedication isrequired.
“I enjoy the trade and I enjoysome of the things that we accom-plish,” he says. “But you’ve got tohave drive every day. You’ve got tokeep pushing on the things that youbelieve in.”
And that should be no problemfor a guy who wins the biggest awardin his field and runs right back to theoffice. I guess when the Volvo’sColdwell referred to Cushing as“passionate”about his job,he wasn’tjust padding the guy’s ego. Cushingwas for real. ■■
TRUCK WEST Page 5July 2008
CFMS
Training is crucial, top maintenance manager says■ Continued from page 1
Armour’s keys to successTORONTO, Ont. – Wesley Ar-mour, president and CEO of Ar-mour Transportation Systems, re-counted his company’s climb from a12-truck fleet to a full-service trans-portation provider with 3,400 piecesof equipment during his keynote ad-dress at the Canadian Fleet Mainte-nance Seminar.
Armour arranged to take over hisfather’s small trucking company in1967,with no real resources and lim-ited experience, he recalled.
“I got 12 trucks and an opportuni-ty to sink or swim.I was 22 years old,just married to my wife and my goalwas only to make it until tomorrow,”Armour said. “Finances were very,very tight and each day presented anew challenge,but I always believedwe would succeed if we just got a lit-tle better and a little more efficientevery day.”
As a 22-year-old,Armour was me-chanic, driver, accountant and presi-dent of the trucking company.“Onebad decision and we were bank-rupt,” he recalled.
Today, Armour TransportationSystems generates revenues exceed-ing a quarter billion dollars andboasts one of the largest warehousefacilities in Eastern Canada.Its serv-ices include: truckload; LTL; ocean;intermodal and warehousing.
Armour explained the keys to thecompany’s growth during hiskeynote address:
Leadership: “Believe in the peo-ple on your team. Be a people per-son and a motivator,” Armoururged.“It is amazing what can be ac-complished with the right team.” Hesaid management must maintaincontact with the front line andshould be entrusted to make theright decisions.
Develop strong customer relations:Armour said a key to success is de-veloping long-term relationshipswith customers. He noted his com-pany’s first three customers still useArmour’s services today.
Develop a strong sales force: Ar-mour said every one of his compa-ny’s 1,700 employees is a salesper-son, especially drivers who interactwith the customers daily. The com-pany has a low turnover rate of 5%including drivers, and Armour saidthe company continuously invests inits staff. “Investing in your peoplebuilds morale and enthusiasm,” hesaid. “We constantly provide train-ing opportunities for our people.”
Be innovative: “To be successful,you have to be flexible and willing tochange,”Armour said.“Look for op-portunities and you will find them.”He recalled the challenging period
of deregulation and how it changedhis company’s approach to business.“I was brought up in a regulated en-vironment – all of a sudden theworld was going to change. At thetime, I decided we had to be morethan a trucker. We had to be a fulltransportation provider. We had tochange our attitudes, understandthe types of services our customersneeded and how to provide thembetter than anyone else.”
Develop strong partnerships:Armour suggested partnering upwith other players in the industry,even if they are competitors. “Wehave partnerships with dozens of carriers, which has allowed us
to expand and grow,” he said.Develop business solutions:
Armour urged carriers to seek outnon-traditional business solutions.In his company’s case, that involvedpartnering with 15 other companiesin the face of rising insurance coststo develop their own insurance com-pany. More recently, the companyhas teamed up with other fleets toshare best practices for controllingfuel costs.
Lastly,Armour offered these sagewords of advice: Enjoy what you do;never sacrifice your family for yourjob; and be committed to successand maintain the belief you can succeed. ■■
SUCCESS STORY: Wes Armour shared one of the industry’s greatest successstories as keynote speaker at CFMS.
pg 1, 5-7 tw july 6/12/08 10:16 AM Page 5
By James MenziesHAMILTON, Ont. – Several Ontario trucking companies havebeen targeted by a suspected fueltax scam which has cost some vic-tims tens of thousands of dollars.
Helen Pelton, a lawyer withCummins Seto Pelton, said shehas been approached by fourtrucking companies that havebeen duped by the scheme. Theyare all small- to medium-sizedtrucking firms. Two of the firmsbecame suspicious and backedout before forking over largesums of money to the suspectedfraudsters. However, two otherclients are out tens of thousandsof dollars.
“There’s clearly a scam goingon, preying on truckers and truck-ing companies,” Pelton told TruckWest.
According to Pelton, the al-leged scam works this way: Acompany representing itself as anaccounting or ‘tax recovery’ firmapproaches a Canadian truckingcompany and suggests the carriermay be entitled to a refund of theexcise tax paid on fuel purchasedin the US. The company says itcharges only a percentage of therefund obtained, so there’s no riskfor the carrier. The trucking com-pany provides information such asthe amount of fuel purchased inthe US, and the accounting firm
then files for the refund on theirbehalf.
However, the refund that is applied for is intended for US-based farmers purchasing dyed,off-road diesel fuel – not forCanadian trucking companies.
While Canadian companies donot qualify for the refund, the IRSgenerally issues the refund uponreceiving the application, andthen verifies the validity of the ap-plication at a later date. By then,the Canadian trucking companyhas likely paid a percentage of therefund (anywhere from 18-50%,according to Pelton) to the ac-counting firm.
“The IRS gets the form anddoesn’t really scrutinize it, and issues the refund for a substantialamount of money – as much asUS$100,000,” explained Pelton.“They send the check to thetrucking company, who are ecstat-ic – it’s found money to them.They cut a check to the scamartists, who I believe will disap-pear soon after.”
Pelton’s fear is that the account-ing firm will go out of business
long before her clients have theirday in court, leaving them with little recourse.
Victims of the suspected scamare not only unlikely to recoverthe money paid out to the ‘ac-counting firm,’ but they have alsorun awry of the IRS.
“We’ve not yet had the IRScome down on anybody, but wefeel it’s just a matter of time,” saidPelton. “In two cases, we wereable to negotiate a repayment tothe IRS with an interest penalty,but no fine. But the IRS doesn’tmess around. If they figure youdefrauded the US government,they’re quite likely to say ‘we’regoing to penalize you from everdoing business in the US again.’”
Pelton has teamed up with a legitimate Buffalo, N.Y.-based accountant, Wade Larkin, who ishelping victims negotiate repay-ment plans with the IRS. The IRSrecently released a bulletin ad-dressing the ‘Dirty Dozen’ notori-ous tax scams for 2008, and fueltax credit scams were amongthem. The bulletin pointed out aUS$5,000 fine can now be levied
against companies who improper-ly claim the fuel tax credit intend-ed for farmers.
Victims of the scheme have re-ported the con artists are veryconvincing and come across as extremely credible.
However, Pelton warned thereare some steps you can take toavoid falling for a similar ploy.
“They should ask the person approaching them precisely whatprovision of US tax law they believe this potential rebate willcome from and ask to be shownthis,” suggested Pelton.
“I’m quite surprised – two ofmy clients have had these peoplefile returns for them that theyhaven’t seen themselves. In onecase, the accounting firm forgedthe signature of one of my clients.You need to be shown what regu-lation the person is applying under, see a draft of what theypropose to send in and then youneed to review that form with alawyer before it goes in with yourname on it.”
With four of her own clientshaving been caught up in thescheme, Pelton is concerned thecase may be much more wide-spread.
If you think you’ve been ap-proached by the perpetrators of thescam, you can contact her via e-mailat [email protected]. ■■
July 2008Page 6 TRUCK WEST
CANADA
Fuel tax scam targets Canadian trucking companies‘There’s clearly a scam going on, preying
on truckers and trucking companies.’Helen Pelton
pg 1, 5-7 tw july 6/12/08 10:19 AM Page 6
Association (OOIDA); the Owner-Operators’ Business Association of Canada (OBAC); driver DorothySanderson; the Canadian Owner/Operators’ Co-operative; and Dr.Barry Prentice of the University ofManitoba, I.H. Asper School ofBusiness.
They argued that safety may infact be compromised by the legisla-tion, that the emissions reductionsare debatable and that trade withthe US could be impeded by the bill.
At the end of the day, the commit-tee agreed to extend the public comment period from its originaldeadline of end-of-day June 5, toJune 10 at 5 p.m.
The extension came after thecommittee was chastised about theshort notice provided for public input. Notice of the hearing wasposted by the Legislature on themorning of June 3 and those wishingto present had only until noon thatsame day to make a request.Writtensubmissions were only to be accept-ed until 5 p.m June 5, before the extension was granted.
OBAC executive director JoanneRitchie, who was scheduled to ap-pear in person, instead called fromthe 10 Acre Truck Stop in Belleville,Ont. where she pulled over to reston her way to Toronto after pullingan all-nighter to work on her presen-tation. She condemned the commit-tee for providing such short notice.
Ritchie said she was disappointed“not only with the short notice givenfor this hearing, but also that publicinput on such an important issue berestricted to a one-day session indowntown Toronto.”
Her point was well-received andwas key to having the comment peri-od extended. The arguments infavour of speed limiters seemed tocarry the momentum early in theday. OTA’s Bradley said “As an industry that shares its workplacewith the public…we have an addedresponsibility to do the right thing.”
Bradley also had some choicewords for the anti-speed limitercrowd.
“If any of what the opponents ofthis bill say will happen was true,how is it that many if not the majori-ty of the companies already embrac-ing speed limiters are generally con-sidered to be amongst the bestmanaged companies in any industry,the most successful and the most responsible in terms of safety andthe environment?” Bradley asked.“How is it that they are regularlyrecognized by their shippers on bothsides of the border as providing thehighest levels of service and on-timeperformance? Is it coincidence thatsome of the most vocal Canadiansupporters of this measure also hap-pened to dominate the US truckloadcarriers’ association safety awardsthis year?”
His group was lauded by safetygroups and the ATA. Dave Osiecki,vice-president, safety, security andoperations, said “In general, ATAsupports Bill 41 as written” and headded “we do not believe Bill 41would create significant impedi-ments to cross-border trade.”
He said he hopes the ATA willsucceed in implementing its own,
slightly different, speed limiter poli-cy and that the two laws can be harmonized at a later date. At onepoint, a Liberal MPP said he washaving trouble finding any reasonnot to support the legislation.
But as the day wore on, commit-tee members from Opposition par-ties seemed befuddled by the vastlydifferent opinions they were hearingon the issue – especially MPP FrankKlees, Caucus Chair for the OfficialOpposition and critic for the Ministry of Transportation.
A presentation by Prentice, ahighly-regarded transportation aca-demic, seemed particularly to cap-ture the interest of the committee.
He pointed out that increased acceleration and deceleration bycars as they maneuver around speedlimited trucks may offset green-house gas reductions from trucks.
He also explained that speed differentials would be created if thebill is passed, which would actuallyjeopardize highway safety.
In fact, he pointed out the likeli-hood of an accident increases by227% when speed differentials exist.
Representing OOIDA, driver Terry Button said the legislationwould obstruct Canada/US trade.In fact, he cited an OOIDA surveythat suggested 88% of its memberswould no longer run into Canada ifthe law is passed, which would takesome 80,000 trucks out of the pool.
“We believe your good intentionsare being taken advantage of,”Button told the committee. “If youpass this, we will not sit idly by.”
Klees said he was “puzzled howpeople in the same industry can bearguing opposite sides of the equa-tion.”
“What really is underlying this debate?” he asked. “Why do wehave people in this industry thathave come to this committee andsaid ‘Don’t do this. It’s dangerous?’”
It was a point he returned to as thehearing wrapped up, noting he was“still searching” for the core issue ofthe debate. “I’m missing somethinghere,”he said,also suggesting he wasuncomfortable supporting the legis-lation without first soliciting furtherfeedback.
NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo agreed,saying “I think we need more timeto (allow stakeholders to) make sub-missions.”
The deadline for amendments tobe made to the legislation is June 11.
Discussions at the hearing sug-gested that if the legislation pro-ceeds, the most likely amendmentswill include expanding the legisla-tion to cover motor coaches and increasing the fine for offendersfrom the currently discussed $250. ■■
TRUCK WEST Page 7July 2008
Manitoba professor warns against speed limiters■ Continued from page 1
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July 2008Page 8 TRUCK WEST
By Jan WestellLANGLEY, B.C. – Not all shippers,receivers or truck drivers, under-stand the bill of lading require-ments, legal information that mightprotect against unnecessary freightclaims and also provide knowledge-able clout when challenging afreight claim, according to KenMartin, a facilitator for the B.C.Trucking Association.
Martin recently conducted a sem-inar for the BCTA on this topic.Theseminar, How to Handle FreightClaims, explored bill of lading re-quirements which in B.C. are con-tained within the Motor Vehicle Actregulations.
There were nine participants whoattended the BCTA seminar, andthe facilitator suspected that onlyone had previously read the re-quirements on bills of lading, whichis not uncommon in the trucking in-dustry, he surmised.
“We’re going to spend a lot oftime on bills of lading,” Martin saidof a course he wrote for the BCTAabout five years ago. The animatedinstructor warned many times,about the cost of ignorance with thebill of lading, and gave many exam-ples of those who had not consid-ered the legal requirements.
According to the facilitator,there are five types of claims:freight damages; over and undercharges; misrouting; special dam-ages; and loss. National statistics in-dicate that annual freight damage
loss is approximately $35 million,which Martin disputes. “I take thatwith a grain of salt. I actually thinkit is a lot higher.”
Martin estimates the true costs ofloss and damage should take intoaccount other peripheral expensesrelated to the claim.
Martin customized the seminarby asking the participants which ar-eas of freight claims they wanted todiscuss. Those topics all related tothe terms and conditions of the billof lading.
“If you’re going to haul freight,you’re going to have to obey them.The only way around the terms andconditions is to be a contract carrierrather than a common carrier. Butthat brings up a whole different setof problems and regulations,” hesaid.
Martin explained that a “com-mon” carrier is anyone who intendsto transport freight, under a “com-mon” law, which is not unlike thecommon law that an innkeepermust abide by, which cannot refuseany customer, or a farrier, who can-not refuse to shoe a horse, “provid-ed you have the cash to pay for theservice,” he added. “Freightage wasa common calling. It still is, unlessyou don’t have the suitable equip-ment.”
That lack of “suitable”equipmentis a valid reason to refuse to haul,according to Martin, such as a flat-deck vehicle that might be unsuit-able for hauling delicate cargo like
food products, that needs to be re-frigerated. If the freight is a contrac-tual agreement, every haul has tohave a fully written agreement, un-like the terms of conditions, whichmust follow the Bill of Lading Act.
“Occasionally the shipper won’tfill out the bill of lading,” saidMartin. “The driver does. The ship-per does have to sign the bill in order to validate the contract.”
Once freight is accepted for ship-ment by, or on behalf of a carrier,there are 15 requirements of the billof lading, including name and ad-dress of the shipper, the date, origi-nating point of shipment, name oforiginating carrier, names of con-necting carriers (if any), name andaddress of receiver, destination ofshipment, and “particulars” of thegoods in the shipment, includingweight and description.
The description requirement onthe bill of lading may be the mostmisunderstood and neglected partof the agreement, according toMartin, who discussed a freightdamage incident that was instigatedby a carrier’s flat tire which subse-quently caused fire and smoke dam-age to a load of telephones. It turnedout that the carrier was not coveredunder its cargo insurance policy forelectronic freight, an eventual costof $40,000. That carrier could havewalked away from that shipment,according to Martin, if he had previ-ously demanded a full description ofthe load on the bill of lading, andconsequently checked his insurancecoverage for electronic freight.
“It’s up to the shipper to read the
fine print,” said Martin. “There is ageneral ignorance and laziness indescription, and it will come back tobite you.”
Martin also talked about dam-aged goods and even warned aboutthe appearance of damage. In thiscase: if a shipment appears to bedamaged, the driver has the right toindicate that situation, on the bill oflading “at the time of pick-up.”
“That’s important, for a driver tohave to make notes, right at the timeof pick-up. If the shipper won’t allow him to do that refuse the ship-ment, and pull the driver out.”
Martin also talked about “speci-fied conditions of carriage,” or article one of 19 taken from the billof lading requirements, which indi-cates that the carrier (or carrier’sagent) is like a bank, said Martin,which carries goods “in trust,” withsome conditions. In other words, thegoods (potentially) “come in goodcondition; are delivered in goodcondition, unless otherwise provid-ed.” However, if there are two ormore carriers (article 2), “you’re allin the soup,” said Martin, and the“terms of the originating carrierflow through, and you as carrier, ac-cept those conditions.”
