Truck Driver Training

It is of said within the trucking industry that if you put more than two truck drivers together in a room you won't get agreement on any topic. Driver training is the one exception to that rule.

"The day you wake up and believe you have nothing left to learn about truck driving is the day you need to hang up the keys"

That credo, or a version of it, is usually the first pearl of wisdom an experienced driver will share with a novice driver. Drivers will debate every other issue to death but on this they agree. No two days on the road are ever the same and you never stop learning.

So it was with great disappointment that I was not able to attend the panel discussion presented by the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario (TTSAO) on the afternoon of Wednesday February 25, 2015. The topic up for discussion was Mandatory Training Standards and how to deal with the pressing needs of the industry. There were a good number of leaders and decision makers slated to be present along with Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.

It was a missed opportunity. I received an invitation to attend on the Friday previous but was unable to make it back from my weekly Winnipeg trip in time. If I was given the opportunity to present my perspective to the group this is what I would have liked to say.

My name is Alan Goodhall. I obtained my Ontario class AZ licence in the spring of 1999 after receiving my training from a professional truck driver training institution. Through the training school I had a job lined up immediately upon graduation and successful completion of my Ministry driving test. I spent 9 months being mentored by an owner/operator with whom I ran team. I considered that my apprenticeship into the industry. That initial experience provided the foundation for a successful and fulfilling career over the past 16 years and it's far from over.

In 2003 I joined J&R Hall Transportation and never looked back. I had found my niche within the industry with an LTL carrier that specialized in western Canadian freight and presented all the challenges I was keen to learn. A few years after joining J&R Hall I had the opportunity to start sharing my experience with newly minted AZ drivers fresh out of training school. It was my opportunity to give back and I seized that opportunity. I spent 3 years as a driver/trainer. I spent 3 months with each new driver and helped to build a good mentoring program. I completed a Certified Driver Trainer course during that period also. It was after completion of that course that I came to the conclusion I could not do it alone. I was well supported by my employer and was giving deep training and mentoring to our new drivers but I was left feeling that it just wasn't enough. The more time I spent as a trainer the more I recognized the need for a standard training program that covered all the bases in depth, measured progress, and provided follow up training. After 3 years I was burned out and needed some time away from the intensity of this type of program. I have yet to pick up the reigns again as a driver/trainer.

Entry level training institutions working in partnership with carriers have been the backbone to training, recruitment, and retention of new drivers since I joined the industry but it's well past time to step things up. The talk on the front lines among experienced drivers is about the lack of quality mentoring. This is being reflected in the habits and attitudes of drivers on the road. This isn't about what accident statistics, telematics, and big data is telling us about the state of the industry. It's about the lived experience. It's about the drivers quality of life. It's about the need for innovation in training to match the booming innovation in technology. It's about coping with the stress brought on by demand for drivers to do more with less. It's about the decline in driver morale. It's about respect and recognition.

Driver training is a partnership between training institutions, carriers, trade organizations, government, and existing drivers. Experienced drivers are often left out of the loop of the training process. But is this not where the greatest potential lies for bringing new blood into the industry? It is my contention that we need to make a much greater effort to tap into the experience of the existing driver pool. How can we implement industry standards for drivers without a pool of skilled driver trainers to deliver and maintain those standards.

I believe it's time for a graduated form of training for the trucking industry. That program needs to be universal and available to all carriers whether they have 1 or 2 trucks or a thousand. I know little about apprenticeship programs and how they are administered but I often think of my brother in laws experience in BC when he entered into the field of Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning. He apprenticed with a 1 man operation. He was paid a graduated income as he learned and his employer was subsidized. There was partnership between the new employee, the training institution, the employer, the trade association, and government regulator. All working together around a standard program of training. I recognize we may face many roadblocks but this is the type of program we need to work towards.

My vision is that in that first year after graduating from a professional training institution the new driver would spend a set number of hours in the cab with a qualified trainer, a set number of hours in the classroom further complementing the in cab training, and a set number of hours in other areas of the trucking operation such as warehousing, loading, and equipment maintenance. (shop) We can have an entry level standard and a level playing field that every carrier of every size could participate in if they wished to.

Professional training institutions can expand their role by developing programs that go beyond the entry level standard and offer specialized training in partnership with carriers. After completing a standard 1 year entry level course drivers may then want to develop new skills in a different sector of the industry and be able to receive accreditation for it. Training such as heavy haul, car hauling, B-trains, LCV's, etc. The sky is the limit in this regard. Let's also not forget about training the trainer and providing re-training on new equipment as technology changes the workplace around us and places new demands on us.

Front line drivers are frustrated at this point in time. So many drivers are saying things such as, "It's not any fun out here anymore" or "It's just a job now". Morale is low. Revitalizing our training process and re-engaging our existing drivers in the day to day activities of trucking is vital to attracting new blood and building for the future in my humble opinion.

So that is what I would say. It's only enough to open up the conversation to a host of issues we face as drivers but I strongly believe we have to work in partnership with our carriers, with enforcement (government), with training institutions, and with industry institutions of every stripe.

Let's get involved drivers. What do you think?

Who Should Pay For Driver Training?

This post first appeared in Truck News February 2015

Trucking HR Canada is in the process of developing a National Occupational Standard (NOS) for Commercial Vehicle Operators (Truck Drivers). The fourth draft of this document was released this past December requesting input from the public. I was encouraging drivers to review this before the deadline of January 16, 2015 by posting links to it via my twitter feed and through a couple of Canadian Trucking Facebook pages during the first two weeks of January. I know from my own experience that when issues are being discussed amongst the movers & shakers within our industry it is rare to find more than one or two full time drivers present to provide a drivers perspective. Getting the word out to the vast driver pool (over 300.000 of us in Canada alone) on important industry issues is very difficult. This concerns me because our (truck drivers) personal health and safety is dependent on the depth & quality of the information & training we receive.

Many drivers, probably a majority, will not be aware that this NOS is being developed and will not review the document. The drivers that do review the draft are going to leapfrog over this first step of developing the standards and get right to the heart of the big issue. How will this training be delivered and who is going to pay for it? Drivers will jump on this because there is no group within the industry that recognizes the need for standardized and professional driver training more than the drivers themselves. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of training involved in these standards both in a classroom setting and in the workplace. I’m afraid drivers will see this National Occupational Standard as a pie in the sky idea if it is adopted by the industry without the infrastructure in place to deliver the training.

So why do I think drivers will be highly skeptical about the adoption and delivery of a national training standard? Well let’s take a look at just one of the twenty nine key competencies of a professional driver listed in the NOS draft. Hours of service.

You would think with the amount of press and discussion this topic has received every driver would be an expert on the subject of hours of service. Far from it. Facebook and CB to the rescue. Most drivers in their first year on the road turn to their fellow drivers to answer their questions about hours of service. Let’s remember these are freshly minted drivers right out of school building a new career and they want to get it right. These drivers are asking basic questions about the rules and often receiving the wrong information or advice from their more experienced peers. I’ve been working in this business for over 15 years now and hours of service is a standard that drivers have been made responsible to know and they are still not receiving the depth of training they require on this topic before hitting the road.

