Exercise: It Doesn't Have To Be Your Passion

I went for a brisk walk when I arrived in Brandon Manitoba this evening. I always feel better for it when I'm done, especially if I had to push myself to get out of the truck and start moving. I admit I have developed a passion for exercise. If there is such a thing as a positive addiction, exercise is it for me. Going for a daily run or a daily walk has become a form of meditation for me. I turn off my phone, I don't use an ipod, and I turn my mind away from the concerns of the day. It is a peaceful and contemplative time for me that I come away from feeling energized and alive. It's important to me and has a high priority in my daily life.

I firmly believe you don't have to have a passion for exercise to get the exercise you need. You only need to recognize that daily exercise is an investment in your future. It also has the short term benefit of clearing away the mental fatigue you build up over the course of a day. How much exercise do you need? The recommendation is 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days per week. Moderate exercise means increasing your heart rate to the point where you are breathing deeper and sweating lightly. You should still be able to carry on a conversation. In other words a brisk 30 minute walk 5 days per week.

There is no fancy equipment involved. There are no expensive club memberships needed. All you need is to find the motivation to walk 15 minutes down the road, turn around, and walk back. That  30 minutes per day can also provide you with the ideal opportunity to contemplate your day and plan tomorrow.

The next time you have a dock delay seize the opportunity. The simplest things in life can often be the most profound. Go for a walk. You just may set yourself on a path that changes your life for the better.

Stress: Time

Time is the element we all share as commercial drivers. Will we get the freight there on time? Do we have enough time to get there? Can we make up some time? Can we save some time? It's very easy to become a clock watcher in this business.

This morning I watched my EOBR click past the 8 hour mark giving me back time to drive again. My first thought was I should not have taken that extra 15 minutes this morning to nap a little longer even though I know I needed a little more sleep. It all gets just a little bit ridiculous after a while. The extra 15 minutes was worth it as far as I'm concerned.

I've learned not to pay too much attention to clocks and watches in this business. Efficiency is in the planning and execution not in how fast you can get down the road. I know my average speed getting through Ontario is somewhere between 87 and 89 kph. That is a reality I cannot change.

But there is a hugest conflict between the time that's required to get the job done and the time that is required to look after ourselves and our families. Time is our business. After all, we are in the business of delivering freight in a timely manner. So it comes as no surprise that time is the major stress factor in a drivers daily life. It is not without irony that few of us take the time to deal with this topic.

#truckerhealth

The title of this post is the hashtag I am using on my twitter feed this week. It's a bit of an experiment in social networking on my part to create some exposure for some of the health issues we face as drivers.

Back in June I became involved in a health and safety transportation group based out of Hamilton. It is a joint venture between McMaster university department of medicine and the city of Hamilton public health department. Our next meeting is on October fourth so I am going to use the next 7 days to tweet and blog about my experience on the road to create a reference log of sorts for other members of the group that do not have experience as commercial drivers.

I am not sure how successful I will be but I'm going to limit my blogs and tweets to the mundane routine of each day. How long a drive for, what I eat, when I exercise, the stresses I face, and so forth.

By providing a snapshot of a week in the life of a commercial driver I am hoping that will help lead to the development of an action plan that will assist others in dealing with the health and lifestyle challenges we face out here on the road.

Presentation to the Transportation Industry Health Promotion Research and Policy Planning Group

On June 21, 2011 I was invited to present a 'Truck Driver Perspective' to the Transportation Industry Health Promotion Research and Policy Planning Group on the lifestyle and health issues facing today's commercial drivers. The group is driven by members of McMaster University Health Sciences Department of Family Medicine and the City of Hamilton Department of Public Health. This initial conference also included representatives from several large common carriers and steel companies dependent on trucking and truckers health, Ontario ministry of Transportation, Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers, Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport, Ontario Ministry of Labour, WSIB, Canadian Diabetes Association, Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers, and Transport Canada. The meeting took place at McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton, Ontario.

The following is the text of my presentation to the group.

In the year 2000 I recognized the need to change my lifestyle. I was smoking 40 to 50 cigarettes a day, my food choices were poor, I was suffering from obesity, I was already taking daily medication to control hypertension, I have a family history of cardiac disease, and my father along with 3 of his 4 brothers had been diagnosed with aortic aneurysm's in their 60's. I was feeling like a ticking time bomb, a train wreck just waiting to happen. I recognized that I not only needed to change my lifestyle but I wanted to. Over the past 10 ½ years I have given up tobacco, reformed my poor eating habits, and added regular aerobic exercise to my life. To say I feel better today than I did 10 years ago would be an understatement. I am 75 pounds lighter, I have lowered my resting heart rate by over 20%, and hypertension is no longer an issue for me. Along with the physiological improvements has come the same level of improvement in my mental health, my outlook, my emotional well being. All this has come about while working as a long haul truck driver. It has been, and continues to be, a challenge to maintain a healthy lifestyle while remaining fully engaged in the trucking lifestyle.

So today I will try to give you some insight into a commercial drivers life on the road and try to help you gain some understanding of the roadblocks we face.

In a typical week I drive between 4500 to 5000 kilometers, work between 60 and 66 hours, sleep in my workplace, and do not have immediate access to a kitchen, bathroom, or shower. Driving days can be long and often mind numbing but at the same time I need to be prepared for the unexpected at every moment. I heard one driver describe his job in the following way: 'It's hours and hours of boredom broken up by the occasional moment of sheer terror.'

