Hello folks, I hope all are well.

I just returned from Truck World in Toronto a couple weeks ago and I must admit to feeling somewhat optimistic about the future. For the most part I am a skeptic when it comes to so- called experts telling us this recession is over because of a subtle change in some unknown suspect statistic measured by a bank I don't trust. As the saying goes… I am from Missouri, show me! But when I walked the show floor and talked to old friends, I heard cautious optimism that orders were on the rise for equipment folks and freight volumes were on a bit of a rebound on the trucking company side. Good stuff; let’s hope this progress continues to gain momentum and things improve for both carriers and suppliers sooner rather than later.

I left the daily operations of a motor carrier back in the summer of 2005 and as I reflect on that decision it was probably one of the best- timed decisions I have ever made. After I consummated my deal on the sale of my shares I had a sudden realization that I no longer owned a truck. I felt as though something was missing and it took me quite a while to get over that feeling…come to think about it, I’m not sure I am fully recovered. When I grew up there was always a truck in the laneway and as a boy I spent my summers in a rig. Whenever dad came home the truck was mine to explore, clean, wash, and dream on… whatever. Until 2005 there had always been some form of control or ownership of a truck on my part. There is a strange, soothing connection between truckers and their equipment that subtly wraps its roots around the subconscious.

It’s funny…I still sometimes wonder what I want to be when I grow up. From time to time I admit that I feel an urge to get back into it (working with a carrier) at some level. It really is my comfort zone and it’s what I feel I know best. But I also have become comfortable in the numerous roles that have helped me fill the void that running trucks used to fill.

So what does one do (after discovering there really is such thing as “too much play”) to keep busy after a million miles on the road and twenty-plus years behind a desk running a motor carrier? Currently I enjoy working as an Executive Consultant for the good folks at NAL Insurance; they are a good group who offer a great service. They demand very little of my time and I enjoy being around people who are passionate about what they do. I try to contribute to their success whenever called upon or the opportunity presents itself. I also enjoy working with Owner Operators and talking to them in my role as CEO of ATBS Canada Inc.

We have a great service that is competitively priced to assist Owner Operators in achieving success and I thoroughly believe in the product and what it can do for folks. I was fortunate enough to have attracted Kim Richardson into the company as President. He’s a good man and both ATBS and I have benefited from his enthusiasm and business-savvy. Up until this month and for the past five years I also held the role of Executive Director of the carrier I used to run as President and Shareholder. That time has passed and it is now time to cut that tie entirely.

I also have invested time and energy into many non-profits such as the TCA, PTDI & the Apprenticeship Program that I have enjoyed contributing to over the past five years. One of the first things I did when I left the carrier I was running was to contact my old friend Peter Charboneau, the publisher of another magazine. I told Pete that I had some things that I wanted to say to the industry and asked if he was interested in printing some of my ramblings. Hard to believe it’s coming up to the five-year mark since I started sweating the monthly deadlines associated with contributing to a trade publication. I now write for two magazines and maintain this blog that I try and update at least one a month. I try and write the way I talk and think. In fact, I don't try; it just comes out that way and hits a chord with some folks and rubs others the wrong way. So be it; I won’t change for anyone…why would I?

I often wonder how I might have performed in my past leadership role with a carrier in the turbulent times we’re currently experiencing. As one who readily admits that he has learned most of what he knows by doing the wrong things first, my ego tells me that having fought through a couple other economic downturns in the past may have helped me navigate successfully through this current financial storm. I like to think I would have been successful and could have avoided some of the carnage I have seen some carriers resort to, but who knows?

Some companies have not kept their heads about them during the downturn and have followed some outdated favourite formulas for success that don't work the same as they used to. As a result their people and shareholders have suffered. I hate to see what the past few years have done to some once-great organizations but time rolls on and you either adapt or suffer.

On the other hand, some companies have prospered and look stronger than ever. Inspired, driven leadership with dogged determination to do whatever it takes to win is not a common trait. It can’t be taught and can rarely be bought but it’s what it takes when your back’s against the wall.

Safe Trucking to all.
Ray J. Haight

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My Crystal Ball says a little. Business is starting to move again, trucks are not as idle as they were and drivers are jumping ship again.

