Woke up expecting the worst this morning but my fears were allayed when I drew back the curtains. It was snowy but a full blown storm had not developed overnight. Good deal.
After pretripping the truck and crawling out of the truck stop I found the interstate mostly bare and wet, just a few sections east of Mauston with some remaining snowpack on which the road salt was still doing its work.
Today was one of the better drives around Chicago, no delays, caught it after the morning rush. Quick stop for lunch at the Michigan welcome Centre, across the border in minutes, at the yard by 21:00, home by 23:00. Perfect. Four days, 4,400 km.
Today was one of those trucking days I just get lost in my own thoughts. I have a lot of days like that, lol. Today it was thoughts about conservatism, the old vs the new. Maybe share those thoughts one day, but today's not the day.
Just one of those days. Walked over to the Tim Horton's in Morris, MB this morning to grab coffee and make use of their free WiFi, of course I forgot my glasses and couldn't see a thing.
Today I'm dragging an empty down to Perham, MN for a load of snacks.
Caught up to a little snow heading down I29 towards Fargo that turned in to iced over roads on US10 as I headed over to Perham. Plenty of cars in the ditches.
Loaded in Perham then it was sloppy roads down to the twin cities. I caught up to snow again in earnest around Eau Claire, WI. By the time I reached Mauston the roads had pretty much gone to hell. It was bedtime at the Kwik Trip. Friggin' tired.
The post below (black type) is my regular monthly column submitted for publication in the February issue of Truck News. It's a call for drivers to not just speak out but to act out by sharing their experience(s). Stories are powerful tools for affecting change and we - drivers - have thousands of them to share. It's time that we did. More on this in future posts and columns.
It is a privilege to be able to speak out on issues that
affect the transportation industry each month from the perspective of a long
haul driver. One of the temptations I
must face is whether or not to climb on my soap box and rant about the erosion
of the independent trucking lifestyle. With each passing month, “safety”, is
used as the overriding issue to push forward a broad agenda by a variety of
transportation lobbies that has little to do with the human safety issues we
face each day.
This fact hit home with me yet again as I was driving along
westbound I294 in Chicago late one evening this past December. I had that
“let’s get it done” trucker feeling, that energy that fills you up and has you
feeling like you could drive forever. You’re just cruising. The iPod is on
shuffle and each successive tune builds on the last. It’s just trucking and it
feels great. But you know there is a time each day when that feeling will end.
For me it’s 3 or 4 in the morning and 3 or 4 in the afternoon. That’s when I
need to be in the bunk and I know it. You, fellow driver, know when your
downtime is. The MTO doesn’t know, the DOT doesn’t know, the FMCSA doesn’t
know, the CTA doesn’t know, and the ATA doesn’t know. There isn’t a lobby group
or safety organization out there that can raise the level of public safety
better than a driver with a passion for trucking and the experience that has
taught them to recognize when they are in that trucking groove and when they
are not.
Yet on that December night when I was in peak performance
mode I had to shut it down, thanks to the hours of service regulations. Earlier
in the day I had to work through one of the downtimes in my circadian rhythm,
thanks to the hours of service regulations. When I found my groove I had to
park and sleep. When I would have been better off in the bunk I was on the
road. Rules and regulations aimed at building a safety culture often tear it
down by ignoring the human condition.
The industry as a whole has to face up to this issue. The
reason there continues to be such opposition to electronic logging devices is
the fact that they eliminate the flexibility for drivers to operate at the time
of day that best suits the drivers’ individual needs. This issue is so obvious
when you compare drivers that have a fixed daily routine to drivers operating
in the “open board” arena that has many variables throughout the day. Drivers
with daily dedicated runs rarely have an issue with ELD’s. The ELD eliminates
paperwork and saves time. But for the long haul driver it eliminates much of
the flexibility provided by paper logs. Let’s be clear, this isn’t about
working more hours but about flexibility within the 24 hour day. We need that
flexibility to rest when we need it. Flexibility allows us to find our trucking
groove each day and when we are in that groove we are awake, alert, aware,
motivated, and happy.
So there you have my rant from my soapbox, yet again. But
the question is, what can we do as a group to affect positive change? What
actions can we take? How do we come together around this basic issue that
effects public safety and our personal health and wellbeing?
The fact is we do not have a voice at the table. When
drivers do participate in the management of the industry by participating in
safety groups, industry think tanks, or panel discussions it is on terms
dictated by the transportation lobbies, regulators, and enforcement agencies.
These large lobbies focus on logistics, costs, corporate strategy &
positioning, politics and of course the bottom line. Drivers focus on the
individual human condition. Directors and managers practice trucking from the
boardroom and profit from it. Drivers live trucking from the driver’s seat and
suffer from it. The inability of the industry to recruit and retain drivers
along with the health issues drivers’ face supports my position.
Drivers will never gain a voice at the table through
divisive actions such as rolling blockades or withdrawal of labour. Those
actions will not affect long term positive change. We need to start holding the
trucking lobbies to account by bringing our individual stories to the attention
of our fellow citizens.
Every driver now has the tools to be able to tell their
individual story to the world. That is how we can make our voices heard. “I’m
as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” was Howard Beale’s mantra
in the movie Network. In 2016 it’s time individual drivers made that mantra
their own.
Watching this 2 minute excerpt from the movie it is hard to believe this was released 4 decades ago. It begs the question, what has changed? It's been about 40 years since this movie was released yet we continue to face the same issues, just replace the "Russians" with "Terrorism" and adjust your view to include the expansion of media through the internet.