Like any other sector drivers become specialists in their own field and their responsibilities and duties vary widely. But what we share in common is the extreme length of our work week, the limited amount of time we can spend with our family and friends, the lack of basic luxuries that most of us take for granted such as plumbing, electricity, and appliances. With the exception of local drivers we do not have the ability to leave our workplace at the end or our workday. I know one driver that accepted a job in the office and said to me: 'Al, you know what the greatest thing about my new job is? I can go the bathroom whenever I want to.' Think about that statement, It speaks volumes to the lifestyle of a truck driver and how the little things most of us take for granted are magnified and take on much greater significance in the long haul truck drivers world.

The bane of all truck drivers is time itself. Drivers have little time left to look after themselves after they have invested so much time looking after their professional responsibilities. This is reflected in the quality of the food drivers eat and the amount of exercise drivers get. But we all have free will, and the choice to eat fast food and to not exercise is just that, a choice. That been said, there is no doubt in my mind that truck drivers do have the cards stacked against them.

When it comes to making monumental changes in how we live our lives I believe we all need to experience our own epiphany, just as I did in the year 2000. Each individual needs to see the necessity for change and really want to make that change a reality. Unfortunately I think that when many of us wake up to the fact that a lifestyle change is the solution to our declining state of health we think it is too late to make a lasting change, that the obstacles are too large to overcome in order to make that change. I disagree. I don't believe it is ever too late to make a positive change in your life.

The greatest challenge we face as drivers is the popular culture we live in and the constant message that we can have whatever we want right now. That includes the concept of losing 30 pounds in 30 days. The idea of slow, steady, and incremental change is not a message that is common in this day and age. But in an industry that finds drivers leading a primarily sedentary life and having very little time to invest in an aggressive weight loss program I have found that slow, steady, incremental change has been the secret to my own success. Gradual change does not compete for the limited time that is available to us as drivers and modifying habits slowly limits adding additional stress to our lives. Gradual changes are more apt to be permanent changes, they do not shock the system. Gradual change allows for time to reflect on what does not work and recognize that failure is often the best teacher. It is my belief that a slow and steady approach is the best way to find our own unique path.

I'd like to note at this point the important role that tobacco and snack foods play in the course of a day for many, many drivers. They are very often the source of relief for boredom and fatigue. I have already said the driving for many hours a day can be mind numbing. Eating and smoking are very effective ways of bringing the mind back to the present moment. This was certainly a problem for me because I had become dependent on them for what I felt was a very beneficial purpose, staying alert. But of course the long term effect is destructive. It took me quite a long time on my own path of discovery to find that healthier food choices, sleep, and exercise were a far better combination for combating that mind numbing feeling we more commonly call fatigue. Even though facts surrounding fatigue and how best to recognize it and combat it are readily available and even common knowledge in the transportation industry, I still had to experience my own AHA!! moment in order to stop viewing snack foods as a solution to the problem rather than the crutch that they had become.

My initial approach to exercise and making healthy food choices was a simple one. Reduced caloric intake and increased physical activity equals reduced weight and improved cardiac health. That seems like common sense to most of us. But it is far easier said than done. So my simple approach consisted of calculating my BMR, my Basal Metabolic Rate, for a “sedentary” lifestyle. In 2001 that number was 2525 calories for 5'7” male that tipped the scales at 235 pounds. I stuck that number up in my truck where I could always see it and then I started reading food labels of everything I ate, everyday. Initially I did not change my diet at all. But in a very, very, short time I discovered that my love of nacho cheese Doritos would require some modification. I discovered that the portion sizes of meals I was eating was excessive, sometimes to the extreme. I discovered that fast food was pretty much a toxic substance. I discovered that I was consuming far too much fat, salt, and sugar.

At the same time I started reading food labels I also committed myself to going for a walk at least 3 to 4 times a week and walking at a pace that would make me just a little bit sweaty. In other words I knew getting my heart rate up was a benefit although at that point I had know idea of the value or full benefit of that practice. But I did go online and learn that a half hour walking at about 3 mph would burn off about 150 calories.

Just doing these very simple things set me on a path of discovery and understanding about my body, my health, the food I eat, and the level of exercise I required. The great thing was that I was not investing large amounts of time and forcing myself to do something I did not want to do. My curiosity took over and provided the motivation I needed to keep at it. As my interest grew I started measuring my progress with a monthly weigh in and calculating my BMI, Body Mass Index. After a couple of years I invested in a Heart Rate Monitor and started tracking my progress online. I set a weight goal at which point I would start running.

Despite all the positive changes I almost always struggle through the winters. Exercising when the temperature dips to -30 or -40 can be dangerous and even foolish. But I have found that breaking the exercise cycle in the winter pulls my mood down to the lowest point of the year. If it wasn't for writing and keeping a journal of my progress and the positive emotional effect it has on me I could see that there would be a good chance of not jumping back on the healthy lifestyle bandwagon every spring. Winters are difficult for me. When your mode of transport is a 72' long commercial vehicle that weighs 40 tons there are not any health clubs I have found that provide parking. I am determined to resolve that issue this coming winter, somehow. Where there is a will......

In my short time with you here today I have touched on many issues that drivers face and how I have dealt with some of them in my own way. Time has not permitted me to go into any great depth or detail in any particular area but I hope I have been able to give you a feel for what I and my fellow drivers face on a daily basis. There is much to discuss and much to learn.

As Professional Drivers, We Need To Look After Ourselves First

This post appears in the September 2011 issues of Truck News and Truck West magazines.

I wanted to continue writing about driver health issues this month but was beginning to feel like I was flogging a dead horse. That isn't the case according to the results of a recent Health & Wellness Survey of Transport Truck Drivers conducted by the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University & City of Hamilton, Public Health Services. According to the survey 33.1% of drivers say they are willing to participate in Workplace Wellness programs on their own time. So a large number of drivers recognize that the trucking lifestyle has a negative impact on their health and they would like to do something about it. As drivers we know that there is a huge divide between our intention to live a healthier lifestyle and our ability to carry through with that intention. I think most drivers would agree that time is the limiting factor we all share. It's fair to say we simply don't have enough of it. This point was driven home to me over the course of the past week.

