Whats wrong with truckers?

[Flyer]

I support my motorsports habits with a trucking business. I'm mostly in agreement with Stompin Tom on this. I drove for years. Edmonton-Prince Rupert for one memorable year. Lots of Alberta and NE BC. Now I try to manage my fleet with 20 employees. No easy answers.

That we we don't have a four lane from coast to coast is a national embarrassment. I get that it's tough building roads through the mountains, but we punched two lanes through in the 50s, and haven't been able to double that since? Pathetic. Yellowhead and Trans Canada should have been twinned 20 years ago. Too much money has been squandered.

Trucks using the national infrastructure are making the economy turn. They're more important on the road than an individual in a SUV! Everybody needs to be patient and share the roads. Immigrant drivers? Thousands of them have 20 years experience, and know their specific routes better than me or the weekend warriors! Yes there are too many beginners in over their heads. So was I at eighteen pulling B-trains.

Are out of province vehicles paying their way? Yes! A portion of the $50,000 I pay for license plates each year goes to each jurisdiction we travel in according to miles driven. Every jurisdiction gets its share of the fuel taxes also, (600,000 litres/yr. nearly $0.35/ litre in federal and provincial excise taxes, carbon taxes and GST! That's another $200,000/yr. ) according to fuel burned, bought, and miles driven. We even pay sales tax on the trucks to each jurisdiction according to purchase price and miles driven! That's 1/4 million a year in tax before I start paying all the taxes every other business pays, so no arguement about out of province trucks not paying their share please!

Our provincial income taxes are not redistributed, but we all have trucking companies based in our provinces that pay. We let other trucks on our roads because they let us on theirs. Federal taxes are paid by all and some come back to be spent on roads.

More training? No! Extremely high and difficult test standards? Yes! And let the insurance companies restrict new drivers and force them to work their way up, not Governement. Tire chains have been an issue in BC this year. Many new drivers can't put them on. Make it mandatory to demonstrate chaining up one axle in 10 minutes or less with no excessive slack.

Lilduke: I think you're cool, really like your thread and wish I had the youth, fitness, and talent to ride like you, but I wish you'd consider the big picture on our road transport network in more depth before you comment any further. The highway system is about way more than getting you and your sled to the hill with zero impediment!

 

[lilduke]

I support my motorsports habits with a trucking business. I'm mostly in agreement with Stompin Tom on this. I drove for years. Edmonton-Prince Rupert for one memorable year. Lots of Alberta and NE BC. Now I try to manage my fleet with 20 employees. No easy answers.

That we we don't have a four lane from coast to coast is a national embarrassment. I get that it's tough building roads through the mountains, but we punched two lanes through in the 50s, and haven't been able to double that since? Pathetic. Yellowhead and Trans Canada should have been twinned 20 years ago. Too much money has been squandered.

Trucks using the national infrastructure are making the economy turn. They're more important on the road than an individual in a SUV! Everybody needs to be patient and share the roads. Immigrant drivers? Thousands of them have 20 years experience, and know their specific routes better than me or the weekend warriors! Yes there are too many beginners in over their heads. So was I at eighteen pulling B-trains.

Are out of province vehicles paying their way? Yes! A portion of the $50,000 I pay for license plates each year goes to each jurisdiction we travel in according to miles driven. Every jurisdiction gets its share of the fuel taxes also, (600,000 litres/yr. nearly $0.35/ litre in federal and provincial excise taxes, carbon taxes and GST! That's another $200,000/yr. ) according to fuel burned, bought, and miles driven. We even pay sales tax on the trucks to each jurisdiction according to purchase price and miles driven! That's 1/4 million a year in tax before I start paying all the taxes every other business pays, so no arguement about out of province trucks not paying their share please!

Our provincial income taxes are not redistributed, but we all have trucking companies based in our provinces that pay. We let other trucks on our roads because they let us on theirs. Federal taxes are paid by all and some come back to be spent on roads.