What I would like to explore throughout 2016 is what we can do as individuals to change our circumstance, specifically within the trucking industry. I feel the key is for individual drivers to get their story out. By sharing our story's we will find the common threads that bind us together as drivers, then, maybe then, we can come together and influence this industry to take a turn in a more positive direction that benefits the driver as well as the shareholder. Yes, I may be a bit of a dreamer but what the hell, I don't want to take it anymore either.
This post was published in the January 2016 edition of Truck News
There is an awful lot done in the name of safety within the
trucking industry. The word safety is used to justify everything from the hours
of service rules to the random drug testing of drivers in the trucking business.
The great irony is that truck driving remains one of the most dangerous
professions. Based on the number of deaths per thousand, commercial truck
drivers usually come in in behind forestry workers, fishers, farmers,
construction workers, and airplane pilots on this list. But safety is not about compliance with a set
of rules in my opinion. Rules are simply the checklist of actions that lead to
a safe working environment. Safety in our business is about awareness. It’s
about focusing on the task at hand. It’s about being mindful of the present
moment, always. That focus is incredibly hard to maintain over the course of an
11-13 hour driving shift. We tend to think of safety revolving principally
around the task of driving and take for granted the other tasks we perform in
the course of a day. One of the dangers of working around heavy equipment by
yourself is that experience can breed complacency which can lead to injury.
I received a wakeup call this past November when I came
close to trapping myself between the bed of a trailer and the trailer tandems.
I was in the process of sliding the tandems on the trailer and was struggling
with a locking pin that was sticking in place. This was a task I have performed
countless times over the years. The short answer to the question, what were the
circumstances leading up to this close call, is that I was not focused and
being mindful of the task at hand.
It is very easy to get ahead of yourself in this game of
trucking. I had a full agenda on that day. There were four pickups waiting for
me to do that were spread across two states with a fairly narrow window of
opportunity to get the job done. The American Thanksgiving holiday was looming
and thoughts of planning my time to avoid the heavy traffic around Chicago the
following day while meeting the delivery requirements were on my mind. I also
had to work in a fuel stop and look after the customs paperwork for all four
orders. All of this would have meant nothing if I ended up with my arm pinned
from shoulder to wrist between 30,000 pounds of trailer and a set of duals.
Needless to say, my life moving forward would have changed forever if luck had
not intervened.
So I stood there in the parking lot that day gathering my
thoughts, giving thanks to the fact that I used a four foot pry bar to knock
that pin loose and not opted to grab a hammer and reach under the trailer to
knock it loose. I just wasn’t thinking. If I was I would have grabbed the pry
bar knowing what the potential dangers were not just because it was the
handiest tool. I was lucky and the experience raised a lot of questions. Here
are a few of them.
Am I protecting myself in the appropriate manner when I’m
performing all of the routine tasks in my day? Am I wearing my safety shoes,
work gloves, and safety glasses every time I step into the trailer to load or
unload freight? How many times have I dropped a load bar or freight on my feet
over the years? How many nails have I pulled out of the floor of trailers? How
many times have I cut myself on sharp metal on bars or pulled large splinters
out of my hands? How many times have I undecked freight above my head and
dropped dust and other crap in my face and eyes? Have I always been fully
conscious of how freight shifts when I release straps? How many times have I
come close to trapping myself between pieces of freight or the sidewall of a
trailer or have to jump out of the way of freight falling from above?
You get the point. Many of you, probably most of you, have
suffered at least minor injuries being in one of these situations over the
years.
So does you or your company provide out of country medical
coverage? Do you have a long term and short term disability insurance plan to
look after you if injured? How do these plans work if you are even aware of
them? What would be the consequences to you and your loved ones be if you were
injured and did not have coverage?
It’s January, a new year is at hand. If you’re looking to
make some simple resolutions that can have a lasting impact on your career and
personal life, this would be a great place to start. Safety first folks, nobody
has our back out there.
This post was published in the December 2015 issue of Truck News
Every driver brings a different perspective as to how this
trucking life affects them today and how it has affected them in the past. I
re-invented myself in mid-life as a trucker. I wasn’t born and raised in this
profession. So it was a privilege for me to sit down and shoot the breeze with
a couple of drivers that cut their teeth as drivers driving B model Mack’s in
the early seventies. Our conversation wasn’t a trip down the memory highway
re-living the glory days of the past. It was a conversation about the lifetime
effects of trucking on the individual and where it leaves you as you end your
career and move into retirement. So I
thought I would share some of the thoughts that came out of that discussion.
I’ve known both of these drivers for quite some time, for privacy, I’m just
going to call them Joe and Bob.
Bob is now working part time, about 40 hours per week, (which
is full time in any other profession) and taking a couple of months each winter
to head down south with his spouse. Bob is at the age of retirement and despite
planning well financially is concerned about whether his self-administered savings
and investments are going to last through retirement. Should he keep working?
This is a question faced by many drivers at retirement age. Can we afford to
retire? But it is compounded by something else that weighs heavily on Bob’s
mind. He talked about a phone conversation he recently had with his wife, he could
tell there was something wrong by the tone of her voice.
“What’s wrong sweetie?” he asked.
“I’m just sitting here thinking this is another day that
we’re not together and we’ll never get it back”
she replied.
We don’t often talk about the touchy feely stuff in this
macho alpha male dominated industry. It was great to hear Bob express the deep
abiding love he has for his wife and how heavily the separation from our loved
ones affects drivers on a much deeper level as we age.
Joe added to that. After so many years on the road you find
yourself detached from your community. You don’t have close friendships outside
the trucking community. It can be difficult to socialize with people that
aren’t in your close circle of family. When you live on the road you quickly
lose touch with the people you may have grown up with. Life on the road is
about trucking and very little else. Where does this leave you when your
trucking career ends? It is no wonder that so many drivers find themselves back
on the road shortly after they retire. For a lifetime trucker, life is trucking
and trucking is life. There is often not enough to fill the emotional void when
a trucking career comes to an end.