I left southwestern Ontario last Saturday morning and headed up to Winnipeg/Brandon where I peddled freight around all day Monday. Tuesday I reloaded down around Fargo and was back at my home terminal early on Thursday. Over 3,000 miles, 12 picks and drops along with the border crossings makes for a busy week. My EOBR showed me either on duty or driving for a total of 67 hours. Not any different than the 300,000 other Canadian truck drivers doing the same thing as me. We do that week in and week out right? You bet we do.

Waiting at the yard for me was my car sitting on one very flat tire. Okay, I kept ignoring that 'need new tires' item on my to do list and now I was forced into crisis management mode. I also had a 'needs brake service', and 'needs emissions test for permit renewal' on that same list. At home I had another list with items such as: 'trim cedar hedge around backyard', 'fix slow leak (for now) on upstairs toilet', and let's not forget 'meet deadline (today) for Truck News column'. There are many other items I could add to these lists and I know that every driver out there has lists just like them. Where does 'family time' and 'leisure time' fit on those lists? What about 'exercise time'? It's pretty easy to see why we call truck driving a lifestyle and not a job or a career. When you drive a truck it becomes a part of who you are not just what you do for a living.

Something else happened last night that put all of that on the back burner. My daughter went into labor with our first grandchild four weeks ahead of schedule. SURPRISE!! Thankfully everything went smoothly, Mom and baby are fine, healthy, and happy. Standing next to my daughter this morning with Nate, my grandson, in my arms and my wife by my side, I recognized that making the time to live a healthy lifestyle was about my whole life not just about my physical well being.

When was the last time anyone within our industry took the time to coach you on the benefits of including your own time into your trip planning? Making sure that you had time to sleep, to eat, to relax etc. Why don't we plan for ourselves and in doing so still accommodate the needs of our shippers, receivers, carriers, and enforcement agencies and they for us (drivers) in their planning?

I've become involved with a Transportation Industry Health Promotion Research and Policy Planning Group which was created by the two organizations I mentioned at the top of the column that are responsible for the driver survey that kicked things off. I'm impressed with the passion, sincerity, and genuine concern the members of the group have for improving the quality of life for transport drivers. The thing that bothers me is that of the 37 or so members that attended the first session I was the only driver. Drivers are a very diverse group and greater representation and participation is needed in order for the professionals and academics that drive the group to make the best use of their skills to help us improve the quality of our lives out here on the road.

Too often we bitch and complain after the fact about plans and policy’s that are put into place for our benefit. Think of the hours of service rules and policy regarding EOBR's. The intense research done prior to the implementation of these policies was intended to benefit us not limit us or control us. As drivers we too often sit back and allow things to happen without participating in the process. I know it takes time, of which we already have little to spare, but if we don't actively participate in the process we are giving up the independence that attracted most of us to this profession in the first place.

Healthier Eating Begins With Counting Calories

 This post appears in the August 2011 issue of Truck News and Truck West Magazines

Last week I did a trailer switch in Headingley, MB with one of our Edmonton based drivers. I thought I would be a nice guy and pick up the tab for dinner. Dinner was simple, a Cesar salad and coffee for me, a banquet burger with fries and coffee for my buddy. The quality of the food was so-so and the same goes for the service. With tax and tip it was over $27 at the truck stop. If you have to depend on buying all your meals on the road it's not unreasonable to budget $30 to $40 a day for meals, coffee breaks, and snacks. So if you spend 25 days a month on the road your monthly budget for food alone would be in the neighborhood of $750 to $1000 per month. Like many drivers out here on the road I pack a lot of my food and spend a little extra time preparing my own meals in the truck taking the time for a sit down meal when I'm just too worn out to bother 'cooking' in the truck. I'm glad I find some enjoyment in preparing my own meals because I couldn't afford it otherwise. I appreciate that some folks have no interest in cooking or food preparation out here. A lot of people would rather spend what little free time they have doing something else. But that choice comes at a premium doesn't it? And with all the same restaurants and fast food joints in every city and town we stop in it can be difficult to find any joy in eating a meal.

Tobacco and snack foods play an important role in the course of a day for many, many drivers. They are often the source of relief for boredom, fatigue, and stress. Driving for many hours a day can be mind numbing. Eating and smoking are very effective ways of bringing the mind back to the present moment. In the past I have been dependent on smokes and snacks for what I felt was a very beneficial purpose, staying alert and calm. Of course the long term effect is destructive. It took me a good number of years to come around to the full realization that healthier food choices, sleep, and exercise were a far better combination for combating that mind numbing feeling we more commonly call fatigue. I had myself convinced that smoking and eating were something I had to do to get through my day. In fact they had become a crutch and were not a solution to keeping me alert, awake, and stress free as I went about my daily routine.

But it was hard to break the routine I had fallen into. Besides I love snack food. I've never met a nacho cheese Dorito I didn't like, plus I can never eat just one. It doesn't matter the size of the bag, if it's open and by my side it's getting emptied. I admit it, I have no will power when it comes to Doritos. I know many of you have a similar weakness to your own favorite snack. In the past couple of columns I have said that the key for me to making a change in what I eat comes from starting to read food labels. Doing this very simple thing set me on a path of discovery and understanding about my body, my health, the food I eat, and level of exercise I require.