That drivers start to change companies is not in itself that surprising. What is surprising is the pay rates oem O/O tell the drivers they will get paid. Drive for an O/O for $0.50 per mile. That is what I heard the other day. I find it hard to beleive when the rest of the drivers in the same ocmpany were earning $0.40-$0.44 cents per mile. Now any smart person would certainly be very leery of working for an O/O if they are paying that much. I think I would want to get paid in advacne at that rate. Otherwise I am doing a lot of work for nothing.

Speaking of which, there is one big sign the economy is still barely picking up in the United States of America. 5 companiesin the last 2 weeks, have had over 20 trucks between them loose tanks of fuel. That's right folks, the days of siphoning are back. I have to also point oiut that 1 of the companies involved has 2 trucks loose their fuel in LA BELLE PROVINCE ( THAT IS QUEBEC) Ah yes, JE ME SOUVIEN. I also remember the last time around that was where a lot of this type of thing occured.

Time to start checking out Fuel Lock Caps again. They may be expensive but so is loosing 50 gallons of gas at $3.00 per gallon. NOW before meslippery jumps in with another comment justified or not I would like to state, I am not selling the caps, nor do I have a vested interest in them. I am helping protect our business's assests and our expenses and costs. It clearly has nothing to do here with EOBR's or SPEED LIMITERS we all know where you stand or sit on those.

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I finally figured out why they call our parliament the "House of Commons". Its always seemed an ironic name to me. Watch even 20 minutes of Parliament on TV and you'll soon realize our political parties share very little in common. But I've finally figured it out...

It turns out that the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP and their followers seem to share this one thing in common: a mistrust of BIG.

Canadians on the political left tend to have a mistrust or dislike of Big Business.
Canadians on the political right tend to have a mistrust or dislike of Big Government.

So no matter where you are on the political spectrum it is a great time to remind yourself of the power of one (one being you) in your relationship with Big.

Here are 4 fundamental truths regarding your relationship with BIG:

1) As Big Wins so do you.

2) As Big Loses so do you.

1 & 2 provide compelling reasons to give our best in each area of our life. Give your best to your company, your family, pay your fair share of taxes etc. You will never lose always committing your best.

3) As You Win so does Big.

4) As You Lose so does Big.

3 & 4 speak to the inherent interest BIG has in meeting your needs to keep you growing as a productive member of their "society/company".

If you are giving your all to BIG and are unhappy about the environment they are providing, they need to know about it. You need to ask for what you need and what you want.

You'll be shocked with how many times getting changes to make it a more fulfilling place to be is simply a matter of spitting it out, saying it, asking the question! If you don't , if you keep it inside and grow an attitude of disgruntlement you are going to waste a whole bunch of your time and BIG loses as you lose the motivation to provide your best.

So.. what to do?:

1) If your government is not giving you what you need and want, be active in asking for change. Participate in democracy. If they don't after that, use the power of your vote to elect someone else. (kick the bums out, as certain members of my family would say).

2) If your company is not giving you what you need and want, be active in asking for it. If they don't after that, ask yourself a simple question:

Do I stay or Do I go?

If the issue is minor and you can honestly drop it without carrying a grudge. i.e you might say "If this is the worst thing about my job I LOVE where I work" .. then stay.

If you can't drop it and are going to be fundamentally disgruntled then the best feedback they can receive are your heels leaving the door for an environment that will meet your needs.

Ultimately BIG draws it power from the power of its people.

Just like our country: Canada. Canada is BIG.

We have many strengths:

1) An abundance of Natural Resources
2) A variety of stunning landscapes
3) More fresh water than the rest of the world combined.

But for all the inherent strengths of the land in which we live, Canada's biggest strength has been, is, and will always be its PEOPLE. That's YOU and ME. We're not BIG but we can be powerful.

My conclusion: BIG can be great, as long as each of us stands up for ourselves. After all, BIG is simply the sum total of a bunch of ones.