These are just some of the legalrequirements under the bill of lading requirements, which Martinencouraged the participants to become familiar with and stay apprised of, or bear the financialconsequences. “It costs money tostay on top of it, but it costs more topay the claims.” ■■
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TRUCK WEST Page 9July 2008
By Ingrid PhaneufOTTAWA, Ont. – Weeks after ajudge ordered Quebec companyTranspave to pay a $110,000 fine inthe first criminal conviction underBill C-45 of a company found guiltyof criminal negligence causing aworker’s death, trucking industry insiders are asking themselves justhow liable they will be held fordeaths incurred in the line of duty,particularly by truck drivers andowner/operators who may or maynot be following instructions whenthey hit the road.
Given that Bill C-45 has just beensuccessfully used for prosecution forthe first time since it was passed in2004, it’s no surprise that truckingcompany owners and managers areconcerned.
“Now that there has been a suc-cessful prosecution in Quebec, it’smore likely that other provincialprosecuting attorneys will bringcharges,” says transportation lawyerIsrael Ludwig, with the firm DuboffEdwards Haight and Schachter inWinnipeg.
A Quebec court judge imposedthe fine in March against the pavingstone manufacturer, for the death ofworker Steve L’Ecuyer, 23, killed in2005 when he was crushed by a machine with a safety device thathad been “neutralized.”
The court found that L’Ecuyerlacked the training to realize thedanger he was in and that both em-ployees and management knew thesafety system wasn’t working at thetime of the accident.
The moral of the story, accordingto Ludwig, is that:“Trucking compa-nies have to be careful about sayingor doing anything to their driversthat could get them into a dangeroussituation.”
For example, managers and dis-patchers should not encourage theirdrivers to drive beyond regulatedhours,or drive if they feel the weath-
er could be dangerous, says Ludwig,“because if someone does that andthey get into an accident causingdeath, a Crown attorney looking tomake a name for him or herselfmight just bring a prosecution.”
Managers should also avoid pair-ing drivers who are inexperiencedwith certain types of loads, particu-larly hazardous materials, saysLudwig.
“Then you’ll definitely be expos-ing your company to prosecution,”he warns. “And not just fines either.Under the criminal code even com-pany officers can go to jail. And acriminal code goes on your record.It’s something that will show up ifyou’re applying for credit, and it willprevent you from getting across theborder.There are very serious rami-fications for being prosecuted underthis section.”
(Fines of up to $25,00 are possibleagainst individuals, while fines of upto $500,000 can be levied againstcompanies. Jail time can amount toas much as a life sentence).
Still, criminal code convictionsaren’t easy to get, says Ludwig.
“To get a criminal conviction youhave to prove guilt beyond all rea-sonable doubt. You have to showthat the individuals got into the acci-
dent because the company showed awillful,wanton disregard.The driver,for example,would have had to havebeen placed in a untenable situa-tion,” he explains.
As for liability issues when itcomes to sub-contractors (owner/operators), Ludwig believes thatcompanies who contract out loadscan’t be held responsible for thecriminal acts of sub-contractors.
“In criminal law you have to showmens rhea – criminal intent – andmy own feeling is that the companycontracting out the work is no differ-ent from the shipper.”
But given the fuzzy boundaries ofsome owner/operator-trucking com-pany relationships, there could beroom for argument, admits Ludwig.
“If the owner/operators all drivetrucks with the company’s logothere may well be room to arguethere is a direct relationship,” hesays. Instances where deductions aremade from the owner/operators’pay cheques could also create confu-sion as to the nature of the relation-ship, says Ludwig.
“That’s why it’s important to havea contract in place with theowner/operator – it protects thecompany and it will put the prosecu-tor in a position where he or she willnot be able to prosecute,” he says.
As for Crown prosecutors andpoliticians now viewing the success-
ful case in Quebec as an opportunityto gain popularity by picking on big,bad trucking companies, Ludwigthinks it’s unlikely.
“A politician can’t just go and tella Crown prosecutor to make a caseagainst a company – there has to already be a case to be prosecuted,”says Ludwig.
“But that doesn’t mean that aCrown attorney who wants to makea name for him or herself couldn’ttake on a case and get political back-ing if they do.”
Bill C-45 is informally known asthe ‘Westray Bill,’ because it was thefederal government’s legislative response to the Westray Mine disas-ter in 1992,when 26 miners lost theirlives in a Nova Scotia coal mine ex-plosion.
Occupational health and safetylaws did not prevent the tragedy, orpunish the guilty.
The public inquiry that followedthe disaster laid blame for the disas-ter squarely at the feet of the mine’sowners and managers.
Despite this, no-one ever paid anyfines or served any jail time.
The law accomplishes the follow-ing:
• Establishes a duty in criminallaw to protect the health and safetyof everyone in the workplace;
• Proposes severe penalties of im-prisonment if failure to protectworker health and safety results inbodily harm (maximum penalty – 10years in prison) or death (maximumpenalty – life imprisonment);
• Broadens the scope of who is re-sponsible for worker health andsafety to all levels of managementand everyone else who can “directhow another person does work orperforms a task”;
• Makes it possible to charge or-ganizations, including governmentdepartments, agencies and corpora-tions, with criminal negligence ifbodily harm results from their fail-ure to protect workplace health andsafety;
• Puts the duty for ensuring work-place health and safety on an equalfooting for everyone in Canada. ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:3361; 860;
CANADA
First conviction made under Bill C-45Could trucking be targeted next?
Ottawa proposes changes for HazMat haulersOTTAWA, Ont. – Federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon has tabledchanges to the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act which should in-crease safety and security for HazMat operators.
“Our government is committed to ensuring public safety and securitywhen dangerous goods are imported, handled or transported in Canada,”said Cannon. Proposed changes include: reinforcing the existingEmergency Response Assistance Program, requiring HazMat haulers tohave emergency response plans in place in the event of an accident or ter-rorist attack; requirements for security training and screening of personnelworking with dangerous goods; setting the stage for regulations that wouldrequire dangerous goods to be tracked during transport and requiring thereporting of lost or stolen loads; amending the definition of ‘importer’ toprovide more clarification as to who is affected by the rules.
For more info, visit: www.tc.gc.ca/tdg/consult/actreview/menu.htm. ■■
TRY IT ONLINE AT WWW.TRUCKNEWS.COM
Across1. Kojak with a Kodak warnings (6,7)
8. Canada-US-Mexico trade pact
9. State with peach on plates
10. Ubiquitous cargo platform
11. Former column-shifter slang, ____ on the
tree
13. Task in truck-stop service bay
15. Fifth-wheel lube
18. Add vital underhood fluids (3,2)
20. Truckmaker’s sales incentive, sometimes
23. Exceed safe engine RPM
24. An aluminum-wheel brand
25. Freight-cost component, sometimes (4,9)
1. Tyke’s Tonka-truck terrain2. TCH exit, sometimes3. Black Berry mmessages from home4. Certain turns5. Aerodynamic International tractor6. OK, on the CB7. Straight-truck type (5,3)12. A really-wrecked rig (5,3)14. Goods trucked into Canada16. 1908-1995 tractor brand17. Big-rig operator19. “One _____ at a Time” Cadillac song (J. Cash)21. Dune-buggy terrain22. “Six Days on the Road” singer, _____ Dudley
Down
Answers on page 27
© 2008 M
. Jackson
THIS MONTH’S CROSSWORD PUZZLE
pg 09 tw july 6/11/08 2:50 PM Page 9
July 2008Page 10 TRUCK WEST
By Jan WestellGREEN BAY, Wis. – Just like anynaive traveller, truck drivers canbe cavalier about their surround-ings, and may become susceptibleto risky situations such as cargotheft or violent encounters.
With $12 billion worth of cargostolen every year in the US according to the InternationalCargo Security Council, truckdrivers are being encouraged totake greater security measures,not only for their own safety butto prevent theft.
In an effort to address this costlyproblem, Schneider National hasdeveloped a security council withother prominent transportationstakeholders and law enforcementagencies, to highlight securitymeasures that could be used bythe transportation industry.
“Within the last few years, andespecially during the holidayshopping season, we’ve seen a
growing need to protect merchan-dise being shipped over the road and railways, most notably
high-demand electronics,” saysWalt Fountain, the director of en-terprise security at SchneiderNational.
Collaborating on security meas-ures with other supply chainproviders has paid off well for onecompany associated with the newsecurity council, according toSchneider.
The anonymous manufacturerbecame the victim of a high theftsituation a few years ago, and suf-fered from significant loss until ittightened its security protocol.The manufacturer has gone fromover $35 million in yearly theftlosses, to zero.
While many of the new coun-cil’s initiatives are consideredconfidential for security reasons,Fountain offers some practical advice that he uses in training sessions with Schneider Nationaldrivers to provide optimum secu-rity for cargo and to ensure safetyon the job.
“Our drivers are operating in aworld that requires a lot of theirattention,” says Fountain, a for-mer army intelligence officer with24 years experience in that serv-ice.
“It’s easy for them as they focuson one thing, to lose their focus onsomething else. It’s just humannature. We try to stress thosepoints.”
For starters, Fountain indicatesthat armed hold-ups are not ascommon as one might expect, andhe says it’s rare that he hearsabout an armed hold-up involvinga truck.
“Certainly, the potential is outthere,” he acknowledges.
First and foremost, Schneidertraining sessions emphasize com-mon sense.
The security expert indicatesthe drivers are encouraged to be-come highly perceptive abouttheir surroundings – especiallywhen stopping at rest areas, andwhen exiting or approaching theirparked vehicles.
“We do stress with our driversthat they need to maintain whatwe call ‘situational awareness,’”he says. “They need to knowwhere they’re at, what they’re do-ing, and what’s happening aroundthem.”
Fountain recommends thatdrivers hone their instincts whenat a rest area, and to keep an eyeout for suspicious activity or evena lack of other truckers.
Fountain says it’s not unlikechoosing a restaurant, where thequality of the eatery may be sus-pect if there are not many vehiclesin the parking lot. “If there aren’ta whole lot of trucks around,that may be an indicator,” saysFountain.
Another factor to considerwhen choosing a rest stop is light-ing. Fountain advises that driversshould park in a well-lit area,especially if they stop for a restbefore dark.
He suggests that drivers seekout rest stop lighting fixtures before hitting the bunk to allowfor a bright and safe departure.
SECURITY
Schneider National develops security council
SERIOUS ABOUT SECURITY: Schneider National has taken steps to ensure thegoods it hauls remain secure through the entire supply chain.
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TRUCK WEST Page 11July 2008
Fountain constantly warns aboutcomplacency.
“Look around as you’re gettingout of your tractor. Make sure youknow what’s happening aroundyou. Who’s parked near you? Ifyou see something that doesn’tlook just right, certainly trust yourjudgment. Get back into yourtruck and move on,” he advises.
Truck drivers should also take astrategic approach when visiting atruck stop.
Fountain encourages drivers totake the exact same route on footas when driving while departingfrom the concession or fuel facil-ity.
“If you decide to take anotherroute, you have no idea whatcould be on the other side,” hesays of a potential for becomingdisoriented and having an unex-pected encounter with thieves.“You’re always best to walk inand walk out the way you drovein, because then you’ll know whatto expect.”
Fountain’s security protocolalso recommends that drivers whoapproach their vehicles, when departing from a rest area, shouldprepare for a swift, secure exit.Drivers should keep their keys in their hands and be ready toopen their tractor door and stepup quickly to higher ground.Otherwise they may get caught inan unsafe predicament.
“If they’re rummaging aroundin their pocket, trying to get theirkey off the chain or whatever theydo, they’re vulnerable,” he says.“They’ve got their back to what-ever’s happening around them.”
One other piece of advice forcarriers is to insist on the use ofgeneric seals on trailers.
“It seems like a small thing, butwhen you’ve got thieves shoppinga yard, if they see a seal that has aname of an electronics manufac-turer on it they’re betting it’s go-ing to be a fenceable product.Again, we just don’t want to tipthem off,” he points out.
Despite a tough guy image asso-ciated with the trade, encouraginggreater security amongst truckdrivers has not been difficult,according to Fountain. During annual training sessions, the com-pany drivers share their own ex-periences and offer their own solutions for avoiding risk. It’sa strategy that drivers appear toaccept and endorse.
“We’re all human, and at timeswe may scoff at good advice that’sprovided to us,” says Fountain.“I’msure some of that occurs in ourfleet, and certainly within our in-dustry. Our approach is that we pro-vide reminders to our drivers. It’snot that we’re smarter than theyare. It’s just that within their normalroutine it is likely that they are going to become complacent.” ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:3041;
@COMPANYINARTICLE:024649256;
By Jan WestellBANFF, Alta. – The trucking in-dustry has changed vastly over thepast couple of decades, not onlywith an increased amount of cargotravelling on provincial and nation-al highways, but also with a grow-ing network of contraband andother criminal activity.
Sgt. Rob Ruiters of the RCMPrecently spoke to the AlbertaMotor Transport Association at itsannual convention on this topic.Ruiters is the coordinator of theRCMP Pipeline/Convoy/Jetwayprogram, a program that trains police officers about detectingtravelling criminals. At the AMTAconvention, Ruiters was talkingabout training law enforcementagencies on how to stop moretrucks – not only for safety checks –but also to become more aware ofsuspicious activity.
“Most police are not familiarwith trucks and most cops don’tstop trucks,” says Ruiters of an unfamiliarity and sometimes intim-idation, that he says discouragesdeeper investigation.
Ruiters has also been promotingCrimestoppers throughout thetrucking industry, to build on thesame kind of success that has beenenjoyed with NeighbourhoodWatch.A few Canadian companieshave partnered with Crime-stoppers and prominently displaythe tip line on their trucks. Alongwith this program, Ruiters is advis-ing fleet operators on how to become more aware of suspicioussituations, and encouraging themto report these “anomalies” to lawenforcement agencies. Greater se-curity will not only benefit thetrucking industry, it will also makethe entire transportation system,safer for all, he says.
“The transportation industry is ahuge vulnerability to national secu-rity and organized crime,” he toldTruck West in an interview after theconvention.
One of those transportation vul-nerabilities is the illegal drug industry, which has grown into abillion dollar industry according toRuiters, who suspects that this“bulk freight” is typically trans-ported by truck, for obvious rea-sons.
“It’s a lot easier to move a bulkamount in a truck than a little bitin a car,” he says. “Whether I’m
moving legal freight or illegal com-modities, obviously I can still fitmore in a truck than I can in a car.That being said, if we knew whichtrucks were doing that, we would-n’t have a problem.”
Terrorism is another securitythreat that may be considered anAmerican issue, but not necessarilyso, according to Ruiters. He men-tioned two Canadian incidents atthe convention: the Air Indiabombing in 1985 which caused 329deaths, and the capture of AhmedRessam.The Algerian terrorist wasstopped by a suspicious USCustoms agent in late 1999, afterhe travelled by ferry from Van-couver Island to Port Angeles,Washington. He was found to have50 kilograms of explosives in hisvehicle and was later convicted of a
millennium plot to blow up the LosAngeles airport. Ruiters also men-tioned the Oklahoma bomber, whotransported his explosives in atruck.
“I’m not saying it will happen atall, but it will probably happen bytruck,” he says. “We’re certainlyvulnerable to that, because we haveso many trucks on the highways atany given time. When it gets to thefinal stages, it’s kind of difficult tostop it.”
There is also the potential for themovement of illegal aliens, andRuiters noted a recent headlinethat indicated 41,000 illegal immi-grants are unaccounted for since afederal government audit fiveyears ago. While this is often con-sidered a US/Mexico border issue,Ruiters indicates that Canada suf-fers from its own issue – as well ashuman trafficking.
“Illegal smuggling and humantrafficking is a real concern to theCanadian government,” he says.“Human trafficking is also peoplebrought over here that are sold inthe sex trades from third-worldcountries.”
The transportation security spe-cialist has been encouraging fleetoperators to consider securitythreats related to the trucking in-dustry and to enlighten operationsstaff and drivers about suspiciousactivity on the highways, as well asaround the yard, within the bodiesof the trucks, or amongst the driv-ers. The trucking industry was, formany years, a very trusting, closegroup, says Ruiters, but times havechanged – and tighter securitymeasures are a necessity with fleetoperators and drivers.