After I had quit smoking my weight continued to climb. I was snacking more to compensate for the smoke that wasn't in my mouth. Knowing that I would continue to gain pounds if I continued to consume more calories than what I was burning off in a day I looked up my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). That is how many calories I require in the course of a normal day. I posted this number up in the truck where it was always in my face. Back in 2001 that number was about 2500 calories for a 235 pound male with a sedentary lifestyle. Then I just started reading those food labels and pretty soon I was calculating in my head what I could and could not eat. It became something of a game I played with myself and it was a great source of motivation. I started to look for alternative foods that gave me more volume for less calories. This all happened slowly, I didn't try to change my life overnight I just allowed it to happen in it's own way.

I know this sounds a little too simple but that's the beauty of it. Any changes we make to our lifestyle out here on the road must to be done in small increments if we want those changes to be lasting and to be permanent. Making those changes is good for your health and for your pocketbook.

Intention, Commitment, and Knowledge

This Post appeared in the July 2011 issue of Truck News & Truck West Magazines

Last month in this space I said there were three things I did that led me to a healthier lifestyle on the road. They are: intention, commitment, and knowledge. But it's not as if I woke up one morning with a brilliant idea that was going to change my life. My lifestyle change came about slowly over the course of a decade. My intention for a healthier more productive life is my spark, my commitment to that intention is the fuel that pushes me down the road to healthier living, and the knowledge I gain through my successes and failures as I travel down that road is the grease that keeps me moving along.

Adopting the intent to change our lifestyle is usually the result of an emotional event that has taken place in our lives. What many of us refer to as an epiphany or a paradigm shift. For me this was the simple recognition that I was no longer bullet proof. A two pack a day smoking habit, creeping obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, a family history of heart disease, and then a diagnosis of high blood pressure were the combination of factors that tore off the cloak of invincibility I had wrapped myself in. I woke up to the fact that I felt like crap and wanted to do something about it.

Well that wake up call came to me back in the year 2000. At that time my only goal was to stop smoking. I knew that if I tried to change everything in my life at one time that I would be doomed to failure. After a year of remaining tobacco free I tackled the obesity issue. Over the course of the first year I had managed to replace cigarettes with additional food in my mouth which consequently went straight to my waistline. At this point I made another commitment to myself. I intended to be in good physical shape by the fall of 2010, my 50^th birthday, still 9 years into the future. I figured that it took me 20 plus years to pack all the weight on so a little less than half that time to get it all off was still pretty optimistic. I was right. I knew at that time that I would have to eat a little less, make healthier food choices, and get some regular exercise, but I had no clue what an emotional roller coaster ride the next 9 years would be.

Only drivers understand how truly difficult it is to obtain the levels of exercise and rest prescribed by health professionals. Making healthy food choices is just as difficult for us. Working the open board for most of the past decade, I, like many of you reading this, spent 3 to 5 weeks at a time living in the truck. A 70 hour work week is a rarity to the great majority of people. As long haul drivers this is routine for us. Then at the end of your day you go to sleep in your workplace. Add to that the fact that your workday often lacks routine and your work shifts may shift around the clock at the whim of the people you provide service to. Finally cap that off with the fact that running water, showers, and toilets are communal and the concept of a kitchen is non existent to a truck driver. We adapt to these difficult circumstances because of the passion we share for the trucking lifestyle. The open road gets into your blood. I am loathe to give up the freedom and independence I find in my work. Many of us pay for that passion for trucking, that freedom, that independence, with our good health. I think you have to live the life to truly understand why we do it. I can't explain it any better than that.

So the bottom line is that living a healthy lifestyle on the road is difficult. Plain and simple. But if you want it badly enough, if it truly is important to you, it can be done. You start by being stubborn and pig headed about meeting your intention. You recognize it will take time to reverse a lifetime of habits you have grown accustomed to. You recognize that you must practice patience. You recognize that your failures are only lessons in how not to reach your greatest aspirations.

Getting started on a healthier path to living is as simple as reading the food label of every product/food that you consume. At the start you don't need to change what you eat, but you need to learn what your eating and it's impact on you. Do that and go for a 20 minute walk everyday. That's where I got started and I've dropped over 70 pounds along the way. More next month. Good luck.

Getting Healthy

 This post appears in the June 2011 edition of Truck News

Alright enough about burning out and everything that's wrong with the world. At the beginning of May I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and get rid of those extra winter pounds. No easy task for all of us that spend so much time in the wheelhouse. I think the biggest challenge is overcoming your own mental inertia. Finding the motivation can be difficult when you are experiencing mental fatigue at the end of a long day or facing the demands of your delivery schedule if you are just starting your day. With so many pressures on our available time it's easy to make excuses not to take the time to look after ourselves. 'I don't have time' is a common excuse we give ourselves for not caring for own health and well being. Of course we know in the long run that everything we do, everything we set our sights on, is dependent on our good health in order to reach our goals & objectives – personal and professional.

I always feel like a bit of a hypocrite when I start writing about this topic. Yes, I have had some great success at losing weight and improving my overall health over the past decade and I have been able to meet my professional obligations at the same time, but there is always a tension between the two. That often becomes an area of added stress in my day. Consequently I often fall off the healthy living bandwagon and that's where the feelings of hypocrisy come in. I'm a big believer in walking the walk if you're going to talk the talk. Eating properly, getting the right amount of exercise, and maintaining appropriate sleep habits can seem to be an impossible challenge in this line of work and I struggle with it everyday. I try to take a three pronged approach to living healthy on the road.

First, I believe you have to commit some time to exercise, getting your heart rate up, at least 3 or 4 times per week and making it a priority in your life no matter what else is going on. Three to four hours a week is all that you need. That's only a half hour per day or one hour 3 to 4 times per week. This is not about intense exercise workouts. This is as simple as going for a brisk walk on a regular basis. It's not about gain from pain. It's more of a tortoise versus hare approach and it works.

