Speaking of Latvians, last week I got a call from a fellow named Karl (pseudonym, as he didn't want me to use his real name). Seems like I'm a go-to guy for Latvian wannabe truck drivers here in Toronto on a work permit, as this is the second young Latvian that's called me. The first chap had an Ontario drivers licence but no experience driving truck and had started working for a landscaping company hoping to eventually get on board as a driver.

But Karl is different in that he has experience hustling freight in Europe in a three axle Scania , and has his AZ licence after completing a training course with a reputable truck driving school in the GTA. He was frustrated because trucking companies around Toronto won't even look at him, let alone give him a road test, without two years Canadian experience.

This is, of course, the dilemma for any newbie driver trying to get a foothold in the industry. You can't get the job if you don't have any experience, and you can't acquire experience without getting the job.
Ironically, only a few years ago, Canadian carriers were actively travelling to Europe and sponsoring job fairs to recruit people like Karl. Europeans with driving experience were especially coveted as they were skilled, often exemplary employees and could usually function in English.

I advised him to try the drivers services and look at the trucking job sites. What Karl needed was someone to give him a break and put him behind the wheel. But today he called me and was ecstatic. “No one was going to give me a job in Ontario, but I heard from a friend who knows someone hiring Latvians in New Brunswick,” Karl told me.

Apparently, the area around Woodstock, New Brunswick is a hotbed for trucking and there are over a dozen Latvian trucking families settled in the area. The carriers in the area like the work ethic of the Latvians (as well as the Poles, Russians, Dutch, English and Scottish drivers) and there's a vibrant community in this region of emigre drivers and their families. It sounds like Karl's being offered a contract and will be driving with a trainer for a few months and then be on his own. He wasn't sure what company he'd be working for, but Karl was plenty happy and packing his suitcase and rucksack as I spoke to him.

So here's a thirty year old guy, stranger in a strange land, out to start his new life in New Brunswick. I could sense his excitement. Sounds like some Ontario company missed the chance to pick up a pretty good driver and worker. Not only that, Karl will be living in a beautiful part of the country where the cost of living and houses are affordable. Godspeed, as the saying goes.

It strikes me that many people come to driving truck by a circuitous root, and it's often a roll of the dice that gets you in the door. Of course there are those who know from a very young age they are going be driving trucks—it's all they want to do. The above-mentioned Karl worked in the IT field but didn't really like it. “My dad was a truck driver and I think it's in my blood,” he told me.

This Russian fellow I know would have taken up trucking when he landed in Canada but his experience in Ireland driving a boom truck and delivering construction materials didn't count in Ontario. Today Vlad is one of the hardest working guys I know, working seven days a week for two appliance repair companies. While my friend George arrived from Scotland twelve years ago and got his Canadian Class A licence as his Scottish experience wasn't considered valid. By chance or by fate he got the name of a manager of a big company that was hiring and started working the next day.

My path started out where I was working in a gas station as a designated apprentice mechanic but wasn't going anywhere. Ron Kimber, a friend of mine from Holland Landing (I don't know where he is now but wherever it is he's got a fleet of trucks), suggested a company that was delivering school books around southern Ontario. The first day I walked in the door, one of the brother-owners handed me a sheaf of bills and sent me bombing around southern Ontario in a GMC van with a 350 four barrel carb. Gas was cheap in those days and that thing would fly.

But the day came when I was assigned a five-ton a straight truck I gulped hard. I'd never driven anything like this and it was up on Hwy 69 near Parry Sound that I finally figured out how a short fourth transmission worked. All the gears could be split high and low except the top two, the fourth and fifth which you had to shift first and then split.

I didn't get my A licence until 1981 but even then I didn't hop right into a semi. One summer I heard about a week's work driving a dump in Sutton, Ont., close to where I was living. My marriage had broken up and I really wasn't in any hurry to sign on for life with one employer.

This was a fairly big company from Scarborough and the crew was from the Ottawa Valley, a very hard working group of guys who talked in that clipped, high-octave sounding way, a little like Newfies. They were apparently catch basin and sewer specialists and worked all over Ontario, staying in motels and getting home weekends.

