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DriveSmartBC - Limited Speed Motorcycles

I applaud the green attitude of those people who ride a limited speed motorcycle (LSM) for their trips on BC highways. Surely their carbon footprint is a lot lighter than my own. That and their wallet will be heavier as these motorcycles are economical to buy, license and operate.

I also cringe when I see them on higher speed highways traveling at 70 km/h or less. Will they be at significant risk riding among other traffic moving at 90 km/h and faster? Drivers today seldom have patience for anyone driving at the speed limit much less those driving more slowly.

Some LSM riders appear to have decided that they should drive on the shoulder of the highway rather than in the lanes with the rest of the traffic. This practice may feel safer for them but it is not legal. They must take a position in the lane as any other motorcycle rider would.

What is the difference between an LSM and an electric bicycle? They sometimes look much the same but the electric bicycle is required to be used as nearly as is practical to the right edge of the highway, which includes the shoulder. They also travel significantly slower, having a maximum speed of 32 km/h on level ground.

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Truckers threaten ferry protest

Marine Atlantic says protesters could be banned from the ferry for some time. (CBC)

Small trucking companies remain locked in a battle with Marine Atlantic over the ferry booking system.

Frustrated truckers are threatening to stage protests at the ferry terminals in North Sydney in Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques, in southwestern Newfoundland, which could disrupt ferry service in the Cabot Strait.

They say the new reservation system is resulting in long waits, and that's putting them out of business.

"If Marine Atlantic keeps taking food from our table, we got no other choice. We have to do something," said Chris Howlett, with Akita Equipment, based in Mount Pearl, N.L.

But the Crown corporation has a threat of its own.

Marine Atlantic CEO Wayne Follett sent an email Friday warning truckers that any interruption of service won't be tolerated. He said protesters could be refused service for a period of time.

Tara Laing, spokeswoman for Marine Atlantic, isn't saying much more.

"We've informed people that if there's a disruption in service we would take that very seriously and ask for authorities' help," she said.

Truckers used to board the ferry on a first-come, first-served basis. Since March, they have had to book ahead.

While Marine Atlantic says the new system means fewer and shorter lineups, small trucking companies complain they can't get a reservation because bigger companies are block-booking ahead and cancelling at the last minute.

Howlett said one of his trucks arrived in North Sydney from Ontario on Tuesday, but he couldn't get on the ferry until Aug. 20.

Marine Atlantic 'not fair'

He said Marine Atlantic's email crossed the line.

"It's a federal government agency and, again, we live in a democracy. It's pretty simple. No, it's not fair and I think someone should be doing something about it," Howlett said.

Since the reservation system has been in place, he said, his business has dropped $150,000 from the same period last year.

Dennis Porter, with Porter's Trucking in St. John's, said he supports a protest. He runs fresh produce and fish on eight trucks across Eastern Canada and the eastern U.S. If his cargo isn't delivered on time, it's worthless.

"If we can disrupt the service, maybe if this went national, maybe we could get some attention," he said. "We're going into five months here now. Honestly, truthfully, I won't be around in five more months."

Howlett said truckers are consulting with a lawyer.

Laing said these are the three busiest weeks of the year and there are always delays at this time. She said two new larger ferries will be in service next summer.

Source: CBC NEWS

Jobs trickle back to autoparts plants

It’s not exactly a rebound, but jobs are trickling back into London and area automotive parts plants.

Accuride in London, which makes wheels, got some relief after years of dwindling jobs, with a recent callback of 40 laid-off workers, boosting its total staff to about 130.

The plant employed about 500 four years ago, but the recall is still a sign of some good news, said Tim Carrie, president of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 27, which represents workers at many parts plants in the region.

“It is a good sign. It is good news when a company that supplies the trucking industry recalls workers — that is positive,” said Carrie.

The trucking sector is considered an indicator of economic fortunes: When it does well, it’s a sign the economy is rebounding since consumers are buying goods that need to be shipped.

“It is coming back in dribs and drabs,” said Carrie.

Ceva Logistics is also hiring. It carries goods for defence industry manufacturer General Dynamics Land Systems Canada, which has a large London operation.

Ceva have a job fair Aug. 5 from 10 a.m. to noon and 5 to 8 p.m., at the Progress Building at Western Fair grounds. It is looking to add 30 jobs for clerical workers, warehouse, shipping and receiving staff and forklift drivers.

The GM-owned Cami car assembly plant in Ingersoll is running at full capacity to keep up with demand for its hot Equinox and Terrain crossover utility vehicles.