I recognize the difficulties involved with training a work force that operates hundreds or thousands of miles away from the home office most of the time. It’s not as if a carrier can pull in a whole fleet of drivers for a weekly training meeting even though that is obviously what is currently required. Should a carrier bear the full responsibility for training their drivers to meet a nationally adopted occupational standard? I don’t think so. The financial burden would sink many small carriers. I think it’s fair to expect an employer to uphold a standard that is adopted for any profession but to make them responsible for delivering ALL of the training and bear all of the associated costs is not a reasonable option.

It’s pretty obvious that an apprenticeship program on a national level has to be adopted by the trucking industry if it is serious about meeting the occupational standards outlined in the draft document. That means partnerships have to be established between government, training institutions, carriers and drivers. I don’t see any other means of delivering a program of this depth. This system works in all other trades for companies big and small. Why can’t it work in the trucking industry?

Look at this statement about truck drivers that appears in the very first paragraph of the Trucking HR Canada draft document. “The occupation includes more than 300,000 Canadians - - nearly 1% of the population and over 1.5% or the nation’s labour force.”

It is irresponsible to continue on the path that we are on allowing new drivers to operate on our public roads without the proper training to insure the safety of the public and the drivers themselves. We need to be honest about the fact that the cost of doing this has to somehow be built into the system. The only fair way to do that is to legislate that change.

Technology Will Not Slow Down

This post first appeared in Truck News January 2015

A new year and a clean slate. Many of us view January 1^st as the opportunity for a fresh start when it rolls around each year. It is a time of year that we re-affirm our personal goals & aspirations or perhaps make radical changes to take our lives in a completely different direction. Sometimes our lives are subject to radical change not of our own choosing and the greatest challenge we face is in our ability to adapt to those changes. This is a place where many professional drivers find themselves as we move into 2015. The signs of radical change are all around us.

Many of us are in the twilight of our careers and we have an expectation of some reward waiting at the end of the road after many years of commitment and hard work. After all isn’t that part of the deal? The decades of loyal service should allow us to reap some sort of personal reward for ourselves and our immediate family especially if we have played by the rules for all those years. But the rules are changing because the world is changing. Putting your career on cruise control and enjoying the ride to the finish is an enticing thought but the winds of change are not likely to allow us to do that. So I thought I would share some of those radical issues I feel we are facing as regular working stiffs in the trucking industry.

Technology has been driving change in our industry and there is no doubt in my mind that it will continue to do so. Some of the most telling indicators of change come from trucking industry groups that guide carriers in their decision making. Thomas Frey, a futurist and Director of the Da Vinci Institute, was one of the guest speakers at the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) annual general meeting in November 2014. Mr. Frey spoke of the digital layer of infrastructure we are creating over the physical world, how 3D digital printing may impact what or what we will not be shipping in the future, and how autonomous cars, trucks, and drones will be safer, reduce the need for drivers, result in lower fuel bills, lower accident rates, and reduce insurance costs.

So if you are a regular working stiff like me what do you read into that? They are certainly issues that have the potential to hit drivers where it hurts but they are concepts that can be difficult to get your head around. It is hard to believe they will come to pass. I’m sure that our forefathers had similar feelings about Henry Ford’s production line and how it would impact their everyday lives. We’re in the very early days of the “internet of things”. The potential changes that 3D printing & autonomous vehicles will bring to a commercial drivers daily life as well as to our society as a whole may be just as staggering as the production line, probably more so.

There are also many global issues that will affect our driving jobs directly.

The push towards reducing our dependence on fossil fuels will continue. Energy self-sufficiency through adopting solar, wind, and geothermal technologies is a growing trend. The majority of people now live in cities and the trend toward denser housing and more mass transit is building. People are driving less. The attitude of the millennial generation towards car culture is very different to the generations that came before them. An electric commuter vehicle in every driveway? Maybe. So what does all that mean to an economy such as Canada’s that for the past several decades has been built on resource extraction? Supply and demand would dictate that less demand for oil means a drop in pricing which on the surface is a good thing. But extracting oil from Alberta’s oil sands is dependent on the price per barrel of oil staying above a certain threshold in order to be profitable. This could have deep repercussions for our economy and consequently for working stiffs like you and I.

What is most interesting about the potential of these unknowns is that we tend to discuss them in terms of certainty as if we know what the outcome will be. Let’s remember that the internet wasn’t designed for social media it was adopted by it. Now billions of people benefit from it. The next big idea may not be what we expect.

The next ten to fifteen years may see our whole world turned inside out as we adopt and adapt to new ways of living and interacting with one another. Of course this is all conjecture and things may play out in a very different way than how I have presented them.

Socrates is quoted as saying that, “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.” Perhaps the best New Year resolution we can all make this year is to simply keep an open mind.

Are Carriers Empowering or Controlling Their Drivers?

This post appeared in Truck News March, 2014

As long haul truck drivers we spend the majority of our time observing what is happening around us. Most of us are very good at it. It is a set of skills that extends far beyond the ability it gives us to be safe, professional drivers. In fact as drivers we are uniquely positioned to provide feedback that is valuable when it comes to streamlining operations and improving productivity. Despite this the industry has developed a culture aimed at controlling its drivers rather than enabling them. No doubt this approach stems from compliance with the rule of law, but this approach need not be so.

Look at the hours of service legislation and how it is applied to drivers. Sleep research recognizes the differences in individual drivers that contribute to fatigue. Differences such as a driver’s schedule, their age, and the effects of any existing health condition the driver may have, and the time of day he/she may be driving. Sleep research has also shown that the average adult requires 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night yet the National Sleep Foundations 2008 Sleep in America poll showed that 44% of working adults get an average of 6 hours and 40 minutes sleep on a workday and the average workday was reported at 45 hours. So based on that is it reasonable to expect you can force individual drivers to sleep 7 to 9 hours in a row while at the same time work well in excess of 45 hours per week?

We still require our rest but we require the flexibility to obtain that rest within the confines of the job we are performing and dependent on our own individual needs. The answer here is education and training on a regular basis and laws that enforce the required amount of rest in each 24 hour period but still leave a wide margin of flexibility to the individual driver as to how they manage their time.

This is where the control culture butts up against the culture of empowerment. Has the trucking industry as a whole lost sight of the big picture and the true purpose of legislation that reinforces the safety of drivers and the travelling public? It’s easy to lay the blame for this situation on government regulation (or over regulation if you prefer) and enforcement agencies. But I think that is a bit of a cop out on the trucking industry’s part and we all own a slice of that pie.

Why is it a cop out? Because we are living in a golden age of communication. There is this little thing called the internet ripe with social media that is still very much in its infancy. These tools empower drivers by providing an infrastructure capable of gathering their collective experience. Yet for the most part social media has been seen as a business to business tool by carriers and I believe they have missed the boat, or at least underestimated the value of social media. Drivers are developing loosely organized social circles on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and You tube. With the ability to link all of these platforms together drivers have a much louder voice, but is it being heard?