The truck I was assigned was an ancient beast with a two stick transmission where every gear could be split four ways. In my recollections I've imagined it as a Diamond Reo, but I think it was in actuality an old Dodge goat. The crew boss warned me that there was very little clutch and not to goose the throttle in low gear as it would snap off the drive line. He went with me on my first move and showed me where to dump the fill, over a slight embankment into a gully.

My very first solo trip turned disastrous. I forgot to open the tailgate as I hit the hydraulic lift. The dirt shifted and the truck lifted up in the air at a 45% angle. My first thought was that the whole thing was going to tumble over backwards and I was going to die.

Instead I ended up dangling just below the hydro wires. A kid on his way to school stared at me in disbelief. So then I opened the tailgate and put it in one of those low gears. The truck lurched forward and down, jumping a couple of times until it settled back on its front wheels with half the dirt dumped on the road behind me.

So I had to get the courage up to drive back to the dig and tell the boss I'd done a wheelie and dumped a load of dirt on the road. But when we got back, it was all cleaned up. A crew from the township with a front end loader had apparently lifted it into the ravine where it was supposed to go.

That day I also learned that a fully loaded dump won't stop when you want it to. I remember sweating while rolling past a stop sign with the binders locked and learning new respect for an overweight load as a 26 year old novice. On the way back to the excavation I'd swing past the Sutton School of Hydrotherapy and Massage where I'd recently started seeing a gal from British Columbia. There were lots of women attending this college, mostly from BC, to become Registered Massage Therapists. And they were a different breed from the locals. The first night this girlfriend was at the Irish House Tavern, where I'd notice a group of these gals dancing by themselves painted up like gypsy maidens and indians.

Regardless, I was taking a bit of a detour to roll by the school to wave at anyone I knew and the crew boss caught me at it. These guys worked hard and expected me to as well. As soon as one truck pulled out of the excavation the boss wanted another immediately backing in the hole. And when I wasn't driving he had me rolling up and down the street on this vibrating steam roller tamping down the gravel.

So that was a real interesting week of work. I wanted to show these guys the local watering hole but they weren't interested and just wanted to get back to their motel after the 12 hour days. Friday afternoon they were done by three pm and heading back to Combermere and Tory Hill and Calabogie, catch basins installed and the road limed up and level waiting for the paving crew.

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Whiners, Lazies, Bullies, Passive Aggressives, Stubborns and the list goes on. How to Deal with Difficult People is frequently a top request in many of the workshops I do. While it may seem there are unique solutions to each type of difficult person, I've found there is an underlying general approach that will give you power in most every situation.

I've put it on my website for you to download and use.

For your copy of the "Ultimate Plan for Dealing with Difficult People" pdf click here

Have a great week!

David Benjatschek is "Your Man with the Plan". David travels North America helping emerging leaders fulfill their promise. http://about.me/yourmanwiththeplan

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I’ve heard the odd person allude to a possible double dip in the economy but for the most part (as mentioned before) it looks like the worst is behind us. In discussions with our carrier customers, most have followed a cost cutting protocol, regardless of the size, scope and nature of their business. Still, if we look at Ontario vs. Western Canada, it appears carriers can raise rates in the west, while the shippers still carry the big stick here. Available capacity seems to be the predominant trump card.

You’ve probably all heard something along the lines of “Quality, service and price...pick two”. In this new, post-recession economy, smart operators are forced to follow that guideline. Where shippers are under pressure to maintain or lower their transportation spend, carriers have had to modify their thinking accordingly. Where a partial load west used to move Friday for a Monday delivery, now it might wait to get topped up Monday for a Thursday delivery. This brings us to another saying “Better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission”.

Even though driver demand here has never been higher, the carriers can’t increase their wages. This will discourage new drivers to enter the industry and as the aging driving force retires, this lack of drivers to move the freight will either push more freight to rail or decrease capacity (as it has in the west) and then maybe rates can rise... and the cycle continues. Interesting how supply and demand eventually gets things sorted out. Hopefully it will again and everyone can breathe a little easier.

