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Final touches on green rebate program unveiled

TORONTO, ON - The final details on Ontario's Green Commercial Vehicle Program (GCVP) are now available from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. GCVP provides rebates to fleets and owners for the purchase of environmentally-friendly and fuel-saving vehicles and technologies purchased after Sept. 1, 2017, including up to 50% of the incremental cost of a new electric truck, or an electric auxiliary power unit (APU). The program championed by groups like the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) aims to make it more affordable for businesses reduce their carbon footprint while helping the province meet its goals under the Climate Change Action Plan to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 37% below 1990 levels by 2030. OTA president Stephen Laskowski says after two years working on the project the group is delighted to see GCVP implemented. "[Ontario Transportation] Minister Del Duca has once again shown leadership by reinvesting carbon fees paid by our industry back into our sector, so that our industry can continue on the path of environmental advancement in Ontario," he said.

Load volumes climb for sixth month: TransCore

TORONTO, ON - November was the sixth month in a row Canadian load volumes rose at a record pace, according to analysts at TransCore Link Logistics. The group reported a 57% year-over-year gain on the month, leaving it tied with October which posted the same gains over 2016. Loads carried within Canada accounted for 27% of the total volumes for November, a 54% increase over the same month in 2016, while cross-border loads represented 70% of the data submitted by TransCore's users.
MTA Fall Gala full of memories preview image MTA Fall Gala full of memories article image

MTA Fall Gala full of memories

WINNIPEG, MB - The Manitoba Trucking Association (MTA) honored its best and brightest this weekend with its Fall Gala Awards Dinner. Surrounded by food, fun, and good company, the MTA recognized not one, but two members who have spent their lives in service to the trucking industry by changing the name of the Service to Industry award to the Red Coleman Service to Industry Award. Going forward the award will be sponsored by the Coleman family and bare the name of the senior Coleman who has been in trucking nearly 70 years.
STA 80th awards banquet has glitz and glamour preview image STA 80th awards banquet has glitz and glamour article image

STA 80th awards banquet has glitz and glamour

REGINA, SK - The Saskatchewan Trucking Association (STA) celebrated its 80th anniversary Saturday with a gala dinner featuring the gilded glamour of the year it was founded - 1937. In a banquet hall adorned with twinkle lights the association honored its members who have shown exemplary service. Scholarships were given to students entering post-secondary with connections to the industry. The top award of $3,000 went to Dylan Mcleod. Mcleod wasn't the only young person receiving accolades during the evening. At just 26-years-old Kristin Finch was given the Driver of the Year award.
BYD to open Ontario plant preview image BYD to open Ontario plant article image

BYD to open Ontario plant

TORONTO, ON - Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD Co. says it is planning to open its first assembly plant in Ontario. A Government of Ontario delegation that included Premier Kathleen Wynne and Michael Chan, Minister of International Trade visited the company's headquarters in Shenzhen, China at the beginning of December on a mission to talk trade and tax credits. BYD says it will open the plant to conduct final assembly operations on short-range vehicles in the next 12 months, due in part to the investments the government is making in infrastructure to support electric vehicles in the next decade.
Pilot Flying J updates parking app preview image Pilot Flying J updates parking app article image

Pilot Flying J updates parking app

KNOXVILLE, TN - An updated smartphone application by Pilot Flying J will deliver real-time parking availability information to the truck stop's customers. The app called myPilot, developed in partnership with Sensys Networks, is being rolled out after 18 months of testing for accuracy and durability, the company says. Thirty Flying J locations across the I-5 corridor from San Diego to Seattle, and one location in Knoxville - where the company is headquartered - will feature the sensors that collect and distribute the parking information to commercial drivers.
OPP week-long blitz puts officers in trucks preview image OPP week-long blitz puts officers in trucks article image

OPP week-long blitz puts officers in trucks

TORONTO, ON - The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are conducting a blitz this week on the province's highways, paying special attention to heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and they're doing it from a new angle. OPP Deputy Commissioner Brad Blair said the group is using the two OPP Class 8 tractors - normally reserved for hauling police vehicles around Ontario - during the week to give them a better view of distracted drivers in the Greater Toronto Area. "Starting with this initiative, we are enhancing our observational investigative abilities on the road. Officers will now be conducting patrols in transport trucks," said Blair. "By giving our officers an enhanced vantage point they will be better positioned to detect transport truck drivers that are distracted, or engaging in other dangerous behaviors behind the wheel." Officers across the province, along with aerial patrols, will also be participating in the blitz the OPP is calling Operation Safe Trucking. Blair said the Highway Safety Division of the OPP has responded to more than 6,200 collisions involving commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) on provincially patrolled roads since the beginning of 2017. Of those 72 were fatal, causing the deaths of 87 people. More than 1,000 others involved personal injury. More than 5,000 of the crashes involved property damage. Blair says collisions have real social and economic impacts even for those not involved in them directly, with everything from the loss of life, to medical treatment costs, loss of productivity, and the disruption in the movement of goods and people due to highway backups costing business and individuals. "The vast majority of [collisions] are attributed to poor driving behaviors, and they are completely preventable," said Blair.
Mixed emotions mark the sale of 88-year-old MacKinnon preview image Mixed emotions mark the sale of 88-year-old MacKinnon article image

Mixed emotions mark the sale of 88-year-old MacKinnon

GUELPH, ON - Size and human resources issues were behind the recent sale of MacKinnon Transport to Contrans Group, that took just 24 days from handshake to final close. Former president and CEO of MacKinnon Transport, Evan MacKinnon, says the company was doing well, but couldn't overcome some of the challenges associated with their size, forcing them to choose to grow, or sell the family business.

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