Then there is the rapidly developing industrial internet, a term originally coined by General Electric. It’s all about linking together machine learning, big data, the internet of things, and machine to machine communications. Think about advanced braking systems, stability control systems, the virtual technician that remotely reports engine fault codes, cars that will park themselves and of course the Google driverless car. The vehicles we drive, whether personal or commercial, will continue to communicate with the world around them in more meaningful ways at an exponential rate over the next several years, or at least as much as government regulators will allow.

So again, as drivers observe from the driver’s seat, is this technology being used to empower the individual driver or is it being used to control the individual drivers’ actions? I often think of the signs posted on the side of Ontario’s highways that state, “Safety through enforcement”. I don’t disagree with that statement when it comes to enforcing the black and white rules of the Highway Traffic Act but it doesn’t cut the mustard when it comes to applying a set of one size fits all regulations to issues like driver fatigue. This is why electronic onboard recorders are reviled by many drivers. An EOBR cannot empower a driver and advance a driver’s safety and quality of life. The EOBR enforces a set of one size fits all rules for the average driver, but an average driver doesn’t exist. Although we all share the same characteristics we are uniquely different.

There is a lot that drivers observe from driver’s seat. In today’s environment I think it’s fair to ask if we are to become cogs in a machine. I would hope to hear a resounding NO.

Why Dash Cams are Increasingly Popular

This post appeared in Truck News April, 2014

Last month in this space I put forward the opinion that fleet executives and enforcement officials were missing the boat in regards to adopting social media to tap into the deep knowledge base that professional drivers possess. This month let’s take a look at a couple of performance monitoring technologies that are being widely adopted in the cabs of today’s commercial vehicles and how we (drivers) are reacting to them.

The first is the electronic on board recorder (EOBR) and the second is the dashcam. In the broadest terms both of these platforms do the same thing, they measure driver performance. The other common thing they share is that neither one is currently required by law but both are being widely adopted. The EOBR is seen as being an invasive technology by many drivers since it is installed by the carrier to monitor individual performance. The benefit to the driver is not always clear. If only a portion of the total driver pool are monitored this way the playing field is not level so a sense of unfairness results from its use. Dashcams on the other hand are being adopted by drivers not carriers. Dashcams are seen to balance the playing field because they not only measure the performance of the individual driver but also the performance of every other driver on the road that the driver comes into contact with.

Let me make full disclosure here and say that I have been using an EOBR for the past 5 years. So I’ve been subject to the performance monitoring that goes along with the full featured EOBR that my carrier uses. Besides tracking my on duty and off duty time it also measures hard brakes, roll over prevention, percentage of idle time, percentage on cruise control, percentage of over speed, etc. This software allows the carrier to track individual trucks and individual drivers in all of these categories. At this point I have not installed a dashcam in my truck but I don’t see myself making it through 2014 without doing so. There are just too many benefits to having a dashcam as well.

As a driver, I don’t think you need to make a choice between an EOBR and a dashcam. I believe these two technologies complement one another and your best option is to have both.

Let’s say you’re travelling down a two lane highway and I’m approaching from the opposite direction. As I approach my rig drifts a foot over the centre line and forces you to take the shoulder to avoid a collision. Your dashcam records this, you’re ticked off, and so you contact the authorities and report this dangerous driving. The images from your dashcam allow authorities to track me down. Another dangerous driver will be brought to justice. But when records from my EOBR are pulled they show that I have a stellar driving history. My drivers abstract is also squeaky clean along with my CVOR. What comes to light is the fact that I’m human and I screwed up. The EOBR provided some context to the incident recorded by the dashcam. Of course there are two sides to every coin. The EOBR could have shown the opposite. I may have rarely been in compliance with hours of service laws and my drivers abstract may have read like a novel and my CVOR could have been its sequel. In that case I’d deserve to have the book thrown at me.

So the dashcam captures driver error at any point in time but it doesn’t always provide context. Many times a driver’s poor performance is the result of negligence but not always. Using both monitoring technologies provides balance and can give us the big picture. It’s pretty hard to go anywhere these days without having your actions captured on video, whether you agree to it or not. It seems we are all fair game in the public space that we live in. It would not surprise me if all vehicles are equipped with video recorders as standard equipment a few years down the road. I would not want to be without an EOBR if this should come to pass.

Neither dashcams nor EOBR’s can prevent collisions. But can they improve safety? They definitely provide a record that we can use in training, educating, and mentoring drivers to improve safety on our public roads, not just for commercial drivers but for all drivers. That should be our goal rather than simply going after everyone that makes a mistake.

This is another example of how important it is to have open and honest communication between drivers, carriers, and law enforcement. Legislation imposing the use of EOBR’s is still pending but will in all likelihood come to pass. Will legislation in regard to video recorders in commercial vehicles be far behind?

They Took my Stickshift Away!

This post appeared in Truck News May, 2014

Back in February I jumped into a 2015 Cascadia Evolution. The catch was that it came equipped with a Detroit DT12 automatic transmission. I talked to a few folks I knew that had made the change to an automatic, drivers that I thought would never make the change from a stick, and received a lot of positive feedback. Turns out I found it to be a pretty slick combination myself. I had tested an automatic for a 3 month period several years ago and couldn’t wait to get back in to my old truck at the time. Automatic transmissions have come a long way in a short period of time. I’m already averaging a full mile per gallon in fuel savings over my previous Cascadia equipped with a 13 speed standard transmission and since my company pays a fuel bonus what’s not to like?  A couple of things have come up but so far the good outweighs the bad by a long shot.

The DT12 has an economy setting which is the fully automatic mode and a manual setting allowing the driver full control over gear selection. Once the cruise speed is set in the economy mode the DT12 pretty much drives itself. On a downgrade it will grab lower gears and engage the engine brake to hold your cruise speed. For steep mountain grades and/or poor weather conditions simply flick it over to manual mode and you have full control of gear selection and engine brake application(s). The transmission shifter and engine brake are combined in a paddle lever mounted to the steering column under your right hand so if you’re cruising along and have a need to avoid that deer or moose spooked out of the bush just flick your fingers downward to manually engage your engine brake as you brake and steer. With disc brakes on all axles there is plenty of smooth stopping power. Rollover stability provided by Meritor provides some additional peace of mind. Like I said, it pretty much drives itself.

Because I do a fair amount of LTL work I had some concerns about how it would handle the city driving and how responsive it would be working in tight quarters. I had no need to worry. The DT12 shifts smoothly under a variety of loads and will “creep” slowly if just left in gear as you reverse into a dock. Nice. So far so good, but what about snow & ice?

At this point I have not completely overcome my bias for a standard transmission in poor weather conditions. Maybe it’s not so much a bias as a comfort level I have developed with a stick. I still feel somewhat disconnected from the road surface sitting on top of an automatic. Maybe that will change in time. That being said, I’ve had the opportunity (or bad luck) to have run in a variety of snow conditions as the never ending winter of 2014 dragged on. The DT12 gets a passing grade from me on snow and ice but I have plenty of experience to fall back on. What I have been wondering is how a new driver would handle winter conditions in one of these trucks.