More training? No! Extremely high and difficult test standards? Yes! And let the insurance companies restrict new drivers and force them to work their way up, not Governement. Tire chains have been an issue in BC this year. Many new drivers can't put them on. Make it mandatory to demonstrate chaining up one axle in 10 minutes or less with no excessive slack.

Lilduke: I think you're cool, really like your thread and wish I had the youth, fitness, and talent to ride like you, but I wish you'd consider the big picture on our road transport network in more depth before you comment any further. The highway system is about way more than getting you and your sled to the hill with zero impediment!

Yeah sorry if comments offended you.
I can be a ass some times. If you own a bunch of trucks
And have 20 employees I can respect that forsure.

Maybe 90 is too slow, but there is 0 reason
For a big rig to be doing 120+ people get killed
By those things every week around revy in the winter.
Lots if ass hole 4 wheels for sure, but they don't weight
50 tons though.

Cheers

Edit: aND yes they need to twin that **** g road already!
It's a joke

 

[LBZ]

Sounds great, lets get the chain up lanes longer than the passing lanes because if you govern trucks to 90 kmh in the mountains your going to have some very long delays due to spin outs on hills in the winter.

Ya you bet. Cuz 10km/h is going to make a huge difference. Especially considering 15 years ago almost ALL of hwy 1 from the AB border to pretty much Kamloops WAS 90 kmh.

And there are already tons of spin outs even with the 10kmh bump. Get a grip bud.

 

[Stompin Tom]

Ya you bet. Cuz 10km/h is going to make a huge difference. Especially considering 15 years ago almost ALL of hwy 1 from the AB border to pretty much Kamloops WAS 90 kmh.

And there are already tons of spin outs even with the 10kmh bump. Get a grip bud.

Buddy, I do it for a living, I know. You can continue on with your flat land driving.

Your a perfect example of what I meant earlier on by educating the public because you have proven you dont know fawk all about what a trucker faces.

 

[skegpro]

Buddy, I do it for a living, I know. You can continue on with your flat land driving.

Your a perfect example of what I meant earlier on by educating the public because you have proven you dont know fawk all about what a trucker faces.

So serious question.
Are a majority of the van body trucks not setup for pulling in the hills?

HP? Rear Ends?

 

[Stompin Tom]

So serious question.
Are a majority of the van body trucks not setup for pulling in the hills?

HP? Rear Ends?

You can only have so much horsepower. Most 5 and 6 axle rigs run lower horsepower to get better fuel economy, pretty common for them to run a MX13, ISM or DD13 in the 450hp range. It has to be a cross section between horsepower and fuel economy, especially with the 5 and 6 axle rigs. In my trucks I run 565 ISX high tourque, if I hooked up to van I would almost never feel it, but I would be working for nothing because all my wages would go out the exhaust stack.

Next thing that has to be understood, if you govern trucks to 90 kmh, you are governing ALL trucks, 5, 6, 7, 8 axle, supertrains, B trains, not just vans.

If you are governed at 90 kmh you feel every rise in the road, it only takes a grade of less than 1% to start to slow you down. There is an old saying in trucking, level out the road. That means you can roll a section at 105 to compensate for the slight grade and your only doing 95 or 98 at the top of the grade that no passenger vehicle can feel, but trust me in the seat of your truck you know exactly where these grades are. Part of the problem is there are many slight uphill grades just before the long pulls so you cant get a run at a hill, especially if your at 90 kmh before you hit that slight grade increase.

 

[Zrock]

Listening and talking with drivers that are running newer rigs the sweet spot for fuel econ depending on the rig is between 90 -100. Once they find the sweet spot its a huge savings on fuel and they stick in that area. As far as original post hard to say if they were running over weight it may have been 1 load it may have been 100 without them hitting the scales we will never know

 

[skegpro]

You can only have so much horsepower. Most 5 and 6 axle rigs run lower horsepower to get better fuel economy, pretty common for them to run a MX13, ISM or DD13 in the 450hp range. It has to be a cross section between horsepower and fuel economy, especially with the 5 and 6 axle rigs. In my trucks I run 565 ISX high tourque, if I hooked up to van I would almost never feel it, but I would be working for nothing because all my wages would go out the exhaust stack.

