Features

Can you afford not to address sleep apnea?

TORONTO, Ont. - Consider the life of a sleep apnea-stricken professional truck driver: Four hours of driving followed by a two-hour nap, then another four hours of driving and another nap. Worse, home time that is literally slept away with no...

Rebuilding an industry

TORONTO, Ont. - The mood at this year's Ontario Trucking Association convention was refreshingly optimistic, as some of the most influential fleet executives and suppliers from across Canada came together to share ideas and lick their wounds...

Fuel shortage nearly cripples Western Canadian trucking industry

EDMONTON, Alta. - Trucking is considered by many to be the true "engine" of the economy - the driving force, so to speak - so if there isn't enough juice to power the engine of the economy's engines, it could be a big problem for everyone. It's...

Dealing with the hiccups

I think that it is safe to say that all of us have experienced hiccups at some point during our lives. In most cases, hiccups are more of an annoyance rather than a serious medical condition. Hiccups are due to involuntary contractions of the...

Have a healthy holiday

'Tis the season to be jolly, falalala...Christmas is coming and this holiday season brings with it certain issues that could affect your health. Certainly, your usual patterns of eating and sleeping get disrupted. Squeezing Christmas shopping,...

Tales from tax court

You want to learn from your mistakes, but it's way more fun (and far less painful) to learn from the mistakes of others. That's why it's instructive to read Canada Revenue Agency's police blotter of tax-fraud convictions, which the agency posts...

Making the BIG move

AYR, Ont. - Super heavy hauling is like no other kind of trucking. It includes anything that's tall, wide, heavy or long. And the equipment required to move everything from construction machinery, to drilling or mining equipment, to those giant...

It’s anniversary time

Everyone enjoys an anniversary fete and here at the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada we are about to celebrate 35 years of serving the private trucking community in Canada. The original articles of PMTC's incorporation were filed in...

Side guards not the answer

Recently, a call to mandate side guards on all trucks resurfaced by way of a private member's bill introduced by federal NDP transport critic, Olivia Chow. Side guards (also referred to as "lateral protective" or "side under-run protection"...

Oversized loads, undersized rules

If Heather Murray's fluorescent safety vest and flashing traffic wand didn't catch your attention when she walked to the podium, it would have been hard to nod off during her presentation, which included some astonishing video footage and...

Lessons learned from across the pond

As I've mentioned in previous columns, trucking is fundamentally the same the world over, but we all do things a little differently. Not just in the specification of our vehicles, but also in the way we do things.

Coping with reporting technologies

When I switched to electronic logs a couple of years ago, I was very keen about the potential going electronic had for making my life easier. The fact I don't have to spend any time filling out log pages and performing manual recaps is reason...

Four New Year’s resolutions

The silly season is once again upon us. As the years go flying past, I find the 'silly' in silly season has been toned down a tad.

Here comes winter, there goes traction

As a safety consultant, I am often asked by my clients to put on driver seminars this time of year. From late October till Christmas, I find myself speaking at safety meetings all over the province.

The War of 1812 is behind us, but the border battles continue

It has been two centuries since US President James Madison and the US Congress declared war on Great Britain, starting what became known as the War of 1812. Enemies have become allies, foes have become trading partners and we now share the...