Because trucks equipped with automatic transmissions are so easy to drive and provide improved fuel economy they are very attractive to large fleets. With the driver shortage there’s no doubt fleets are using the attraction of an automatic to lure new drivers behind the wheel. But what about driver training? These trucks may require far less input from the driver by removing the burden of shifting gears but what are the disadvantages of not having that experience in your toolbox as a professional driver?

My concern for new drivers in these trucks is their first experience in poor winter weather conditions. In a truck with a standard transmission you can feel a truck breaking traction. It’s difficult to describe but you develop a sensitivity to the road surface when you have driven a stick for a number of years. You carry that experience forward when you climb into a truck with an automatic transmission but I don’t believe you can develop that feel by driving an automatic. I’m not sure if that statement will make any sense at all to someone that has no experience driving a big truck but I’m sure any truck driver reading this will get it.

The DT12 will downshift on its own and apply engine brakes as needed. What if that occurs with a light load on a slick road? Has the new driver received the much needed mentoring to recognize the line between driving for economy and driving for safety? Perhaps my concern in this regard is misplaced. I hope it is.

The bottom line is that I’m willing to give this truck a couple of years to grow on me. I’ve probably shifted gears millions of times over the course of my career. At this point I’m not missing it.

Incentives and Disincentives

This post appeared in Truck News June, 2014

Many carriers have incentive programs in place for their drivers and I’ve been wondering how effective these programs really are. Most programs are based on quarterly results that track percentage of idle time, percentage of time on cruise control and keeping speed at or below a pre-determined maximum. The obvious purpose is to reduce fuel usage since these cost savings go straight to a carriers bottom line. There are many other factors that carriers may include in their fuel & safety incentive bonus programs. What peaked my curiosity about these programs was a conversation I had with a senior manager of a mid-sized carrier several months ago and it’s been germinating in the back of my mind ever since.

This particular carrier had been running a new incentive program for about a year and I knew the program was generous and simple in its structure making the bonus attainable for any driver worth his or her salt. So I was a little taken aback when I was told yes, the company was pleased with the cost savings but disappointed to find that drivers were taking more time off as a result. A majority (not all) of this companies drivers saw an opportunity to take the bonus in the form of more home time rather than more money in the bank. The bonus simply replaced the drivers’ regular earnings. So there was no net loss or gain to the drivers’ income. The carrier gained on the hard cost of fuel saving but lost on the productivity side. Interesting eh?

Put a group of truckers together and you’ll be hard pressed to get them to reach a consensus on many of the hot button issues we face in the industry today. But one thing I believe we can all agree on is that time is money and a driver’s time is often not respected as it should be. No, I don’t believe there is an intention on the part of carriers to screw drivers over in respect to their time, whether it be time on the clock or a driver’s personal time. But the fact is that a driver’s stress level is affected by time conflicts more than any other issue. Let’s take a look at a couple of obvious examples that we see time and again across our industry.

Dock delays. We hate dock delays. Paying us for dock delays only dulls the pain, it doesn’t resolve anything. Even a delay of only a few hours can cost us a whole day due to the nature of the hours of service requirements or the fact we may miss a pickup or drop later in the day and end up spending a night waiting for that shipper or receiver to open the following morning.

Equipment downtime. This has been a horrendous problem since the introduction of the EPA 07 and EPA 10 regulations. It’s getting better but it still sucks. It’s not so much the initial breakdown as the time it takes to get the truck back up and running again. Sure, most companies, the reputable ones at least, compensate us in the form of layovers and house us in a motel until the repair is done. But a breakdown always seems to happen when you planned to be home for little Johnny’s birthday. Nobody wins in this situation.

You may look at the above two examples and say hey, wait a minute, that’s just trucking. Those are situations beyond a carrier’s control. Well, maybe they are. But I would bet that if drivers were paid by the hour for all of their on duty time then carrier lobby groups would be all over shippers, receivers, and OEM’s like ugly on an ape in order to resolve the problem. If that type of pressure failed to work then I think we would see freight rates start to reflect the true cost of doing business.

Then there are those unlucky drivers out there that find themselves working for the fly by night operators or the all around cheapskates. Many of us have been there, usually in our first year working in the trucking biz when we didn’t know any better. I could make a long list of time abuses these carriers typically pile on to drivers but I don’t have the space. If you work for one of these outfits don’t look for a bonus incentive program in your future as long as you stick with them.

Drivers, like anyone else, have an expectation of an income in line with their skill level and performance. We recognize and embrace the commitment we have to make in order to succeed in this business. Incentive bonus programs recognize our skill, performance, and commitment. Those same programs are also allowing the drivers that choose to do so improve their quality of life by taking additional time off without a loss of overall income. That’s a good thing.

Bring on the Wellness Advisors

This post appeared in Truck News July, 2014

“Speedy Transport has hired a wellness advisor. Will this role become a trucking mainstay?” Truck News asked that question in their June edition under the headline Focus on wellness. Assistant editor Sonia Straface interviewed Jared Martin, CEO of Speedy Transport along with Jason Jannetta, Speedy’s newly minted driver trainer and wellness adviser. The resulting article was a fascinating read. I for one am keen to see trucking companies marry driver training to driver wellness. In my opinion this would be a win/win for drivers and their employers.

The Globe & Mail published “The business case for healthy and happy employees” the same week the above Truck News article was published. Here a just a couple of highlights from that article.

·         An investment in wellness programs returns two to five times the cost to the bottom line

·         Wellness programs ignite employee engagement and should be seen as a strategic initiative not just an independent program run out of the human resources department

Over the past few years we have seen a much greater awareness of driver health issues throughout the trucking industry. A number of companies have run weight loss challenges and the trucking media reports on driver health issues more frequently and in more depth than they have in the past. I have attended a number of seminars on the subject myself but rarely are other drivers in attendance. From what I have seen so far drivers don’t appear to be changing their habits in significant numbers.

Drivers may be well aware of the negative effects of fast food, a sedentary life behind the wheel, lack of exercise, and smoking but many are resigned to accepting this as part of the job. This is often summed up in the expression, “that’s trucking”. In other words it’s always been done that way and will never change. Kudos to Jared Martin of Speedy Transport for taking a more innovative approach that engages drivers through a wellness advisor rather than delivering a canned program that many drivers would probably end up leaving on the shelf.

For the past 14 years I have kept a focus on my own health to combat the negative effects of this sedentary lifestyle. The prescription for anyone to improve their physical health is pretty simple. Eat in a healthier way, don’t smoke, and exercise more. It goes without saying that that is easier said than done. My experience over the past year has been a case in point. Despite all the knowledge I have gained and all the successes I have experienced I know I would benefit greatly at this point in my life if I were able to sit down with a wellness advisor and gain a fresh perspective.

In the autumn of 2000 I committed to changing my life one day at a time. I had much success. First I quit smoking and the next year I started following that simple prescription of eating less and exercising more. It worked. By the end of 2011 I had lost over 80 pounds and had taken up running as my exercise of choice. For much of that time I had been doing open board long haul work usually on the road for 3-4 weeks then home for 3-5 days. I think it was the fall of 2010 I started doing a dedicated run from southwestern Ontario to Winnipeg every week. That put me home 2 days per week. Life was good. In the spring of 2012 I started working with a personal trainer two days per week and my health stepped up another notch. I had never felt better. I was investing ten to twelve hours per week in exercise at this point and that is a huge time investment for a long haul truck driver but to me it was worth every minute. Life is all about impermanence though and my circumstances changed.