It will add 100 jobs by summer’s end and another 100 by year-end, after hiring 50 new workers in May. It has recalled all its laid-off workers and added 170 workers laid off from other GM plants, including from Oshawa.

Its suppliers are busy, too. One of those, Rieter Automotive, has added about 40 jobs and is looking to add 60 more. It now employs about 180.

“I don’t think we will ever rebound to the level we were at, but this is a good sign,” said Carrie. “I measure a rebound in workers getting their jobs back, and that is happening now.”

Jim Reid, first vice-president of Local 27, said, “We are cautiously optimistic” about stability in the automotive sector.

“We are anticipating heavy truck will come back quite a bit, but with the U.S. economy still struggling, who knows for sure?”

Brose Automotive in London announced last month it’s adding 150 jobs as the plant undergoes a $20-million expansion.

Takumi Stamping in St. Thomas, supplier to the booming Woodstock Toyota plant, is adding up to 50 jobs.

The news is good in the wider region as well, according to recent CAW releases:

Martinrea in Ridgetown added 80 jobs, and now employs 240.

APPlasman and Woodbridge Foam in Tilbury and Ventra Manufacturing in Ridgetown are all back to full employment.

Meritor in Chatham has secured a new, $12-million investment and is back to full employment.

Source: lfpress

Bravo for private barge, trucker says

A Newfoundland and Labrador businessman is leasing a barge to move goods from southern Ontario to eastern Newfoundland. (CBC)

A private initiative to ship goods to eastern Newfoundland from central Canada can't start quickly enough, a local trucker said.

Greer Hunt, a Mount Pearl-based trucking company owner, is leasing a barge for the next three years to ensure speedier shipment of goods from central Canada.

Chris Howlett, who owns Akita Equipment and Auto Transport, is applauding the move.

"I'm sure he's not looking to go into competition with ... Marine Atlantic," said Howlett. "But maybe some day someone will, and then we'll see what we've got for a ferry system."

Like Hunt, Howlett has has problems with the reliability of Marine Atlantic's commercial reservations system and with chronic waits and delays.

Howlett tried to land a spot on Greer's barge immediately, to no avail.

"He was booked up for this week's sailing but hopefully in the future maybe sometime I might be able to secure some space," said Howlett, whose company is also based in Mount Pearl.

Howlett said Hunt is sending a strong message about the quality of service that truckers require.

Marine Atlantic declined a formal interview, although an official said the corporation wishes Hunt well.

The barge can move about 50 trailers at a time, and will ship goods from Hamilton, Ont., to a dock in the Long Pond area of Conception Bay South.

Source: CBC NEWS

TransX drivers get a little love

WINNIPEG -- Nearly 900 drivers in TransX’s fleet got a little recognition for their dedication to safety.

The TransX Group of Companies hosted their 25th annual Safety Awards banquets with events at nine different locations throughout Canada and the U.S. The awards ranged from 1 - 32 years of accident free miles driven, with nine new drivers joining the Million Mile Club and four being added to the Two Million Mile Club.

"We are proud that this is our 25th year of giving safety awards to our best,” said Louie Tolaini, president of TransX. “This year we acknowledge 894 Drivers."

"The safe operation of our trucks on the highways of North America is a guiding principle used to operate the business. We are proud to recognize the safest drivers in our fleet." added Ron Joseph, the newly appointed president of TransX USA.

Source: Today's Trucking

Granddad keeps on trucking

Model 15 White fuel tanker truck Bob English for The Globe and Mail

Collector still drives vintage 1919 tanker ‘to visit the grandchildren’

When Hank Doornekamp’s Model 15 White fuel tanker truck was built in 1919, the number of vehicles on the still mainly dirt roads of North America had grown from less than 5,000 at the turn of the century to more than nine million, virtually all of them powered by gasoline.

In the motoring age’s early days, the affluent few who could afford cars purchased gasoline from fuel company depots and then in cans or from hand-operated pumps installed by entrepreneurial general store owners.

Dedicated “gas stations” began to appear by about 1910 as oil companies started to create distinct brand identities for their products. Tankers like the White, with its capacity of about 600 or so gallons (2,300 litres) and side compartments to hold motor oil and other products, would have spent their days making deliveries to these newfangled city stations, with their increasingly imaginative, Greek temple, Chinese Pagoda and Swiss chalet themed eye-catching architecture. Or perhaps running rural routes to those mom and pop operations, their limited capacity and speed easily meeting the public consumption needs of the day.

The modern tankers we share highway space with today have the capacity to haul 30,000 litres or more to meet the volume demands of the 20 million vehicles now on Canada’s highways and approximately 250 million on U.S. roads, which now consume some 400 million U.S. gallons (1.514-billion litres) of fuel a day – more than a gallon (four litres) for each and every one of us.