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned since the recession? My top 5 follows and you can probably add the statement “like never before” to each one:

1.       The people on your team need to be self managed and love what they do

2.       You can never stop laying tracks for future opportunities

3.       If anyone can do exactly what you do, you’re in the wrong business

4.       You can relax, just not that long or that often

5.       Your customers and your friends become one and the same

Lee’s Quote for the day

“By the time everything all comes together, it’s time to retire!” J

Lee Palmer is the President and Creative Director at Palmer Marketing, a company that specializes in creative marketing and advertising solutions for the transportation industry.

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Summer is Almost Over, What next.
Hard to believe but true summer is almost over. By the time this Post is read, it will be September. Summer has gone by, The kids should be back in school, work is back to normal (Whatever that is ), and life goes on.

Now is when we start preparing for many things in Transportation. Usually this time of year, it is Musical seats at many companies. It just seems people, need that vacation time and come back recharged, and ready to go again 100%. I can say without a doubt that anyone going on holiday these days, leave the Blackberry, Cellphone PDA, at home and take that break. Cut off all ties with the office. You need a break as well, we all do.

Just like the drivers need their break. Some take time off in the Summer, some in Winter, some visit home (wherever it may be), and some just stay at their home and get reacquainted with their family. This is the perfect time when they return to have a quick 10 minute talk with as many as you can. Discuss, their vacation, their family, their long range plans, their short range plans. What they would like from the company to make them happy. What the company can do for them.

No, not just increase salaries, but what do they really want? There is only one way to find out! Speak to them. Talk to a few at a time, buy them a coffee and a doughnut, give one of them that was complimented a prize you have left over from your Golf Tournament. You will never know what makes them tick, without asking. Praise in front of others. The most destructive thing in business is a million closed door meetings and not engaging people that are there.

Strangely enough, meetings take too much time, if not organized correctly. NO matter how big or small, have an agenda and stick to it. Try to involve everyone in attendance otherwise you are wasting their time, and they have already tuned you out.

The smart companies, are already making plans for the Annual Driver Safety Meeting. This is certainly where you need, an agenda. You need attendance, you need to ensure the worst drivers, do not get dispatched, and have to attend. You need to prepare the meeting, with a clear concise agenda, and stick to it. This way the Driver’s also feel engaged. Make sure you take questions from them. At the end of each topic take questions from the drivers.

The meeting should be Positive and End Positive. Safety Bonus handed out, Safety Awards handed out, in front of the other drivers. Recognition, especially for Milestone drivers, (10 years, 5 years no accidents.) and so on. Make them Proud not just for who they work for, but that you are recognizing their accomplishments, in front of everyone. Too many negative notes, with their payroll slips, they start to ignore them and throw out the slip of paper without reading it. Just like everything Conditioning.

Every company out there, has to go to the next level, to do so, everyone needs to know how to get there, and what the company has in mind to get there. Little changes, are always good, However monumental changes, that disrupt not just everyday work, but the work ethic, and the work attitude can be a company killer. Everything needs to be presented correctly from the top down. If the employees, see the TOP BRASS WALKING THE WALK AND NOT JUST TALKING THE TALK they will buy into it.

Stop the messengers, from patting themselves on the back, Egotistical type A’s spend too much time PATTING THEMSELVES ON THE BACK, having meetings, sending little memos to drivers, but they don’t really communicate. That is the key not just to a meeting but to a successful company

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I’ll admit it: I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with both milestones and coincidences. When my car’s odometer rolls over to 222,222 km in a few short weeks, chances are I’m going to pull over and take a picture. When I heard the latest Harry Potter movie had passed the billion-dollar mark at the box office a week or so ago, I marked the date on the calendar. If I find myself in a room where more than half the people’s names start with the letter “J”, I struggle to keep myself from making an announcement.

So it’s not much of a surprise that this week’s hybrid of both a milestone and a coincidence has piqued the interest of my peculiar passion. So what’s all the hubbub? Both Truck News and I are turning 30.

For myself, the milestone has been a long time coming. As a husband, father, dog owner, homeowner, commuter and careerist, I feel 30 these days. But for Truck News, I feel like 30 is the new 13, as the magazine continues to grow and mature through constant changes – in both the industry and the magazine itself.