Second, I believe you have to educate yourself in regards to what you are putting into your body on a daily basis. This includes quality and quantity. You don't have to become a foodie or find a new religion in the guise of healthy eating. But you do have to understand clearly how what you eat effects you. You can only do this by counting calories – at least for a period of a few months – and reading food labels. The bottom line is if you need to lose weight you will never do it until you burn off more energy than what you take in. Forget fad diets and supplements that promise results without having to change what you eat and in what quantity. You know the old saying; If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Third, I believe you have to make this lifestyle change a priority in your life that takes precedent over everything else. That includes taking precedence over other things that are important to you personally. This is a difficult thing to do. I think it's important to recall at this point that truck drivers suffer a much shorter average lifespan than the general population. Accepted estimates are 10 to 15 years shorter. Along with that shorter lifespan comes the onset of disease and suffering at a much earlier age than what would be considered normal. I have no fear of death or dying but I certainly want to reap the benefits of a life of hard work in my golden years. That, to me, is what a good dose of healthy lifestyle habits is all about.

So I thought for my next few columns I would share some of the things that have worked for me and some of the things that have not. I don't believe there is a cookie cutter method of living a healthy lifestyle out here on the road. But I do believe that exercise, a healthy diet, rest, and a personal commitment to ensure that you receive the right dosage of each will put you on the path to a happier, longer, and more productive life.

Winter Burnout Compounded By Improving Freight Environment

 This post appears in the May 2011 edition of Truck News

Hello Spring! I wasn't sure if you were going to put in an appearance at all this year. As I looked back over the past four or five months I realized how burned out I was. A lot of that may come from the short days, the long nights, and the added workload that winter seems to bring along with it in the form of snow, ice, and cold. We certainly had our fair share this past winter. But over the last couple of months I think many of us have also been feeling the effects of an increase in business and a shortage of seasoned drivers. It's been great for the pocketbook but hard on the body and mind, especially with all the changes within the trucking industry we continue to face at the same time.

I've always believed I had a positive outlook, you know, seeing the glass half full rather than half empty. The great thing about writing these columns and keeping a personal journal is that I always have a snapshot of my state of mind at any given time. As I read over some of my articles and personal entries for this past winter I was surprised at the negative theme in many of them. After writing my column about pay per mile versus pay per hour I received a comment from a reader outside of the trucking industry stating that my post sounded grim and asked if the industry is still a good place for young people seeking a career. The last thing I wanted to do was paint a poor picture of our industry to anyone. But there is no denying the fact that we have an aging pool of drivers - I'm one of them - and attracting people to work in an industry where a 60 to 80 hour work week is the norm isn't easy under the best of circumstances.

So is our industry still a good place for young people seeking a career? As a seasoned driver how would you answer that question? Freedom and independence goes hand in hand with truck driving and that's what attracted me to the industry and got into my blood, bringing me a great deal of happiness and joy. That freedom and independence along with an above average salary offset the adversity and hardship that goes hand in hand with the long work hours and time away from friends and family. But of late many seasoned drivers are of the opinion that the freedom and independence they so highly value is threatened in the Brave New World of the present day. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep a positive outlook.

Drivers need to see the technological changes that are taking place as an opportunity to gain independence rather than as a source of control over their lives. Think of the young drivers in their early twenty's arriving on the scene. They have grown up in a world of computers and smart phones linked to one another by the world wide web. Is it realistic to tell them to fill out a paper log so they can game the system in order to drive as many hours as possible to prosper financially?

I'm not without hope and honestly believe the choice of a career in the trucking industry is a good one. New technologies and new rules require more training and more sharing of information. Perhaps as social media infects and spreads throughout the trucking industry we will start to see trucking Wiki's develop. This open source of information sharing could be a boon to the industry providing drivers with a source to share their experience and skills. Using this technology is second nature to young drivers, they have a lot to offer to industries such as ours that are in the process of moving from one age into the next. We could use a lot more young people right now, that's for sure.

In the meantime I guess I just have to keep plugging away. Now that the snow is gone I'm using the time off the hours of service rules give me each day to get a little exercise and beat that feeling of burnout. I'm dealing with the rules by doing the best I can within the framework of those rules. If I run out of time, well, then I run out of time. To be honest with you I look forward to the bunk time. As I move into my fifties the long weeks take their toll on me, no doubt about it.

I find myself looking for freedom and independence by working smarter and not harder these days. And if the path to those values is lined with new ways of doing things? I'm willing try them out.

HoS Rules – Let's Not Fix What Isn't Broken

This post appears in the April 2011 edition of Truck News

Every so often a load comes along that simply has to be looked after. The HoS (hours-of-service) rules must allow the flexibility for us to do that. Tinkering with the present HoS rules that exist south of the border seems to me like 'fixing something that ain't broke'. Take a look at one of my recent trips as an example.

I arrived at my home terminal at six o'clock in the morning on a Friday. I took a 34 hour reset which allowed me to leave between four and five on Saturday afternoon. I could now head back to Grand Rapids to deliver and reload for Winnipeg, arriving on Monday morning. I was able to reload in Minnesota on Tuesday morning and be home again by ten o'clock on Wednesday night.

Now I've got to be honest here. That was a 4500 kilometer trip in a period of just over 4 days so I had to squeeze every productive minute out of my days to make it work. I was challenged at the start due to snow and black ice on the way to the US border that added an hour to my trip. I split my sleeper 2-8-2 driving through the States arriving at the Canadian border with just minutes left in my US hours-of-service window. I would not want to do this trip every week with such a tight delivery window, it would drain me. But at the same time I don't want the flexibility of being able to run that hard taken away from me.