Joe talked about how nothing is left at the end of a hard
career like this. The cupboard is basically bare. There is no pension. There is
no support system in place to make that transition from trucking to retirement.
After all the years of hard work, commitment, and loyalty, should drivers not
have an expectation of support from the industry? The easy answer to this is to
say that it is up to the individual to look after themselves. I disagree. The
trucking industry has been built on the backs of hard working individuals and
flourishes because of that ongoing commitment by those individuals. The
trucking industry could easily repay all that sweat equity through ensuring
that drivers receive the training they need over the course of their career to
plan for a smoother financial and emotional transition into retirement.
When I asked why drivers have not spoken up about these
issues over the course of their career the reaction from Joe and Bob was
basically the same - we’ve always waited for someone at the top to fix it. The
expectation has been that if you work hard you will be looked after. Not so
after all.
Both drivers are happy to see more women in the driver’s
seat because they’re much more aggressive in taking a grassroots approach to
bringing these problems to light. From
poor working conditions to health issues to driver compensation to painting a
true picture of what it is like on the road to deal with the stressors drivers
face on a daily basis.
The conversation I had with these two drivers was not about
trying to run the trucking industry down. Both of these drivers love this
business and their jobs. It is their passion.
For the past few months I have been writing about leadership
in the trucking industry. It’s a no brainer. If we want to attract, recruit,
and retain new blood for the driver’s seat we need to change how we treat
people. I believe it is that simple.
This post was published in the November 2015 edition of Truck News
Last month I coined the phrase, crisis in leadership, to
stimulate some conversation about how the continuing trend of mergers &
acquisitions by large trucking companies affects the driver on the front line. The trend of bigger is better in order to
compete in the global economy isn’t going away. So this month let’s take
leadership out of the boardroom and put it in the driver’s seat.
There is no doubt in my mind that truck drivers are the face
of the trucking industry. As such we are leaders of the industry in the eyes of
the general public. Our actions as drivers and how we conduct ourselves behind
the wheel reflect on the company name plastered across the rigs we drive and on
the industry as a whole. The expression ‘Knights of the Road’ sums up perfectly
not only the high level of leadership qualities drivers exemplify as they go
about their daily tasks but also the pride drivers take in their profession.
Let’s take a look of a few examples of what goes in to the
mix when we are looking for excellence in leadership from the driver’s seat.
·Drivers as leaders choose to be the face of a
safety driven culture not the face of recklessness.
·Drivers as leaders choose to be the face of
courtesy not the face of road rage.
·Drivers as leaders choose to hold themselves to
a higher standard of skill & awareness than the general public they share
the road with.
·Drivers as leaders choose to take actions that
inspire respect & trust not mistrust & fear.
So those are just a handful of traits that we associate with
being a leader, being a professional, being a Knight of the Road. You’ll notice
that I framed those traits as conscious choices we make. Those choices inspire
or discourage the people around us. As a driver there is no escaping the fact
that you will be judged by the public as a whole on the choices you make
whether you accept your role as a leader within the driving community or not.
But in this changing world drivers represent themselves and
the industry in another way. Across social media. It’s an interesting
conundrum. There are a lot of younger drivers that have broken in to the
trucking industry with a minimal amount of training and mentoring. This younger generation of drivers are the
heaviest users of new technology. This often results in bad experiences in the
field being aired across social media. That’s bad for all of us.
That point brings me to my favourite topic and its powerful
role in developing leadership. Training & mentoring. This is at the root of
all the major issues within the industry. There is a focus now on mandatory
entry level training. (MELT) That’s important but it needs to go so much
further than that. In order to refresh that Knights of the Road mentality we
need to integrate driver education into the driving position from cradle to
grave.
As a driver it is important not to underestimate your value
as a leader in this industry but it’s something we do all the time. It’s easy
to be reduced by large corporations to just a worker that picks up and delivers
freight. This is a problem that leaders in the boardroom recognize that but have
difficulty feeding that back to you in the driver’s seat. Most often it is
simply a failure of a large bureaucracy to deliver some simple messaging in a
meaningful way. That message is that you are important. The success of even the
largest transportation company is wholly dependent on the individual leadership
of each driver in the field.
So as a driver where do you go from here? Over half of us
have a lifetime of experience as drivers leading this industry and are dealing
with feelings of being left behind, of low morale, and of shrinking income as
we head in to our twilight years. It’s not enough for a guy like me to say hey,
it’s all about your attitude and how you lead this industry from the driver’s
seat. That is meaningful but it’s not enough. There are certainly no easy
answers, if there were I’d share them with you.
There are a lot of opinions out there of what leadership is,
what it looks like, and what it’s impact is on you as an individual driver but
there is no doubt in my mind that doing this driving job right and to the best
of your ability is not only fulfilling on a personal level but is beneficial to
all the other drivers in the field. I just keep slugging away.
This post was published in the October 2015 edition of Truck News
The accepted wisdom within the driver pool regarding the
driver shortage is that there is no driver shortage. Large numbers of people
that obtain their CDL discover it’s simply not their cup of tea after spending
a few months on the road. But is it trucking or the culture of the trucking
industry that is turning people off? I ask this question because it is not only
the newly minted driver that is being turned off it is also the seasoned
drivers that are experiencing a high level of dissatisfaction at present. That dissatisfaction
is expressed across a broad range of issues drivers face every day. We don’t
have a driver crisis in the trucking industry, we have a leadership crisis.