In the six-and-a-half years that I’ve been with Truck News, I have seen a continuous evolution. The move to 100% glossy pages. The genesis of our WebTV show, Transportation Matters. Diving headfirst into the social media game with the likes of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Two Web site redesigns – and a third coming early next year that’ll knock your socks off.

Today’s Truck News has changed – and improved – so much since my early days at the publication that I can only imagine the pride felt by staffers like associate publisher Kathy Penner (with nearly 28 years under her belt at the magazine) when looking at how far we’ve come.

So as we say goodbye to our roaring 20s (on Aug. 19 for anyone looking to do some late shopping), both Truck News and I come into our 30s a little older, a lot wiser, and with more than a few tricks still up our sleeves.

It’s not a coincidence that we’ve been around this long, but it sure is a milestone worth celebrating.

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Alain Lacharité and his 2006 Kenworth earned their way into the 2012 Wowtrucks® Calendar while attending the Fergus Truck Show. I had the pleasure of spending a couple hours getting to know Alain, his story and taking photos in and around the Fergus and Elora area. All the chrome he's working onthis truck from Never Enough Chrome in Belleville attracted alot of attention :O)

I want your opinion:

I've posted 6 of my favorite images on www.wowtruckscalendar.com in a gallery.

I'm old enough to I know that a great truck photo means very different things to different people. Some truckers basically say "Its my truck, don't touch it!" (with Photoshop that is). Others love the effects that Photoshop can add.

Click on the link that follows, click on the gallery of 6 images and let me know by commenting on this blog: If that was your truck..tell me which image you'd want in the calendar. Number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6.

http://www.wowtruckscalendar.com.temp.livebooks.com/#mi=1&pt=2&pi=11000&p=-1&a=0&at=0&pw=Alain

I can't believe the 2012 Calendar will be the 5th Anniversary Edition of Canada's Big Rig Calendar.

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In High School, I had to read the "classic" existentialist piece by Samuel Beckett entitled: Waiting for Godot. The read was as dry as a scorcher on the Arizona Desert.

The storyline, in case you haven't read it is simple:

Two guys on a park bench waiting for someone who never shows up.

Sound familiar? While the book is not on my personal all time favorite read list, it does provide an illustration of something all too common in our corporate & personal lives.

Too many of us (myself included) have spent time on the preverbial park bench waiting for someone else to fix something, for someone else to make a situation right. We sit and we stew, we sit and we stew. They, like Godot, never seem to show up to make it right and we and we alone, continue to pay a price for our silent inaction on the bench.

The cost to corporate productivity and personal satisfaction is huge.

I've seen employees grumble through 15 years of employment with a company waiting for the company to make it right for them.

I've seen family members put their lives on hold seeking the affection of another family member, only to have it never returned and have the potential of THEIR life slip away.

Any extended period of time sitting on the bench and the only person who loses is us. Realistically, the person we have expectations of isn't acting in a positive way because either:

1) Even though we assume they must, the reality is they don't know what it is we expect so don't have a chance in Lotto 649 of giving it to us.
or
2) They can't or won't do it for a number of reasons, usually none of which are personal to us.

One principle of leadership is this: You can't change people. You can however, have extraordinary influence on the people around you by changing the only thing you can change which is: YOURSELF.

It means getting off the park bench and taking personal responsibility for the things that are important to us and realizing nobody can stop us from our goals unless we let them.

It means always trying to communicate for understanding upfront to eliminate Reason 1 as to why your not getting what you want.

It means standing up for the things that are important to us and not hanging around those who don't respect that for long periods of time.

It means recognizing that if we choose to change nothing, then very likely nothing will change.

The choice is ours and ours alone. There will be tons of people willing to help once we make it, but we need to take that first step towards our goals.

So.. the question of the day is:

What are you waiting for?

Have a great week!

