Benefits of Fuel Efficient Driving can't be Denied

This post was first published in the September 2019 edition of Truck News.

Earning a living doing what I love to do means burning 1200 – 1500 litres of diesel per week. Those actions pose a direct existential threat to my grandchildren’s future. This is a contradiction I’ve been contemplating for some time. One of the guiding principles of my life is to do no harm, directly or indirectly. I’ve spent a good deal of energy coming to terms with the tension that exists between my actions and my intention because I accept the scientific research that climate collapse is imminent if we continue down our current path of dependence and expansion of fossil fuels as our primary source of energy.

Climate change is a toxic topic within the trucking community. It is divisive. As a result we have very few meaningful conversations about the role we play as individual drivers in terms of the impact our actions have on future generations. The discussion of climate science is a complex one. The industrial revolution and the resulting carbon economy has been a path to a better future for all of us. But just because fossil fuels have been the foundation of our growth to date doesn’t mean they can continue to sustain and support that growth. That is what the scientific research tells us. That research is clearly outlined in the Special Report on Global Warming (SR15) published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published on October 8, 2018. Canada’s latest greenhouse gas emissions data, recently published in the National Inventory Report, highlights transportation as one of the dominant factors in the continued growth of Canadian carbon emissions. This I also accept. You have the freedom to reject this research and the over 6000 scientific references that support it. I recognise that as your choice. There is no reason we can’t agree to disagree.

If we disagree do we share any common ground? I think we do on a number of fronts. First and foremost is the shared joy of driving and trucking for a living. Second is the fact that we are all highly interdependent in an increasingly globalised world so trucking is not going away. Another thing we all have in common as drivers is the fact that we have a choice as to how we drive and that affects the amount of fuel we consume. It is on this point of fuel consumption where we are able to find common ground that is meaningful and measurable, especially to the individual driver.

It has been a number of years since I made a conscious decision to aggressively limit the amount of fuel I burn. This is a skill you can develop. Just like driving, the actual doing is a lesson in itself. Let’s face it, as drivers, sometimes we just want to go. There is no fuel efficiency in that action but it sure makes you feel good. For me the key to fuel efficiency was the development of a large reservoir of patience.  Now I’m able to consistently achieve ten to twenty percent fuel efficiency averages above the fleet average. I work within an employee only fleet that is spec’d universally from the same OEM. Actions and attitudes at the individual level matter.

The impact of ten to twenty percent fuel savings branches out in many directions. It supports my point of view that although fuel reduction is not the answer to reaching emissions targets it is a big part of the solution. But it is on the economic side where fuel savings is the easiest to measure. Based on my experience and following my own measurements a 10% - 20% savings equates to $8,000 - $22,500 dollars per highway tractor per year. That’s using an Ontario average of $116.1 per litre of diesel at the time of writing. So a 100 truck fleet is presented with an $800k to $2.25m potential in savings.

This is where I remind you that all of the fuel not burned and all of the money saved is a result of the decision made by the individual driver to act.

But it goes deeper than just measuring the savings. We need leaders with the will to motivate and educate the individual then use the resulting savings appropriately. There is a time investment needed to be made by drivers so compensation should be offered. We make much of carbon taxes but must recognise that need as we transition to a sustainable ecology and economy. Finally, a portion of those dollars saved buffer company profits providing returns for investors as well as dollars to reinvest in equipment that becomes increasingly less dependent on fossil fuels.

Let’s also think about the image we want to put forward. Today’s young people are demonstrating in the public squares around the world on a weekly basis asking the adults in their lives to act in a responsible manner. That’s what we need to do. By doing so we create a win-win-win-win. A win for ourselves. A win for the environment. A win for the economy. A win for society as a whole.

Change comes from each of us choosing to act. That’s something we should always bear in mind.

ELD's as a Time Management Tool

This post was first published in the August 2019 edition of Truck News.


What if Electronic Logging Devices (ELD’s) were used as time management tools rather than enforcement devices? Sure, they would still limit the amount of time you are able to drive each day but the primary intent of the device would be to improve a driver’s quality of life, enhance safety in her workspace, and improve productivity. That sounds a little like magical thinking doesn’t it?