I’m defining leadership here as the movers and shakers that
steer the top 50 Canadian trucking companies. These are the people that
influence and guide policy in our industry. With each passing year these large
companies continue to grow primarily through mergers & acquisitions. The trucking landscape is becoming more
homogeneous. These large companies often share resources and follow the same
fiscal policies and “best practices”. Return on investment is the driving
factor for the majority of these companies. So even if you are not employed by
one of these companies as a driver they have an influence over you and that
influence continues to grow.
Drivers are dependent on the guidance and the vision of this
crop of leaders. There are three broad areas in which driver’s needs are not
being met. Trucker lifestyle (culture), Trucker health, and Trucker training.
The trucking lifestyle, the culture of trucking, is a
delicate thing. It takes a special type of person to do this job day in and day
out over the course of a lifetime. It requires a degree of passion. You don’t
do long haul trucking just for the money. That never works out. It’s very
difficult to list the qualities that make up a trucker but along with passion
goes independence. That independence is key to the trucking lifestyle. That
independence is being eroded by the methods our leaders are employing as they
adopt new technologies. The preferred method seems to be one of control and
restriction which is a method loathed by drivers. Adopting new methods &
technologies is a must but they have to complement and strengthen the
characteristics of a professional driver not create undue stress and limit the
drivers performance.
Trucker health is an issue that is getting much more
attention today than it has in the past. But a driver’s health goes far beyond
simple physical well-being. A driver’s mental health and emotional health is
key to a happy, safe, and highly motivated driver. For far too long leaders of
the trucking industry have been dragging their feet on some of the simple
issues related to health and safety. Safe havens for truck parking and well
equipped rest areas for drivers, especially in remote areas through which we
travel frequently. Adequate rest is THE hot button issue for an aging
demographic that makes up the majority of the driver pool. We spend very little
to no time at all dealing with the effects of aging and how it is affecting the
seasoned driver. How drivers are compensated falls into the health category.
Income is not keeping pace with the cost of living in fact we are moving
backwards. Drivers are “at work” for most of their lives. The ability to step
away from work on a regular basis to deal with burn out and fatigue is a must.
Drivers cannot do that unless they are compensated adequately.
Driver training is not an entry level issue. It is a cradle
to grave issue. The driving culture and a driver’s health are dependent on the
quality and consistency of driver education. Ongoing training for drivers does
not exist within our industry. This is our leaders’ biggest “fail”. How can you
possibly attract new blood to an industry that does not even have a system of
recognition for driver qualifications across different platforms? On this file
everyone seems to operate on a different page. Stories abound within the driver
rank and file of new drivers that are hired on with minimal training at the
same rate of pay as seasoned veterans with proven safety records. How can you
possibly develop and maintain a culture of workplace safety across the industry
without a system of universally accepted workplace training in place? Perform a
few queries on the internet and you will find truck driving is consistently in
the top ten most dangerous jobs. Thought that was firefighters & police?
They don’t even make the top ten list.
The crisis in leadership is the fact that professional
drivers, the backbone of the Canadian trucking industry, continue to be reduced
to nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet.
This post was published in the September edition of Truck News
This past July I was doing my regular gig, a rounder from
our terminal in southwestern Ontario up to Winnipeg and back. It was my first
week back after 2 weeks of vacation and the first leg went off without a hitch.
It was good to be back in the saddle again cruising through northern Ontario on
a beautiful weekend. Monday morning I hooked on to my wagon heading down to the
twin cities from Winnipeg and my first break was in Fargo to grab a cup of
coffee. I got back on the road now heading east into Minnesota on I94 and that’s
when the “tinkling” sound started.
Had I picked up some debris off the highway and it might be
stuck to my grill or front axle? I played with the throttle a little,
definitely not engine related. No vibration through the steering wheel, no play
in the steers, no pulling to the left or right. Tapped the brakes, nope, the
sound remained constant. Adjusted my mirrors to check all my drives, nope,
besides I’d just done a walk around a few minutes before & all was good.
Opened my windows all the way & couldn’t hear anything unusual over the
howl of the wind but as soon as I closed the windows there it was again. Dam,
it sounded like it was coming from behind the dash. So I started banging on the
dashboard as if I could beat the sound out of it. Nothing. That tinkling,
whistling, rattling sound was still there and it was driving me nuts.
Enough was enough, next exit I was ready to hit the shoulder
of the off ramp and pop the hood to see what was up. That’s when I felt the
breeze on my arm and it hit me. I’d left the top bunk windows in the sleeper
open. I started laughing at myself. Coming south on I29 into Fargo I had had a
tailwind all the way so there was no whistle from the windows but as soon as I
started heading east on I94 after grabbing my coffee that tailwind was now a
crosswind so the tinkling, rattling, whistling began. And I was hearing it
through the dash because the Cascadia I drive has vents for the upper bunk
right in front of the bunk window. It was like listening to Mom & Dad’s
conversation in the kitchen through the heating duct in your bedroom when you
were a kid.
If truck drivers share anything in common it is the fact
that we are all in tune with our ride in a way that normal people think is
somewhere between eccentric and downright weird. As soon as we hear something
out of the ordinary, smell something out of the ordinary, feel something out of
the ordinary, or see something out of the ordinary it sets us on high alert and
we HAVE to have an answer to put our minds at rest.