Next thing that has to be understood, if you govern trucks to 90 kmh, you are governing ALL trucks, 5, 6, 7, 8 axle, supertrains, B trains, not just vans.

If you are governed at 90 kmh you feel every rise in the road, it only takes a grade of less than 1% to start to slow you down. There is an old saying in trucking, level out the road. That means you can roll a section at 105 to compensate for the slight grade and your only doing 95 or 98 at the top of the grade that no passenger vehicle can feel, but trust me in the seat of your truck you know exactly where these grades are. Part of the problem is there are many slight uphill grades just before the long pulls so you cant get a run at a hill, especially if your at 90 kmh before you hit that slight grade increase.

Hmm you see alot of guys loose significant momentum up hill, sub 80km/hr, and then put it in Mexican overdrive on the downhill.

Driving is alot harder when you don't have enough truck. Weather it's a guy pulling a fourplace with a halfton or a 54 van with a hypermile tractor.

 

[Cableguy]

risks and speed are result of $$ per km rates Make manadatory hourly pay for driving and alot of the problems may lessen gonna make trucking cost go up
but might be worth it in the long run everytime a accident or snowslide in the pass happens and truckers sit for free causes them to drive too fast later
my boy travels to calgary/edmonton twice a week from bc thk god he's on by the hour or he would drive too fast also, i'm sure of that

 

[Stompin Tom]

Hmm you see alot of guys loose significant momentum up hill, sub 80km/hr, and then put it in Mexican overdrive on the downhill.

Driving is alot harder when you don't have enough truck. Weather it's a guy pulling a fourplace with a halfton or a 54 van with a hypermile tractor.

Sub 80 kmh? I think you mean sub 40 kmh on some of the hard hills.

here is an interesting story on fatalities in BC, its dated 2015 but it gives a pretty good cross section of the entire province

https://globalnews.ca/news/1819213/british-columbias-12-deadliest-highways/

one of the points they make near the bottom is there is an actual increase in fatalities in the summer months over the winter months with the one exception of December. What happens in December? All sorts of tourist traffic from the 20th to the 30th. The biggest factor in the summer months? I would bet allot of money the increased passenger traffic flow from tourism is a huge factor because trucking traffic doesn't increase much in summer months.

Either way it shows how many deadly stretches of highways their are in BC and it takes a concerted effort by everyone on the roads to keep them safe, and I mean everyone no matter how many wheels you have on the ground.

 

[skegpro]

risks and speed are result of $$ per km rates Make manadatory hourly pay for driving and alot of the problems may lessen gonna make trucking cost go up
but might be worth it in the long run everytime a accident or snowslide in the pass happens and truckers sit for free causes them to drive too fast later
my boy travels to calgary/edmonton twice a week from bc thk god he's on by the hour or he would drive too fast also, i'm sure of that

We waste alot of money on stuiped **** like carbon tax.

Surely we could pay truckers by the hour vs km as it would save lives of both truckers and other hwy users.

In the day and age of GPS tracking it would be easier to tell who the dog Fawkes are.

 

[skegpro]

Sub 80 kmh? I think you mean sub 40 kmh on some of the hard hills.

here is an interesting story on fatalities in BC, its dated 2015 but it gives a pretty good cross section of the entire province

https://globalnews.ca/news/1819213/british-columbias-12-deadliest-highways/

one of the points they make near the bottom is there is an actual increase in fatalities in the summer months over the winter months with the one exception of December. What happens in December? All sorts of tourist traffic from the 20th to the 30th. The biggest factor in the summer months? I would bet allot of money the increased passenger traffic flow from tourism is a huge factor because trucking traffic doesn't increase much in summer months.