So what would the scenario be under the new rule changes? First of all the trip would never have taken place. With the new requirement of incorporating two periods between midnight and six in the morning into the 34 hour reset I would not have been able to leave until Sunday morning so I would never have made the Monday morning delivery in Winnipeg. Second, if the shift driving time was reduced to 10 hours from 11 hours I would have required an additional 8 hours in the bunk to give me the necessary hours to complete the run. The proposed minimum 30 minute rest break before exceeding 7 hours driving would not have applied since I was splitting my sleeper berth taking 2 hours off duty in the midst of each duty shift.

So what does this mean? Would the receiver have had to go without the freight for an extra 24 to 36 hours? No. Other arrangements would have been made to ensure the freight was picked up in a timely manner to meet the delivery deadline. Would I lose money over this? Probably not. I'd still be working, just on a different load without such tight time constraints. I'm making assumptions that there would be a large enough driver pool available, shippers would have the freight ready in a timely manner, the roads would always be bare & dry with low volumes of traffic, and the weather would always co-operate. Of course, this is not the reality of our world. In fact the driver pool is expected to contract, logistical problems arise for shippers just as they do for us, traffic volumes continue to grow with each passing year, and the weather is anyone’s guess. Precisely why we need some flexibility within the rules and I think most folks are pretty happy with the way the present rules have been working.

Having said that we have to recognize the rules set limits and not a quota of hours that drivers have to work every week. Every driver needs to find their comfort zone within the rules. Fatigue results when your running like a dog week in and week out maxing out your hours every day then just taking enough time to reset before starting all over again. Experienced drivers don't usually run this way, they would have burned out long ago. Unfortunately it's newer drivers that are being exploited by some of the bottom feeders out there and fall victim to this type of treatment. There is no such thing as forced dispatch. If you have to work 70 hours every week to make ends meet or have the threat of dismissal held over your head at every turn then it's time to move on.

No amount of legislation is ever going to fix the issue of driver fatigue. Removing the ability for a driver to go the extra mile for the customer when needed places a huge burden on the whole system. This has been well documented by the trucking media over the previous few months. It's also a slap in the face to professional drivers that know when to push it and when to park it. None of us are interested in bringing harm to ourselves or the traveling public. The rules work. Let's improve safety & a driver's quality of life through more training, education, and mentoring of new drivers.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Sometimes I think the practice of due diligence as it is practiced within the trucking industry is really taken to the extreme. The practice of exceptional customer service on the part of a driver may be recognized as performance that requires corrective action.

I am talking about the log audit report. A report that recognizes only the black and white hours of service rules. It is a report that never recognizes the effort any driver puts into his or her job on a daily basis. This report is the greatest driver demotivator in the industry.

On my most recent audit I was in violation for 7 minutes out of a total of 225.5 hours on duty. That is just under .05 percent of the total on duty time. But because I was in violation in 3 different areas of the hours of service regulations I received an overall rating of 85 percent so part 395 of the federal motor carrier safety regulations require that I see my safety manager and that a copy of my audit be placed in my driver file along with any corrective action needed.

I understand my employer is required to follow this procedure whether they like it or not and I don't hold this against them in any way. This is a perfect example of how the majority is punished for the actions of a few.

Even though I understand this is simply a computer generated report that enforces every individual rule I still find it difficult not to feel that my efforts are being taken for granted despite knowing that this is definitely not the case.

In an industry that is constantly complaining about its ability to attract and hold onto quality drivers I am flabbergasted by its ability to throw up roadblocks at every turn.

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Burned Out?

For the last couple of weeks I have been searching for something positive to write about. I don't seem to be having any luck finding a topic within the confines of the trucking industry that makes me feel all sunny inside. So I went back and took a look at some of my older posts. I was not surprised to find that the majority of them were about the difficult aspects of this work. The posts were not too bitchy but they weren't rosy either.
I can't help but feel that I'm always struggling along trying to catch up. So what's going on? After much reflection I think it's a case of just too many work hours in 1 week. Is that just something we have to accept in the trucking industry? Maybe it is. And coping with those work hours is the biggest challenge of the job.
I was listening to a podcast from the insight meditation center that really highlighted the importance our culture places on the work ethic. It is generally accepted that we are all equal and have the same opportunities. A better life is available to all and the only limiting factor is the effort we put into it. With that effort comes your ability to fulfill your wants. Fulfilling your wants is the path to happiness, at least that seems to be the general consensus in our culture.
So all you have to do is work hard to achieve happiness? If that's the case I should be in a state of rapture 24/7.

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Back on the prairies

This is the first time I've been out on the prairies since last fall. I was surprised to see the wind farm in the town of Moosomin. These farms are springing up everywhere. There was a huge one constructed over the winter south of the town of Morris, between Winnipeg and the U.S. Border.
I had also forgotten how wide open the prairies are. Endless skies. Birds everywhere. Funny how you don't recognize the beauty of something until you're away from it for a period of time.
The picture I attached probably won't capture the expanse of the prairies, but I really enjoyed the last couple of hours just rolling steadily along.
By the way if this seems like a lame ass blog post it's because I'm checking out blogging using voice recognition on my smartphone. Seems to be the working pretty well it's far as I can see. Hmmm, wonder if that means I'll be a little more productive?

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Pay per Mile vs. Pay per Hour

This post appears in the March 2011 edition of Truck News

At the time of writing this column diesel prices have been on the rise for seven straight weeks and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has newly proposed rules for hours-of-service (HoS) and for Electronic On Board Recorders (EOBR) . In broad terms the trucking industry's response has been that all of the added restrictions will reduce productivity. Drivers have responded with the feeling that reduced hours and added restrictions equal reduced miles which in turn equals reduced income. So in a nutshell we're looking at escalating costs, increased regulation, and reduced productivity for both carriers and drivers. Not a very rosy picture is it?