“Today, they’ve got to be a littlemore vigilant, whether it’s on theiryards, when they’re driving, (or)when carrying cargo. They have tobe more vigilant, that there’s peo-ple out there that are doing nothingelse but scouting them to take theircargo, or to possibly hijack a driver,or trying to approach the drivers tomove illegal commodities.”
By taking a collaborative ap-proach, Ruiters says law enforce-ment agencies can use their exclu-sive expertise to become morestrategic in combating crime withinthe trucking industry.
“It’s not the police responsibility,
alone,” he adds. “The problem is,we have so many trucks on ourroads today and it’s only going toincrease. We’re only as secure asthe weakest link.”
Ruiters warns about driver vul-nerability in an industry that suffers from a driver shortage. Heencourages fleet operators anddrivers to become aware of the po-tential for aggressive recruitment,for the movement of illegal goods.He suggests that if employers wereto talk to their drivers about re-cruitment to move contraband, hesuspects the response would comeas a great surprise.
“I think they’d be shocked tofind out that a lot of drivers havehad the opportunity,” he says.“They just chose not to.”
The criminal element that isseeking couriers is well aware ofwhich transport companies – anddrivers – are travelling on routesthat are favoured for moving illegalcargo, such as a the long-haulVancouver to Toronto run, saysRuiters.
“Criminals will know if you areregularly making these runs, andthey will look to try and encouragesomebody to move ‘something,’ tomake a few extra dollars,” he says.“You don’t have to be a rocket sci-entist to know that they want youto move something illegal.”
While the security analyst real-izes that some people are more vul-nerable than others, he is unsympa-thetic to those who make thewrong “choice.” As well, he under-stands that the trucking industry isa very competitive business, and hehas no doubt that if a courier is re-quired for contraband movement,that arrangement will eventuallybe secured.
“If I have something that I needmoved, whether it is legal or illegal,eventually I’ll find somebody tomove it. It’s up to all the other peo-ple in the industry to police them-selves, and report that they hearsomeone’s trying to offer someoneto move something – or they knowdrivers that are moving something.Because the sooner we can getthem off the highway, (the sooner)it makes it safer for everybody elsewho does work the highway legiti-mately.” ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:3361;
RCMP asks truckers to assist in crime crackdown
PARTNER IN CRIME PREVENTION: Yanke is one trucking company that hasbeen active in having its drivers help keep an eye out for trouble.
Letters to the editorHave you got a complaint, compli-ment, criticism or question?
We’d like to hear about it.Send your letters to the editor to
Truck West, 12 Concorde Place,Toronto, Ontario, M3C 4J2. Or e-mail [email protected]. ■■
pg 10-11 tw july 6/12/08 12:21 PM Page 11
July 2008Page 12 TRUCK WEST
By Lou SmyrlisTORONTO, Ont. – Desperate timescall for desperate measures is a well-worn phrase and a too often usedpractice when the going gets toughin the transportation industry. Butslashing rates to attract business dur-ing an economic downturn was iden-tified as the worst mistake a motorcarrier can make by the experts participating in Markel’s Driving aMore Profitable Trucking Business 2seminar, part of the company’s Let’sTalk series.
“Undercutting yourself and get-ting into rate wars – you can’t be doing that.Our costs are going up sowhy should rates be going down?”emphasized Kevin Snobel, generalmanager of Caravan Logistics, amid-sized LTL, TL, logistics andwarehousing provider.
The motor carrier industry is ex-periencing a sharp reversal of therate trends that had driven shipper-carrier relations since the end of2003 when growing freight volumesand tight capacity placed carriers inthe driver’s seat during contract ne-gotiations.
By 2004, 80% of shippers were re-porting they had agreed to a rate in-crease for the year. In comparison,back in 1999 only one quarter ofshippers using trucking services hadagreed to a rate increase. Just as im-portant was the magnitude of thoseincreases.
Back in 2004, almost six of 10 shippers were agreeing to rate increases above 4%, exclusive of the fuel surcharge, according ourown Transportation Buying TrendsSurvey.
But the drop-off in freight vol-umes over the past year (CanadianGDP was negative in the first quar-ter of this year) has led to a drop incapacity concerns among shippersand the power during contract nego-tiations has shifted back to them.
By last year, only about one-thirdof shippers buying trucking serviceswere paying increases above 4%,according to our research. This yearit’s down to just a quarter. And thecarrier CEOs participating in ourannual Shipper-Carrier Roundtablecomplained that contracts in a lot ofcases don’t seem to be worth the pa-per they are written on. No soonerare they signed than the carrier findsthe shipper is being enticed by low-er-priced offers and wants the con-tract revisited. Probably in 85% ofthe RFPs the incumbent carrier thathad the business is able to resecureit but the rate ends up being ration-alized down to a lower level.
“A lot of carriers get more hookedon cash flow than on margin,” cau-tioned Ray Haight, executive direc-tor of MacKinnon Transport and recently named chairman of the North American Truckload CarriersAssociation. “You need to have dis-cipline in your rate setting. You justcan’t be buying volume becausethat’s a slippery slope.”
He pointed out the smartest oper-ators take all costs into account be-fore setting their rates and the most
sophisticated motor carriers are us-ing intelligence tools to help themset their rates by lane.He added thatMacKinnon Transport has a rategrid that no salesperson is allowed toviolate in trying to secure a contractwithout proper justification.
The need to consider the impactof continually high costs despite acooling North American economy(the latest report shows CanadianGDP was negative in the first quar-ter and US economic growth hascooled considerably as well) is cer-tainly borne out by the latest for-hirecarrier financial statistics. Considerthe most recent revenue and ex-pense reports reported for the nation’s largest motor carriers,reported by Statistics Canada:
1st Quarter 2007: Revenues down2.0%; Expenses down 1.1%
2nd Quarter 2007: Revenuesdown 1.3%; Expenses down 0.5%
3rd Quarter 2007: Revenues down0.7%; Expenses down 0.1%
Clearly, the nation’s largest carriersare not only suffering from a dropin revenues but their costs are not
declining in similar fashion.The financial results from small-
and medium-sized carriers are evenmore problematic. As a result, theoperating ratio of the nation’slargest carriers has deteriorated to0.95 on average. Making five centson the dollar is a marked deteriora-tion from the profit margins wit-nessed a few years ago and consid-ered by industry experts to be just atthe edge of what’s consideredhealthy.
Snobel and Haight pointed to sev-eral factors that must be taken intoaccount when setting rates and se-curing new business:
Understand the market trends forspecific lanes rather than setting gen-eral rates.You must do this to ensureyou’re not offering rates below mar-ket value. As Snobel pointed out, ifthe market rate for hauling to desti-nation X is $750, you don’t want tobe offering rates at $500. He addedthat’s where owner/operators wholeave a motor carrier to start theirown business often get into trouble– they end up low-balling rates byhundreds of dollars. That hurts notonly their own fledgling companybut the industry as a whole if it endsup having to adapt to the new lowerrates.While some may consider rateindexes a helpful source,Haight saidin his experience they are not ofmuch value. “They recommend, 6-7% rate increases every year andthat’s just not going to happen.”
Take the total round trip costs andthe total value and cost of the contractinto consideration. Insurance costs,for example, need to be figured outfor the different commoditieshauled. How easy the freight is toload,get across the border and deliv-er to its destination are other issuesto be taken into consideration. It’salso important to consider the im-
pact of the new business on thefleet’s owner/operators. “You haveto keep your people profitable tokeep them happy and, in turn, keepyourself profitable,” Haight said.
Consider if there are strings at-tached. Haight related his experi-ence with shippers who will providewhat initially seems like regularbusiness in a lane the carrier wantsonly if the carrier will also acceptloads in a lane the carrier does notparticularly want. “Usually whathappens is the loads that you dowant don’t end up coming in thenumbers expected and the ones youdon’t want are there like clockwork.You have to talk your way out ofsuch situations.”
Consider the impact a new contractwill have on your capacity. You mayfind that the cost of having to investin additional equipment to handlenew business eats away at the mar-gin you initially expected to makeon the new business. “It’s unfortu-nate that truckers like equipmenttoo much. Do you want to be a 50-truck fleet making money or a 100-truck fleet that is losing money?” isa question motor carrier executivesmust ask themselves.
Is the new contract with the rightkind of shipper? Large shippers willtend to set the rates but compensateby providing long-term stabilitywhile smaller shippers will fight forevery last detail, particularly duringtougher financial times.You need toconsider the fit with your operation.
Don’t do too much business withone shipper or in one sector. Snobelsaid when he joined Caravan nineyears ago, the company had the ma-jority of its business in one industry,a situation it worked to resolve be-cause it placed it in a precarious situ-ation during economic downturns.“If you are heavily involved in oneindustry,with everything being cycli-cal, you’re going to be in trouble.You have to diversify,” he advised.Both Snobel and Haight also cau-tioned against doing too much busi-ness with a particular client. “If acontract is more than about 30% ofyour business, when he’s in trouble,you’re in trouble.”
Help shippers lower costs withoutdropping your rates. Many carriersare starting to offer intermodal solu-tions and helping shippers drilldown into their operations to uncov-er costs due to inefficiencies – costlydelays at the loading dock, for exam-ple. “If you are going to have a win-win relationship with your clientsyou have to have shippers that areprofitable and offering them serviceoptions is key to that. If you don’t dothat, someone else will mow yourlawn,” Haight said.
Do use surcharges where appro-priate. If you don’t, you’re allowingyour business to bleed at the edgesby not covering costs beyond your
control. A study conducted by theFreight Carriers Association a fewyears back found that of the 35hours, on average, that truckloaddrivers spend in loading and unload-ing tasks, 23 hours are spent justwaiting to load and unload. That’s aconsiderable amount of inefficiencyto be borne by the carrier.Our Transportation Buying TrendsSurvey found that about one-thirdof shippers are paying detention sur-charges,usually if they keep the driv-er waiting for more than one hour.Our research also indicates aboutone-fifth of shippers using truckingservices pay border security andborder delay surcharges. And whilealmost every shipper responding toour Transportation Buying TrendsSurvey reported paying a fuel sur-charge, Haight said, surprisingly,there are still some carriers who maynot be asking for a fuel surcharge.“How those carriers are surviving, Idon’t know. If you don’t ask, youdon’t get.Ask for the money.In mostcases it’s there,” he emphasized.
Keep rates reasonable by address-ing your own inefficiencies. “Track,track, track. Measure, measure,measure,” was Haight’s straightfor-ward advice.“If you lose track of justone of your variables, you can getcaught pretty quickly.” Take for example, the cost of driver turnoveron a variety of areas. MacKinnonTransport has done a remarkablejob in recent years in reducing itsdriver turnover ratio and Haightonce asked his managers to calculatethe cost of doing business with thecompany driver turnover ratio at120% versus 20%.“Ask any mainte-nance manager and he will tell youthat having multiple drivers on apiece of equipment is hard on thatequipment,” he said, adding thesame could be said about the nega-tive impact of driver turnover on streamlining accounting costsand providing customer service.“Turnover is the cancer of the indus-try,” he stressed, adding it poses adrag on profitability that needs to berecognized.
Don’t be afraid to confront prob-lem customers, and fire them it theydon’t improve. Not all shipper rela-tionships can be forever.That shouldbe particularly so if their freightcauses operational problems youwould be best off without, if they areconstantly looking to change thecontract, if they’re not payingenough or taking too long to pay.“You have to consider, do I reallywant to deal with these people andat what price? Your service is worthsomething, just as the shipper’sproduct is worth something. It has tobe a win-win situation,” Snobel said.Haight advised that shippers don’talways know they are causing prob-lems for their carriers. In large or-ganizations the person signing thecontract may be far removed fromwhat’s happening on the loadingdock. A few years ago, MacKinnonasked its drivers to rate theirfavourite and least favourite cus-tomers. Haight said some of theworst performing shippers were sur-prised to be on the list, highlightingthe need for regular communicationbetween carrier and shipper. ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:3361;
@COMPANYINARTICLE:031245807; 018748840;
MANAGEMENT
Don’t sell yourself shortHow fleets can remain profitable in a soft market
pg 12 tw july 6/11/08 2:51 PM Page 12
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July 2008Page 14 TRUCK WEST
Fleet managers tend to echo a common re-frain when they rejectthe concept of driver in-centive programs. “Thedriver is already paid todo a good job,” they sug-gest, questioning howthe related costs can be justified.
But these initiatives should beseen as a valuable investment intothe business.
When they are properly man-aged, the incentives can helpfleets retain drivers and supportthe habits that will improve every-thing from accident records tofuel economy, all of which willhave a direct impact on the bot-tom line.
The Canadian Trucking HumanResources Council has deter-mined that it costs $10,000 to replace an experienced driver; anaverage property damage colli-sion will cost $12,000; and we allknow about the rising cost of fuel.
Who wouldn’t want to addressthese costs?
A successful program is evenbased on a form of recognitionthat will not cost a dime, and itcomes in the form of a heartfeltword of thanks.
Everyone likes to be recognizedfor a job well done, and the acco-lades take on an added meaningwhen they are delivered in frontof peers. Congratulatory lettersshould be posted on the bulletinboard for fellow employees to see,along with the charts that showthe ranking of each driver interms of everything from safedriving records to idle time.
These visible reminders willeven establish an unofficial com-petition among the drivers whowant to be the best.
Related rewards do not need tobreak the bank, either. It certainlymakes sense to reward the safestdriver with a well-paying dedicat-ed run, or the opportunity to drivethe newest power unit in the fleet.Simple gifts in the form of a hat,pen or coffee shop gift card willalso help to punctuate the all-im-portant thank-you.
Tangible rewards can actuallybe more effective than cash in anenvelope.
Any professional driver willwear a ‘Million Safe Miles’ patchwith pride, giving them the chanceto boast about their achievementswithout saying a word.
Long after a financial bonus isspent, meanwhile, the prize in theform of a microwave or TV willcontinue to be a lasting reminderof the actions that led to the reward.
Some larger fleets have even introduced programs that allowdrivers to accumulate the pointsto “buy” products from a cata-logue full of rewards, encouragingemployees to remain with thecompany as they save up for aspecial purchase.
Just remember that these programs involve administrativecosts. Someone will need to trackthe accumulated points and up-date the items in the catalogue on
a regular basis. (It’s doubtful any-one will want to save points to buyan eight-track player or lavalamp).
Family members can also be included in the rewards. One fleet,for example, sends grocery certifi-cates to the spouses of driverswho go three months without anaccident.
Now, whenever the company’sdrivers phone home, their familiesare quick to encourage safe driv-ing habits. In effect, they have be-come extensions of the company’ssafety department.
Of course, safety bonuses havealso been established in the com-pensation packages that are paidthroughout the trucking industry,but the fleets that embrace theseincentives need to ensure that therelated programs are properlymanaged.
For example, the promise of anyrewards will need to be based onreasonable targets that driversfeel they can achieve. Excessivetargets will be recognized as anempty promise and actually dis-courage employees from trying toimprove their habits.
The timing of the payments isequally important. If the employ-ees are recognized every threemonths, someone who is involvedin a minor collision in January canbe confident that they will be rec-ognized for their safe drivinghabits during the remainder of theyear.
The frequency of the paymentscan also be used to monitor a dri-ver’s actions before they becomea problem.
By raising a red flag whenever adriver misses his logbook bonusfor three months in a row, for ex-ample, one fleet has been able totarget the employees who requireadditional training. Future finesare avoided before they occur.
And managers can always mon-itor the true value of the programby tracking the benchmarks thatthe incentives were meant to address in the first place.
A few simple calculations willprove that the limited investmentsrepresent money well spent. ■■
– This month’s experts are Yves-Yvon Mercier and RossJohnson. Yves-Yvon Mercier is asenior advisor in Markel’s Safetyand Training Services, EasternCanada Region in Montreal. RossJohnson is a senior advisor in the Ontario Region. Send yourquestions, feedback and com-ments about this column [email protected]. Markel Safetyand Training Services, a division ofMarkel Insurance Company ofCanada, offers specialized courses,seminars and consulting to fleetowners, safety managers, trainersand drivers.