Either way it shows how many deadly stretches of highways their are in BC and it takes a concerted effort by everyone on the roads to keep them safe, and I mean everyone no matter how many wheels you have on the ground.

Agreed, passenger vechiles and slow moving semis mix like dilbit and water.

 

[Stompin Tom]

risks and speed are result of $$ per km rates Make manadatory hourly pay for driving and alot of the problems may lessen gonna make trucking cost go up
but might be worth it in the long run everytime a accident or snowslide in the pass happens and truckers sit for free causes them to drive too fast later
my boy travels to calgary/edmonton twice a week from bc thk god he's on by the hour or he would drive too fast also, i'm sure of that

There are so many factors and yes, getting paid by the hour rather than by the mile is a big one. If our rail system was more efficient it would take some of the stress off, but that isnt going to happen. Right now we are going to see an even bigger increase in traffic flow because rail has dropped the ball and their is a huge backlog of product sitting waiting to be shipped which means suddenly we have a bunch of new trucks trying to cash in on it.

Simple fact, their is a huge driver shortage, way to many firms will hire pretty much anybody who has a Class 1 and just send them out.

 

[Stompin Tom]

Agreed, passenger vechiles and slow moving semis mix like dilbit and water.

I have tried to find the numbers as to how many fatalities involve heavy trucks and how many fatalites are passenger on passenger. The thing is every time a truck is involved it makes the news, takes longer to clean up and you need more members of law enforcement to attend the scene. I would love to have some what to see what the numbers really are. From my experience I come across far more accidents involving passenger vehicles than accidents involving commercial and passenger. More cars on the road, more incidents, but I would love to see the real time numbers.

If I have said it once I have said it 100 times. Impatience and distraction are the killers on the highways today.

 

[skegpro]

Yup rail system is way over taxed.

No pipelines led to massive amounts of oil moving by train and truck.
This displaced the grain and other commodities.

You have potash mines in Saskatchewan laying people off a temporarily shutting down because they can't get rail car space for their finished products.

The pressure on the roads is definitely going to increase here over the next decade.

 

[Flyer]

Driver pay is a huge issue. It's a delicate balance between what we can pay and the brains and skill we need.

I pay by the hour, even on runs as far as Texas. It's kicking my butt. Shippers pay to get product moved. When I'm paying a driver and the truck isn't moving, I'm feeling financial pain. You can pay by the hour, and then nag and whip your guys constantly to be productive, or just pay the guys to produce. We're testing the waters with mileage pay, and it has merit. Not on super size loads, but on intermediate size, yes. Most shippers won't pay by the hour, so how can I?

Theres a need for cheap, efficient transportation on this continent in order for producers and manufactures to remain competitive on the world market. The Federal Labour standards apply to all transport companies doing interprovincial runs. They aren't half what the provincial standards require for employees. We could raise them, and lose our international competitiveness, but it would hurt all Canadians.

What we're doing is the best that can be done. Stay competitive, but keep improving. Do more with less every day. It's hard, but it's what comes with democracy, freedom, and capitalism. You have to be self reliant and compete. If you want to be able to sit back, enjoy the status quo, and rely on government rules to keep you safe and secure, try Venezuela. If you're willing to take some chances, take responsibility for yourself, and mitigate the risks that you face by your own means, there's opportunity in our society.

 

[LennyR]

You bet , lots of idiots on the road in all types of vehicles. And there are reasons for frustration and causes of impatience on both the professionals and non professionals.
But the professionals are supposed to minimize the problems that exist on our hi ways. So when people come to the bottom of a slippery hill on a 4 lane and all lanes are plugged like bumper cars by trucks spun out barefoot , totally blocking the hill, I think there should be a $5000 fine issued to every truck after the first or second one , either incompetence or laziness but who cares . And every time you've got a bunch of traffic following a few trucks waiting patiently for the oncoming passing lane , and when they get there the second truck pulls out cause he can go 2 km/hr faster than the 1 set truck , and completely screw up,the whole concept of " passing lane" , again issue them a substantial fine, make it friggen hurt.
Im hearing on here about all the totally professional drivers all over the road , but when I get out on said road, I'm not seeing quite as many as are alleged on here.
You bet I respect the need for that industry and acknowledge their contribution, but before you start pointing fingers and suggesting all your problems are caused by everyone else, maybe work on minimizing the number of idiot "professionals" your industry is endorsing .
The bush trucks and off road trucks are in a different class IMO, they are dealing with mostly other traffic involved in some sort of resource industry, with some unique road rules.