While growing up in Oshawa, Doornekamp lived near a White Rose gas station, which obviously struck a chord, as he not only collects White Rose service station memorabilia but his tanker is dressed in the livery of Canadian Oil Companies Ltd. The firm was the Canadian subsidiary of U.S.-based ENARCO (the National Refining Company of Cleveland) whose newly created automotive brands included Black Beauty axle grease and White Rose gasoline.

Born in Holland, Doornekamp came to Canada in the early 1950s with family. His father was a stonemason/bricklayer and Doornekamp also learned the masonry trade, which paid for his civil engineering degree at Queens. After working for a couple of Toronto construction companies, he launched his own general contracting company, H.R. Doornekamp Construction Ltd., in Odessa, Ont., near Kingston.

His interest in cars and particularly trucks “began in the sandbox” and he graduated to a 1929 Chevrolet – rather than the Honda motorcycle he wanted but his father didn’t think was such a good idea – at 14, tinkering with it and later driving it to high school. He still owns it today.

His first old truck was a 1951 GMC single-axle long-nose highway tractor purchased in the late 1970s but then sold to finance another vehicle for his expanding company. He reacquired it a decade later but the project languished until a visit to a fellow construction firm owner’s extensive collection of trucks “motivated me to get going.”

The GMC was fully restored and since then he’s says he’s “never looked back” – now owning some 30 trucks, cars, tractors and pieces of equipment in original condition, restored or in the works.

He’s also acquired an extensive collection of paraphernalia – pumps, signs, etc. – related to the automobile from the 1920s to the 1960s, much of it related to the White Rose brand. And he has plans to turn his home-based workshop into a replica of an early White Rose gas station.

The 1919 three-quarter-ton Model 15 White was purchased 15 years ago in the U.S., an older restoration he has since taken completely apart and rebuilt to a much higher state of detail, including the addition of the side boxes.

White was a sewing machine manufacturer, whose founder Thomas White purchased a steam-powered Locomobile in 1898. Its drawbacks resulted in his sons developing a better steam power system which was employed in a series of successful White automobiles and later trucks and buses. But steam car sales had vaporized by the early 1920s and White stuck to trucks in the decades ahead. The company eventually ran out of steam again in 1980, and Volvo stepped in to buy its U.S. assets, later dropping the White name, while two Canadian companies acquired its Western Star brand operations here, which later merged with Freightliner.

The 1919 is powered by a big flathead four, mated to a four-speed transmission both built by White, which made virtually all its own parts. It’s started with a hefty yank on a starting handle crank, followed by a dash back to the open-sided cab to twiddle the choke, throttle and spark levers.

It usually fires up easily and, after it’s warmed up, “idles smoothly and quietly at what seems like about 10 revs per minute. You almost have to lean against it to know that it’s going.” Two oil sight glasses on the dash let the driver make sure oil is being delivered to the working parts.

And Doornekamp says it’s surprising how fast it is for a working vehicle of its vintage. “I can get this baby up to 40 mph. But you’re doing a whole lot of wiggling and wobbling when you do.” Solid axles and leaf springs front and back are fitted with artillery wheels and beefy tires, with brakes only at the back.

“It’s turned into a bad habit,” laughs Doornekamp of his collection. But that’s just fine with him. He had realized in his 40s, after working hard for many years, that he needed to enjoy life a little more. And now, he says, his life after working hours revolves around his trucks, reading about them, working on them in his shop, polishing them up on a Sunday afternoon, attending events or just driving them.

“I don’t like competing. I’m not in it for trophies or prizes,” he says, but shows give him an excuse to exercise his fleet. “And every weekend I use one of the trucks to drive into the village to go to the hardware store. Or to visit the grandchildren. They love it.”

And why shouldn’t they? What kind of kid wouldn’t think it neat to have a grandfather who turns up in a yellow vintage tank truck, or a bright-red highway tractor and flatbed trailer?

Source: The Globe and Mail

Ambassador Bridge Moves Forward in Approval Process

The current Ambassador Bridge, which is 80 years old, is the busiest border crossing in North America, handling 1.6 million truck crossings each year.

Manuel Moroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge, is one step closer to building a second span of the international crossing between Michigan and Windsor, Ontario. Moroun received the OK from the Canada Border Services Agency to build a new customs plaza in Windsor, according to reports by The Globe and Mail.