SAFETY
Driver incentives pay off
Ross Johnsonand Yves-YvonMercier
Ask theExperts
pg 14 tw july 6/11/08 2:54 PM Page 14
TRUCK WEST Page 15July 2008
The trucking industry has alwaysbeen under pressure to save costsand time both in the delivery of theservice and the administration of it.In today’s world of high fuel prices,the temptation to save costs andtime when it comes to drivers is ap-pealing. One way companies haveattempted to do this is through theuse of self-employed drivers or“driver services.” By contracting adriver, the fleet can add or subtractcapacity without the obligations andcosts of having an employee.
There are good and bad sides forboth the carrier and the driver in thistype of arrangement. First, let’s statethe obvious: Canada RevenueAgency hates the concept, andrarely does a driver service relation-ship stand up to a CRA review.Theywould rather have tax money com-ing in from an employer everymonth than have a bunch of self-em-ployed accounts to monitor and waitfor monthly or annual tax payments.
They’re also probably tired of see-ing the same mistakes and misinter-pretations again and again.
CRA has a guidebook called Em-ployee or Self-employed (RC4110)that provides the framework forhow the agency evaluates whether arelationship is business-to-businessor employer-employee. Here’s whatthey look for: The level of controlthe payer has over the worker; Doesthe worker provide his own toolsand equipment?; Can the workersub-contract the work or hire assis-tants?;The worker’s degree of finan-cial risk;The degree of responsibilityfor investment and managementheld by the worker; The worker’sopportunity for profit; Other rele-vant factors, such as written contracts.
The determination of whether aworker is an employee or a self-em-ployed individual goes beyond whopays taxes. It affects how a worker istreated under many laws includingthe Canada Pension Plan, theEmployment Insurance Act, IncomeTax Act, Workers Compensation,and other labour codes.
Another point that often catchespeople off guard is that the self-employed driver must chargeGST/HST for his services if he exceeds the annual $30,000 grosslimitation. Where a self-employeddriver does not use his own truck
and does not assume liability for thesupply of a freight transportationservice, the driver is not supplying afreight transportation service forGST/HST purposes. He is providinga driving service, which is taxable.
So what red flags attract CRA topossible violations?
Two situations probably cause90% of all CRA audits to determineif workers are employees or self-em-ployed: when the driver gets fired;and when the driver gets hurt or isunable to work. Faced with no EI,Workers Comp or disability income,a worker will turn to CRA for help.The response may be an audit.
If a worker is found to be an em-ployee, the consequences can besteep. An employer who fails todeduct the required CPP contribu-tions and EI premiums must payboth the employer’s share and theemployee’s share of any contribu-
tions and premiums owing, pluspenalties and interest.
If a worker or payer is not sure ofthe worker’s employment status,either party can request a ruling to have the status determined. UseForm CPT1, Request for a Ruling asto the Status of a Worker under theCanada Pension Plan and/or theEmployment Insurance Act.
Whether you’re a driver or a fleetmanager, a driver service arrange-ment can give you flexibility, tax advantages, and help keep certaincosts in check. But only if all partiesinvolved are clear about their obli-gations and responsibilities. ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:1604; 3361;
– Scott Taylor is vice-president ofTFS Group, a Waterloo, Ont., com-pany that provides accounting, fueltax reporting, and other businessservices for truck fleets andowner/operators. For information,visit www.tfsgroup.com or call 800-461-5970.
TAX TALK
TaxTalkScottTaylor
Driver services: Employee or independent?
Driver servicespros and consPayer Advantages:• Ease of calculations• No holding funds• No reporting or filings with
CRA• No forms or filings upon ter-
mination• No benefit costs through EI,
CPP,WSIB, health plans• No rules for dismissal, labour
codes no not apply
Payer Disadvantages:• Faces the consequences of
CRA penalties if the relation-ship is determined to be employment or not self-employment
Worker Advantages:• Bigger paycheques (no tax, EI
or CPP withheld)• May be able to expense costs
that could lower taxes
Worker Disadvantages:• Must pay tax bill on their own• Must file GST/HST returns• Responsibility of running a
business• More complicated tax returns• May lose meal claim• No entitlement to EI benefits ■■
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July 2008Page 16 TRUCK WEST
By James MenziesTORONTO, Ont. – The mass move-ment towards air-ride trailer suspen-sions in Canada has allowed fleets totackle everything from cargo dam-age and driver turnover to brokenlight bulbs.
However, technological advancesthat address many of the flaws tradi-tionally associated with mechanicalsuspensions, combined with higherfuel prices may be prompting somefleets to revisit the mechanical ver-sus air-ride debate.
Composite springs and the use ofmore leafs (as many as seven- oreight-leaf springs) are providing in-creased durability and a better ridethan traditional mechanical suspen-sions, according to some manufac-turers.
“A lot of people just open theirmouth and out comes ‘Air-ride logis-tics, 53-ft.’” says Ray Camball, fleetsales manager with TrailmobileCanada. “It’s a pre-programmedthing.While air-ride has softened theride for lightly-loaded, high-speedloads and empty return hauls, elec-tronics,potato chips and other sensi-tive lightweight freight, it hasbrought with it other complexities.”
When calculating total cost ofownership, there are obvious advan-tages to the less complex and rela-tively maintenance-free mechanicalsuspensions. But concerns aboutride quality and durability still ulti-mately steer many customers to-wards air-ride suspensions.
ArvinMeritor offers a form of hy-brid – a mechanical suspension witha composite spring, called SimilAir.It consists of a main member con-structed of fiberglass resin matrixwith steel wear pads on each tip. Ithas a jounce bumper in the middle,which the company says contributestowards an “air-like” ride.
“For many applications, it’s a goodalternative to an air-ride suspensionand it’s definitely a better product interms of ride enhancement if you’removing forward in terms of mechan-ical suspension technology,” saysMike Lynch, product line managerfor the SimilAir composite springwith ArvinMeritor.
A tandem suspension with
SimilAir weighs about 250 lbs lessthan its typical air-ride counterpartsand is 100 lbs lighter than traditionalsteel spring suspensions, the compa-ny says. That means extra payloadfor some fleets – but how about theride?
Lynch said drivers who havepulled trailers with the SimilAircomposite spring have raved about asmooth ride that rivals that of an air-ride suspension. He attributes it tothe monoleaf design combined withthe jounce bumper.
“Most of the traditional trailersprings are a pack of springs,and youget a lot of friction between thesprings which causes a stiffer ride,”explains Lynch. “Our SimilAir is aone-piece, one-leaf unit, so we getrid of the friction between leafs.”
ArvinMeritor claims the SimilAirhas also addressed another of thetraditional knocks against mechani-cal trailer suspensions: durability.
“Having a composite spring isvery beneficial in terms of corrosionresistance,” says Lynch.“It’s not sus-ceptible to corrosion.”
One customer, propane haulerH.J. Martens out of Junction City,Wis., made the switch from a con-ventional three-leaf steel spring sys-tem in response to suffering about adozen steel spring failures eachspring season. The company’s own-er, Steve Martens, said the compos-ite spring (combined with aluminumhubs and wheels) has enabled him toincrease payload by 300-400 lbs,increasing revenue by 3% while alsoreducing downtime.
While ArvinMeritor’s SimilAir
spring has its fans (Canadian Springsand Reimer Express are among its Canadian users), some other suspension manufacturers remainskeptical about the potential of com-posite spring suspensions.
Larry Stevenson, marketing manager, trailer systems with SAF-Holland, notes that in general“market acceptance (of compositesprings) has been limited.”
Scott Fulton, director of engineer-ing with Hendrickson agrees.
“I don’t differentiate between acomposite spring and a steel spring,”he explains. “From an engineeringperspective, what an air-ride doesthat no mechanical spring can do, ischange its spring rate based on theload applied to the trailer. Theheight control valve maintains thesame height and it always inflatesthe air bags to bring the trailer to theproper height so it has a certainamount of jounce. That’s what givesthe air-ride its softness.”
While weight and overall cost ofownership are the two main motiva-tors for spec’ing mechanical suspen-sions, SAF-Holland’s Stevensondoesn’t foresee a widespread move-ment back towards mechanical sus-pensions, even with record fuelprices forcing many fleets to look atnew ways to reduce weight.
“More recently, the trend (to-wards air-ride suspensions) has lev-eled out and most fluctuations canbe traced to specific buying patternsof traditional mechanical fleets ver-sus air-ride fleets,” he says.“A rever-sal of current trends is unlikely,considering that cost and weight
differences between mechanical andair-rides have been substantiallynarrowed over the past 15 years andthat trailers with air-rides warrant ahigher resale value.”
Gary Wasney, Canadian salesmanager with Ridewell Suspensions,says while composite springs havebeen used with “a certain degree ofsuccess” in the past,he feels shipperswill continue to drive demand forair-ride suspensions.
“More shippers are saying that ifyou’re going to haul their product ona trailer, it’s going to have to haveair-ride,”Wasney says.
While composite spring suspen-sions have their critics,Trailmobile’sCamball is a proponent of exploringall possible solutions. He suggestscustomers consult with a reputablesupplier to determine the best fit fortheir specific application.
“It can be worth the time up-frontto consult with knowledgeable,unbi-ased suppliers to discuss your loadsand docking situations to help de-cide on the type of system that bestsuits your needs,” he says.
He suggests not to underestimatethe dampening quality that can beachieved by using composite springs,or for that matter, even seven- oreight-leaf spring suspensions.He hassatisfied van customers using bothsolutions, as well as air-ride.
“Spring ride gets a bad wrap,”he says, chalking it up to the factmany customers’ only experiencewith mechanical suspensions wasbased on a suspension unfit for thetask, perhaps with too few springs,offering little flex and resulting ina stiff ride.
While current economics may nothave quelled the mechanical versusair-ride debate, the emergence ofcomposite springs and continuingweight-saving measures taken bymanufacturers of both air-ride andmechanical suspensions are provid-ing unprecedented options – andthat’s good news for customers.
“The current fuel crisis will serveas a catalyst to drive innovation tothe next level,”Stevenson predicts.■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:844;
@COMPANYINARTICLE:018579774; 018438508; 018498065;
029939123;
SUSPENSIONS
The fuel effectDo diesel prices change the air vs mechanical debate?
MIDDLE GROUND: Compositesprings, such as the SimilAir byArvinMeritor, are lighter and lessexpensive than air-ride.
trucknews.com
HEIDI ALLEN5337-U
CHILD FIND 1-800-387-7962
D.O.B.: September 14, 1975
When Last Seen:
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 145 lbs.
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Long - Light Brown
Characteristics: May be wearing glasses
Missing Since: April 3, 1994 From: New Haven, New York, USA
Anyone with information please contact: All Calls Confidential – No Name Required
MISSING
pg 16 tw july 6/11/08 2:56 PM Page 16
TRUCK WEST Page 17July 2008
By James MenziesTORONTO, Ont. – Quality ship-pers can be a tough nut to crack.Often, the best shippers work witha handful of carriers that haveserved them long-term and devel-oped an intimate understandingof their needs. Carriers work hardto serve those top tier shippersand to maintain the business.
But there are steps a fleet cantake to better its chances of get-ting a piece of a preferred ship-per’s business. Neil McKenna,vice-president of transportationfor Canadian Tire and AllanKelly, director of logistics withfood company Casco, were at a recent Let’s Talk seminar on prof-itability hosted by MarkelInsurance, to offer insight intowhat shippers expect from theircarriers.
Canadian Tire works with 20-30carriers as well as its own privatefleet.
“It is difficult to crack CanadianTire’s supply chain as a regularcarrier,” admitted McKenna.“They’ve (regular carriers) beenwith us a long time. They knowour business and they keep ourbusiness.”
Casco relies on a select group ofcore carriers for 75-80% of itsbulk requirements while drawingfrom a wider pool for its vanmoves.
In these trying times for thetrucking industry, both McKennaand Kelly acknowledge it’s a buyer’smarket.
“We don’t see any issues at allin getting van carriers,” said Kelly.“We’re getting calls every dayfrom companies we’ve neverheard of before.”
McKenna agreed that there’sexcess capacity in CentralCanada, but a driver shortagecontinues to constrain capacity inthe west. The excess capacity thatexists in much of Canada makes itdifficult for carriers to ask for rateincreases. McKenna said his company is paying rate increasesof 0-3% this year.
However, despite the un-favourable economic conditionsfacing trucking companies today,there are still opportunities.
Kelly said the railroads are be-ginning to price themselves out ofsome of the north-south lanes thatthey once controlled. Casco recent-ly moved its London to Chicagolane off the rails and onto truck.Railway rate increases have madethe cost advantages of using railnegligible, Kelly said, adding“equipment is more predictableand on-time delivery is more pre-dictable” with truck.
He said he encourages othershippers who use short-line rail-ways to revisit their modal selec-tion. But while price is one factorin choosing modes and trans-portation providers, both Kellyand McKenna agree they have nointerest in contributing to a carri-
er’s demise by asking them to haultheir freight for free.
“We don’t want our carriers todisappear,” said Kelly. “If theypresent us with facts and figuresof what they need, we’re going tolisten.”
“The opportunity to buy freightat less than cost is there, but it’snot necessarily healthy,” addedMcKenna.
Both shippers agree they’rewilling to pay accessorial charges– when warranted.
“We know everybody has tomake a nickel, but not necessarilya dime,” said McKenna.
If you do manage to get past thefront door with a preferred ship-per, there are steps a salespersoncan take to better your chances ofsecuring some business, the ship-pers advise. For one, don’t try topull the wool over their eyes.
“We know the cost to move ourfreight,” said McKenna. “Weknow the cost of equipment, fueland labour.”
Kelly said the first step forprospective new carriers is todemonstrate an understanding ofhis company’s requirements.
“Do research,” he suggested.“Often, they don’t have the de-tails of our product’s handlingcharacteristics. Get on the Website and know what our productsare for a starting point.”
He said his company is “lookingfor more sophistication” from itscarriers.
He suggested showing up at ameeting with statistics highlight-ing important figures such as on-time delivery percentages andlead-time requirements.
“We can take that informationand try to influence somechange,” he said.
Kelly also prefers working withcarriers that keep him appraisedof what’s going on in the truckingindustry.
Once you do get a chance tohaul their freight, it’s important tolive up to expectations and pres-ent a professional image.
McKenna said how a fleet’sdrivers present themselves can goa long way towards determining ifthey will earn more – or less – ofCanadian Tire’s business.
“We expect them to be pleas-ant, to be decked out in good apparel, to be wearing safetyshoes and to get along with thepeople they’re dealing with at theend of the load,” he said.
In Casco’s case, carriers mustmaintain product integrity alongthe supply chain which meansdrivers must be trained on how tohandle the product. Both shippersconduct regular meetings withtheir carriers to address any issues that come up and bothstressed the growing importanceof developing strong carrier/ship-per relations.
Communication is key, notedMcKenna.
“I don’t get a complaint whenthe freight is not there. They com-plain because they didn’t know itwasn’t coming,” he explained,adding the ability to track freightis increasingly important.
Casco is in the process of possi-bly dismissing one of its carriersfor a number of reasons, including
improperly completed paper-work, poor communication andpoor interaction with the cus-tomer.
“This carrier should not be sur-prised,” Kelly pointed out. ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:3361;
@COMPANYINARTICLE:030670815; 018527492;
018748840;
MANAGEMENT
What shippers wantMarkel seminar offers tips on howto secure freight from top shippers
BACK IT UP: Shippers are looking for ‘more sophistication’ from their carriers.When meeting with a prospective new customer, bring stats to the table such aslead-time requirements and on-time delivery percentages.
pg 17 tw july v2 6/12/08 2:24 PM Page 17
July 2008Page 18 TRUCK WEST
pleased – furious in fact – when Idiscovered that public debatewould be limited to a one day,mid-week session in downtownToronto – two days hence – mak-ing full and equal participation by most truck drivers virtually impossible.
To add insult to injury, thosewho could rearrange their sched-ules (as if) to appear, had only un-til noon that same day to indicatetheir intent. How many truck driv-ers do you think were sitting infront of their laptops at nine thatmorning, ready to fire off an e-mail within a couple of hours tosay “count me in?”
Welcome to democracy – opento everyone in the same way asthe Ritz Hotel.
Too little time
Like most not-for-profit associa-tions, OBAC operates on a shoe-string budget, in fact, as many ofyou know, I’m OBAC’s sole staffperson.