David Benjatschek is an award winning trainer/speaker in the areas of Leadership & Communication. Check out his website at www.marketbeamer.com or contact him by email: david@marketbeamer.com. Check out "Whats New" on the website for details of two powerful workshops hitting Canada later this summer & fall: 1) First Time Managers Two Day Boot Camp and 2) Prioritize and Organize for Success. Early bird rates for registrations by May 15th.

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Over the past few weeks I've had the good fortune to interview some of the most respected leaders in the motor carrier industry. I discussed with them the impact of the recession and how it has changed the trucking industry and how that will affect carrier decisions ranging from capacity to rates going forward.

First up is a two-part blog containing the highlights of my conversation with Mark Seymour, head of Kriska Transportation. (By the way, if you find these discussions to be of interest, be sure to join us this May 26th in Toronto for our 2nd annual Maximizing Profitability Workshop, organized jointly with Dan Goodwill & Associates. It's full of good advice to help you manage your way in the reset economy.)

Now here's what Mark Seymour had to say:

Q: Most people in trucking would say that the best thing about 2009 is that it’s over. Yet I’m sure there are some good things to come out of the recession. How is Kriska a better company today by surviving the challenges of 2009?

Seymour: We are more efficient because we’ve had to be. As good as anyone thought they were, they’ve had to find new and better ways to get things done. From that perspective I would say we are better. We are better at identifying costs and waste and pulling it out of the system. But there just wasn’t that much waste in the system to be able to give back to the magnitude that we have in terms of rates. When we pull out of this, those are valuable lessons that we can’t forget but we’ve got certain things we have to address, such as wages. Driving a truck is a very challenging job with a lot of regulation and a lot of time away from home and eventually in order to retain and attract people to this industry we have to address pay. It has been nothing but contracting the last couple of years because it represents such a significant portion of our costs. For most TL carriers, wages represent 30-40% of our cost base thus the reason for the pressure there.

Q: How will the efficiencies you’ve gained impact your dealings with shippers?

Seymour: There will come a day soon as the economy picks up when capacity will be tight again and it will be hard to find reliable, competitively priced and stable carriers. Efficiency and quality should be important to customers because if you have aligned yourself with anything less, you are putting your product to market at risk.

Q: How will the trucking industry that emerges from the recession be significantly different than the one that entered the recession?

Seymour: I hope before anybody gets in a growth mode again they are going to be in a repair mode first. I would hope there will be a limit to capacity growth in favor of repairing the balance sheet damage that has been done the last couple of years. There has been a lot of damage done and I think it will take years to repair. In a stable year you get a 5% rate increase in TL. We’ve experienced a contraction in pricing in the TL market between 15% and 25% over the past 24 months, exclusive of surcharges. We didn’t have that much to play with and give back yet we did. Five percent increases compounded over the next three years are only going to take us back to where we started. We have to take the initiative to address this problem. Shippers are not going to address this issue for us. We all have to get serious about doing it; it has to happen.

Q: How do you get solidarity in an industry of 10,000 carriers embroiled in cut-throat competition?

Seymour: I don’t know how you get solidarity but the issues have to be addressed. The market always prevails and sorts out its weakness. This will get fixed because it simply can’t continue. There is a lot of desperation in the market right now amongst carriers for volume and shippers are taking advantage of that. You can’t blame them. The convergence of the two makes for very interesting times. It’s a buyer’s market. The shippers will take all that we will give and we seem to be willing to give more than we have available. It’s really crazy. We have to start educating shippers that this is not sustainable. We require a certain amount of income to operate responsible, sustainable businesses. As an industry our operating ratios at the best of times have been in the mid to low 90s for the best operators. How can we give back 15-25% and have it be sustainable? You can’t. Worse, some are trying to stretch out payment terms. We’re not banks. We pay fuel and wages every 7-14 days and that’s 75-80% of our operating cost. We need to be paid faster, not slower.

Q: How will this impact the shipper-carrier relationship going forward?

Seymour: Shippers need carriers and the opposite is also very true. No one wins when you continue to grind one another. It may have short term benefits and it may appear to be saving money but it’s not a good long term strategy. We all know that. Shippers are trying to capitalize so intently on this desperation in the market they are bidding the business every time they think they can take another cut out of it. How are we supposed to operate our business with strategy and continued investment when the relationships with customers are potentially coming and going? You can’t. At the end of the day, we all want to give our customers what they want and pay for. In order to provide that, we have to build long term relationships and strategy together. Not one year at a time. That’s managing chaos, not partnering.