First we have to talk a little bit about applying the rules. I don’t mean work to rule by industrial action, to reduce output and efficiency by following official working rules and hours, I’m interested in how we follow the rules in terms of simply reporting all on duty time as on duty time. We’ve spent many years reporting a drivers on duty time in 15 minute increments while dumping the bulk of the on duty time we actually do work into the off duty or sleeper berth categories. This is an ongoing garbage in, garbage out scenario. Techopedia.com gives a simple definition of GIGO – the output quality of a system usually can’t be any better than the quality of inputs. That’s exactly where we are at today. A system based on a pick up that takes 15 minutes, a delivery that takes 15 minutes, a border crossing that takes 15 minutes, a fuel stop that takes 15 minutes, a pretrip inspection that takes 15 minutes, and so on. This is actually where the magical thinking lives and it has for the full 20 years that I have worked as a long haul highway driver. At some point we have to stop thinking we can successfully hammer that square peg into a round hole labelled “safety & compliance”. It’s never worked and it’s never going to, especially under the pending universal implementation of ELD’s.

As painful as it sounds (and it is) to drivers, the only way to lance this boil is to give the decision makers – the legislators, safety organizations, and megacarriers – the information they need to make the right decisions for drivers. That means logging all your on duty time as it happens.

At this point you may be thinking, Goodhall, you’re a dreamer, that’s never going to happen. You’re right, but here is what I do know from my experience about applying the rules. It works in our organization. I log all my on duty time. If I show up at a delivery and it is a driver assist and I’m working in the trailer for 90 minutes that’s on duty. If I sit at the border for 2 hours that’s on duty. If I pick up a full load and it takes 3 hours to load I will be on duty to check in and once I bump the dock and have to wait in my truck until loaded I go off duty. Basically, when I work, I log it. But here’s the catch. I work for a company where executives are licensed and often jump in a truck to do deliveries or switches. They are passionate about trucking and as a result are close to their drivers and to their customers. We don’t have excessive waiting time or have to deal with “time vampires” feeding on drivers. Basically I work for a great carrier that manages its business in a very hands on manner and is not data dependent as so many carriers seem to be these days thus avoiding the GIGO information trap. Not surprisingly this model of leadership through integrity allows us to run by the rules making the data captured by ELD devices meaningful to those same hands on leaders.

So it’s how our leaders lead that is really at issue when we look at ELD’s and ask the question, is it a time management tool or is it an enforcement tool? For me it has become a tool of empowerment I can use not a tool used by others to impose control over my day. Believe it or not this approach makes it easier for me to deal with motor carrier inspectors and police enforcement. When you’re not spending your day trying to appease everyone but yourself life gets a whole lot easier and you can enjoy what you do.

Life isn’t perfect where I work, we have our challenges. In the high pressure world of trucking this is the reality of daily life. What we get right is the understanding that drivers are the focal point of the business while remaining dependent on every other branch of the company for their individual success and security. It is in this light that the ELD can be used by a driver to manage their time to their benefit rather than view it as a gun that is held to their head to enforce compliance.

Building a Healthier Mind and Body

This post was first published in the July 2019 issue of Truck News.


At the end of June I will have completed my first Healthy Trucker Challenge. Lead by wellness coach and nutritionist Andrea Morley, Healthy Trucker is a health and wellness program for all of us in the transportation industry. Healthy Trucker is powered by NAL Insurance. This program provides the tools and support to take a more critical and objective look at your overall health then take a step each week towards healthier choices about how you feed and care for your body and mind. It’s a source of community support, a source of support that I have given short shrift to over the course of pursuing a healthier lifestyle while long haul trucking.

I’m of the belief that a large part of your makeup needs to be of the lone wolf if you are to succeed as a driver in the field of long haul trucking. That’s the nature of this business. As a driver you are at the tip of the spear, always. We are not alone as we face the challenges of our day but this industry depends on the independent and solitary characteristics of its drivers to make the right decisions, be accountable, follow the rules, and ultimately make everything work smoothly where the rubber meets the road.

