Trucknews.com and Shell Canada Products are offering visitors to the blog a free Shell ROTELLA SuperRigs 2006 Calendar.

While it may already be March, this calendar is a true collector’s item. It features some of the snazziest work trucks from across North America. The images will truly blow you away. The trucks featured in the calendar were participants in the ROTELLA SuperRigs competition, held at the 75 Chrome Shop in Wildwood, Fla. The calendar features 14 stunning photographs of the trucks, which were shot on location in the Sunshine State.

While the calendar is highly sought after - even with a retail price of $10.95 - Shell Canada Products has made a number of these calendars available for free to visitors to the Trucknews.com blog!

If you would like to receive one, be one of the first 150 people to send your mailing address to me at jmenzies@trucknews.com. Please enter ‘Calendar Offer’ in the subject line. We’ll take care of the rest and Shell will send you this collector’s item.

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Truck News received a letter from one of our readers recently describing the decrepit road conditions in southwestern Nova Scotia (including highways 101, 103, 10 and 8). According to the reader, the roads are in complete disarray; few warning signs for curves in the road and no truck rest areas are apparently just some of the problems plaguing the region, not to mention the damage the poorly maintained roads are causing to the trucks.
I’m looking for drivers who work in this “forgotten” region to give me their own accounts of the road conditions in the area. I’ll also be speaking with local politicians, so please use this blog as mouthpiece to vent your frustrations, and I’ll try and include your thoughts in my interviews.

Thanks in advance,
Adam

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I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately about something that has suddenly gotten put on the radar: the fact that in many industrialized countries, seniors will soon outnumber the younger, working-age population.

In Canada, for example, (according to a Statistics Canada report released late last year), by the year 2015, there will be more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 15. That would be a first in the history of Canada’s population statistics, said the stats agency.

Indeed, a worrying trend has emerged in the country: Canada’s fertility rates (the amount of births per woman) are declining dramatically. We essentially are no longer replacing deaths with enough births.

The trucking industry has been well aware of such dire predictions for ages. Truckers already constitute, again according to Statistics Canada, an older work force whose average age in 2004 was 42 (45 for the self-employed truckers).

Even more worrisome, only 5 % of truck drivers were under 25 in 2004, compared with 15 % in the labour force as a whole, says ‘the Man’s’ Stats division.

And trucking will have to compete with many other industries for scarce employee resources. You can’t exactly offshore the profession either!

Now demographics don’t happen overnight, but I think the sudden panic was probably encouraged by the fact that in 2006, the oldest Baby Boomers (encompassing those born from 1946 to 1964), turn 60. This wouldn’t normally be problematic because their generation is, as we all know, immortal, but now all sorts of queries and questions are coming out about what shall we all do? There’s no one left to work!

Continue reading "Trucking needs a baby boom" »

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Class 8 truck sales hit a record 35,984 units in 2005, easily surpassing the previous record of 30,984 set back in 1999. Can 2006 possibly be better? I've been asked that question a lot lately. To be honest I'm struggling with the answer.

The January numbers certainly point in that direction with the year off to its fastest start on record. There were 2,441 Class 8 trucks sold in Canada this January, according to records from the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association. In comparison, last year's record year started with 2,173 trucks sold. And the five-year average for the month is just 1,548.

But is there enough momentum in the economy and the need for new iron among Canadian fleets and owner/operators to last the entire year?

Continue reading "2006: Another record year for truck sales or cause for concern?" »

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I just returned from a couple days in Houghton, Michigan where I had the chance to drive some trucks on hard-packed snow and ice. Driving on snow and ice may not sound like a lot of fun to most of you – but this was a controlled environment and the worst I could do was stick it into a snow bank (which happened, by the way, but fortunately not while I was behind the wheel).

The purpose of the trip was to test first-hand Bendix’s ABS-6 with ESP (an electronic stability system).

I have some experience with electronic stability systems, but this was the first time I had the chance to drive ESP-equipped vehicles myself. Sliding sideways at 35 mph in a mixer truck is not an enjoyable feeling. However, with the ESP system activated, I was able to maintain control of the vehicle when pulling the exact same maneuver. Technology is a wonderful thing!

You have to admire the engineers who work on systems like this. Those involved in cold-weather testing spend weeks at a time working outside in remote regions where the temperature is well below freezing. The weather in Houghton certainly made Toronto feel balmy in comparison.

A full report about the experience will be in the April issues of Truck News and Truck West.

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