After working for several years in Asia our daughter returned home in 2010, married, and the grandchildren started to appear. For my wife and I having our daughter and grandchildren in our lives was the best thing that could happen. Changes, even positive ones, can have ripple effects that we don’t foresee though. It’s no longer feasible for me to invest ten to twelve hours per week exercising. I simply don’t have that amount of time available anymore. So for the past year I’ve been struggling to find a new balance and feel that my personal health is slipping backwards. Time at the gym has stopped, running has been reduced to walking sporadically and my frustration is building. Life is difficult isn’t it?

My story isn’t your story but as drivers we all have one thing in common. We invest a huge amount of our lives in our work. Time is precious. I say bring on the wellness advisors to help each of us find that balance.

Changing the Game

This post appeared in Truck News August, 2014

Jason Jannetta, aka @speedywellness on twitter, uses the #changethegame hashtag in his posts to promote the adoption of a healthy trucking lifestyle. Hashtags are search terms used on the micro blogging site, when you search a hashtag on twitter it will bring up all the tweets that have been made with that term in the text of the post. “Change the game” is a great way to express in a few words that we don’t have to continue to live the status quo, a lifestyle of fast food, lethargy, and bad habits that have a negative effect on our health. We can choose to live differently.

Is there any reason to limit an attitude of changing the game to our own personal health? It seems to me that the trucking industry in general is ripe for a host of driver driven game changing initiatives that will benefit the whole industry. The ways in which we interact with one another and with our employers and business partners is changing across our society. We are starting to see ideas, information, and intellectual property shared freely across the internet. Social media programs such as Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, and a host of others are available to us at no cost to share that information. The game has definitely changed and continues to change in the information world. The terms “open source” and “crowd sourcing” are becoming commonplace. How would you rate the trucking industry in terms of attitudes towards crowd sourcing and open source sharing of information? Would your give them a passing or failing grade?  Are these ideas even on the radar for you as a driver or front line employee within the trucking industry?

In my home town of London, Ontario over 15,000 citizens have come together to develop a plan, The London Plan, that looks forward over the next 20 years. Tired of the stale ideas and lack of movement by city councils of the past and present they have put together a platform that is changing the game of how local politics are practiced, how ideas are shared and developed, and moving the focus of local politics back on to the private citizen over the corporate citizen. This movement is fueled by making ideas and information openly available to all and by adopting a system that encourages participation by the individual. All are welcome.

Where would we be today if this approach had been taken towards the adoption of the hours of service regulations we all must abide by? My belief is that the universal goal of the hours of service regulations is one of public safety. Would we be in the situation we are in now that sees all the different parties butting heads to reach the same goal if we had applied the concepts of crowd sourcing and the open sourcing of information? I don’t think we would be. The first comprehensive studies that were made regarding driver fatigue and on which much of the initial rules were based have been lost in all the noise. It seems to me that we have devolved to the point that each special interest only makes available information that supports their own narrow cause, belief, or ideology. The benefit of a comprehensive set of guidelines to manage the root issue of driver fatigue, an enhanced quality of life for the front line worker, and raising the bar of public safety is completely lost.

Hours of service is but one issue. What if OEM’s had come together to share information openly and freely in regard to meeting the EPA07 and EPA10 standards for emissions? Would we have suffered the same amount of downtime, fuel mileage losses, and the many other related costs? We’ll never know the answer to that. But what of the future in regard to meeting fuel mileage standards and carbon emissions? That is still an open question.

As individuals the ability to influence change is at our fingertips. All that is required is an attitude that is open to new ideas and a willingness to share your thoughts and opinions honestly, openly, and with integrity. Believe it or not the majority of people that run for public office actually want to serve the public good. Your city councillors, members of provincial and federal parliaments should be in your address book along with your boss, leaders of industry, business associations and media. You can easily share your thoughts, ideas, and aspirations with them. Put aside your partisanship and share what you believe for all to see, comment on, and build on. Allow your personal & family values to shine through and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results over time. To me this is where crowd sourcing starts. You need to make that leap of faith. You may possess the next big idea and not even know it.

Can we change the game? You bet we can.

Why Self Driving Trucks are Redundant

This post appeared in Truck News September, 2014

With all the reports out of Germany in early July regarding Daimlers driverless trucks I can’t help but throw in my own two cents on this topic as a full time driver.

We all know that the majority of collisions on our roads are caused by driver error. Automation can eliminate fatigued driving, distracted driving, speeding, and other bad driving habits. If safety were the sole motivator of vehicle automation we would all be embracing the technology. But of course safety is only one factor albeit an important one. When technology impacts our personal lives and changes how we live, work, and play then the issue becomes murky.

So what about productivity gains? The first thing that comes to mind is improved fuel mileage. I was surprised that Daimler stated this technology would mean an immediate gain of 5% in fuel mileage. Five percent? Really? That’s it? I have no idea how Daimler calculated this but research has shown that drivers can impact fuel economy by as much as 20% according to some of the Fleetsmart training material I’ve been exposed to. I’ll assume that Daimler’s numbers are gains above their current fuel mileage standards of vehicles driven to specification, something that doesn’t happen all of the time in real world application. So I think trucking companies would realise much better gains in fuel economy with automated trucks. In this regard is automation much different than imposing speed limiters on the industry since a driver would always be behind the wheel? Would it be accepted by current drivers any differently than speed limiters have been?

What do you think about this quote taken from the pages of Truck News on July 3? “Daimler demonstrates self-driving trucks”

“Autonomous driving will inevitably also change the job profile of truck drivers,” said Dr. Ing. Klaus Ruff. “They will gain time for other activities than just driving the truck: office work, social interaction, and relaxation periods. Autonomous driving will make the driver’s working time more varied and less stressful, and help to make long-distance driving more attractive as a profession.”

Okay so first of all let’s look at the concept of office work while on the road. Are we to become driver / dispatcher / load planner? Perhaps we are. There are great efficiencies and costs to be gained here but it’s not what I signed up for, how about you?

On social interaction? I spend 120 hours per week in my truck. I drive it, eat in it, and sleep in it. In an automated truck I would still be doing the same. Social interaction would come through electronic media which gets old in a hurry.

Relaxation periods? Those happen outside the normal working environment. Just because I don’t have to pay attention to the road does not necessarily equate with relaxation time. The greatest stresses we face as drivers result from the amount of time we spend on the road not from how we spend that time on the road.

For me relaxation and social interaction happen when I am at home away from the everyday responsibilities of the job and not in care and control of my vehicle. That care and control happens whether I am on duty or not. I’m not clear on exactly how my working time will become less stressful if you were to turn over some of my driving responsibilities to an automated truck, replace them with some “office work” but still leave me with 100% of the responsibility for the operation of that truck while it’s rolling down the road. After all I would still be the driver of record in the seat, right?