David

http://about.me/yourmanwiththeplan

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Hello all. I hope you are all enjoying a great summer and the trucking is good. I myself have recently experienced a milestone of time; my 55th birthday. I was going to say I enjoyed my 55th but that would not be accurate. Pushing the down side of 50 is not something I am happy about. I am not afraid of it other than the fact that I come from a family with a short life span, but I sometimes feel like time is running out and of course it is. I am reminded of an old joke; life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer to the end, the faster it goes! Just as an FYI driver, I can tell you this and in fact I can state emphatically that longevity on this planet doesn’t equate to maturity. Having spent my fair share of time around folks my own age and older I can tell you younger drivers that stupid is stupid. Age doesn’t fix it. You might even hope that experience will dull it and probably in some cases it does but for the most part, as my cousin Tim Stewart in Vegas is prone to saying, you can’t fix dumb. I think Tim is right because I will attest that age sure doesn’t fix it!

55 is a self-reflective milestone for me. You see, when I was first introduced to Bill and Evan at MacKinnon Transport at the ripe old age of 34, I made it quite clear with them that if I was still in the trucking industry when I was 50 years old, that it would only be because I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than running a trucking company or because I wasn’t financially in a position to get out. My motivation for this goal was my mother Joan Haight, salt of the earth, who was taken from us at the age of 47 by leukemia and my father Ron Haight, a south paw who liked a drink or ten and was always looking for the slightest reason to show those who were interested how quick he was with his mitts, who died at age 51 of a massive heart attack. Neither of my parents lived to enjoy their lives with any independence from debt, nor from the freedom that retirement should bring. I am not whining here folks; plenty of drivers have lost parents and close family earlier than I did and you do what you need to do. You either give in to a victim mentality; ‘why’s everyone always picking on me’ type of crap or you persevere and work through it. It does give me great heartburn though when I hear people complain about their parents being a drain on their lifestyles. I would give dearly to spend just five more minutes with either of my parents.

So here I am 5 years past my self-imposed deadline of 50 and I have decided that this retirement thing is not all it is cracked up to be. In fact I never really retired. I would call it more of a slowing down process. So I, along with my good friend Kim Richardson have started a company we call Transrep. We profile and market products and services that we have screened and feel would benefit the industry. Most of these products and services just need a few introductions to the right folks or they need some slight adjustment of their service to better fit with their target market. We are having a blast with it and are enjoying some great success. It is fun watching folks succeed and helping them achieve their goals.

I do, however, take a little more time now to ‘smell the roses’ and I also enjoy the good things about our industry more than I used to. I have the privilege now of being able to stand back and write about the things I feel have value to the industry and complain about the things that irritate me. This week I ran into a website that rejuvenated my excitement for the future of the owner operator model so please visit www.sliceoftruckerlife.com I encourage all owner operators to read Mr. Henry Albert’s blog and see how he runs his business and conducts himself as a professional driver. This guy has class and understands that success in this industry comes in the form of incremental gains and that if you pay attention to all the small moving parts, that contrary to all the so called experts, you can make a decent buck. Mr. Albert also goes to work each day as an owner operator with a clean shirt and tie. Do you think he has a different paradigm than most folks about this great industry? I think so too - so thanks Henry, keep on blogging my friend. We need folks like you in this industry.

And then there is my good friend Nevio who will soon be tying the knot. Nevio is the national sales manager for Select Trucks and an all around good guy, straight shooter, salt of the earth buddy. Unfortunately Connie and I will be out of town and can’t avoid missing what I am sure will be a great event. I called my partner Kim to find out what he and his bride Lisa were going to be doing for a wedding gift so that we could still show our gratitude for the invitation and wish them all the best. Kim informed me that he had just learned that Nevio and his beautiful bride Linda have asked that all guest make a contribution to the Trucking for Wishes charity through the good folks over at NAL Insurance. Pretty cool; way cool; what class. I am proud to have you as a friend Nev and all the best to you and Linda.

We have some great folks in this industry and we need to spend more time telling their stories and less time listening to the whiners. If you happen to have some stories you would like to have shared with the industry, send them to me and maybe I can shed some light on them.

On a final note, Mr. Bill MacKinnon is convalescing at home with his beautiful wife Lois after a couple weeks in the hospital. Happy 83rd birthday Billy. I’m glad to see that you are on the mend my friend and all the best!