The Board of Directors and allour policy and technical advisorsare volunteers; most of them are
professional drivers who would beon the road delivering someone’sbottled water or toilet paper ortomatoes at the time the meetingwas to take place.
So I spent the two-day lead timeorganizing my schedule and shuf-fling priorities so we could takepart in the democratic process –which left me working through thenight before the meeting to finalizeOBAC’s presentation.
After pulling an all-nighter, Igrabbed a quick shower, jumpedinto the car, and headed out onthe six-hour drive from my houseto downtown TO.
I was a couple of hours into thetrip before it struck me what adumb thing I was doing – I wassimply too tired to be driving –and I was putting myself andevery other driver on the road atrisk. So I pulled over and calledthe committee clerk to say I sim-ply could not be there.
I asked for the opportunity toaddress the committee via tele-conference to explain why I was ano-show, then I got myself to asafe place – the 10 Acre TruckStop in Belleville as it turned out –and waited for the call.
By the time it came I was ex-hausted and frustrated and in nocondition to make a coherent pres-entation, so after assuring commit-tee members my written commentswould be in their hands as soon as Iwas able to get safely to my e-mail,I let ’em have it, although I mustadmit, the fire was just about out ofthe old girl by then.
Democratic debacle
Although my faith in the democrat-ic process was pushed to the wall bya government that seems bent onshutting people out rather than in-cluding them, I’m hoping the com-mittee members have enough senseto dig a bit deeper into this issue andtry to sort out fact from fiction.
The first fact I’d like them to getinto their heads – and use to givesome context to the debate – ishow misguided it is to believe thattrucks without electronic speedlimiters will be barreling down theroad too fast for conditions.
That’s all I’m going to say aboutmy position on government-mandat-ed speed limiters – apparently I stat-ed my opinion so clearly last timearound that it ruffled a few feathers.By the way, thanks so much to every-one who gave me the thumbs-up fortellin’ it like it is; it’s gratifying to bereassured that I’m pretty much onthe money in the minds of a signifi-cant proportion of the industry.So,Bill 41?
I wasn’t alone in my condemna-tion of the process that allowedsuch a short period for input, and asa result, the comment period wasextended for a week. Hardly whatone would call an opportunity forfull debate, but a nod, at least, in thedirection of democracy? ■■
– Joanne Ritchie is executive direc-tor of OBAC. Who says toughcookies don’t crumble? E-mail herat [email protected] or call toll free888-794-9990.
So I’m sitting in front of my com-puter one Tuesday morning inearly June and up pops a noticethat Ontario’s StandingCommittee on Justice Policy hadscheduled “public hearings” onBill 41 – the speed limiter legislation.
I had, of course, registered to ap-pear before the committee to pres-ent OBAC’s comments in opposi-tion to the proposed legislation,indicating at the time I was awareof many stakeholders who had astrong desire to contribute to thisimportant debate.
Considering the amount of mis-understanding among lawmakersabout the speed limiter issue andabout trucking in general – re-vealed in spades if one followedBill 41 debate by politicians in theLegislative Assembly – it wasclear that the only hope of en-lightening some of these folks, inparticular on technical and opera-tional issues, was to get them talk-ing to some real, working truckdrivers.
I urged the committee to ensurethat hearings be held where andwhen truckers would be able toparticipate, reminding them thattruck drivers live all over thecountry, and because their jobs of-ten keep them out on the road fordays at a time, lots of lead timewas essential.
You can imagine I was dis-
Voice of the O/O
JoanneRitchie
Welcome to democracyOPINION
pg 18 tw july v2 6/12/08 3:18 PM Page 18
TRUCK WEST Page 19July 2008
By James MenziesTORONTO, Ont. – Want to save afew bucks on LEDs? It may betempting, but when it comes tolighting, purchasing non-brandname parts may not be a brightidea. As is the case with manycomponents, globalization hasopened the floodgates to a tsuna-mi of sub-par lighting products.Brad Van Riper, senior vice-presi-dent and chief technical officerwith Truck-Lite, said non-compli-ant LEDs are “still the proverbialthorn in the industry’s side.”
He has seen some offshore prod-ucts that have met as little as 30% ofthe minimum requirements thatgovern the industry.
The catalyst for non-compliantlighting products has been the in-creasing popularity of LED lights.
“With LEDs, the light output isvery directional, so it takes a manu-facturer that knows what they’re doing to put the optics in the lensso the light is diffused properly and it meets the requirements,” saysMark Assenmacher of PetersonManufacturing. He has seen non-compliant LEDs that have “hotspots,” where the light is verybrightin places, however thesesame products may not produceenough light when viewed at a 45-degree angle.
The risks of purchasing these usually less expensive products isenormous, stresses Van Riper.
Unscrupulous offshore manufac-turers often slash their manufactur-ing costs by using inferior diodes, hesays, which means the light may notbe adequate in poor weather.
“You can save a lot of costs as amanufacturer by using inferiordiodes that don’t produce any-where near the output required, soyour vehicle is not as conspicuousas it should be,” he explains.“Sometimes you need a signal thatwill override the sun or work in thefog or at night or when you get intoa rainy environment. There’s a lotof engineering and technology thatgoes into selecting the proper out-put and viewing angles in relationto the vehicle.”
Safety is the biggest risk of pur-chasing non-compliant lighting.However, there are also major legalramifications.
If your truck is involved in an acci-dent, you can bet that a determinedlawyer will be checking to make sureall the components, including lights,met industry requirements.
“The laws were created for a rea-son,”says Assenmacher.“They weredesigned for the protection of themotoring public.”
Van Riper says there have beencases where accidents have been at-tributed to non-compliant lights.
In order to protect against such asituation, he suggests looking forproducts from recognizable manu-facturers, which have performancespecifications engraved or mouldedinto the lamp.
“We encourage the end-user tolook beyond the fancy packagingthat some of the lights are packagedin and to look for the engraving ofthe information into the lens,” VanRiper suggests.
Membership in industry group,the Transportation SafetyEquipment Institute (TSEI), is alsoa good sign, since the organizationholds its members to a code ofethics.The TSEI’s persistent lobby-ing efforts have paid off, and theNational Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration (NHTSA) in theUS has added two more enforce-
ment engineers over the pastcouple years to focus on identify-ing and eliminating non-com-pliant lighting products. Butwhile NHTSA has taken ac-tion against several importers,there are always others thatseem ready to fill the void.
“Make sure you look forproducts that are availablefrom familiar sources andare marked with the logos.Those are the keys towardsgetting a reliable product,”Van Riper concludes. ■■
LIGHTING
Buyer bewareNon-compliant lights continue toflood North American market
LOOK FOR SIGNS: To verify it’sa good product, look for the com-pany logo and the technical spec-ifications to be imprinted onto thelens, as it is with this Grote lamp.
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pg 19 tw july v2 6/12/08 9:29 AM Page 19
July 2008Page 20 TRUCK WEST
By James MenziesPORTLAND, Ore. – DaimlerTrucks North America (DTNA)has invested about US$2 billioninto the development of itsFreightliner Cascadia and DetroitDiesel DD15 engine.
You’d expect a pretty lethalcombination would result from aninvestment of that magnitude.
The first productionCascadia/DD15 combos are mak-ing their way to fleets, with offi-cials saying a disproportionatenumber are being shipped toCanada. Intrigued by the interestthis pairing has garnered here athome, I recently travelled toFreightliner country in scenicPortland, Ore. to take one for a drive.
An aerodynamic tractor
With the Cascadia, DTNA hasmanaged to optimize air flowaround the truck without strayingtoo far from the recognizable ap-pearance of its Columbia andCentury Class – the trucks theCascadia will eventually replace.Rather than a major facelift, thetruck’s designers focused on sub-tle tweaks, that collectivelyamounted to aerodynamic im-provements to the tune of 20% compared to previousFreightliner models.
All this was achieved withoutdrastically rearranging the famil-iar face of the Freightliner high-way tractors you’ve come toknow.
“If it was up to us aerodynami-cists, it would look like a bullettrain,” joked Matt Markstaller,manager, product validation, whoI chatted with in Daimler’s windtunnel following the drive.Instead, it’s a juggling act betweenareodynamicists, engineers andstylists.
“The styling people will comeover and say ‘We need a reflectionline here, we need a crease there,’and we’ll say ‘We can’t give youthat much, but we can give youthis much.’ And then the engineers will say ‘But the radia-tor won’t fit’,” explainsMarkstaller. “It’s truly a three-way negotiation.”
Some of the aerodynamic fea-tures of the Cascadia are evidentat first glance. Others would likelygo unnoticed if they weren’tpointed out. Some of the more ob-vious refinements include round-ed fenders with flush lighting, atighter wheel well and a lowerbumper with an air dam under-neath. The roof cap rises morerapidly than on the Century Classor Columbia and the side exten-ders are kicked out slightly toroute air around the vehicle, awayfrom the trailer gap.
Attention to air flow has evenbeen extended to underneath thehood. Keith Harrington, manager
product marketing, new productdevelopment with Freigh-tliner and my passenger forthe trip explained that airmolecules are like a pinballonce they’re trapped underthe hood.
So under-hood compo-nents have been re-shapedto direct air to where it’sneeded for cooling and thento send unwanted air out anew vent along the side ofthe hood.
“Aerodynamics is not a matterof 10% here, 20% there. It’s half aper cent. It’s a 1% refinement – allthose subtle things you tend tomiss with the eye,” Harrington explained.
Inside the cab
The Cascadia I was provided withfor the test drive was an engineer-ing truck – so it was decked outwith all the bells and whistles.Disc brakes around the entiretractor, Eaton VORAD, adaptivecruise control, a lane departurewarning system and an electronicstability system as well as a trailerstability system were all featuredon this truck. It must be the safesttruck on the road with all thosetoys. I quietly wondered if theyrigged it up that way just for me?
“It still requires a human todrive it,” Harrington remindedme.
Another safety enhancementwas RollTeck – a feature fromSears Seating and IMMI – whichincludes an airbag mounted to theside of the seat in conjunctionwith a seat pre-tensioner system.If a rollover occurs, that side airbag deploys to keep the driver’sextremities from falling out thewindow, while the seat is automat-ically lowered to protect the driver from a collapsing roof.
The truck was also equipped toaccommodate FleetBoard, a newprogram still under developmentby DTNA which will display faultcodes and alert a driver to anyperformance issues before abreakdown occurs. Drivers willalso be able to use FleetBoard tocommunicate with home and atruck-oriented GPS program willbe integrated into the system.
The Cascadia I was driving hada 13-speed Eaton UltraShifttransmission with Freightliner’sproprietary paddle shifter, whichis fun to drive and also clears upmore room between the seats.
The steering wheel featured anintuitive and functional layout. Itwasn’t overly busy, but it placedthe most frequently used toolsright at my fingertips. Buttons onthe steering wheel allowed me tocontrol the engine brake andcruise control. There’s also ahandy ‘marker interrupt’ buttonwhich flashes your rear lightstwice when pressed. I’m all for
any function that contributes to-wards driver courtesy.
The Cascadia is a well-re-searched truck and everywhereyou look you’ll find signs of theattention to detail that went intoits design. A discreet button onthe passenger side, when pushed,reveals a trash bag receptacle.Thescrews on the dash are now ex-posed – a bit of an eyesore?Maybe. But the truck is a worktool after all, and it makes thewiring and gauges more easily ac-cessible for service.
“We’ve gone back, but this iswhat people asked for – they wantserviceability on the truck,” rea-soned Harrington.
The radio has been relocated toa new position higher on the dash,where it’s safe from coffee spills.The sleeper cab’s HVAC systemcan be overridden from the dri-ver’s seat, so a driver doesn’t haveto reach behind to adjust thesleeper temperature if it’s out ofsynch. There’s even a light at thefoot of the lower bunk – an expla-nation was required for that:“Nobody sits there,” admittedHarrington. “But women com-mented that when the top bunk islowered, you can’t see wellenough to make the bed. It’s thoselittle inputs you get from people.”
Clearly the Cascadia was built
to appeal to everyone; drivers ofall genders, shapes and sizes. Thedoors are 20% larger to allow to-day’s ‘bulkier’ drivers to climb inand out of the truck with ease.And the rest of the interior is de-ceivingly spacious, despite the ex-terior refinements which give theCascadia a sleeker appearancethan its predecessors.
The cabinets feature molded-incolours so scrapes and scratcheswon’t be visible. And they’re con-structed of a material that doesn’tsqueak or rattle when drivingdown the road.
On the road
Having familiarized myself withthe layout of the truck and its var-ious capabilities, it was time tohead out on the road. Our routewould take us from Freightlinerheadquarters, down I-5 to I-84,where I’d drive about 45 mileseast along the Columbia RiverGorge. The drive was scenic, de-spite Oregon’s predictable grayskies and low cloud cover.
The highway was lined by theCascade Mountain range – appro-priate, since the Cascadia derivedits name from this same range.(An interesting side note,Freightliner employees wereasked to help name this truck.Thousands of suggestions were
ROAD TEST
Freightliner Cascadia;Detroit Diesel DD15
Multi-billion dollar investment by Daimlerhas created significant interest in Canada
SCENIC DRIVE: The test drive route took the author up I-5 to I-84 and then alongthe scenic Columbia River Gorge. Image from MapQuest
pg 20-21 tw july v2 6/12/08 9:32 AM Page 20
TRUCK WEST Page 21July 2008
submitted and a handful recom-mended ‘Cascadia.’ The winnersreceived an expense-paid trip tothe Mid-America Trucking Showfor their creativity).
Out on the highway, the lack ofwind noise was immediately no-ticeable. The DD15 itself is inher-ently quiet, and paired with somedesign enhancements to theCascadia the result is a remark-ably quiet ride. Harrington ex-plained the windshield was repo-sitioned to improve airflow andthe seat bases have been re-designed to resist noisy vibrations.The gear shift lever is now fully-insulated (or it would be, had thetruck I was driving been equippedwith a manual transmission).
“We quieted down everythingand all of a sudden we found outwe had noise coming from theshift lever up from the transmis-sion, so we had to isolate it,” ex-plained Harrington. “We didn’tknow we had all these differentnoises. As you reduce noise, youstart chasing sources of noise younever knew you had.”
I thought I heard a rattle as wecruised down I-84, but alas it wasonly the lane departure warningsystem advising me that I hadstrayed a bit too close to theshoulder of the road.
Also contributing to the smoothride was Freightliner’s rack-and-pinion steering – an automotivetouch that Harrington said is in-creasing in popularity.
Rack-and-pinion steering ismuch more precise than tradition-al truck steering systems and iteliminates bump steer – the inputyou get from the road when youpass over a bump.
It gives you a more accuratefeel for the road and also elimi-nates the tendency to overcorrect,a mistake I’m sometimes guilty ofwhile getting the feel for a new truck.
A diesel particulate filter (DPF)regeneration occurred during mydrive. I was alerted to it by a lighton the dash – otherwise, I’d neverhave noticed. Speaking of theDPF, the active regeneration tog-gle switch is concealed by a plasticcover, so drivers are less likely tomuck around with it.
Despite the constant threat, itdidn’t rain during my 90-somemile run. I was secretly hoping itwould, to see how the new rubberlip on the edges of the windshieldwould work. It’s designed to di-rect water away from the side win-dows and mirrors so as to not ob-struct visibility. I’ll have to takeDTNA’s word on that one.
The DD15
Most Canadians would probablyprefer a more powerful version ofthe DD15 I was driving. But evenat 505 hp, 1,650 lb.-ft. of torque,the engine handled some fairlysteep, long uphill grades withease. The gross combinationweight was about 75,000 lbs, yetwe were up to speed in no timethanks to the engine’s impressiveand immediate torque response.
The DD15 reaches 90% peaktorque in as little as 1.5 secondsand it maintains full torque from1,100 RPM right though to 1,700RPM. That long, flat power band
makes the DD15 simple to driveand reduces the need to continu-ously change gears, even on hills.
While the fully-insulatedCascadia itself has been designedto dampen exterior noise, the en-gine also plays a part. Traditionaldiesel engines have individual in-jections which create the sound ofone big explosion followed by aknock, producing the diesel en-gine noise you’re accustomed tohearing.
However, the DD15 has multi-ple injections per cycle: a pre-burn; main burn; and follow up.