The next step to building the private bridge is to submit an environmental impact statement to Transport Canada for review. While the statement was prepared in December 2007, the Canadian government wanted approval from the Canada Border Services Agency before reviewing the report.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Matthew Moroun, Moroun's son, said they hope to have the environmental impact report reviewed this year, but he expects there to be bureaucratic obstacles.

"I'm sure Transport Canada is trying to figure out what banana peel to throw into the mix," Moroun told the publication. "I'm not a babe in the woods, and I know Transport Canada is going to tap dance and do whatever they can to delay our environmental case until next year, but the ball is squarely in their court."

But James Kusie, spokesman for Transport Minister John Baird, told the publication that Transport Canada is waiting to receive additional information from the Ambassador Bridge Co. before the proposal is reviewed. "Despite several requests, the Ambassador Bridge Co. has not yet submitted the necessary information to Transport Canada so that the department can undertake the review of its environmental assessment submission," he said.

Kusie also said the Canadian government prefers the Detroit River International Crossing project, another bridge span that would be publicly-owned. "We believe it is in the public interest to construct a new Detroit River crossing that is subject to appropriate public oversight," he told the Wall Street Journal.

However, the DRIC project is wrapped in politics of its own. Lately, proponents of the project are trying to get public-private partnership legislation that would permit the Michigan Department of Transportation to enter into a relationship with Canada and a private sector transportation project developer/financier.

Source: Truckinginfo

CVSA Gears Up For Inspector Competition

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is gearing up for the 18th annual North American Inspectors Championship (NAIC) in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 2-8.

CVSA stresses that the event is more than a competition; it's an opportunity to get a snapshot of the current roadside inspection environment, as well as a forum to evaluate both successes and areas for improvement. In addition, the international event also develops future leaders, strengthens the industry and enforcement partnerships, and promotes camaraderie between inspectors, jurisdictions, and countries.

"Commercial vehicle inspectors have a huge responsibility in ensuring that the large trucks and buses that travel down roads alongside passenger vehicles are doing so safely by checking a vehicle's brakes, tires, tiedowns, driver's record of duty status as well as other critical items while conducting an inspection," said Buzzy France, CVSA's president.

"FMCSA congratulates all of the dedicated and skilled commercial motor vehicle inspectors competing this year in Columbus," said FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro. "It is only through their day in and day out attention to detail that we set the bar high to meet our safety goals and reduce deaths and injuries on our roadways."

This year there are six candidates from Canada, three from Mexico and 47 from the U.S. The theme of NAIC 2010 is 'Education, Performance, Uniformity, and Partnerships.'

NAIC's purpose is to recognize the inspector for demonstrating inspector excellence. NAIC contestants are evaluated in the following categories: North American Standard Level I Inspection; North American Standard Level I Inspection Procedures; North American Standard HazMat/Transportation of Dangerous Goods Inspection; North American Standard Cargo Tank/Other Bulk Packagings Inspection; North American Standard Level V Passenger Vehicle (Motorcoach) Inspection; Personal Interview; and North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria Exam.

Source: Truckinginfo

Truck Driving Championships Kick Off Next Week

The American Trucking Associations will hold its National Truck Driving Championships next week, from Aug. 3 to 7 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.

During the event, 400 top professional truck drivers from all across the U.S. will compete in the what's considered the "Super Bowl of Safety."

The contestants are state champions (in eight competing classes with an affiliated competition for step vans) from all 50 states. They have driven over a half billion accident-free miles in earning the right to compete in the NTDC.

Drivers will compete for four days, challenging their driving skills, and knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry. The tests typically include obstacles like an alley dock, a rear line stop, a side park, a scales stop, a turn, a front line stop, and straight line driving through a diminishing clearance.

The National Grand Champion Truck Driver will be announced on Aug. 7, along with individual champions in each truck class. The state team with the highest score will also be honored.

Source: Truckinginfo

Trucker�s speed-limiter case extended to September

Canadian trucker Scott Mooney of Fergus, Ontario, continues to fight a speed-limiter infraction in provincial court.

Mooney was one of the first truck drivers to receive a citation after the Ontario Ministry of Transportation began enforcing the speed-limiter law in June 2009.

Mooney is fighting his ticket on the grounds that the law itself creates an unsafe environment on the highways with vehicles traveling at different speeds.

He had his day in court, or at least a partial day, on July 21 in Napanee. The judge in the case set another date for Sept. 2 to complete the testimony.

“At that time, we’ll be finishing up the last witness, the police officer, and we will do summations,” Mooney told Land Line Magazine on Monday, July 26.

“We will not be expecting a decision on that date,” Mooney said. “The judge made it clear that there is a lot of information to review.”

– By David Tanner, associate editor
Courtesy of LandLine Magazine