The business of trucking has changed but the method of compensating drivers for their investment of time and effort has not. If the movers and shakers within the trucking industry are concerned with an overall loss in productivity why not pay drivers for their time plus a bonus for increased productivity where it counts – in each and every power unit. Perhaps it's time for a different paradigm that does away with the piece rate form of compensation most of us in this industry currently live and die by. Trucking as a whole needs to take a serious look at paying drivers a fair and equitable hourly rate with the ability to earn additional income through productivity bonuses.

Think of our current pay per mile model for a moment. It encourages the driver to run the maximum number of miles in the shortest period of time, a holdover from the days of cheap fuel and loose or non existent HoS rules, but that's not today’s reality. In today’s world 'pay per mile' sandwiches the drivers need to generate income between the business' need to control costs and the enforcement of the HoS rules. Drivers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. In a highly competitive market where drivers are asked to invest more of their time in the name of efficiency but are governed by rules giving them less time in the name of safety a pay per mile method of compensation no longer makes sense.

I know that pay per mile versus pay per hour has the potential to be very contentious and I'm not coming down on one side or the other but my 'paid by the mile' income has not kept up with the rate of inflation and the HoS debate has shown no sign of being resolved since I started driving 12 years ago. I'm ready to take a look at ideas that may put more money in my pocket, improve my quality of life, add to a carrier's bottom line, and aid in compliance with the rules & safety policies that govern our industry.

There is no possible way that I can address all the pros and cons of hourly pay versus pay per mile in a single column but we need to start somewhere and the first thing an hourly rate would do is recognize commercial truck drivers as the professional journeymen that they are. The industry now has available to it through the technology of EOBR's the ability not just to enforce rules but to capture a vast amount of information that relates to a driver's performance. This technology also captures the inefficiencies in the system that are beyond the drivers control such as dock delays. Paying a driver for their time on duty as well as driving would motivate carriers to work closer with their customers to eliminate delays at the dock and all the other time wasters that have worked their way into the system over the years. This would be a big win for the driver but the argument could be made that it would be a huge cost for the carrier.

On the contrary eliminating that wasted time puts the driver back on the road keeping the freight moving. More importantly giving carriers the ability to capture hard data to measure performance provides fertile ground to develop incentive programs for drivers. A study by the Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC) of American Trucking Associations established that a truck driven using poor driving habits can consume up to 26 percent more fuel than a truck driven using fuel-efficient driving techniques. An hourly rate of pay along with incentive bonuses is an excellent way of tapping into these potential savings and its win-win. It also speaks to the need of ongoing driver training, driver recruitment, and driver retention. The time is ripe for carriers to develop and use these new technologies to empower their drivers and recognize them as business partners not just employees. Maybe I'm a dreamer. But it is possible.

Some people may be of the opinion that the golden age of trucking is past, buried by burdensome regulations and escalating costs. The freedom and joy we find in trucking down the open road is still there but the culture is changing. That's not easy to deal with.

Working For A Quality Carrier

As the new year gets underway we (drivers) are faced with a host of issues to cope with. The list gets longer with each passing year. Hours of service, CSA (compliance, safety, accountability), electronic on board recorders, speed limiters, driver shortages, distracted driving, the economy, engine emissions, and so on. It is only recently that quality of life issues are being raised and recognized as having merit. Why is it that a drivers mental & physical well being is not the number one priority in an industry where a company's success hinges on the performance of each individual driver?

I believe there are a large number of organizations in our industry that only pay lip service to the health & safety of the driver. I continue to be shocked by the lack of concern that is shown for the mental and emotional health of individual drivers. You don't need to spend your life on the road to be aware of this. Spend some time surfing the internet and you can read any number of trucking blogs written by drivers detailing their experiences. There are a number of bottom feeders out there that prey primarily on the new and the inexperienced by making grandiose promises of training, compensation, and home time.

I'd like to believe that the majority of drivers share a positive and productive relationship with their carrier as I do with mine. A relationship that is win/win. Here is an example of the treatment I receive from my carrier.

By the time this column is published my father's 89^th birthday will be just around the corner. Sadly, his health is failing and it became very important that I pay a visit over the Christmas and New Year break. Until recently I did open board work and was in Vancouver quite frequently which enabled me to visit my Dad. This past fall I started to do a weekly run between southwestern Ontario and Winnipeg which provides me with more home time but keeps me away from the west coast and my Dad. As soon as I told the good folks in dispatch about my situation a trip was arranged for me to Vancouver and I was told to “take whatever time you need with your Dad”.

Now many of you reading this may think that's nothing special but in fact for me, and for the majority of drivers, this level of empathy and understanding has a huge positive impact on your morale and state of mind. I believe the way in which we are treated and the way we treat others is the path to our long term happiness, peace of mind, ease of mind, and success. The carriers (employers) we work for are one of the primary gateways to that path.

The freedom and independence we experience as truck drivers does not come without costs. Most of us have traveled down the road in isolation thinking about a loved one sick at home, a missed birthday, a family reunion your not sure you will make it to, an event you planned and now will miss due to a breakdown, poor weather, canceled load, or dock delay. Truck driving separates you from your support network of family and friends while at the same time providing you with countless hours to think about that separation Many truck drivers deal with incredibly strong feelings of angst as a result. It's a job hazard we all must cope with but it can be eased by the actions of the carrier we choose to work for.

As I finish off this column I am sitting in Golden, BC. I arrived at three o'clock this morning in the snow. It's now almost one in the afternoon, it's still snowing and the ride today will be challenging, that's just fine with me. There are new hours of service rules pending south of the border and that's just fine with me. There is a speed limiter on my truck and I'm still learning how to manage my electronic on board recorder and that's fine with me too. There are a host of issues to clutter my life throwing up roadblocks at every turn and that's fine too.