It’s this attention to detail that separates us from other
drivers on the road. It’s a quality that extends outside of the cab. It’s that
whisper of wet salted pavement at night that suddenly goes quiet and you know
you’re now on black ice even though the appearance of the pavement hasn’t
changed. It’s driving on that winding mountain road on a foggy late winter
morning and noticing that the snow on your shoulder is freshly plowed but the
other shoulder isn’t so you know that grader or plow is just ahead of you
working the shoulder even before you see it. It’s seeing the crosswind at the
tree break before it hits you, or preparing for the ice on that shaded corner
before you reach it. It’s knowing there are 2 more deer about to follow that
first one out of the bush. That’s trucking isn’t it? To be always prepared for
the unexpected and play it out in your mind ahead of time even though you may
have been down that road a thousand times.
Finally, a shout out to the officers working out of the OPP
detachment in Wawa, Ontario. I go through there every week and on the Saturday
prior to Christmas last year I was stopped at their RIDE check where I was
recognized from my picture that appears next to this column. As we chatted the
officer asked me to remind everyone to turn on your headlights day or night.
Well, wouldn’t you know I pulled up to another RIDE check in Wawa this past
July and that same officer said with a smile, “There are still a lot of drivers
running around up here with no lights on”.
One of the tenets of defensive driving is: ‘Make Sure They
See You’. So let’s all show our emergency responders some respect and turn on
those headlights.
This post was published in the August 2015 edition of Truck News
Most of us that drive long haul have to deal with two
competing hours of service rules. For the past several years I have split my
time fairly evenly between the Canadian and American jurisdictions. My opinion
on the two different sets of rules based on my experience is that Canadian
rules are pretty good but American rules are pretty awful.
For those of us that spend 60-70 hours in the driver’s seat
every week dealing with fatigue is not rocket science. The ability to be able
to plan your time forward over a period of 3-5 days, the flexibility to deal
with unplanned delay, the ability to start & finish your day at about the
same time each day, and the ability to rest each day in a safe haven are the
key ingredients to successfully coping with fatigue. The focus of dealing with
fatigue is on the driver most of the time but the driver is completely
dependent on the actions of shippers, receivers, dispatch, and enforcement in
order to get the rest he or she needs to remain productive & healthy.
The general consensus amongst sleep researchers is that most
adults require 7-8 hours of sleep per day. But it is not uncommon to find
people that require only 5-6 hours of sleep and others that require 8-9. Sleep
research has shown that one of the key elements to preventing fatigue is to
have a structured 24 hour cycle that allows you the ability to sleep at the
same time each day to obtain that sleep.
The Canadian rules accomplish this by allowing the driver to
stick to a 24 hour clock with fewer obstacles & greater flexibility. By
providing a 16 hour window each day in which you can take 2 hours of off duty
time in periods of 30 minutes or more you are provided with a good deal of
flexibility. Allowing up to 13 hours of driving time gives a driver some
flexibility over the course of a 3-5 day planning period to meet tight
deadlines that are often imposed upon the driver by forces beyond his control.
All in all I have found this to be a good system of time management for myself.
If I stay in Canada I don’t incur sleep debt on a daily basis and I’m able to
eat regularly and get some daily exercise. When you add electronic logging to
this mix many drivers that drive exclusively in Canada are finding that they
are provided with a system that is protecting their right to regular rest while
protecting their ability to earn a decent living.
In comparison the US system is horrendous. It gives you a 14
hour working window with a forced 10 hour rest period. For me, a driver that
has consistently slept for about 6 hours per day for most of my adult life that
10 hour rest period is incredibly burdensome. It forces me to cram all my
personal off duty time into one period and all my work time into another. By
allowing 2 hours less per day of driving time it encourages clock watching &
racing in order to meet your delivery obligations each day. This is a stress
and fatigue inducer. If you do want to take advantage of the 8 and 2 split to
make maximum use of your time you will find yourself driving for extended
periods so as not to waste your driving time. If you use this split method for
more than 2 days it disturbs your 24 hour shift cycle and upsets your circadian
rhythm thereby inciting more fatigue.
US legislators should be looking to the rules north of the
border for solutions. Unfortunately the drivers’ needs are lost in all the
noise created by lobby groups for every special interest that can’t see past
their own needs.
For the past few months I have been sharing my thoughts on
how technology is effecting a driver’s performance. Our passion and experience
that has served this industry so well over the years now often plays second
fiddle to software solutions that reduce performance to a set of numbers that
do not reflect the negative impact on a driver’s quality of life in the seat.
I think the Canadian hours of service rules combined with
e-logs are an example of how technology can provide a measure of improved
safety while protecting a driver’s quality of life. It’s a combination that
provides a level of accountability to all parties based on sleep science
research. Drivers can continue to earn a decent living employing the current
pay per mile model and carriers continue to benefit from the productivity this
model provides them.
We don’t have a perfect system, there is room for improvement,
but it’s working well because the drivers’ needs are front and center. That’s
what we need from technology.
This post was published in the July 2015 edition of Truck News
Is automation leveling the playing field between drivers
when it comes to performance? The notion that advanced engines & automated drive
trains can nullify a drivers lack of experience or poor driving habits seems to
be gaining some traction in safety & operations departments. My experience
shows that this simply is not true. Sure, you will bump up the average mileage
when switching from a stick to an automated transmission, but when you compare
a drivers performance to the fleet average on equipment with identical
specifications you will still have drivers performing well above or below that
average and at every point in between. This speaks directly to the level of
skill and experience within the driver pool as well as the amount of time and
money that is being invested in educating and training drivers.
Has the adoption of automated transmissions, and other in
cab technologies, affected how drivers are valued? I think that it has, and not
for the better. There is no doubt that technology is shifting standards and
expectations within the trucking industry but my fear is that we are moving
towards an increasing dependence on monitoring a drivers performance rather
than enhancing it. The latest technology should not cage a driver’s ambition
and cap her performance, it should help her tap into her full potential and
enhance her productivity.