How would all of this equate to our profession becoming more attractive? I’m not clear on that. Why would someone want to sit in a truck for all of those hours doing the work they could do at home on a tablet unless they were paid an above average income? They wouldn’t. If automation is about efficiency how is this attractive in any way? It’s not. It’s just a stepping stone to automated driverless trucks. That’s where the real cost savings and improved safety lie. The driver is the weak link here and I don’t think we should lose sight of that fact.

This is a contentious opinion, I know, but where else does automation lead in regard to cost control? We only have to look around to see how labour intensive positions are being made increasingly redundant through technology. This has been going on for decades now and it is not going to abate anytime in the near future.

There is no doubt in my mind that automated trucks that eventually lead to driverless trucks is a good thing for our society on many fronts. At the same time it leads to the redundancy of millions of middle class jobs from the marketplace across North America.

We certainly have no final word on this topic.

Coming to Terms With Depression

This post appeared in Truck News October, 2014

Driver health issues now receive more attention and are given a higher priority than at any time in the past and that awareness continues to grow. We tend to focus on the benefits of a healthy diet and regular exercise rather than on a drivers mental and emotional health. If that space between our ears is out of tune then finding the motivation to maintain our bodies can be difficult and even seem impossible at times. This is a catch 22.  We know that exercise and a healthy diet boost our mental health but feelings of unhappiness, stress, and unease can make a bag of potato chips and soda in front of the TV seem like the best option to quench those feelings. It’s also much easier to talk about physical health over mental health. Our individual feelings of discomfort are generated by many sources, some of which are deeply personal and private. This adds to the difficulty we find in starting a discussion or seeking help when it’s needed. When you take all of that and add in the solitary lifestyle of the commercial driver you provide fertile ground for unhappiness and depression to take root.

I’ve been battling feelings of depression for the past year or two. It’s hard for me to say that. In my own mind I’ve just been calling it “unease” because it sounds so much better. Admitting to feeling depressed feels like you’re admitting to a deep dark secret or some sort of major personality flaw. In fact though it is only when you face up to that depression and talk about it that you come to understand where it is coming from. For me depression is rooted in burnout and fatigue. I think that many professional drivers suffer from burnout and fatigue for varying periods of time. We just call it “the blues”.

I’m not going to play the role of an armchair psychiatrist here. I don’t possess the qualifications nor the training to offer sound mental health advice. But I can present one drivers perspective on what I believe some of the pervasive practices and cultural norms are within the trucking industry that lead to burnout, stress, and depression.

·         The 60-70 hour work week. This is so obvious we don’t recognise it as a major problem. We compound the problem as drivers by pushing inefficiencies like dock delays into our “off duty” time. This has become an accepted practice within the industry.

·         We are classed as unskilled workers but held to account for our actions like highly skilled, well trained professionals. This is a paradox and leads to a good deal of anxiety, especially for new & novice drivers. Ongoing driver training is poor in this industry. Initial training and accreditation is pathetic in comparison to the high level of enforcement & accountability driver’s face from a multitude of enforcement agencies as well as internal industry policies & audits.

·         Salary & compensation. It’s shrinking year by year as responsibility & accountability increases. Drivers have no option but to stay on the road longer adding to burnout & fatigue.

·         Mergers & Acquisitions. Nothing adds to your stress level like not knowing if you’re going to have a job next week. If you do will you go from being a person to a number? Will you be expected to give up some of your compensation & benefits gained through hard work, dedication, and experience for the shareholder that just funded the buyout?

·         Technology & big data. This should be making our jobs easier and more enjoyable but it’s not. It seems to be the basis for greater “safety through enforcement” which simply pisses drivers off rather engaging them in a safety culture. I may be over the top with that statement. I enjoy the technological advances on many fronts but the enforcement culture is killing the benefits.

·         Hours of service. All that can be said here is that if you want to burn people out as quickly as you possibly can simply force them to rest when they don’t need to and make them work when they are ready to rest.

These are just some of the issues I think we all face as commercial drivers when it comes to dealing with burnout, fatigue, and depression. If they are not a direct cause of depression they will compound problems individuals are facing in their personal lives. This is especially true in the area of personal relationships & personal finance.

The bottom line for me is always the issue of time. Having enough of it available to care for myself and for my immediate family is a challenge to say the least. Maybe you’re feeling the same way.

Have Border Crossing Checks of Personal Devices Become Too Invasive?

This post appeared in Truck News November, 2014

For large numbers of Canadian drivers crossing the U.S. border is part of the regular driving routine. This past September I was pulled in for a secondary inspection at the port of Pembina, ND. This is not unusual. I was pulling an empty trailer and it was a random inspection, at least to the best of my knowledge. Secondary inspections are thorough, starting with a full scan of the truck followed by a thorough search of the cab by customs officers. As a driver you wait in the customs office after parking and are subject to a personal search in a separate room. This is not anything too invasive, simply emptying your pockets and answering a few questions about what is in the cab of your truck. Do you have any weapons? Do you have any cash over $10,000? Do you have alcohol or tobacco on board? Do you have any fruits & vegetables? As all of us that cross the border on a regular basis know, you must declare all of these things. This is standard procedure on both sides of the border. But in this instance I was also asked what electronic devices I had and was asked to provide passwords to access them.

“Is there anything on the hard drive of your laptop you want to tell me about”? I was asked.

About 90 minutes after arriving at the port I was cleared and on my way down interstate 29. I have been through many secondary inspections at the international border over the course of my driving career. I don’t take these inspections personally because I recognise and agree with the necessity of the process. I have always been treated professionally by members of the U.S. border service and Canadian border services. I’ve always recognized that I am a guest in the U.S. and conduct myself as such. But when someone walks through your bedroom and rifles through your personal effects all of the reason and justification for that action does not stop the feeling of intrusion on your personal privacy from creeping into your thoughts and stirring your emotions. I started to stew in my own juices as I continued down the road.

My thoughts first turned to all of the regulations commercial drivers must comply with starting with roadside inspections. My last inspection had been on the side of the road, literally. It had taken place just outside of Green Bay on Wisconsin highway 29. It was a blitz by Wisconsin State Police. Commercial vehicles were being randomly inspected on both sides of the highway. I downloaded my electronic logs to the officers email account and provided documentation to support them. A canine unit was involved in the inspections so a drug sniffer dog was walked around the outside of my truck as part of the process. I will say again, that like my treatment at the border, the conduct of enforcement officials over the course of my career has been nothing short of professional and courteous. This has held true for me throughout jurisdictions across North America.

So what was I getting myself worked up about? This is the law of the land I’m complying with. I have nothing to hide and it’s just part of my job. But my mind had not finished with its walk down the path of injustice to my ego. I started thinking about electronic on board recorders and hours of service rules. I started contemplating the implications of the expanding field of telematics and driver monitoring technologies. I started deliberating in my mind the pros and cons of automation within the trucking industry, where that would lead, and where would that leave me in another 10 years. I thought about how large trucking companies rationalise the millions of dollars they spend on technology to improve the bottom line and the miniscule amounts that are spent on driver training and development in comparison.