But the lone wolf’s approach to life has its drawbacks. Fierce independence and a solitary life may be the Achilles heel of a trucker when it comes to making decisions about personal health and well-being. Successful truckers are filled with confidence and self-assurance when it comes to decisions made in the moment, the safety of all road users depends on it. But truckers should take the time to think about and analyze the decisions they make about their personal health and they need some community support, some expertise in the field, to help them do that.

I’ve been looking for the magic formula to live as a healthy trucker for the past 19 years. I quit smoking in the autumn of 2000. A year later I started addressing the weight gain that resulted as I used eating habits to replace my smoking habit. I have had a lot of success over the years and have always attributed that success to myself, to my own stubborn stick-to-itiveness, until recently.

Our lives are dynamic and ever changing. In the past 5 years my tough mindedness, that sense of dogged determination that has kept me focused on a healthier lifestyle has been wearing thin and failing me.  I’ve always understood the strong relationship between physical and mental health, recognising that when you eat the right foods and get the right amount of exercise & sleep then a healthy body will result in a sound mind. But I discounted the fact that I have lead a life free of any severe emotional or physical trauma, that I have never had to depend on support or help from family or community to live from day to day. The result of this privilege is having to come face to face with the fact that my own self-assuredness and independence is only a band aid when it comes to dealing with issues of mental health. Toughing it out hasn’t been working for me lately.

 Aging is a funny thing. It fills you with wisdom while waking you to a deep sense of your own mortality. In 2017 my oldest brother, a healthy and active man in his early seventies, was diagnosed with sudden onset leukemia that took him down hard and fast. He died just 8 months after his initial diagnosis. At the same time I have seen a number of my peers, much younger than my brother, diagnosed with ailments that have been either debilitating or terminal in nature. I view this out of a sense of how precious time is and not out of any sense of fear. It is that value over my time that I have come to recognise as the source of my greatest anxiety. I can recount many days of highway driving that my mind has turned to thoughts of my family at home and amplified an anxiety of separation in my mind. Toughing it out doesn’t work here. This is when you most need a community, someone close you can just reach out and talk to. This is a hard place for the lone wolf to wake up in each day.

So I joined the Healthy Trucker challenge to get back in “shape” in terms of nutrition, exercise, and sleep and was awakened to the fourth ingredient, community. As truckers we work hard for the time away from trucking that we need for a healthy mind. That time is spent by most drivers with other people – loved ones, friends, family – that we can just talk to. We need that. Getting the right nutrition, the time to exercise, and the time to sleep depends on it. I felt a healthy body leads to a healthy mind but now find myself needing a healthy mind to lead to a healthy body. Maybe that’s just a little wisdom gleaned from aging.

Do No Harm

This post was first published in the June 2019 edition of Truck News.


With some of the poor driving skills I’ve been exposed to at the hands of my fellow truckers on highway 401 and 400 over the past year I thought I would see if there was a code of ethics posted online for truckers. I googled “ethics for truckers” and “Canadian trucking ethics” and got nothing back. But when I googled “Truckers code of ethics” I was directed to a number of posts, mostly out of the USA. What stood out was that these posts were more about trucking etiquette and code of conduct rather than any specific human values or moral principles.

So I’d like to propose a code of ethics we can apply to anyone working in any capacity within the trucking industry and it’s really easy to remember because it is only three simple words. Do no harm.

I have found these three words aspirational over the years and they are especially pertinent to professional drivers. First, do no harm to others. Safety is what we do, so this is a no brainer, or it should be. Second, do no harm to yourself. Without self-care, without a healthy body and mind, we handicap ourselves from the outset.  These are the foundational building blocks for long term success as a commercial truck driver.

For the trucking industry as a whole we have to recognise that we are one of the supporting structures in the society we have built and as such we have a responsibility to not harm the society we live in. That society is global in nature for the transportation & logistics sector.

The principle of do no harm generates a range of detailed and complex conversations about our roles in the trucking industry and in broader society. I know many of you are familiar with this principle, it is certainly nothing new. It’s a principle that lives in all major religions, recognised as the law of reciprocity to many, do unto others as you would have others do unto you. From what I can see out on the road lately we can go a long way to improving the image of the industry and that starts with an individual commitment to conduct ourselves in an ethical manner. Do no harm.