“You no longer have that mainexplosion, you have a continuousexplosion and that cuts down onthe noise,” explained Harrington.
This is made possible by theDD15’s extremely high injectionpressure of 32,000 PSI (traditionaldiesel engines ranged from 3,000PSI up to about 20,000 PSI).
Another feature exclusive tothe DD15 is turbo-compounding.It’s not a new technology – it’sbeen around since WWII days –but it is new to trucking. Previous
engines featured a ‘wastegate’which released excess turbo pressure unused.
The turbo-compounding pro-cess recaptures that previouslywasted energy and converts it into50 ‘bonus’ horsepower. I askedHarrington why it took over 50years for the technology to find itsway into trucking.
“There was no incentive withthe price of fuel (in the past),” hesaid. “Since we’ve had to go
through the emissions require-ments and focus on maximizingperformance, you start looking forany technology – new and fromthe past – that you can use thatwill aid performance. Rather thantwin turbos, we found the turbo-compound was the perfect fit, es-pecially when you have a reargeartrain close to the turbo.”
Turbo-compounding, and otherdesign enhancements, make theDD15 2-5% more fuel-efficientthan the Series 60, I’m told.
On the hills, the engine brakewas nearly soundless. It’s activat-ed by a toggle switch on the dashand then controlled with a buttonon the steering wheel.
Fleets will appreciate the seemingly endless options for programming the DD15.
You can set the heated mirrorsto automatically come on whenthe temperature reaches thefreezing point. You can programthe utility lights on the back of thecab to turn off at a given speed.You can set the turn signal to au-tomatically shut itself off after somany clicks. You can program theheadlights to automatically comeon when the windshield wipersare activated. And you can evenshut off cruise control at a certainambient temperature to lessen therisk of a jackknife.
“In the old days, you’d have tohardwire all this,” saidHarrington. “Now you sit with a laptop and program the parameters.”
DTNA spent US$1.5 billion ondeveloping this engine alone, andits improvements over the Series60 – a very successful engine in itsown right – are clear from the dri-ver’s seat. Canadian drivers espe-cially will love that long, broadtorque band – it’s little wonderthat a disproportionate number ofthe Cascadia/DD15 combinationsare being shipped north.
The verdict
If I could sum up my drive in oneword, it would be ‘comfortable.’The dash was laid out intuitivelyand the steering wheel was func-tional, but not cluttered.
The lack of wind noise com-bined with the quiet operation ofthe DD15 provided one of thequietest drives I’ve experienced inanything with more than fourwheels.
The unique torque curve of theDD15 handled hills with ease andminimized the need for gearchanges.
Add rack-and-pinion steeringand the UltraShift transmission tothe equation and the truck wasboth easy and fun to drive. I’d goso far as to say it rivaled the com-fort expected from a high-endpassenger car.
With record fuel prices showingno signs of abating, the challengefor truck and engine manufactur-ers will be to provide vehicles thatcombine productivity and effi-ciency with the ever-increasingcomfort demands of drivers.
The Cascadia/DD15 combina-tion strikes this delicate balance –no wonder it’s already generatingso much interest. ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:843; 855;
@COMPANYINARTICLE:018485301; 024813546;
QUIET COMBO: The Freightliner Cascadia and the DD15 are an incredibly quietcombination. Here, the author prepares to head back to Freightliner headquarters in Portland, Ore.
INTUITIVE LAYOUT: The dash of theCascadia is practical. Exposed scewsnow provide easy access to gaugesand wiring for servicing.
TURBO-COMPOUND: Turbo-compounding, available on theDD15, allows for the recaptureand use of 50 ‘free’ horsepowerthat is normally wasted.
pg 20-21 tw july v2 6/12/08 9:33 AM Page 21
July 2008Page 22 TRUCK WEST
By Lou SmyrlisTORONTO, Ont. – The reasonsbehind fleets’ reluctance to shiftto the new CJ-4 oils, concernsabout replacing DPFs and the de-bate over the benefits of nitrogeninflation were some of the thornysubjects raised during the “ShopTalk with the TMC” session at this year’s Canadian FleetMaintenance Seminars.
TMC’s John Sullivan and DarryStuart fielded questions and com-ments from maintenance man-agers and industry suppliers alikeduring the informative discussionbut nothing left both the modera-tors and those in attendancescratching their heads more thanthe problem of how to deal withmoisture in differentials.
A fleet manager from aMaritime fleet complained offinding a milky white watery sub-stance in the differentials oftrucks that have been on the roadjust nine months.The fleet was us-ing a synthetic lubricant and thefleet manager was baffled as towhat may be the cause.
“How does the water get in?Nobody can tell me,” the exasper-ated fleet manager said. He addedhe was thinking of switching to amineral-based oil to see if thatwould help resolve the problem.
Stuart, however, warned againsttaking such action.
“I have seen this happen beforeand I don’t know what can bedone to fix it,” he acknowledged.“But I do know that synthetic lu-bricants are like a sponge. Theyabsorb moisture. I don’t know if Iwould go back to a mineral-basedoil. You may be creating moreproblems.”
Stuart recommended stickingwith the synthetic but switching toa different brand for a year to seeif that would make a difference.
Others suggested checking thevents, although another TMC rep-resentative said that while“breathers” that allowed water toget into systems used to be an is-sue, it has not been one for manyyears. Another session participantsuggested the vent in the differen-tial may be too small and the differential manufacturer mayhave to rethink the size of thevents, adding that too has been aproblem in the past.
Yet another session participantsuggested the water in the systemmay be condensation related tohow the trucks were being used. Ifthey were running hot over rela-tively short distances and then al-lowed to sit, they would not havethe opportunity to burn up themoisture.
“I’ve been turning wrenches fora long time now and I’m seeingmore water (in systems) than everbefore,” he said.
Perhaps the wisest commentcame from the industry supplier
who suggested analyzing themakeup of the milky fluid foundin the differential as the first logi-cal step towards understandingwhat may be causing the problem.
Nitrogen inflation was anotherissue that seemed to have nostraight answers.
One fleet manager outlinedhow his fleet had installed a nitro-gen inflation setup in one of itsnine garages and was hoping tosave about 1% on tire costs as aresult because of the perceivedbenefits of tire inflation, namelycooler running treads and no rustcreation.
Its current system was capableof filling less than 10 tires perhour and the fleet was looking topurchase a more robust system.
Stuart, however, was skeptical.“If you are looking for a 1%
savings, then you really need asystem that can accurately tracktire costs,” he advised, adding thatin his experience with an Arizona-based fleet that experimentedwith nitrogen inflation, there wasno advantage provided beyondwhat a well thought out tire main-tenance program would provide.
“You really have to test it andcheck the numbers yourself. I seea lot of fleets that, surprisingly,don’t have a tire program thatcovers all the basic principles oftire maintenance that seem towant to cover their sins by goingoff on some tangent.”
Less controversial was the sub-ject of industry adoption of thenew CJ-4 oils. They were designedto run in the 2007 engines but, itappears, many fleets are stickingto the older CI-4 oils.
“The majority of fleets (at a re-cent TMC meeting) told us theywere not changing to CJ-4; they’rerunning still with CI-4. That kindof blew us away,” Stuart said,adding that while the pricing lev-els between the new oil and theold oil may have been the initialreason, the old oils seem to beholding up in the new engines.
An oil company representative,however, added fleets are missingout if they’re resisting the newmotor oil formulation.
“It provides longer life and is asuperior product. And CJ-4 isbackward compatible. Our fieldtrials indicate that oil drain inter-vals would remain the same (aslong as ULSD is being used).”
Extending drain intervals is oneway fleets are looking to deal withthe impact of rising costs for oilproducts.
The average over-the-road USfleet is employing a 45,000 kmdrain interval. A quick poll of themaintenance managers in atten-dance at the session found consid-erably more variability in Canada,with drain intervals ranging from30,000 km up to 60,000 km.
“If we can save two oil changes
a year, that’s money in our pocket.We should be going longerwith the new (CJ-4) oil and Petro-Canada assures us that we can.Maybe we should be putting ourheads together to see how long we can go,” one maintenancemanager said.
Stuart added that some fleets inthe US are even trying to pushdrain intervals to 100,000 km andselling the truck afterwards.
But one long-time fleet mainte-nance manager from a northernOntario fleet questioned the wisdom of messing with drain intervals.
“There are two basic things thatkeep an engine running: fuel andlubrication. Why screw with that?I don’t play with my oil service in-tervals. As expensive as it mayseem, when you take your lubecost and stretch it over the life ofa truck – as 10- to 15-year invest-ment – it’s really not that much,”he said.
His fleet’s policy on service intervals has not changed with thenew oils.
“I find the old way is still thebest way,” he said.
Stuart said the reason fleetsmay be experimenting with newmaintenance strategies may be“because we have no idea how tomanage for the current cost offuel” but also because in the USthe “doctors of iron” – the tradi-tional maintenance managers –are disappearing as US carriers gopublic.
“It’s not about hauling freightanymore, it’s about selling shares.The average shelf life of a mainte-nance manager in the US is threeto five years. Maintenance is starting to be controlled more and more by bean counters thancommon sense maintenancestrategies,” Stuart lamented.
One product that may have suf-fered particularly from this indus-try trend is the disc. Although discbrakes dominate the Europeanmarket, this pricier but arguablymore effective component, hasnot made much headway in theNorth American market.
But that may change as the USgets set to announce new standards for stopping distances,likely this fall.
There is an issue, however, withthe need to outfit not just the trac-tor but also the trailer with discbrakes in order to get properbraking performance.
“The problem a lot of the fleetshave in the US with adopting discbrakes is the bean counters askhow much it’s going to cost. So thefeds are going to do it throughmandating stopping distance. Theonly way to comply will be by going to disc brakes,” said TMC’sSullivan. “We are hearing a lot of noise about it. It’s going to happen.”
Stuart concurred, adding thatthe fleets that opt for an earlyadoption strategy will have a com-petitive advantage.
Discussions about the 07 en-gines have proved lively over thepast year, but not this timearound. Less than a handful of themaintenance managers at theCFMS session worked for fleetsthat had invested in the new en-gines (our own research showsthat the pre-buy included up to40% of Canada’s largest for-hirefleets) and the ones that did werehaving few problems.
Initial issues with the wiring arebeing resolved, according to theexperience of one fleet in atten-dance that was using the new engines, and fuel performance hasimproved over the previous engine models by up to 3% whiledrivers are no longer complainingabout insufficient power.
Sullivan cautioned, however,that the availability of diesel par-ticulate filters may prove to be an issue.
“It can be an issue if you wrecka new truck. Does the dealer real-ly have a DPF in stock or will youhave to wait three to four weeksfor it? Just because you’re notsupposed to have a maintenanceissue with DPFs for 100,000 kmdoesn’t mean you won’t have anavailability issue,” he said, adding:“It’s worth a phone call to yourdealer.”
To which one fleet manager re-torted: If the dealer didn’t have aDPF in stock, “if they have a newtruck on the lot, the DPF is com-ing off if they want to support thebusiness.” ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:847;
Doctors of ironPrescriptions for puzzling ailmentsoffered at CFMS Shop Talk session
READILY AVAILABLE?: There are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to dieselparticulate filter availability and service requirements. Photo by James Menzies
MAINTENANCE
pg 22 tw july v2 6/12/08 9:35 AM Page 22
TRUCK WEST Page 23July 2008
By Jan WestellWINNIPEG, Man. – Within thenext five to 10 years, the dearth oftruck drivers is expected to be-come even more severe, with themajority of the existing labourpool approaching its retirementyears.
However, to rectify this prob-lem, Manitoba Public Insurancehas collaborated with theManitoba Trucking Associationand a few member fleet operators,to develop a professional drivinginstruction program that has al-ready attracted new candidates.
The MPI entry-level profession-al truck driver program financesthe student with the tuition forthe driving school instruction,which provides a minimum of 240hours for an approved Class 1 li-cence. Once the driving school in-struction is complete, the studentis offered a three-month paid, on-the-job training and mentoringprogram with a participatingtransport company, followed by afurther six months of mentoringfrom that same fleet. The traineedriver must commit to at least twoyears of driving service to qualifyfor a program that’s been givenhigh praise by Bison Transport,one of the participating fleets.
“It’s a unique program, by giv-ing back to rate-payers, the peo-ple that insure through MPI,” saysBison Transport’s director of safe-ty and driver development, GarthPitzel.“It’s the carriers that insurethrough MPI that can take advan-tage of this program. MPI is givingback to the industry by supportingand paying for this tuition.”
However, with an influx of will-ing students that appreciate theminimal investment and a new ca-reer, comes a new problem for thetrucking industry. There appearsto be a lack of in-cab trainers tocoach and mentor the new driversthat complete the first portion ofthe program, the professionaldriving school instruction.
“Here’s somebody trying tohelp the industry, but unfortu-nately the industry can’t take fulladvantage of it, because theydon’t have enough in-cab instruc-tors. And then how do you goabout developing an in-cab in-structor?” Pitzel laments.
With the aging work force,Pitzel indicates that creativemethods had to be considered toattract new drivers to replace theolder retiring drivers. Now, thesame consideration has to be given to developing in-cab instructors.
“As the industry is getting olderand older professional drivers, wehave to develop our own,” he says.“Yes, we can recruit from othercompanies. But fundamentally wehave to start building that profes-sional driver. But in order to dothat professionally, and effective-ly, we need that in-cab instructor.”
Bison had five in-cab instruc-tors six months ago, and currentlyhas 13, but Pitzel says the compa-ny needs 50 to keep up with demand. Bison is in the midst ofpromoting its own in-cab instruc-
tor program internally to candi-dates that meet the criteria for thejob. The fleet also had an openhouse in each of its terminals, toraise awareness about the pro-gram amongst its drivers.
“We’ve actually started a direct-ed marketing campaign to ourfleets of low-risk drivers that meetthe criteria to become an in-cabinstructor,” says Pitzel. “We’re be-ginning next week to phone eachand every one of them to talk tothem about the program.”
The in-cab instructor programpays the instructor the regular perkilometre rate, plus $75 a day. Thestudent gets a three-month flatsalary, so income isn’t a concernand learning how to drive in aprofessional manner is the mainfocus. Potentially, the studentdriver does most of the driving,with the in-cab instructor observ-ing on long-haul routes that offerbig city traffic and at theCanada/US border crossings.
“They will go all over NorthAmerica, but we try to keep them
closer,” says Pitzel.“Our objectiveis to teach them about the indus-try and driving, also get them tofeel comfortable, especially withcrossing the border.”
Pitzel says those long-haulroutes would typically run fromWinnipeg to Chicago and then onto Toronto and back the sameway, which exposes the new driver
to four border crossings and twolarge cities with unique urbancongestion. The other route is viathe Rockies to Banff and LakeLouise, a challenging exercise fora new driver. “That’s a mandatoryrequirement,” adds Pitzel.
Despite the urgency for in-cabinstructors, Bison is picky about itsselection of instructors, and thecandidacy for this position is basedon a set of criteria, according toPitzel.The selected candidate mustfirst undertake an interviewprocess, and if accepted, the driveris directed towards a professionalprogram for driver coaches. Thefuture in-cab instructor also takespart in Bison’s own coaching/men-toring program, which includes diversity training.
“Once they complete that, theybecome in-cab instructors,” saysPitzel, who indicates that thetraining is supportive, with weeklyevaluation sessions between thenew driver fleet coordinator, theinstructor, and the trainee. Inthese sessions the developmentteam discusses positive and nega-tive situations that came up, andconsiders the learning objectivefor the following week.
One of Bison’s most senior in-cab instructors has been coachingfor three years, and appears to in-still a great deal of confidence inhis trainee.
Dave Cousins sits in the passen-ger’s seat as observer on longhauls, except for when he’sdemonstrating certain drivingtechniques, according to Pitzel.He recently told his boss that hehasn’t actually driven the trainingtruck since February.
“He’s there to sit in the passen-ger seat and evaluate, and providethat mentorship and coaching inreal-time, as the events occur,”says Pitzel.
The first student to graduatefrom the MPI/Bison entry-levelprofessional driver raining pro-gram was in June, and Pitzel ex-pects the demand to grow.However, without sufficient in-cab instructors, the director ofsafety and driver developmenthas his concerns.