Safe Trucking
rjh

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Cargo crime is an issue that deserves prime time attention. It could be costing our industry up to $5 billion annually, although that’s just an estimate because until recently disjointed interest has led to a lack of proper data in addition to insufficient security and enforcement.

This is starting to change. The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) with the cooperation and financial support of a pretty long list of trucking, insurance and police parties hired Lansdowne Technologies to prepare what it termed a “threat and risk assessment” of cargo crime in Canada. The report bills itself as the first of its kind “to clearly explain cargo crime in Canada and to promote awareness of the issues and challenges facing Canada in coming to grips with the problem of cargo crime.”

We think this is a smart move by the CTA. It’s time we fought back in an intelligent and well orchestrated manner. To show our support we made cargo crime the feature story in the upcoming issues of Truck News and Truck West and it will also be dealt with in the September/October issue of Motortruck Fleet Executive.

Most of the attention on cargo crime is focused on cargo theft. However, I want to draw your attention to another form of cargo crime that is cropping up and needs your attention when brokering freight: cargo fraud. Markel’s Rick Geller had an eye-opening presentation on cargo fraud at Transcore’s recent users’ conference.

As Geller pointed out, cargo fraud, or theft by deception as he called it, only works if the perpetrators can create the facade of a legitimate carrier ready to partner with you to move freight. But some are so good at creating that façade that unsuspecting trucking executives end up thanking them for taking the load off the dock.

This is a crime that has been made much easier by the rise of the Internet and how much business information is available on it and can be copied – from your company logos to necessary operating authorities. Geller said in one case even a fake Markel insurance certificate was produced by the perpetrator. The alarm bells only went off because the policy number was that used by a different insurance company.

Don’t expect much help from the police authorities, Geller warned. Cargo fraud is hard to track down and since it doesn’t tend to leave victims bleeding on the roadside, it’s not high priority for police. This is a battle you will have to fight on your own.

The good news is that vigilance does pay off. As Geller says, if you are getting a deal to move freight that seems to be too good to be true, look into it. Fraudulent carriers working the spot market tend to offer rates to move freight at a fraction of the going rate.

The documents produced fake their legitimacy also don’t stand up to closer scrutiny. Company logos may be blurred, the numbers on the produced operating authorities won’t match with the actual government records, the company address may look funny it you double check it on GoogleMaps Streetview. In one case, the fraudulent carrier was giving a church as its address.

If one thing doesn’t look right, the company may be a fraud.

To find out more ways to fight cargo fraud, read Geller’s 10 Best Practices for Brokering Freight, which I’ve included below:

10 BEST PRACTICES for BROKERING FREIGHT

1. If you are using a load board, confirm membership and verify contact names and phone numbers. If you don’t see the company on there or the numbers don’t match, contact the load board officials.
2. Review the paperwork you receive from a carrier to ensure it’s valid. Check that the documents are clear and that there are no variations in font types or any other obvious signs of tampering.
3. Compare the authorities you’ve received with those listed on the DoT website (www.safersys.org) to certify that the authorities are valid and that the contact numbers provided to you match those on the site.
4. If a company claims that they are a secondary office of a US based company or other large company, call the primary office to confirm the phone numbers and location of the secondary office. If it is a US based carrier, ensure you receive their Canadian authorities.
5. Call the insurance broker to confirm coverage. Confirm the broker’s number online at www.canada411.com. Do not simply call the number listed on the copy of the policy you’ve received.
6. Call display – use it. Is the # displaying as NA? Check to see if it’s a landline or a cell phone. Prepaid cell phones can easily be obtained with cash and no credit check. Check online services such as www.phonedetective.com to find out if the number is a cell phone. (Currently no services are available to advise if the cell phone # is ppd or subscribed to.)
7. Know the going rate. If a carrier contacts you offering a rate to move your shipment that sounds too good to be true, exercise additional vigilance.
8. Talk to your shippers. Ensure they write down the license plate of both the tractor and trailer and possibly the driver’s license when a carrier arrives to pick up a shipment. Ensure they don’t simply write down the name from the door of the truck.
9. Ask for references and check them. Ensure you know who the references are and that they are legitimate companies.
10. If you have been a victim of fraud or theft, report it.

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