Let’s take the truck with an automated transmission, limit
its speed via the onboard software, and then add two cameras, one facing
forward and one facing the driver. Let’s not forget the truck is equipped with
satellite tracking and an electronic log. At this point, if you are an
experienced driver, ask yourself a few questions: How many hours of training time
have I received on this piece of equipment? Have I received training instilling
me with confidence that my performance & safety will be enhanced? All of my
actions are now being monitored, when and how is that information to be used?
Do I trust my employer? Have any concerns over privacy been addressed? What is
my employer’s goal(s) in adopting this technology?
I’ve been an advocate of adopting new technology but not at
any cost. There are some real advantages and disadvantages to the truck I’ve
described above.
Automated transmissions are a real boon to the driver.
They’re far more fuel efficient (in the summer months I consistently post
between 8 & 9.5 mpg US) and as far as improving driver safety goes they are
simply excellent. The ability to avoid hazards is greatly advanced when all you
have to do is steer and brake while the transmission rapidly downshifts for you
while applying the engine brake at the same time. Add disc brakes along with
stability control and the reduction in stopping distance combined with rollover
prevention is impressive.
Speed limiters have resulted in a lack of training when it
comes to defensive driving and improving fuel efficiency. This is ironic since
most companies instituted the use of speed limiters to save money. The attitude
seems to be that since we have speed limiters installed the fuel efficiency
factor is being fulfilled. But what’s happening is that inexperienced and
poorly trained drivers are simply running at the governed speed in every
imaginable situation. The result is packs of trucks running down the road at
the same speed jockeying for position. So I’m not at all surprised at the
number of multi vehicle truck accidents that have occurred the past couple of
winters throughout North America as a result.
I can understand in today’s litigious society the need for
trucks to be equipped with forward facing cameras but that’s where I draw the
line. Driver facing cameras don’t do anything to prevent fatigue. Driver fatigue
stems from many factors is a topic that deserves its own column. I’ve been
privy to discussions between people that feel driver facing cameras are the
only way to clamp down on cell phone use and distracted driving. I disagree
with this position and feel it is a copout on taking the time to build strong
trust based relationships between drivers and management.
That brings me back to my opening statement about how
drivers are valued and the relationship between the safety / human resource /
training department. Drivers on a whole are feeling as though they are
operating under a microscope these days. This may not be the intention of a company’s
management team but it is often the perception that drivers operate under. This
needs to change. We need more bottom up involvement across our industry. There
needs to be a far greater focus on how the latest technological tools at a driver’s
disposal can enhance the driving experience rather than be seen as a burden.
This is the challenge safety and HR departments face in the immediate future if
they hope to resolve issues of recruitment, retention, and productivity. Most drivers
I have talked to are all in. All we need is an invitation.
This post was published in the June 2015 edition of Truck News
There are many very good reasons to limit truck speeds to 65
miles per hour. In fact there are many very good reasons to limit all vehicle
speeds to 65 miles per hour. This is the position of the American Trucking
Association (ATA). They want federal regulators in the USA to pass legislation
requiring all heavy trucks to be equipped with electronic speed limiters and
see a uniform 65 mile per hour speed limit for all vehicles passed into law.
Safety is the primary reason cited by the ATA in their decision to take this
path. The problem is that you can teach and embrace safe practices and develop
a culture of safety but you can’t legislate that attitude. Consequently the
whole issue of using technology to impose safety has become highly politicized
and the benefits of effective safety practices such as managing vehicle speed
are lost in all the noise.
So how has a speed limiter rule on big trucks affected
safety in the province of Ontario? It’s hard to know. But wait, let’s remember
the speed limiter legislation was passed in Ontario in order to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, improved safety was to be positive fallout as a
result. Let’s also remember that a large
percentage of carriers had already embraced limiting their speeds on purely
economic grounds prior to the passage of speed limiter legislation in Ontario.
It’s pretty hard to make an argument that safety will be improved by limiting
heavy trucks to 105 kph in a jurisdiction that has a maximum speed of 100 kph
for all vehicles.
Perhaps the better question to ask is has the speed limiter
law affected the attitudes of drivers and motor carriers in the province of
Ontario (and Quebec which also has the same law in place). It has
affected attitudes, but not in a positive way.
If you travel in Ontario you know that speeds on the 400
series highways don’t flow at 100 kph which is the posted speed limit. It is common
knowledge that if you don’t exceed 115 kph you’re not going to catch any grief
from enforcement officials. In fact you will probably be travelling with the
flow of traffic at that speed, if you’re in a car that is. In fact a December
2013 article posted on trucknews.com regarding MTO enforcement officers being
equipped with radar in their vehicles stated “… they’ll be able to clock
commercial vehicles and fine any driver travelling over 115 km/h for violating
the province’s speed limiter law.” So for heavy trucks we have an imposed 105
kph limit on the equipment in a jurisdiction that has a 100 kph speed limit and
those laws are enforced when the vehicle exceeds 115 kph.
What we have created in Ontario is an environment where it
has become an accepted practice to run at governed speed no matter what.
Drivers are increasingly abandoning their responsibility of governing their own
speed based on the equipment they are driving and the environmental conditions
they are driving in and carriers are abandoning their responsibility to provide
adequate ongoing driver training that improves both safety and profitability.
Let’s face it, the best piece of safety equipment in any vehicle is a professionally
trained and engaged driver behind the wheel. Using technology to limit a
vehicles speed then passing that into law removes a degree of responsibility
from all the players in the game. Some say this is leveling the playing field.
I say it is more like passing the buck.