“If we don’t do something to-day, in the next year, to get in-cabinstructors, we’re going to paydearly for it in five years,” Pitzelsays. ■■
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TRAINING
Bison takes steps to develop in-cab trainers
In-cab instructor enjoys the challengeBy Jan Westell
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Dave Cousins sounds like a patient man. When hetalks, his voice is slow and gentle, and not at all intimidating. With a pres-ence like that, the in-cab instructor must ease the jumpy nerves of the manynew drivers that he has trained for Bison Transport.
“Everyone is nervous when they go with me at first, but usually by theend of the first or second day, it’s all pretty calm. I don’t think they’restressed. I’ve got one of them sitting right here,”he says from a truck stop inMilwaukee,Wis.“He says there’s no stress.”
That student was from East Germany. He’s a professional driver whoneeds to acclimatize to North American road conditions and complex bor-der crossings. The instructor indicates that explaining operations in a clearmanner seems to work for him.
“Most of my trainees, english isn’t their first language. Sometimes I haveto explain things in different ways so that they understand it,” Cousins says.
It’s a teaching role that has turned out to be a natural inclination for theseasoned driver. Cousins has enjoyed working with people from Germany,Switzerland, Denmark, England, and Canada, and he’s proud of the results.
“All the guys that have been with me have been pretty successful. Theyhaven’t got themselves into too much trouble,” he chides.
There have been about 24 students that have driven with Cousins sincethe program began. They’re mainly a highly motivated group of foreigndrivers that have invested greatly to migrate to Canada. Naturally, therehave been interesting conversations in the cab,and Cousins has enjoyed theinteraction, although he has heard some harrowing tales about life in EastGermany. “There was a couple that had escaped, and taken back. It waspretty rough. I wouldn’t want to experience it,” he recalls.
The new drivers from Europe scoff at what most North American’s con-sider to be congested highways, according to Cousins, but are otherwise im-pressed with the North American transportation infrastructure – especiallysouth of the border.
“What we call heavy traffic, they call light traffic,” he says.“Most of themare pretty amazed at the amount of country that you can travel in one day –in the US especially. (North American) highways are a lot more open.Youcan really cover a lot of territory in 10 hours.”
Cousins also trained with a new driver that arrived from a B.C. drivingschool, who impressed the trainer with his neophyte skill behind the wheel.The pair took a scenic six-week tour that covered B.C., California,Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ontario, and Texas. “That worked out reallywell,” says Cousins.“He did very well.”
One of the biggest challenges with teaching a new driver, says Cousins, isto explain things clearly.
“It’s alright to tell somebody what to do, but you need to tell them thereason for doing it. For myself, at first, that was difficult.When telling some-body that this is not the way we need to do it here,you need to give them thereasons for it.”
The in-cab instructor has been asked to take on a leadership role withBison,but until that happens,Cousins has been mentoring other new in-cabinstructors.
“I advise them a little bit,” he says.“They all come to me, and they talk tome and tell me what kind of problems they are having, and I try to helpthem with it.” ■■
WELL-TRAINED: Drivers that participate in the MPI program have the benefit ofreceiving some additional hands-on training and mentoring.
pg 23 tw july v2 6/12/08 1:08 PM Page 23
July 2008Page 24 TRUCK WEST
To be honest, I am not a big fanof legislation dictating fundamen-tal business practices or policies.Usually small businesses are hitthe hardest by legislative inducedchange (witness the Ma and Parestaurant bankruptcies when thenon-smoking legislation kicked ina few years back. Most restaurantslost considerable business in thebeginning but over time that busi-ness did come back. If thosesmaller operations could haveweathered the storm for the firstfew months they’d probably stillbe in business). Small businessesdon’t have the luxury of a highcash flow and unfortunately a blipcan cause some real problems.
I suppose it’s the fact that youare being told how to run yourbusiness that I don’t appreciate(the key being your). My positionis that if it’s good for an 18-wheel-
er it’s got to be good for a four-wheeler. Limit all vehicles (in-cluding motorcycles) and seewhat that does to the highway fa-tality rate. It’s too bad, really. Thisindustry has enough trouble at-tracting new talent. The fewercontroversies the better. ■■
@ARTICLECATEGORY:862;
OPINION
Speed limiters dominate show discussionsThe last few months have beenvery busy around here. Havingjust attended three shows, I’vehad the opportunity to speak withtruckers from one side of thecountry to the other.
Here in Ontario, the speed lim-iter issue is the absolute numberone topic of conversation. If youare a regular reader, I hope you’llagree we’ve done a good job ingiving you the complete picture.The issue is complex and there aregood arguments both for andagainst.
Some people mistake us as alobby group. In reality, we aren’teven close. Our job is to give youunbiased editorial informationbased on the facts. The way youinterpret those facts is of courseup to you and should be the foun-dation of your opinion. Of coursewe’re going to have an opinion,
but the stances of our individualeditors and columnists appearwhere they should, in theircolumns. We have publisheddozens of editorial comments,again both pro and con, and I feelthat the issue has been dealt withfairly.
All said and done, it’s probablygoing down in the books as thesingle most controversial truckinglegislation of our time.
Many have asked my opinion.To avoid being referred to as Rob‘Which way is the wind blowing?’Wilkins, I’m going to tell you.
– Rob Wilkins is the publisher ofTruck West and he can be reached at416-510-5123.
PEOPLEThree Manitoba truck drivers havebeen awarded a special tribute forprofessional excellence at a recentManitoba Trucking Association(MTA) celebration.
The three drivers have con-tributed a total of over 64 years and9.2 million kilometres of accident-free driving with the Manitoba motor transport industry.
The October Driver of the Monthis Barrie Budd, a professional driverfor 31 years, according to the MTA.During that time Budd has drivenover 3.5 million accident-free kilo-metres of highway, rural, and cityroads, across the Prairie provincesand the US. Budd drives forSomerset Transfer.
The November Driver of theMonth is Brett Wideman, a highwaydriver for 15 years,with over 2.7 mil-lion accident-free kilometres acrossCanada and the US. Widemandrives for Len Dubois Trucking.
The December Driver of theMonth is Michael Thiessen, a pro-fessional driver for 18 years withthree million accident-free kilome-tres of city and highway driving inCanada and the US.Thiessen drivesfor Bison Transport.
The Manitoba Driver of theMonth award recognizes profes-sional drivers whose careersdemonstrate excellent driving skills,exemplary safety records, outstand-ing customer service and a dedica-tion to the profession.
Custom Truck Sales andCanadian Kenworth have spon-sored the awards since 1991. MTApresident Earl Coleman of BigFreight Systems hosted the May 16award event and Jim Clark ofCustom Truck Sales presented theawards.
•Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC)has announced that Takao Oishiwill be promoted to corporate offi-cer of the Yokohama RubberCompany (YRC), effective June 27.
This is the second promotion thisyear for Oishi, who assumed therole of president and CEO of YTCApril 1. Oishi succeeded NorioKarashima, who was promoted tomanaging corporate officer earlierthis year, and effective June 27, todirector and senior managing cor-porate officer of YRC, headquar-tered in Tokyo, Japan. Oishi willcontinue to be based in Fullerton,Calif. where he will retain oversightof YTC.
Oishi joined YTC in 2007 as exec-utive vice-president, responsible forMIS, OE sales, strategic marketingand operations. He previouslyserved as president of YokohamaEurope and lived in Dusseldorf,Germany. ■■
Publisher’sCommentRobWilkins
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TRUCK WEST Page 25July 2008
Sterling introduces natural gas truckLAS VEGAS, Nev. – Sterling introduced a natural gas-powered truckwhich is intended for use at ports and in municipal fleets, the companyhas announced. The Set-Back 113 can save about $6,000 in fuel costseach year, Sterling officials claimed. It’s powered by the CumminsWestport ISL G engine.
“Due to deterioration in air quality, the Ports of Los Angeles and LongBeach have embraced the use of alternative fuels in commercial vehicles.At the same time, utility companies and municipalities throughout NorthAmerica have shown increased interest in green transportation technology,”said Richard Shearing, manager of product strategy for Sterling TruckCorporation.“By introducing the Set-Back 113 with natural gas,we’re givingour customers a hard-working truck that reduces both costs and environmental emissions.”
The 8.9-litre engine is available with up to 320 hp and is alreadyEPA2010-compliant.
“NG technology has come a long way. Buses have been using it foryears, but these next-generation NG powertrains have more power because less air is needed for combustion,” added Shearing. “Plus, thetechnology simply burns cleaner.” ■■
PEORIA, Ill. – Caterpillar andNavistar International Corp. haveinked a Memorandum ofUnderstanding to pursue globalon-highway truck business oppor-tunities and to cooperate on anumber of engine platforms, thecompanies announced on June 12.
“We are pleased to be matchingthe formidable talents and tech-nology leadership of two industryleaders to serve an expandingbase of engine, truck and equip-ment customers worldwide,” JimOwens, Caterpillar chairman andCEO, said in a press release issuedJune 12.
“As the world leader in con-struction equipment and dieselengines, Caterpillar is now posi-tioning itself for growth in the on-highway truck market. This is animportant step for Caterpillar andwe look forward to working withNavistar for the continued benefitof our customers.”
“This relationship is a perfectexample of Navistar’s strategy ofgrowth through leveraging ourown assets and those that othershave built,” added Daniel C.Ustian, Navistar chairman, presi-dent and CEO.
“In partnership with Caterpillarwe intend to extend our leading-edge product focus that we havein North America into the rest ofthe world.”
The alliance plans to build aCat-branded heavy-duty truck forsevere-service applications as partof the deal.
The first of these units has a tar-geted launch date of 2010 and willlikely be intended for heavy con-struction and mining.
Meanwhile, Cat will not provide
EPA2010-compliant engines toany truck OEMs.
“Caterpillar and our dealerswill continue to provide productsupport and service beyond 2010for all Caterpillar on-highway en-gines regardless of truck brand,”said Douglas R. Oberhelman,Caterpillar Group president.
“This new truck – targeted for2010 – will incorporate the leg-endary quality of Caterpillar’sconstruction and mining machinesand provide construction cus-tomers a one-stop solution. In ad-dition, with nearly 90% of our en-gine business being off-highway,we’ll continue to concentrate onour substantial and growing op-portunities to supply engines inthe petroleum, marine, electricpower generation and industrialmarkets-as well as produce en-gines for our own constructionand mining equipment.”
As part of the alliance, Cat andNavistar will work together to develop mid-range engines forutility trucks and school buses.
Those engines will not use SCRto meet 2010 emissions standards,the companies say.
“In the past 15 years, Cat hasbecome significantly less depend-ent on the sale of on-highway truckengines in the total contribution ofour global engine profitability,”said Oberhelman.
“Our global power systemsbusiness has grown significantly –in fact we supply approximately400,000 diesel engines annuallyoutside of the on-highway truckmarket. We intend to remain theworld leader in clean diesel engines, and this collaboration is akey enabler.” ■■
OEM/DEALER NEWS
Caterpillar will not supply2010 engines to OEMsCompany to pair with Navistar to buildCat-branded severe-service truck
WINNIPEG, Man. – Maxim Truckand Trailer raised more than $7,000for cancer programs through its an-nual barbecue May 15.
This year marked the seventhyear that the company has raisedmoney for charity through its an-nual barbecue. To date, the eventshave raised more than $50,000.Thefunds raised this year will go to-wards the CancerCare ManitobaFoundation’s programs.
Doug Harvey, president of
Maxim, said “Our charity eventsreceive great support from Maximemployees, suppliers and cus-tomers. It’s encouraging to seesuch support for organizationsthat focus on improving the livesof children and adults in our communities.”
Guests attending the barbecuewere treated to a live jazz perform-ance by the University of ManitobaJazz Orchestra, who performedatop a flatdeck trailer. ■■
HAVING FUN RAISING FUNDS: Members of the Maxim Challenge for Life teaminclude (from left) Doug Harvey, Jan Shute, Margy Nelson, Shelley Betton, MailiWiechern, Meghan Furst and Val Kolson.
Maxim holds charity barbecue
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pg 25 tw july v2 6/12/08 1:11 PM Page 25
July 2008Page 26 TRUCK WEST
VANCOUVER, B.C. – Despite adramatic increase in engine ship-ments, Westport Innovations re-ported a net loss of $8.1 million inits fourth quarter ended Mar. 31.
During the same quarter of 07,the company reported a net in-come of $1.7 million.
Revenue for the quarter wasdown to $15.3 million comparedto $19.3 million the same quarterin 07.
The company blamed the de-cline on a delay in deliveries byCummins Westport.
Despite the decline in revenueand the posted loss, the companyremains upbeat about its future,especially in light of record dieselprices.
“The lower cost of natural gascompared to oil based fuels cou-pled with the strong environmen-tal leadership story for natural gasvehicles has helped generate anunprecedented increase in inter-est in our products” said DavidDemers, Westport’s CEO.
“Although we saw continuedstrong growth around the world infiscal 2008, the rapid rise in oilprices late in the fiscal year hasmoved natural gas vehicles frombeing primarily an environmentalstory to now being both environ-
mentally sound and a very goodbusiness decision.
“Early deliveries of Kenworthtrucks, Sterling’s recent productannouncement, and Peterbilt’s re-cent LNG announcement have allhelped raise the credibility andmomentum of this idea as a viabletransportation fuel.”
During its full 2008 fiscal year,Westport Innovations: delivered2,720 units, up from 2001 in 07;and posted annual revenues of$71.5 million, 18% higher than in2007.
Cummins Westport, a joint ven-ture between Westport andCummins, saw revenues increase16% to $67.3 million on the year. ■■
TORONTO, Ont. – With somehelp from its Canadian staff, APUmanufacturer RigMaster Powerhas restored operations at itsKansas production plant after itwas badly damaged by a tornadoearlier this year.
The tornado ripped throughRigMaster’s facility May 2 andcaused extensive damage to thebuilding that houses the company’sproduction and parts operations.Nobody was injured.
Production was restored lessthan two weeks after the tornadohit, with the parts department re-opening a few days later, the com-pany reports. Both the productionand parts departments are back tofull capacity.
“Our people have been remark-able,” said Gary Lisson, generalmanager of RigMaster. “Theprogress they made was far abovemy expectations; but everyonepitched in, determined to get backto normal as swiftly as possible. Toget us back this quickly has beenthe result of the determination ofeach individual employee. We are
very proud of them.”Lisson was quick to point out the
silver lining to this “The damagewas extensive and we lost a lot, butI now see this as an opportunitywhich has made us stronger.During the restoration we re-vamped the facility and are refo-cusing our operations to improveefficiencies. The dedication andteamwork of our staff, the localcommunity and our vendors to re-mobilize our operations along withthe support of our dealers hasbrought out the best in us and mygratitude goes out to everyone.” ■■
OEM/DEALER NEWS
THE REAL PAYSTAR: An article in the May issue about the new InternationalPayStar 5900i SBA incorrectly included a picture of the International WorkStar.This is an actual image of the PayStar 5900i SBA, introduced earlier this year.International officials say the latest offering boasts improved maneuverabilityand is well-suited for heavy-duty applications. We regret any confusion.
Chevron re-brands lube lineSAN RAMON, Cal. – Chevron has announced it will be marketing bothChevron and Texaco commercial lubricants under the Chevron banner inthe US and Canada.
The re-branding initiative takes effect July 14.The company announced ina release that the change will “allow the company and its marketers to leverage the strengths and market equity of the Chevron and Texaco sub-brands by offering the strongest products from both lubricant lines under the Chevron name.”
In cases where the company has a Texaco and Chevron-branded productof the same type, the product with the greatest market equity will be selected to remain.
“By bringing the Texaco and Chevron commercial and industrial lubricants together under one master brand, we have created a single,comprehensive line of high-quality products that have proven market value,” said Vince Kyle, general manager, North American FinishedLubricants, Chevron Products Company. ■■
RigMaster survives tornado scare
BACK IN BIZ: RigMaster’s Kansasplant is now back up and running.
Westport Innovations posts Q4 loss
TOUGH Q4: Westport Innovationssuffered a loss in its fourth quarter,however deliveries are on the rise.