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I ran across this personal essay by Linda Duffus and thought it was pertinent to our profession. Although I'm not hauling long distance these days, I can personally attest that this job is very tough to balance with family life. Linda is a product of a trucking family and she articulates a child's perspective about growing up with a long haul dad.

The role of the long distance trucking parent is not an easy one. I know one situation where the mother is on the road and the dad handles the childcare, but in most cases, the father-figure is expected to be all things to the family besides just a breadwinner and home repairman. He's also expected to be disciplinarian, companion, friend, great lover, sage, fun guy, moral compass, sugar daddy, Santa Claus, strong man, problem solver and the rock of the unit.

Unfortunately, parents sometimes don't realize how deep an impression their words and actions have on their children. Thanks for the following Linda!

A Kid's Point of View
>>
>>My father was gone a lot. That's what happens when your profession is
>>truck driver. You have to go where the load takes you and it takes just as
>>long as it takes. It's easy to understand that concept when you are an
>>adult with bills to pay, a little less so when you are five and you have
>>to walk to swimming lessons in the frigidness of winter because the only
>>person in the family that drives, your Dad, is several hours away from
>>home, bouncing around in his loud, noisy truck. It makes you angry that he
>>will be spending the night in some motel, maybe with a pool, while your
>>feet are cold and your hair is frozen into icicle strings that smack your
>>face as you're pulled along by your Mom, who is tired and angry and cold
>>as well.
>>
>>Back home in the tiny apartment, you, your brother and your Mom have a hot
>>chocolate to warm yourselves up, and soft, fluffy jammies bring comfort.
>>After a quick read of a story and a brush of the teeth, the three of you
>>climb into Mom and Dad's bed and snuggle yourselves into sleep. All so you
>>can rest up for the morning, when a walk to the babysitters is the start
>>to the day. It wasn't quite the "ten miles through snowdrifts up to the
>>armpits in bare feet" that my father used to walk when he was a kid, but
>>it seemed awful enough.
>>
>>A few days later, my Dad would return. We'd know he'd be coming without
>>even having to ask. Mom would be dressed up all pretty, and like as not,
>>my brother and I would be in trouble for doing something wrong and the
>>threat of "wait till your father gets home" would be said with a little
>>more weight behind it than it had on other days. I swear that sometimes my
>>father started removing his belt as he climbed the apartment stairs. He
>>knew that the moment he opened the door, my brother and I would race for
>>his arms and my mother wouldn't be too far behind to tell him what
>>horrible children he had left her with. I don't think my mother really
>>felt like that, I think she was just tired all the time. She worked
>>full-time and had all the responsibility for raising us.
>>
>>Depending on the seriousness of our wrong-doing, we were sometimes given
>>an hour or so reprieve, a chance to gather round as Dad emptied his
>>satchel of amazing treasures he'd brought from his latest adventures, well
>>those and a bunch of really stinking laundry. Mom would get the dirty
>>clothes into the basket and downstairs to the washer and my brother and I
>>would get our loot. A good trip might yield us tiny wrapped candies, or
>>little cakes of motel soap with the names of places we couldn't read
>>printed on them. Sometimes there were stuffed animals, or coloring books
>>and often it was little packets of jam that we'd covet for breakfast the
>>next day. If he'd been to Sudbury, a chunk of slag might be the gift. We
>>used to get pretty excited about straws wrapped in paper sleeves. (My
>>brother and I were raised to be grateful for everything!)
>>
>>Mom would come up from the laundry, and suddenly it would be bedtime. It
>>didn't matter what time of day or night it was. Apparently a family nap
>>was in order. But there was no space for my brother and I in our parents
>>bed now. Dad was home. We'd be banished to our own room, but we didn't
>>care, we had our treasures. I guess Dad was tired out from all his driving
>>and Mom was just tired out. They always seemed to nap for quite a while.
>>
>>Dad would be home for a couple of days, and our lives would be completely
>>turned around. Toys had to be picked up, meals eaten at certain times and
>>we had better be quiet while Dad napped in the chair, listening in his
>>quasi-sleep to some stupid sports show that was interfering with our
>>Wonderful World of Disney. We'd sulk off to our room, quietly of course,
>>and break the soap bars into little bits with our safety scissors. Or use
>>the jam packets as booties for Barbie and GI Joe. Of course Mom knew we
>>were up to no good - we were TOO QUIET - and she'd sneak open the door and
>>we'd be caught and all hell would break loose. She'd yell, he'd jump,
>>off'd come the belt and my brother and I are crying in bed with red
>>bottoms and counting the hours until Dad had to hit the road again.
>>
>>Looking back now, it seems odd to be remembering things this way. I know I
>>had an excellent childhood, I know that I was deeply loved by both my
>>parents and that they did the best that they could with what they had. I
>>know that there was never a time when family wasn't first. And it worries
>>me to think of what my own kids will remember from their childhood!