 

[skegpro]

Driver pay is a huge issue. It's a delicate balance between what we can pay and the brains and skill we need.

I pay by the hour, even on runs as far as Texas. It's kicking my butt. Shippers pay to get product moved. When I'm paying a driver and the truck isn't moving, I'm feeling financial pain. You can pay by the hour, and then nag and whip your guys constantly to be productive, or just pay the guys to produce. We're testing the waters with mileage pay, and it has merit. Not on super size loads, but on intermediate size, yes. Most shippers won't pay by the hour, so how can I?

Theres a need for cheap, efficient transportation on this continent in order for producers and manufactures to remain competitive on the world market. The Federal Labour standards apply to all transport companies doing interprovincial runs. They aren't half what the provincial standards require for employees. We could raise them, and lose our international competitiveness, but it would hurt all Canadians.

What we're doing is the best that can be done. Stay competitive, but keep improving. Do more with less every day. It's hard, but it's what comes with democracy, freedom, and capitalism. You have to be self reliant and compete. If you want to be able to sit back, enjoy the status quo, and rely on government rules to keep you safe and secure, try Venezuela. If you're willing to take some chances, take responsibility for yourself, and mitigate the risks that you face by your own means, there's opportunity in our society.

Good points.
We are losing are international competitiveness in most industrys so why not trucking too lol.

 

[team dirt]

I have tried to find the numbers as to how many fatalities involve heavy trucks and how many fatalites are passenger on passenger. The thing is every time a truck is involved it makes the news, takes longer to clean up and you need more members of law enforcement to attend the scene. I would love to have some what to see what the numbers really are. From my experience I come across far more accidents involving passenger vehicles than accidents involving commercial and passenger. More cars on the road, more incidents, but I would love to see the real time numbers.

If I have said it once I have said it 100 times. Impatience and distraction are the killers on the highways today.

There are way more passenger vehicles on the road so statistically speaking you will see more passenger vehicle wrecks. I travel the number 1 from Brooks to chase at least monthly and there are 4 stretches of road I dread. Louise to field, 10 mile brake check to golden, golden to revy and revy to malakwa. I can almost Guarantee I will see a truck flipped in one of those sections every trip summer or winter. Winter every trip there is always one on Rodgers on its side. CN trucks are by far the worst in my experience. Also when mandatory chain up signs are on you always hear on lad1 the old truckers b!tching about chaining upand how they have been driving this road 30 years and blah blah blah. 10 min later there spun out and bitching about the sh!ty job highways are doing. I think there should be huge fines when the chain up lights are on and guys ignore it and spin out. The longer you block the road the bigger the fine. Endless times we have been held up for jackknifed trucks that should never have happened. Once the roads clear again then look out as all the 4 wheelers that have been sitting start driving like dicks to get ahead. And one last thing if you can’t do at least the speed limit on the single lane curvy sections why do you need to do 140 on the passing lanes. Pull over and let the mile long line of cars by. That goes for all vehicles.

 

[moyiesledhead]

No where am I offended, I am just trying to point out that the solutions are not simple and the problems are not one specific target. There are bad truck drivers, there are bad civilian drivers, all cause problems.

You've said a lot of things in this thread that I agree with, but you've arrogantly called me a "civilian" enough times now to piss me off! News flash buddy....being a truck driver doesn't bestow any special status on you. You're just as "civilian" as the rest of us, so get off your high horse!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A civilian is "a person who is not a member of the military or of a police or firefighting force".