It wasn’t long before I pulled myself back into the present moment and started to enjoy the view outside of my office window again. The hum of a diesel engine and the rhythmic sounds of rubber rolling across concrete and asphalt are soothing to a trucker. Add a little rock n’ roll via the radio or your ipod and your mind slips back into that little slice of heaven on wheels. Truck driving is still a great gig despite everyone’s efforts to make it otherwise I think to myself.

The world is changing rapidly and so is the trucking industry. There are many outside pressures on drivers today that did not exist when I entered this business over 15 years ago. For the most part drivers have been left to adapt to these pressures on their own. This trend has played into the current driver shortage in a big way and needs to be addressed.

In Praise of Good Mentorship Programs

This post appeared in Truck News December, 2014

The dry swirling snow had packed itself under my rig. The steady growl of the truck’s diesel engine, muffled by the snow, was now a low hum. The road in front of me was a ribbon of unbroken snow. The world had taken on a dream like quality in the falling snow. The trees on the mountain side were completely wrapped in blankets of white. Solitary, peaceful, and surreal. It was a perfect night as I cut through almost a foot of fresh snow climbing the last few kilometres to Rogers Pass. This is when it dawned on me that I had not seen any cars, plows, or trucks since I had pulled out of Revelstoke. I was alone. Was I supposed to be out here? Had I missed a road closure sign in the snow? At this point I didn’t care. I had the perfect heavy load for the conditions. It was a beautiful night and I drank up the experience.

When I’m asked what it is about the trucking life that keeps me coming back week after week, the memory of that drive from Revelstoke to Golden is the memory I am quick to share. I’ve accumulated many more memories just like it over the years and there are many more yet to be experienced. This is the siren call of the trucking life and the weapon of choice in a recruiter’s bag of tricks. Come drive a truck and experience the open road. See the world.

Of course there are a good number of people, probably a majority, that ask me if I’m perhaps a little bit nuts to be enjoying an experience that they can only see as stressful. It’s the challenges we face as drivers and the joy we find in those experiences that define this trucking life. As I look back at the start of my career I can’t help but be thankful for the mentorship I received. Without a good mentorship program the recruiter’s promise of the freedom of the open road is an empty one. The joy of this work is rooted in the confidence you have in your ability to deal with the unexpected. A good trucking mentor instills you with a confidence in your own skills, a solid foundation on which to build your experience.

I spent nine months with my mentor and I view that time as an apprenticeship. How many first year drivers will be spending nine months with a mentor after graduating from a driving school and obtaining their licence? Probably not very many. It makes me wonder how many new drivers are building their experience on a foundation of fear of the unknown instead of that foundation of confidence I described above.

I’ve always held the opinion that the smaller family run trucking businesses do it best when it comes to training and mentorship. It’s a natural extension of the family dynamic, to take someone new under your wing and share your experience with them. There is as much in the experience for the trainer as for the trainee. It simply feels good to teach and to see someone benefit from that mentoring. Has this transfer of skills been lost in the now big business, big data world of trucking? I think it has to a large part.

Having spent three years of my career in a mentorship position I feel well qualified to tout its benefits. The drivers I spent time with were grateful for three to four months of intensive finishing. Not one of the drivers I spent time with would say they would have been better off if they were left to learn the ropes in the throes of a northern Ontario winter, in the canyons of the Fraser valley, or on the slopes of the Coquihalla. Intensive training immediately after drivers obtain their licence should be required for everyone entering this profession not just a lucky few. It only makes sense!

Finding well qualified drivers in this business is difficult. Finding well qualified drivers that are also well qualified teachers and mentors is even more difficult. Where do they come from? Who trains the trainers? Isn’t this the root of the driver shortage problem? Many people in the industry feel there are plenty of licenced drivers but they leave the industry after a very short period. Aren’t many of those people simply disenchanted with their initial experience? Would not many of them still be here if there was a greater investment in people at the outset?

Big trucking invests heavily in equipment and technology these days. This is still very much a people based business and big trucking needs to get on that track. My Christmas wish for our industry is to see training and mentoring become the top priority on our agenda. I wish. I wish.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Importance of a Proper Pretrip Inspection

This post appeared in Truck News November 2013.

Here's a couple of questions for you drivers. How thorough is your pretrip inspection? Do you feel it is a necessary and important part of your daily routine? Why or why not?

Fifteen years ago when I was going through the process to get my commercial license the general attitude towards pretrip inspections was: 'There is the ministry way and then there is the industry way'. In other words new drivers were led to believe they were learning skills to pass a test but those skills would not be practical for use on the job. I took the ministry way / industry way advice with a grain of salt. It turned out, at least in my case, that after obtaining my license any training I was to receive regarding the 'industry way' was non existent. Over the years the school of hard knocks has taught me that a thorough pretrip saves me time, aggravation, and provides me with peace of mind by improving my workplace safety and reducing my exposure to risk. Oh my, that sounds like a safety manager talking doesn't it?

The one thing that drives me a little bit crazy when we start discussing pretrip inspections is that compliance with the law is so often cited as the reason they must be done. All drivers have sat through the multitude of safety meetings listening to the safety lecture. The daily vehicle inspection report must be completed once in every 24 hour period, you can be cited if it is not filled out properly, you must log a 15 minute pretrip, non compliance effects our CVOR, blah, blah, blah. So it goes. Before you know it everyone’s eyes glaze over in the meeting and an opportunity to have a group of drivers with various levels of experience share some knowledge and learn something practical has passed.

The best place to bring drivers together to talk about how daily pretrip inspections benefit them is in the yard. The central focus of the meeting should be a tractor and trailer that requires some attention. The meeting should not only be about identifying obvious air leaks, worn tires, loose hoses, and insecure freight. It should also be about identifying potential problems and preventing downtime out on the road. It's amazing what you can learn to watch for when you get a group of drivers together discussing their experience with a piece of equipment specific to the company they work for.

It is easy to fall into the trap of simply going through the motions when performing a pretrip. This is especially true if you drive for a company that does a top notch job of caring for its equipment. When tractors and trailers are inspected every time they return to the yard and kept in 'like new' condition it can lull you into a false sense of security. This can lead to the 'hook & run' approach when you set off from your home terminal. Why not? The truck and trailer have just been in the shop. Everything is good to go right? Why spend your time doing another inspection after a licensed technician has just inspected the equipment? You need to verify that for yourself. Sometimes a fault can arise when you hook a specific tractor to a specific trailer. This happened to me on my most recent trip. All of the running lights and signal lamps were functioning on the trailer but I didn't have any brake lights. It was simply a poor connection where the electrical cord plugs into the trailer and was corrected in less than 2 minutes. A quick walk around probably would have not caught that fault. Hook up, throw on your lights and 4 ways, everything looks good, hit the road. In this instance that wasn't the case. Heading into Toronto traffic without brake lights may have resulted in a rear end collision that could have cost me far more time and far more aggravation than a thorough pretrip did.