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I’ve written quite favourably about Ontario’s LCV program and in doing so, I’ve invited some criticism from drivers and engaged in some interesting debates. As I see it, drivers stand to benefit from the program. Carriers have told me they pay 20-30% per-mile premiums for LCV drivers. Here’s an opportunity to take the training, get certified, enhance your value and make more money. For the motivated driver, what’s not to like about that? If only it were so simple.

In talking to several LCV-certified drivers, it seems there’s a significant discrepancy between what carriers say they pay their LCV drivers and what those drivers are actually making.

One such driver, Kassie Gibner, shares her experience: “Although it's quite the experience to pull the LCVs, and the money that's saved and made for the company is sizeable, typically it only pays three cents a mile more than running a single. Not even remotely worth it as a driver to take on the added responsibilities and extra work, only to be under such incredible scrutiny by everyone from the companies themselves to the OTA to the public.”

Worse yet, she tells me she’s at risk of losing her job because she’s the only LCV-certified driver at her company and she’s no longer willing to pull doubles for a measly three cents a mile extra. Jumping to another carrier that pays better may be an attractive option, but it’s now clear why a clause was cleverly tucked into the regulations that makes the LCV certification non-transferrable. She’d have to re-certify if she moved to another fleet.

At any rate, she’s not the only one who has told me the extra pay isn’t worth the added responsibility and scrutiny. Many drivers say that even with a small per-mile premium, pulling LCVs is a losing proposition when you factor in the reduced speed and extra time spent hooking up and inspecting equipment.

So where are the savings going and why aren’t drivers getting their fair share?

Some drivers tell me the big carriers are lining their pockets with the efficiencies afforded by pulling Twin-53s. I don’t buy that. I see very few carriers getting rich running LCVs. My suspicion is that the vast majority of the savings are being passed onto the shipper. But why?

Eric Gignac of Groupe Guilbault perhaps said it best at last year’s OTA convention: “Why should we give the savings to the customer? That's what I'm hearing in Ontario and that scares me a lot. You need a shipper who gives you two truckloads at the same time at the same place with the same appointment time with equal weight. If you have that in Ontario, you're lucky. We don't have that in Quebec. You have savings but you also have extra costs - permits, paying more for the driver…”

Damn straight.

As an observer, I see quite clearly there’s something fundamentally wrong with this picture. More than anything else, the success of the Ontario LCV program hinges on the professionalism and abilities of the drivers. They are being touted as the elite, the cream of the crop. So treat them like they’re elite and pay them like they’re elite. Otherwise, there’s a very real possibility this program will fall flat.

In closing, if you’re the manager of a fleet that is participating in the LCV program and pay your LCV-certified drivers fairly, go ahead and tout your LCV pay packages by commenting below. Consider it a free ad on me (just don’t tell Kathy). Perhaps it’ll put some pressure on the others. In all seriousness, let’s get some dialogue going. Fleet managers, what do you pay your LCV drivers? Drivers, what are you being offered to pull Twin-53s?