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TRUCK WEST Page 27July 2008
A Canadian entrepreneur has in-vented the magnetic mechanic – apowerful magnet that fits over theend of an oil filter and preventsmetal filings from passing throughto the engine where they can causedamage. The magnet is available invarious sizes and compatible withdifferent sized oil filters. Its pro-ducer, Tafcan Consulting, says thesimple solution extends engine life,is easy to use and is environmental-ly-friendly. It can be fitted to verti-cally- and horizontally-mountedfilters. For more information, con-tact Tafcan at 905-334-3771 or e-mail [email protected].
•An alternative to duct tape wasintroduced to the Canadian mar-ket at this year’s Truck Worldtrade show. Rescue Tape is a self-fusing silicone tape with no adhe-sive. It fuses to itself creating anair-tight, waterproof seal that isresistant to oils, fuels, acids, sol-vents, UV rays and road salt, itsdistributor says. The tape takesonly a few second to permanentlyfuse and can resist temperaturesof up to 500 F. It can also resistvoltage of up to 8,000 volts perlayer, according to the company.The new tape is suited for electri-cal work such as trailer light con-nections and it can even be usedto construct an o-ring or fan beltin a pinch, its creators say. A stan-dard roll costs about $9.95-$12.95.For more information, visitwww.rescuetape.com.
•TAG Heuer has come out with apair of “night vision” glasses de-signed exclusively for drivers. Theglasses are designed to correct thelow-light short-sightedness thatmost drivers experience betweentwilight and sunrise, the companysays. The glasses are reportedlyable optimize precision and en-hance perception of contrasts forimproved driver comfort whiledriving at night. They were origi-nally intended for sports car rac-ers in the 24 Hours of LeMans en-durance race, however they wererolled out to the public this spring.For more information, visitwww.tagheuer.com/eyewear.
•Oil Eater has introduced a newtransportation spill kit – an all-in-one professional-grade emergencyclean-up kit for hazardous materi-als spills. The kit meets DoT re-quirements, the company says. Itconsists of 10 absorbent pads, threeuniversal snakes, an emergencycheck list and protective gloves, allhoused in a water-resistant storagebag. More information is availableat www.oileater.com or by calling800-528-0334.
chemically- and electrically-inert,impact-resistant ABS plastic. Aclear lid allows technicians ordrivers to see the wiring inside thebox without opening it. The as-sembly is sealed from corrosiveagents with a silicone gasket.The Super 50 box also allows for50% more circuits than ordinaryboxes, Truck-Lite officials claim. For more information, visitwww.truck-lite.com.
achieved longer tread life, im-proved endurance and better irreg-ular wear resistance as well as im-proved fuel mileage. It alsoincludes deep sipes and fourstraight, multi-pitched grooves forbetter traction in wet weather.More information is available atwww.toyo.com.
•
This month’s
CROSSWORDSOLUTION
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Webb Wheel Products has intro-duced a new brake drum. TheWebb Vortex boasts a lighterweight without sacrificing structur-al integrity or braking capability,Webb officials have announced. Italso runs cooler, thanks to a reposi-tioned squealer band and rein-forced exterior ribs, which directheat away from the braking surfacealso extending lining life in theprocess. The company is currentlyworking with major equipmentOEMs to determine availability onnew trucks and trailers.
•
Trailers electronics are becomingmore complex and road de-icersmore corrosive, which is whyTruck-Lite has unveiled a newjunction box. The Super 50 trailerjunction box is made from
Toyo Tire has brought to market anew high-performance steer tirefor long-haul applications, thecompany has announced. TheM137 radial steer tire is designedto offer longer life for over-the-road customers. It features Toyo’se-balance design technology thatincludes a stiffer belt package,stiffer bead construction and opti-mization through simulation tech-nology. The company claims it has
Double Coin has introduced anew regional steer tire, theRT606+. The company’s lateststeer tire is built upon the corespecifications of the RT606 butis upgraded to provide im-proved performance and dura-bility, the company says. Thenew tire has a solid shoulder toendure the scrubs inevitable inregional P&D applications. Ithas an original tread depth of22/32”, which the company says is 23% more usable treaddepth than many other steertires. It is guaranteed to with-stand at least two retreads.For more information, visitwww.doublecoin-us.com. ■■
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going on outside in the rearview mirror."Son of a--" Mark said in a whisper. There he was – the man who'd stolen
the fuel from Mark's tanks the night be-fore was back – doing it again.
Mark leaned forward and took a clos-er look in the mirror. This guy was a realpro. He wasn't siphoning gas with ahose like some petty thief, but insteadhad a custom rig that looked like it couldempty a tank in no time flat. In the guy'sright hand was thesort of brief case thatall kinds of driver'sused to help keeptheir paperwork in or-der. But instead of pa-pers inside that casethere was likely a fuelpump out of somekid's aquarium. Thepump, probably run-ning on a motorcyclebattery, was connect-ed to two lengths ofhose. One hose wasin Mark's fuel tanksucking diesel whilethe other hose was inthis guy's tank, pump-ing it. Mark had toadmit the rig was in-genious, and quiettoo. If he hadn't been wary of this sortof thing, Mark proba-bly wouldn't havethought anything ofthe slight hum he washearing.
But, even though heknew he was beingrobbed, Mark wasn'tsure what he shoulddo about it. That's be-cause the guy outsidehis door had to be300 lbs of muscle, tattoos and leather.Mark could see aknife in his waistbandand who knew whatother weapons hehad on him? Of course the guy wasgood at stealing fuel...who would becrazy enough to confront the guy in themiddle of the night in some secludedpart of a truck stop parking lot?
Mark was the first to admit he wascrazy, but he wasn't that crazy. Therehad to be something else, somethingbetter he could do to stop this guy fromrobbing him blind.
The only thing Mark could think ofwas his cell phone...but not to call 911.
dow so he could get a shot of the man'struck. It was a white Volvo, which madefor a very clear picture, and his trailerwas a light shade of green with thewords and "Dobb and Ithaca Trucking"in eight-foot high blue letters on the side of it.
Mark had a good laugh at that. Theletters forming the word "Bandit" werethere on the guy's truck. "Imagine that,"Mark muttered under his breath. Thisguy was obviously an outlaw, but one
whose plunder, pillage and pilferingdays would soon be coming to an end.
Mark checked the camera to makesure he'd gotten good footage, then heclicked off the phone and began stomp-ing around the cab. Then he made anexaggerated yawn and bumped hisknuckles against the driver's window.The humming suddenly stopped. Marktook a look out the window, but the guywas already gone from between the
trucks. A moment lat-er the white Volvoand its Dobb andIthaca trailer weresliding forward, outof the parking lotand away from thescene of the crime.
Not to worry,Mark thought.
The bandit coulddrive halfway acrossthe country but thatwouldn't change theimages captured byMark's phone. Hehad the guy a hun-dred different ways –red-handed, pantsdown, smoking gun,dead to rights, handin the cookie jar –and there was noway he was going tolet him off the hook.
Mark switched onhis truck to check the damage. The fuelgauges read half full. And to Markthey were half full asopposed to half emp-ty because thingscould have been alot worse. He couldhave stopped theguy earlier andsaved more of hisfuel, but he alsomight be lying in a pool of his ownblood right now, or
maybe even be dead. Mark was happyto trade a bit of fuel for the footagehe'd gotten because this time aroundhe was going to let technology do thegrunt work for him. And when he wasdone not only would this thief, this ban-dit, would be hit so hard he wouldn'tknow what it was that hit him, or howhe'd been hit. ■■
- Mark Dalton returns next month in Part 3 ofDalton and the Bandit
The story so far...After a long day on the road, Mark turns in forthe night. Since it's cold that evening, he turnson his auxiliary power unit to keep his cabwarm. In the morning, he finds his fuel tanksempty and realizes he'd been robbed during thenight. To comfort himself, Mark has a breakfastof chocolate chip pancakes and spends sometime watching "stupid trucker" videos onYouTube, then he heads back out on the road.
•That night, at a truck stop near Virdon,Man., just a few miles from theSaskatchewan border, Mark parkedMother Load and looked forward to agood night's sleep. He'd been robbedof a full tank of fuel the night before andthe chances of being robbed of fuel twonights in a row were virtually nil. Nothief could possibly be dumb enough tosteal from the same truck on successivenights, so Mark was confident that he'dbe able to spend the night in peace.He'd also checked the forecast earlierin the evening and since it was goingto be a warmer night he'd be able tosleep without his auxiliary power unitheating the cab. Without the noise ofthe APU lulling him to sleep it wouldtake Mark a bit longer to doze off, buthe appreciated the quiet and wouldprobably sleep soundly through thenight because of it.
He closed his eyes. But instead ofcounting sheep, Mark began countinglitres of fuel as he squeezed the nozzleand the pump began counting upwardsto 10, 20, 30…
Several hours later the pump was stillrunning but instead of directing the noz-zle to empty into his fuel tanks, he washolding the nozzle over a large com-mercial drain, pumping diesel fuelstraight down into it. He looked over atthe pump and saw that the register waswell over 1,000 litres and closing in on2,000 as more and more fuel waspoured straight down the drain.
"What the…" Mark awoke, his bodycovered in sweat.
He looked around and realized ithad only been a dream, and a bad oneat that. But as he regained his sensesand his surroundings became more fa-miliar, Mark realized there was still ahumming sound coming from some-where nearby.
What could it be? he wondered. Hewas too far from the filling station for itto be a fuel pump, and he'd gone tosleep without switching on his APU. Butif not those things, then what?
Mark crawled forward and knelt on the driver's seat. Then he inched forward until he could see what was
By Edo van Belkom
PART 2
Mark Dalton
FICTION
The continuing adventures of Mark Dalton: Owner/Operatorbrought to you by
MICHELIN NORTH AMERICA (CANADA) INC.
He grabbed the phone off the centerconsole and flipped it open. Then heflicked on the phone's camera and be-gan recording the image of this – well,the word bandit came to mind – banditstealing fuel. Mark held the phonesteady, making sure the outline of theman, along with his jeans, t-shirt andboots, were all clearly visible. Then,when he was sure he had enough,Mark turned the phone toward the win-
pg 28 tw july v2 6/12/08 9:40 AM Page 28
TRUCK WEST Page 29July 2008
By James MenziesTORONTO, Ont. – Shell has in-troduced its LubeVideoCheckprogram to the Canadian market,which provides fleet customerswith a clear look at exactly what isgoing on inside their engines.
The program, which was firstrolled out in Mexico five yearsago and to the US market lastyear, uses advanced technologyused in the aerospace and medicalindustries to produce qualityvideo and high-resolution imagesof the inside of an engine.
“It gives us the ability to go inand understand things going on in-side their equipment with minimalteardown and minimal costs,”Shell’s Jonathan Ubil told TruckWest during a recent demonstra-tion. The machine includes a flexi-ble probe with a camera on theend, which can be inserted into anyhole in the engine larger than 6 mm in diameter.
Using a joystick, the operatorcan move the camera around theinside of the engine to inspect for damage, engine wear and deposits.
“In the past, most folks to lookat the internals of an enginewould have to disassemble it or
use a bore scope. But it’s very lim-ited what you can see and veryhard to look at,” Ubil said of thetraditional methods.
The LubeVideoCheck systemuses a fibre-optic digital cameraand high-resolution monitor to offer a much more detailed lookat the inside of the engine, he explained.
The operator can view the pis-ton crown, combustion chamber,cylinder walls, valves and headand then analyze those findingsand create an easy-to-read reportfor the fleet manager.
“We go into each individualarea and look for different typesof deposits and wear – anythingout of the ordinary to see if itlooks good or looks bad,” ex-plained Ubil. “We’ll look for typesof wear, deposits, traces of leaks,cracks – anything pertinent to thecondition of the unit, just like acrime scene investigator would do.It tells us a story of what is goingon in this unit.”
Seeing the clues is one thing.Interpreting them is another, andthe Shell operator also does thisfor the fleet, providing them with areport that deciphers the findings.
One of the things the tool has
been useful for, is providing maintenance managers with theconfidence to extend their drainintervals.
“Everyone wants to extend oildrains but no-one wants to hurttheir equipment,” Ubil said.
The LubeVideoCheck programallows fleets to inspect their engineat various intervals to determineexactly how long they can run between oil changes before the engine begins to incur damage.
“You can go out as far as you’recomfortable with and monitor thewear you’re incurring and stop atthe point you’re comfortablewith,” explained Ubil.
But isn’t it counterproductivefor an oil supplier to encouragelonger drain intervals – something
that may ultimately result in fewer sales?
“We understand this is aboutrelationships,” Ubil countered.“Anyone can sell somebody oil.We want to give you service, wewant to give you support. We’renot just here to sell you oil.”
Current Shell customers andprospective fleet customers cancontact their local Shell distribu-tor to arrange for a session.
A Shell technician will arrive attheir facility with a machine toconduct the inspection and com-pile the report, at no cost to thecustomer. For more details,contact your supplier or visitwww.shell.ca/fleet. ■■
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Paging Dr. ShellShell Lubricants launches uniquediagnostic tool for customers
HIGH-TECH CHECK-UP: Shell’s LubeVideoCheck lets fleets see what’s happening inside their engines.
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pg 29 tw july v2 6/12/08 9:43 AM Page 29
July 2008Page 30 TRUCK WEST
BOWMANVILLE, Ont. – Aftermuch grumbling from the indus-try’s elder truckers, the OntarioMinistry of Transportation hassaid it will consider changing itscontroversial annual road test re-quirement for A/Z licence holdersover the age of 65.At the moment,Ontario is the only province thatrequires senior drivers to com-plete an annual road test and thepractice has resulted in many vet-eran drivers hanging up their keysearly or downgrading their licence.
Though nothing is set in stone,the MTO is now looking to find a“more appropriate set of rulesthat would relax the annual re-testing requirement for driverswith good driving records.”
While the Ontario TruckingAssociation and other lobbygroups like the Private MotorTruck Council of Canada have longbeen appealing to the province toabandon the rule, many still thinkthat by age 65, drivers have lost
much of their former reflexes andare unfit to man a big rig. TruckWest stopped by the Fifth WheelTruck Stop in Bowmanville, Ont. toif drivers would like to see the lawoverturned.
•Oliver Bowen, a driver with SelectTransport out of Windsor, N.S.,thinks that the rule should stand,but says that car drivers should besubjected to the same tests.
“I think that once you come to acertain age you lose things: yourreflexes, your sight and all that. Ithink (driving tests) should be
mandatory after 65,” he says.•
Gary Dufty, a driver with Holt
Transport out of Whitby, Ont.,doesn’t think drivers should haveto be tested unless they’ve had anaccident.
“Why should you be tested un-less there was an accident in-volved? If you’ve had an accident,then you should be tested. If youhaven’t had an accident, youshould be left alone,” said the 53-year-old.“There are lots of driverswho are 70 years old who are justas careful as anybody.”
Dufty says a lot of the new driv-ers are much worse drivers thansenior drivers who are “more pa-tient” and “safer” than theiryounger peers.
•John McCone, a driver with ErbTransport out of New Hamburg,Ont., not only thinks driversshould be taking the test after age65, but says most should be retir-ing outright.
“I know I’m not going to do it after 65, but if they want to keep going, they should be tested,” he says.
•
Colin Sinclair, a driver for HuttonTransport out of Bowmanville,Ont., said he thinks 65 is a bityoung to be tested, but stoppedshort of giving an exact age, sayingtesting should be conducted on acase-by-case basis.
“The only way to be fair is to doit to everyone instead of pinpoint-ing certain people,” he says.
•
Joel Vermeersch, a Canadian driv-er with Landstar in Jacksonville,Fla., says that 65 is too young for amandatory test for drivers.
“It should be changed. I’m ap-proaching 60 now and I’m healthyand I will be when I’m 65, I hope.But (tests) should be done by theindividual and the age should atleast be pushed back,” he says. ■■
TSQ
Truck StopQuestion
Adam LedlowManaging Editor
Should Ontario overturn its rule formandatory road testspast age 65?
OliverBowen
Gary Dufty
ColinSinclair
JoelVermeersch
Glenncoe Transport is looking for experienced U.S. capable Driversbased in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, or the B.C. Interior to move truckload freight.
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You Offer:■ 2 years of professional driving experience■ No preventable accidents in the last 12 months■ Mountain experience
For more information onGlenncoe Transport, please visit
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Glenncoe Transport is a truckload carrier serving British Columbia, Alberta and the US Pacific Northwest.
Glenncoe Transport, based in Kelowna, curently operates 160 trucks,550 trailers and employs more than 200 people.
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