Let's face it. It's not easy to get drivers excited about performing routine inspections. This is the challenge that all of the good people in our safety departments face. As a driver my advice to you as a safety professional is this. Stop talking about how important pretrip inspections are to your company’s CVOR rating, your companies bottom line, and the fact that drivers must perform them because the law requires it. Instead have your shop manager lead a discussion around one of your pieces of equipment highlighting common problems drivers have experienced on the road and potential problems to watch for. This will lead to some great discussions and a true learning experience that drivers will benefit from. Drivers want to know 'what's in it for me'. Answer that question and you'll be pleased with the effect it will have on your companies CVOR rating and bottom line.

Seeking the Good Life

This post appeared in Truck News December 2013

Here we are again, another December and another year under our belts. For those of us on the front lines (and that's most of us) it's been a tough year, again. In fact we've had 5 difficult years in a row. Recent reports in the main stream media tell us that economies around the world are on the mend but it certainly doesn't feel like any type of economic recovery I've experienced in the past. Our youth are still struggling to find steady work, increasing numbers of people are dependent on food banks, and more folks seem to be only a paycheck or two away from financial dire straits. This is what the talking heads must mean by a “fragile” economic recovery.

Sitting in our den with my two grandchildren the other night, enjoying the quiet time that comes between bath time and bed time, I was thinking about the fragile state of affairs in the world and I couldn't help but reflect on the quality of life my grandchildren will experience twenty years from now as they move into adulthood. I was reminded that a life well lived is one based in generosity, that to live a good life is to leave the world a better place for future generations, or at least attempt to. There is a richness to a successful life that goes far beyond personal status and material wealth. My father believed that his eternal life would be lived in the memories of the people he left behind and it was incumbent upon all of us to live a “good life”.

The question for many truck drivers today is how do you find the time to live a good life? By that I mean taking the time to spend with family, friends, and service to community. The majority of our time is spent in the workplace. The trucking industry is no longer the goose that lays the golden egg. Gone are the days of above average income for drivers. A full time truck driving job still provides a good income on which to build a financial foundation that we need to live that good life it just doesn't leave any time for you to live it.

So for the last couple of years I've been developing a sense of helplessness. It's no coincidence that the feeling started to arise shortly after my grandson was born in the summer of 2011 and my thoughts turned to how the world would look twenty years down the road. I'm losing confidence in our ability as individuals to make any kind of lasting positive change in our communities and workplaces.

It's risky to write about this stuff because it's so touchy feely. It is easy to come off sounding like a victim or a whiner when you should be pulling up your boot straps and putting your nose to the grindstone, at least in some peoples opinion. But the stresses are real. As drivers we are definitely torn between work and home. So is the answer as simple as pay us more money so we can spend more time at home? From most of the drivers I've spoken to about this the answer is a resounding yes. But we're told this is not a realistic solution in today's marketplace. Back to that fragile economy again.

The only steps I see available to drivers to resolve the disparity between time on the job and time at home is to find a job that pays the same money for less work or reduce your personal expenses / family expenses to the point that enables you to work less and spend more time at home on a reduced income. Or it may be a combination of the two. None of these options are pretty. The final option is to change career paths. That appears to be an option many drivers are looking at.

So this isn't a very good way to wrap up the year is it? But at the same time if we don't ask the questions or call a spade a spade we'll just remain in the same spot spinning our wheels. I don't see the next five years being any better than the last five for individual wage earners. The global marketplace is still growing and changing as billions of people strive to get to a place we have been enjoying here in the west for many decades. Perhaps we've taken our good fortune for granted or perhaps we have simply become complacent and allowed ourselves to be led down a path not completely of our choosing.

What I do know is that if we want to live that good life we need to wake up, participate, and influence change for the better in any way that we can.

Regulations Eroding Freedom of the Job

This post appeared in Truck News February 2014.

“I moved here to be with the love of my life. I hope he realizes on nights like this when I drive home from work, I risk my life to live with him!”

That was a comment made by one of my friends after a harrowing winter drive from London to her home in Tillsonburg.  It made me realize that what I consider fun and challenging is to most people an experience they would rather do without. When it comes to winter driving the majority of people are white knuckling it out there, and it shows. My driving experiences over this past holiday season re-enforced my belief that the greatest hazard we face on the road as professional drivers, is in fact, other drivers. You can manage the curves that Mother Nature throws at you pretty well, but managing the actions of other drivers is a different story.

By far the majority of “accidents” I saw over the course of the 2013 holiday break involved a single vehicle. The majority of people had simply run off the road and the bulk of those events resulted in a simple winch back on to the road accompanied by a bruised ego. It wasn’t difficult to pick out the higher speed events. Rollovers and vehicles that had ridden the guard rail or retaining wall for extended distances. I’ve found that the best practice for staying safe in the winter months is to simply stay as far away from other drivers as you can, or at least give it your best shot. If there is a pack of vehicles traveling together, bumper to bumper during poor weather events, I don’t want to be near them. I know that’s easier said than done when faced with some of the busiest travel days of the year.

When I do have to travel close to others I try to bear in mind that most folks behind the wheel of passenger vehicles (some commercial vehicles too, let’s not forget) are pretty nervous on snow and ice. Patience. Patience. Patience. That’s the key. Although I admit my patience wears pretty thin at times.

That leaves a minority group of drivers that usually make driving truly miserable for the rest of us. You know, the ones that may be sliding into you from behind, or spinning out in front of you, or bouncing off a wall or guardrail and ending up underneath you.  They exude overconfidence and a general disregard for safety. If you are practicing patience you would call this group of drivers a challenge.

My friends comment also spoke to the value we place on different classes of work. When I tell someone that I drive for a living it can sound like a pretty cushy job, or at least pretty simple and straightforward. It’s not often a person views a professional drivers job through the anxiety they have experienced driving in crappy weather. When the average person recognizes that driving may put their life at risk it says a lot about what we expose ourselves to every day as professional drivers. In fact it’s easy for us to forget about that and become complacent as we tackle the daily grind.

When I get out in the nasty weather it gives me a true appreciation of how much I enjoy my work. In a funny sort of way coping with the risks we face on the road every day is where I find the greatest joy in the job. After all that’s where true freedom lies isn’t it? Having the ability to choose your own path down the road.

The comment my friend made about the stress of her commute home got me thinking about a lot of different anxieties we face as drivers. But my mind always comes back to the issues we face surrounding our freedom of choice and the effect that has on our personal safety and that of the traveling public. Road safety is about the driver behind the wheel making the right choices. Those choices extend beyond the decisions we make when we are behind the wheel. Over the course of the last few decades professional drivers have found their hands increasingly tied when it comes to how they manage their time, when they should drive, and when they should rest.

The freedom of the open road is the greatest attraction the trucking industry has to offer when it comes to recruiting and retaining people with the right skill set and personality traits to get the job done in the best and worst of conditions. That freedom continues to be eroded through hours of service legislation, consolidation of the industry through mergers & acquisitions, and technology implemented to control actions of drivers rather than complement their skills.

My friend reminded me we put our lives on the line every day in our profession. Our safety is dependent on our freedom to choose. Is that something we have given up on?