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This is a tense time for our industry. It seems we’re stuck in a prolonged in-between phase with the recession technically over (the economy is growing again) but with the recovery nowhere near as robust as would have been hoped. Many of the motor carrier executives I spoke to in January and February were telling me they’ve seen little in terms of growth in freight volumes.

March seems to have been better but although there is hope for the coming months there is also a great deal of uncertainty. And, as a result, there is a great deal of anxiety. While everyone I’ve spoken to at recent industry events is very optimistic about 2011, no one seems to have figured out yet what 2010 will bring.

For the many carriers hanging on by their fingernails, just looking to make payroll from week to week, the anxiety is obvious. But even established carriers are feeling anxious these days. Their anxiety may not be about making it through the next week but they have real concerns about how long it will take them to repair the damage to their companies the last couple of years have wreaked. For example, rates in the truckload market over the past 24 months have dropped between 15% and 25%, exclusive of surcharges. (And our own research clearly shows that surcharges, such as detention, have also taken a distinct hit during the recession.) And, to make matters worse, many shippers are trying to stretch out payment terms.

During the best years the industry has seen, trucking companies made about 8 to 10 cents on the dollar. In other words, profit margins were tight at the best of times and carriers clearly didn’t have much to play with. As Mark Seymour, president of Kriska Transportation, candidly told me, in a stable year you get a 5% rate increase in TL. So even healthy five percent increases compounded over the next three years are only going to take the industry back to where it was prior to the recession.

Yet such increases are far from guaranteed. They’re certainly not coming this year. Our research shows the majority of both carriers and shippers expect rates to remain about the same this year as last. As Seymour and many other trucking executives have pointed out repeatedly over the past year, there is a lot of desperation in the market right now amongst carriers for volume, and shippers are taking advantage of that. They are bidding the business every time they think they can take another rate reduction. That’s going to prove a hard habit to break as long as the industry remains in over capacity.

What it all boils down to is a very difficult atmosphere in which to operate a trucking business with a long term vision and continued investment. If there is anything positive in all this it’s that motor carriers have learned some very tough lessons over the past 24 months; lessons I hope they won’t forget when we finally do return to better times.

That truly would be a waste of a good recession.

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Many of you have heard that Alberta is introducing a "Distracted Driver" law this fall. What "distraction" means is at the judgment call of the officer watching you. It may be for talking on your hand held cellphone. It could also be for flossing your teeth or trying to balance a Wendy's Combo Meal on your lap while also navigating the road.

This past week I would have been guilty as charged!

The culprit: My new electric shaver.

The story: A great reminder of an important leadership principle for personal and team growth.

Before you lynch me: I wasn't trying to shave as I was driving (although I have witnessed that).

I recently bought my first electric razor. While saving on the costs of a $3 disposable blade that might last 4 shaves is great, I have to confess it has taken a bit to get used to.

With the old disposable blade, one swish line around my face and the hairs in my blade's path were gone. With the electric shaver, I'm finding I'm having to take 3, 4, even up to 10 swipes at those same stubborn hairs to get the same result.

So on Thursday of this past week I was at home getting ready to deliver a Supervisors Workshop in Calgary. I spent around 5 minutes swerving my new electric shaver around my face... straight paths up, straight paths down and circular motions. After about five minutes, it looked like I had achieved the desired result: a clean-shaven face!

I was a happy camper until having left our neighbourhood, I glanced in the rear view mirror of my car. Thursday was a fantastically sunny day in Calgary and to my horror (and distraction) the brilliant light of the sun combined with the magnification of the rear view mirror exposed a few things that the dimmer lighting of my bathroom had not. Like:

Two hairs that stood out like pine treees between my upper lip and my nose.

The equivalent to a Red Wood Forest growing beautifully on the left side of my face just under the chin bone and many seedlings still emerging at various and random spots on my face.

I felt like i would have been better cast as a creature in a horror film that day than as a professional trainer of a management workshop. I had to buy a disposable blade on the way and finish what I had started with my electric razor.

The experience reinforced a great management principle to me:

Everyone on your team (including you) is coming to your workplace with their strengths (perfect shave) and weaknesses (my less than perfect shave).