So as an individual driver what does do no harm look like when it comes to caring for those that we share the public space with? There are thousands of specific issues. Here are a few that stand out for me.

Following too closely. A couple of months ago Middlesex OPP in southwestern Ontario charged a semi driver with stunt driving after observing the driver tailgating for a number of kilometres on highway 401 near London. That is a big dollar fine, big demerit points, and a 5 day vehicle impoundment. Look for more of that to happen. This is incredibly threatening to other drivers, especially car drivers. You know you can’t stop in time. Don’t do it.

Driving too fast for the road conditions. This goes hand in hand with following too closely. You can’t stop in time. People get injured and killed as a result. Don’t do it.

Lack of courtesy. When I was a child my mother always said to me, in a very kindly way, “what about your manners Alan”? She also demonstrated what she meant, as did my father. When you create space for yourself there is nothing wrong with sharing that space as others need to move through it to get where they are going. The zipper merge is the equivalent of holding open a door for a stranger while you offer up a smile. It promotes kindness. Squeezing other vehicles out at merge points and in heavy traffic doesn’t speed anything up. It promotes more friction. Friction slows everything down and raises the emotional temperature. Don’t be a jerk. Be kind. Do no harm.

Why Refuse a Helping Hand?

This post was first published in the May 2019 edition of Truck News.


One of my pleasures every Saturday morning is listening to the Trucker Radio News and Talk podcast with Stan Campbell. This podcast is a great way to stay current with industry news. So back on the first Saturday in March I was listening to Stan and Truck News editor James Menzies discuss the world’s  first production series class 8 truck with level 2 autonomous capability, the Freightliner Cascadia. What stood out for me was the discussion over the lane departure protection feature of the Detroit Assurance 5.0 protection package that is the “brains” behind the automation.

What interests me about this new automation is not the titillating newness of the much touted “self-driving” capability but the ability of the system to work in tandem with the driver, which is something James made central to his reporting and review of this technology.

When the discussion of lane departure protection turns to the limits of this technology we talk about the need for clear lane markings and the inability of the system to work on snow covered roads, intersections, construction zones, and roadways on which the line painting has faded or worn away. So the system reverts to the driver in these conditions, as it should. It’s my opinion that this is not a drawback of the system but rather exactly what we need as drivers.

Driver distraction is something that I have always believed is a psychological issue, a mental issue. As drivers we are distracted by our mind wandering away from the task at hand and daydreaming is just as distracting as a phone call. Remaining focused on the driving task at hand for 12-13 hours per day is the issue. Focus and being mindful at all times behind the wheel is the real challenge every driver faces every day. This is especially true on clear days on dry roads in ideal driving conditions. Statistics show us that most collisions occur under these conditions. This is exactly when the lane mitigation system on the Freightliner Cascadia works at its best, exactly when we need it.

As a driver I am always the most attentive to my driving when I am challenged not when I am least at risk. Poor weather, winding roads, construction zones, and heavy traffic demand your attention and hold it in a manner that a wide open interstate on a sunny day will not. But we do become distracted on secondary roads and busy urban streets as well.

Every driver, whether a beginner, novice, or expert has missed a sign, exit ramp, or looked in their rear view mirror at the red light behind them after driving through an intersection and wondered, ‘did I just drive through a red light’? The only moving violation I have ever received as a commercial driver was in the first year I was licensed and ran a 4 way stop in Montreal on a Sunday morning. I was distracted looking for a drop yard in an industrial area. You’ve all been there in terms of breaking the rules of the road unintentionally as a result of distraction, I know you have. If no harm came of it that was just dumb luck or other drivers acting defensively to avoid your mistake.

Let me say here that we should look at the tragedy that took place in Humboldt Saskatchewan as the most horrid result of harm that can result from distracted driving. This is not the first time nor will it be the last that a driver blows through a stop sign.

It is in this light that automation can work hand In hand with drivers to enhance safety for all of us. At present the Detroit Assurance 5.0 protection that is built in to the new Cascadia does not read stop signs and automatically brake but it does read and display speed signs so the capability is at hand. Distraction is our Achilles heel.  Driver assist technology is something we should be embracing.