Human Resources OPPORTUNITIES IN AN INVISIBLE INDUSTRY March 18, 2014 Lou Smyrlis, Truck News publisher and editorial director, spoke at and covered the Manitoba Trucking Association’s annual conference in early March. Also speaking was Norm Blagden, who issued his President’s Report. Norm spoke of...
Transportation GOODYEAR TO RECOGNIZE HIGHWAY HEROES March 18, 2014 Next week, at the Mid-America Trucking Show, Goodyear will be honouring its Highway Hero. The presentation is always a tear-jerker, and puts everything we do on a daily basis into perspective. Funny, they never seem to have a hard time finding...
Transportation B.C. FLEET OPENS ITS DOORS TO INSPECTORS March 4, 2014 Have you heard about the trucking company that calls up the enforcement agency and invites them over to inspect its equipment? It may seem counterintuitive, but for the second year in a row, Harbour Link Container Services did just that,...
Transportation IT’S A GONG SHOW AT B.C.’S BUSIEST PORT March 4, 2014 B.C.’s container truckers, a seemingly volatile bunch, are once again disrupting service at Port Metro Vancouver. Specifically, lease-operators belonging to the United Truckers Association (UTA) have been off the job since last week,...
Transportation PAY-AS-YOU-GO MAINTENANCE FROM RYDER March 4, 2014 Ryder has opened launched an interesting new service dubbed Ryder On-Demand. It has essentially opened up its entire service network to private and for-hire fleets. I can see this being an intriguing option for small carriers who are struggling...
A REVOLUTIONARY TIRE INFLATION SYSTEM? preview image Transportation A REVOLUTIONARY TIRE INFLATION SYSTEM? March 4, 2014 Okay, as a journalist, I spend a good part of my day slicing through rhetoric and grandiloquence. Terms like ‘revolutionary’ and my new favourite, ‘game-changer’ won’t make it through to the printed page. But...
Transportation CANADA CARTAGE TURNS 100 March 4, 2014 Canada Cartage celebrated its 100th anniversary the other day. Motortruck Fleet Executive editor Carolyn Gruske was there, and shot this video interview with Fred Leslie, grandson of company founder Robert Leslie and himself a former owner of...
Transportation NEW MACK PREZ LOOKS TO GROW SHARE March 4, 2014 I recently had the opportunity to meet Stephen Roy, the new president of North American sales and marketing with Mack Trucks. He replaces Kevin Flaherty, who recently retired. Flaherty always injected some life into Mack Trucks press...
Transportation NOMINATE THE FLEET MAINTENANCE MANAGER OF THE YEAR March 4, 2014 The Canadian Fleet Maintenance Seminar is returning June 18, to the Paradise Convention Centre in Toronto. As always, a highlight of the event will be the presentation of the Volvo Fleet Maintenance Manager of the Year award.
Transportation BCTA DEFENDS ITS COMMON SENSE SOLUTIONS TO PORT PROBLEMS March 4, 2014 BCTA has emerged from the labour strife at Port Metro Vancouver as the lone voice of reason, bringing forth common sense solutions like extending gate hours that should have been implemented long ago. Unfortunately a cynical local media...
Transportation The Lac-Megantic Effect March 1, 2014 When an unmanned 74-car freight train carrying crude oil careened into the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic July 6, burning much of it to the ground and killing 47 people, it was easy to dismiss it as a rail issue. After all, though transport...
Transportation What does the Loonie’s swan dive mean to truckers? March 1, 2014 The Loonie has been under attack in recent months, falling to a four-year low of 89.09 cents compared to the US dollar on Jan. 31 and bringing back memories – both good and bad – about how the Canadian trucking business is impacted...
Transportation So, you want to haul dangerous goods? March 1, 2014 This month’s cover story explores the transportation of dangerous goods by truck and changes that may be foisted upon that segment of the industry as a result of the terrible rail tragedy at Lac-Megantic, Que. last summer.
Transportation Stop the stupid scorpion March 1, 2014 Do you know the story about the scorpion and the frog? That’s the one where a scorpion begs a frog to swim him across the river. ‘No way,’ says the frog, concerned that as soon as they’re in the middle of the river, the...
Transportation Long combination vehicle corridor remains incomplete March 1, 2014 RIVIERE DU LOUP, Que. -- Every year or so since 2002 another few kilometres of Route 185 between Riviere du Loup and the New Brunswick border are twinned and opened to traffic. But when the 94-kilometre project will be finished, completing...