Great individuals and teams are not afraid to shine the full light of the sun on both of them. As a a leader, you know that when team members can feel free to openly share their strengths and weaknesses, you can put each individual in a position to succeed and use their strengths. The strengths of one team member will cover the weakness of another and vice versa. Overall the team is put in the best position to win.

After all, it is only when we are truly comfortable looking at who we really are today that we can create a powerful vision and plan for the person or team we want to be tomorrow.

Happy Shaving! just not while driving please :O)

David Benjatschek is a professional speaker/trainer and rock star change agent whose Leadership & Communication Workshops span across North America. Two new powerful public workshops will be hitting Ontario & Alberta this summer and fall. For details on the First Time Manager's Two Day Boot Camp or Prioritize and Organize for Success CLICK HERE. You can reach David by email: david@marketbeamer.com

Continue reading "The Sun and a Clean Shave: A Great Principle for Leaders and Managers." »

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Lately we have been reading Ray Haight's Rules. They are pretty good rules and I think everyone of us in this industry should take a strong look at them.

The one rule I am very concerned about (mostly) is the waiting time rule. A lot of the 3PL's or so called 3P.L.'s out there I think are afraid to approach their customer and ask for waiting time. When a carrier charges you for waiting time, there is a pretty good reason for it. Whether it is the shipper or the consignee someone kept that truck waiting. Funny how, in a TAXI, if you are kept waiting in the cab, while stuck in traffic, The driver does not turn the meter off. The charges just keep adding on. Yet in our industry not only we have to fight to collect money, we have to fight with the people in the same industry.

Then we also get stuck at Customs! Especially when it is a RANDOM INSPECTION. Recently another carrier was lamenting to me how he argued with a customer for 2 hours to collect the unloading and loading charges and waiting time charges paid by his so called 3P.L. They admitted their customer would never pay the charges. Well We as carriers have news for you, a lot of loads will not be delviered anymore if charges are not guaranteed and paid up front. We have no choice and we have to pay the loading and unloading company. Yet I think if Customs enforced the rules they would have the additional charges billed directly to the person whose name the goods are clearing in.

Why charge the carrier. All we are doing is moving the goods. We do not take title to them. We do not decide whcih border to cross (some of the time) we do not decide who gets to load and unload the truck. Why charge us? Charge the IMPORTER OF RECORD. They own the goods not a truck line. This is a basic fundamental shipping law.
As for detention, again, the driver stood around for 8 hours, while Canada Customs took their sweet time inspecting by hand, each solar panel to cover swimming pools. I guess they thought the carrier was bringing in Miniature SUNS. Maybe we stole some heat from the AMERICANS and we did not declare it!

I would like each and every LOAD BROKER AND 3P.L. to stand up and work the next 2 hours free. Tell your Manager or Supervisor or Owner. I will work from 2 until 4 today free. YOu do not have to pay me take it out of my paycheque this week. Now how many of you ran and did that just now? ZERO?! You bet ?! yET THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT CARRIERS TO DO EVERYTIME THEY INCUR WAITING TIME AT THE BORDER OR AT THE SHIPPER OR AT THE RECEIVER.

Let's all get in the real world and pay for whatever the real costs to move freight are. NOT IMAGINED CXOSTS. Or waht you think they should be. A true 3P.L. Provider has a relationship with their customer and they should be able to have them approve payment for pretty well anything. As Ray says they are not just Rate WH---S. Oops sorry about the word gang. However everyone can take the hint here. Pay the carriers for what they do, prove you deserve the money, prove you can earn your share of the pie, Treat the carriers the same way you would like to be treated. STOP ASKING THEM TO DO EXTRA WORK FOR FREE.

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You heard it here. I’m calling the recession over, trucking-wise, at least. Volumes appear to be up everywhere and companies are hiring drivers again. I’m not too worried about a double dip…we been down so long it looks like up to me. But before we inhale the fragrant winds of prosperity that are soon to blow over the arid landscapes from Surrey to Etobicoke, Laval to Dartmouth, Brandon to Cornerbrook, Yellowknife to Megantic, we're going to be smarter with our sheckles and zlotys this time, right? Admittedly it’s still slow though. I just talked to one guy who had to wait 7 days for a backhaul out of Kansas, until he finally found one in Oklahoma that got him back to Ontario.