Many drivers will put forward the argument that limiting
truck speed causes “elephant races” and causes hazards on the road since trucks
become rolling road blocks to other vehicles. My own experience is that this is
not the case. As a driver you can manage your own speed to prevent these
situations from developing. Since the speed limiter legislation was passed I
started travelling at 60 mph (97 kph) as my cruise speed. This provides me with
8 kph to pass any slower moving vehicle that I approach and those packs of
trucks that are engaged in their ongoing elephant race simply pass me by. I
would say that over 80% of my travel time is spent within a huge stress free
space cushion even in relatively heavy traffic. When I find myself in very
heavy traffic, well, the flow of traffic is then considerably less than the
posted limit. Does this limit my earning potential? No. Does it create a time
burden for me? No. Do other vehicles run in to me because of the speed I’m
travelling? No. Am I profitable? Definitely.
The speed limiter law in Ontario is a foolish law. We could
attain even better results with improved driver training and a paradigm shift
on how traffic laws are enforced for all vehicles.
This post was published in the May 2015 edition of Truck News
Using social media to humiliate others seems to be all the
rage these days. I heard an interview on the radio with author/reporter Jon
Ronson about his recently published book: So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. It
really got me thinking about how we treat our fellow drivers.
A few days before I heard the interview I had watched a
video of a trucker damage his truck in a manner that was painful to watch. The
comment thread attached to the video was nothing short of derisive. There was
no shortage of commentary mocking the driver but only a few comments that tried
to get at the root cause of the driver’s actions. Let me give you a brief
outline of the video.
A driver approaches a bridge with a ten foot clearance on a
narrow two lane road so he stops. On his right is a four foot high retaining
wall and on his left is a steep embankment. The distance between the two is
maybe forty feet. The video starts with the truck jackknifed across the road.
The cab is up the embankment on the left and the rear passenger side of the
trailer is jammed against the retaining wall on the right. Despite the fact
there is no physical possibility of turning a fifty three foot trailer around
in a forty foot space the driver gives it his all. He tears of the front
bumper, rips the faring off the cab on the driver’s side, damages the nose of
the trailer and also the rear passenger side of the trailer on the wall. There
is debris strewn all over the road. The driver exits the cab and his body
language says it all. He holds his head in both hands and bows up and down as
he surveys the damage. You’ve heard the expression, if you want to get out of a
hole then stop digging? This driver finally put down the shovel. I don’t know
his story but it seems pretty obvious that he was in over his head and simply
panicked in a tough situation.
Even the best truck driver training schools have to graduate
students with about 200 hours of training time. The worst schools will graduate
students in a fraction of that time. Think about that in comparison to the
past. Our old school drivers will tell us about the countless hours they spent
shunting trailers in a yard and working on the dock before they even had an
opportunity to do a local delivery under supervision. In the past most drivers
accumulated thousands of hours learning the ins and outs of handling a rig in
tight quarters before they took to the open highway. This is why I feel we need
a minimum two year apprenticeship program that gives new drivers the confidence
they need to succeed. Obtaining a licence from a high quality truck driver
training academy should be the first step in a driver’s training not the only
step.
Here is the predicament we face today. On one hand we all
recognize that the training methods of the past lead to a successful career and
we bemoan the fact that many drivers lack the necessary training to do the job
safely. But then we turn around and shame new drivers across social media when
they are most in need of a mentor. A mentor is by definition a wise and trusted
counsellor or teacher. Is mentoring becoming a thing of the past in our
industry when we need it the most?
When videos and pictures are put up online they are put up
with a certain intent. We need to move away from shaming drivers for the
mistakes they make as our default position and start using social media to
share these mistakes as teaching moments. Although I feel that an
apprenticeship program is the best solution I am not so foolish as to think
this will happen overnight if it even happens at all. But as experienced
drivers we can share our wisdom and experience with new and novice drivers
through social media.
There are some Facebook groups that are doing a great job
with this approach. When a group is set up with the intent to bring back the
camaraderie and welcome new recruits by encouraging them to participate and ask
dumb questions (there is no such thing as a dumb question when it comes to
learning new skills) friendships build quickly and the knowledge spreads around
the group like wildfire. It’s a joy to witness.
So the next time you witness one of those “Gotcha!” videos
take the time to try and understand the root cause of the drivers’ failure
rather than just holding him in contempt. Maybe we can build a better workplace
one social media post at a time.
This post was published in the April 2015 edition of Truck News
Women with Drive
Towards the end of February I picked up a copy of Today’s Trucking
magazine and read Rolf Lockwood’s editorial titled ‘Potential Ignored’. He
outlined the barriers women were facing breaking into this industry as drivers.
He described our trucking culture as being based on a Marlboro Man image of
toughness and independence, a culture not inviting to women. It was a good
introspective read.
It’s funny how all the stars line up at times. Within a few
days of reading Rolf’s editorial I started exchanging emails with a driver that
is in the process of establishing a non-profit organization targeting women
entering our industry as drivers. She is an experienced long haul driver and
spoke of her love and passion for the industry. She wants to promote
accomplishments and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the industry.
She feels that if she stays silent on the issues women are facing then there is
no room for her to complain. The first question I asked myself was how will
this organization stand out from others with similar goals and objectives? So I
started doing a little research and just chatting online in a couple of
different forums.
I was surprised when I learned that only 3% of commercial
driving jobs are held by women. I thought that number was significantly higher.
I did not contact our human resources department to gather any firm numbers but
I am quite certain that here at J&R Hall Transport you would find a higher
percentage of women behind the wheel than 3%. I have run down the road with
many women drivers over the years and never had reason to question their skills
or ability. In fact I have observed that women perform at a higher level than
their male counterparts in general. Women seem to have a much calmer ‘steady as
she goes’ approach to the workload that we face along with a stronger
sensibility when it comes to planning and organizing. That has been my
experience. I am discovering that my employer appears to be considerably more
progressive on women’s issues than many in our industry.