I was able to spend the last five days with the man that has shaped me, inspired me, trusted me, taught me, and loved me over the course of my whole life. I know that I may not see my Dad again in this world but he will live in my heart and mind for the rest of my life. I'm happy, content, and at ease.

The bottom line is I can count on my carrier, I trust them, and they feel the same way about me. That leaves the rest of those big trucking issues just fluff to deal with in the course of a normal day.

The Little Things

When a little thing goes wrong or just a little wonky on you it's most often not that big of a deal, you just take it in stride.  But when those little things come at you in bunches it can make you feel like tearing your hair out.

So I got away late last Saturday because I had to throw the battery charger on my truck and that made me just late enough to screw up my daily hours of service and would prevent me from the necessary number of hours of rest on Sunday night to keep me in compliance with the US hours of service rules.  No big deal, until I hit the crappy weather just north of Thunder Bay late on Saturday.  So I went into damage control mode and rather than waste time I stopped in Dryden to take my 8 hour break, reset my Canadian hours, allowing me to leave in the middle of the night so I would not have to deal with the traffic even if the weather was still bad.

That was a great plan until I stepped out of the truck at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning to do my PTI (pretrip inspection for those of you not up on trucking acronym's) and discovered the light show taking place around the top of my trailer.  All the upper clearance lights were flickering on and off along with a couple of lower tail lamps.  Probably just a bad connection I thought.  So I pulled the power cord from the trailer, cleaned & spread the connector pins, re-attached the cord and....no change....the light show continued.  I went back to the connector and gave it a good wiggle and that did it.  The lights went out altogether.  I still had lower lamps, signals, brake lights, and reflector tape (under the snow) all around so I filled out the appropriate paperwork and had no option but to deal with it later.  I had freight to deliver in 4 1/2 hours.

Okay, now I had six easy drops in Winnipeg then switch with a driver at the Husky truck stop in Headingley.  Not so fast Al.  Everything was rolling along until the 5th drop which was 6 4x4 skids of freight to a warehouse.  Easy right?  Nope, wrong address, 3rd party warehouse facility.  Had to wait for the guy to show up after I phoned him.  The guy receiving the freight was also as dumb as a stump and could not provide me with concise directions to the dock door.  3 hours folks.  I routinely lump off floor loads faster than that.  Okay, Okay, I took a deep breath got the last drop off did my switch and then I spent an hour dealing with the wiring issue.  I thought it was the plug on my light cord that was corroded and I was right.   So I spent an hour screwing around replacing that.

It was now four in the afternoon and I needed to book 10 hours off duty before I could cross the border.  Good, after 14 hours I needed food.  Oh, I forgot to mention, I had to be in Breckenridge, Minnesota at eight the next morning to pick up a full load.  I wanted to be a truck driver because......?

It's the little things that can get to you.

Snow Drifts & Dead Batteries

Another winter weekend.  It's getting blurry out here.  The week's are blending together, time is getting muddled again......I just realized the days are actually getting longer but I couldn't see the sun for all the blowing snow.

Delay yesterday because I had to throw a charger on the truck when I got to the yard....yes....the block heater was plugged in and there was power to it....no....the fridge was not left on & all the lights were off.  Must be gremlins, winter gremlins, invisible & sneaky winter gremlins.

So that delay made for a late arrival last night (early, early this morning actually) in White River and a later start this morning and that all means that when I arrived here in Dryden - which is still at least 4 hours from Winnipeg - in the early evening I'M TIRED!!  It's also snowing, the roads are crap, and there are a serious number of nervous Nellie type drivers out there right now.  My patience is gone.

So I had a meal and now I'm hitting the sack hoping that when I leave in the middle of the night the snow has stopped, the roads have been plowed, and all the ijits are at home in their beds.

I won't hold my breath.

Winter Sucks......Kinda

I woke to the drone of the engine at five o'clock this morning.  It has been my constant companion on the road over the past few weeks.  A reminder of the bitter cold.  I laid in my sleeper berth just listening, hoping I would slip back into sleep.  No go.  Winter wears me down in its own subtle way.

Over the past decade I have discovered exercise as a positive force in my daily life.  I'm not overzealous about it or subscribe to it as my new religion or anything like that.  I find that it clears my head of the cobwebs, relaxes me, and allows me to attain a quality of rest I don't get when I'm not on the exercise bandwagon.  I fall of that wagon every winter, a victim of the reality of our Canadian winters.  It's another way that winter wears on me.  I should have bought a health club membership for the winter but then I'd probably be stressed out because I could never get to the club to work out on a regular basis.

I've posted about the winter blues in the past and here I am again, like a broken record stuck in the same groove.  At least I'm no longer laying in bed stewing in my own juices of discontent.  Now I'm writing about them, spreading the misery around.  Ha ha ha.

Spring is around the corner along with a healthier outlook.......maybe I should have bought those snowshoes.  Hmmmmm.

Grumpy & Belligerent

One of the things that truly sucks about being a truck driver is that you can't phone in sick when you always wake up at work.  That's an issue when your in need of a sick day.  I'm not sick.  I'm just feeling that tomorrow would be a good day not to work, because I don't want to.  Waa, waa, waa.....poor me.

It must be that whole winter blues thing rearing it's ugly head that has me feeling more than just a little po'd tonight.  It was actually a pretty good day, until the temperature dipped below minus 20 again, it got dark early, I started feeling really tired and, well, so it goes I guess.

The whole month of January has been that way.  Am I a little bitchy?  You bet.  Even when I've been at home I've felt so worn down that I have done little more than sit on my ass and think about what I have to do.  Just thinking about stuff tired me out.  Oh god I'm getting grumpy and belligerent in my old age.  Time to go to bed & sleep it off - I hope.