Got to drive a 2009 ProStar last week and really liked it. It came with an Eaton Yale ten speed Autoshift which made me realize how profoundly good these automatics are getting. Only 50Ks on this unit but the drive train was wholly responsive backing up, not much lag time or slippage and a lot less free roll when hooking or stopped on a grade, unlike the last generation of sloppy automatics.

This truck’s on a regular run between Toronto and Val D’Or, Que., and the full moon nights were spectacular and the ideal weather made for sublime driving conditions: April Fools and fat moths hatching in the conifers and splattering into the windshield this early in the year, ravens.and crows making a stand on the highway And highway 101 hasn’t heaved too bad from Notre Dame du Nord to where it joins with 117. So nice to be driving without much traffic through the hills around Marten River and Temagami, and the full moon just made the experience richer, like a divine light illuminating this astonishingly beautiful country of ours.

I rarely get up to Val D’Or these days as I’m a relief driver bidding weekly on the slots as they come up. Accommodation in a classic hotel—the Continental—which contains the ghosts of prospectors (the town's name means “gold mine”), as well as groups of young Cree hockey players running in the halls (Val D’Or is host to the world’s largest kids' aboriginal hockey tournament in the world, and it seems scheduled every time I get to town).

Not much sleep for me, but the town was coming alive in the warm weather. That's a sign of a healthy community when a cross-section of the populace is milling about on the sidewalks and the doorways. Just one long main street that contains 25 taverns (most are country and western oriented) and five barber shops. And the economy is rebounding too. Forestry is still in the toilet but the zinc and gold mines are ramping up and the sense of optimism is palpable.

offering coffee and comfort to famous Polish Canadian Avro Arrow test pilot in Barry's Bay

But maybe I should write about the schizophrenic nature of the contemporary trucker. The old order of the mashed potato farmboys and their self-important unquestioned racial pedigree is being challenged by other ethnicities and truckers of different skin tones causing untold trauma on channel 19. Yes there are bad drivers among new Canadians, as there are among those who can claim generations of British Isles and European descent. Bring on the driver shortage, I say, and we'll all eventually learn to work together.

People of the Valley: Back to the Lander father and son team at Morning Glory Farm somewhere near Killaloe

And what about that Michigan militia that was planning to kill police officers so they could foment a revolution? The whacky right is just as bizarre as the militant “new left” of the 60s and 70s that had a similar mindset. This is the politics of intolerance and rebellion that's bulwarked by the angry talk show hosts that flood the airwaves-the Rush Limbaughs and Bill O'Reillys that are legion, yelling and stamping their feet on the Fox radio network nightly like spoiled children. And their Tea Party followers who have nothing to offer except negativity and absurdity. The paradox is that the country with the most personal freedom is a Petri dish for fringe groups that will stop at nothing to bring down the world's most important democracy for their own selfish neo-conservative ends. There's another militia in Michigan that is training to stop an invasion from Canada—no kidding. Yeah, look out, we're coming to get you with our socialized health care and used trucks.

Lastly, I was going to write about the myth of the logistics industry which is really nothing much more than a pseudo-science couched in jargon and obfuscation--a back-slapping coterie of logistics specialists who reproduce themselves geometrically. It's not all bullshit but some of it certainly is. Logistics is the science of moving goods in the most efficient manner possible between point A and B , and it's nothing that our benefactors weren't doing all along without the aid of fancy software. I'm reminded of scholar Hugh Kenner from Harvard telling me that his grandfather was stationmaster of the C&O railyard in St. Thomas, Ont., and the fact that he had to keep the entire yard set up in his head all day. He'd know what rolling units were going out when, and where they were dropped. Without relying on computer programs he was able to plot the day's moves and set up trains using the least energy without making redundant moves, not unlike what a good dispatcher or yard man does today. And what do you do when the computer crashes? Write it down and call the IT person? Like I said, I'd like to write about the myth of the logistics industry but I better know what I'm talking about before I do so.

Yours Truly at the Val D'Or depot docks: Another big load of potatoes!

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