I won’t pretend that I have conducted some sort of
scientific study but from the few women drivers I have been able to talk to the
general feeling is that breaking into the trucking industry as a driver is
difficult and it takes some time to earn the respect of fellow drivers. Let’s
be clear, we’re talking about fellow male drivers. But here is my take on the
age old “respect is earned not given” credo.
When I obtained my commercial driver’s license I was
accepted into the industry with open arms. I still had to earn the respect of
my peers but I was given that opportunity to prove myself. But it seems to me
that for women that scenario is turned on its head. When a woman obtains her
commercial driver’s licence she has to prove herself simply to gain the
opportunity for employment. Only then can she start to work at gaining the
respect of her peers. The bar seems to be set so much higher.
Then I read about a survey conducted by Trucking HR Canada’s
Women with Drive initiative that found male managers cited physical limitations
as a barrier to entry into the industry for women. I was taken aback by this
paternalistic attitude from our leadership. The majority of women that
responded to the survey did not find this to be an issue. These findings were
presented at the inaugural Women with Drive Leadership Summit held on March 5,
2015.
I believe men and women are different but equal in their
potential to perform in any field. We are different biologically, physically,
and yes, emotionally. We tackle problems and challenges in different ways. The
trucking industry is lacking the perspective that women bring to the table. We
are in a time of great change on many fronts and we are lacking the diversity
to face those challenges. Men and women possess an incredible synergy when they
work together. That’s exactly what is needed right now, an effect that is
greater than the sum of the individual parts. It’s time that men started
opening doors for women in this industry, listen to what they have to say, and
accept what they have offer.
So what of the driver that is starting the NPO for women
drivers? She asked me to think about joining her as a board member to work with
our fellow drivers. At first I resisted citing availability of time. But that’s
an excuse. Many of the obstacles women are facing as drivers today are not
solely women’s issues they are also driver issues. Especially when we are
talking about training & mentorship. I think I can help so I will. More to
follow.
This post was published in the March 2015 edition of Truck News
On the morning of February 4 I learned we lost another
driver to a collision with an impaired driver along the 401 corridor. The drivers name is Lindsay A. Findlay, of
Arnprior, ON.
My first reaction was anger. Anger at the drunk driver. Anger
that this was totally preventable. Anger that so many people still don’t get it
when it comes to drinking & driving. That anger was alive in the commentary
on various trucker Facebook groups. The general reaction is that we need
harsher punishment in our system for drinking and driving, that we need to
clamp down and have the judiciary pass longer sentences on individuals that
drink and drive. This was also how I reacted to my feelings of anger. I felt
someone had to pay for such a senseless loss. I was filled with that sense of
retribution.
After a short time my thoughts turned to the family that
Lindsay had left behind. All I knew in the moment was that Lindsay was 51 and
hailed from the area of Arnprior, Ontario. I had never met Lindsay but I could see
myself in him and I found myself thinking about how my family would handle my
loss if it occurred in the blink of an eye, unplanned, unlooked for, unexpected
and seemingly pointless because it was caused by an individual that never
should have been in that place at that time. How would my wife of 36 years come
to terms with that?
The following day I viewed an interview conducted by Global
news with Lindsay’s wife and daughter. I started viewing it with a lump in my
throat and had tears on my cheeks by the time I reached the end. The shock on
their faces and in their voices as they struggled to come to terms with this
sudden loss of their husband and father moved me deeply. I also have a wife and one daughter. His
daughter, Brittany, spoke of not having the opportunity to walk down the aisle
with her Dad at her upcoming wedding. Just a few short years ago when I was Lindsay’s
age I did have that privilege. His wife, Sandy, spoke of how they talked on the
phone every day and had been discussing just how dangerous the roads were
becoming of late. This interview sounded like a carbon copy of my life. This
could have been my family. I had never been touched by emotions this deep as a
result of an incident involving someone I had never met yet was a kindred spirit
in so many ways.
This is what I want my wife and daughter to know about what
happens in my cab on a minute by minute basis every hour of every day when I am
put in harm’s way as a result of actions that occur outside my realm of
control.
I do my very best to live by the motto of “do no harm”. I
don’t believe there are any reputable truck drivers out there that are sitting
on top of 40 tons of rolling steel not conscious of the fact that they have a
responsibility to other road users to do no harm. This is exactly why we hear
so many stories over the course of our driving careers of other drivers paying
the ultimate price as a result of the stupidity, ignorance, and selfishness of
others on the road.
I don’t know what happened leading up to the exact moment
when that Jeep lost control and careened in front of Lindsay Findlay’s truck
that night. But what I can say with a good degree of certainty is that Lindsay
had no idea that there may have been an impaired driver at the wheel. It could
have been an elderly person suffering a heart attack, or anyone suffering from
some type of medical emergency that caused them to lose consciousness. It could
have been a mother with her children and the vehicle may have had a mechanical
default of some type. In the moment, as truck drivers, we don’t have the time
to consider such things. We simply need to prevent rolling our heavy rigs over
another vehicle filled with people we always assume are innocent of any
wrongdoing because that is our only option. We choose to do no harm. That’s our
only choice at the time.
Lindsay Findlay’s actions were heroic that night. Nothing
less. He lost his life in his attempt to prevent harm coming to another human
being. He did not know who was in that Jeep or what the circumstances were that
caused it to lose control and slide in front of him. Let’s not ever forget
that.
All the anger in the world is not going to solve the problem
of people driving drunk. Perhaps sharing stories like that of Lindsay and his
family will. I can only hope.
