TruckNewsTalk

Do you really know what you're pumping into your fuel tank? The sign says diesel, but that doesn't mean the fuel coming out of every pump is the same. Refiners must meet certain standards, including cetane rating and sulfur content. But other characteristics that can have a real impact on a truck's operation — including cloud point, cold filter plugging point and suspended water — can vary conside...

Highway traffic volumes across much of Northern Ontario have remained relatively flat or even declined over the past decade or so, but those stats mask an important change. Heavy truck traffic has increased both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of vehicles on the road. The volume of trucks making their way across Highways 11 and 17 are bound to increase further as Canada seeks to expand dom...

OWNER OPERATORS – BEWARE THE TAXMAN This is interesting, and confusing. Trucking industry people happy to learn earlier this year that the Canada Revenue Agency would finally crack down on personal service businesses known as, Driver Inc. However, we learned in July that CRA was also targeting incorporated owner-operators – you know…the people who actually own their trucks and pay for fuel, mainte...

Everyone in the trucking industry, and many members of the regular driving public have voiced their concern and anger at the growing number of poorly trained truck drivers on our road and streets. Everyone talks...but not much action. This man has a plan, but it will take time and effort, and everyone needs to be on board. His name is Don MacDonald. Listen to his plan for a professional certificat...

Imagine! You're hauling 100,000 pounds in a Super B-Train, yet you're getting almost 10 mpg in fuel mileage. Impossible? Sounds like a social media fake ad? This is the real deal. This TNT episode should be of interest to every driver, owner operator, and eventually, fleet owners. Just listen to this story with Jim Park as he travels to Saskatchewan and talks to trucking company co-owner, John Bic...

A 615-Hour Truck Driver Course for only $99! Amazing! Could this be a national standard? Well, there is one sticky problem. It's in French. Well, mostly. More on that later. Jim Park and I have questions. Are we not paying enough attention to Canada's second most populous province, and the second largest trucking industry province…and are they paying attention to the rest of us?   We ask this at a...

CARRIER INTEGRITY Integrity…now there's a word that seems to have lost it's value over the past several years, especially in politics, as we have all witnessed.   Integrity is described as the firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility . How does it apply to the trucking industry? The recent US Supreme Court ruling on broker liability creates a challenge for...

The title this weeks sound like the title of a Quentin Tarantino movie. Nope. It's real life...and death in Northern Ontario.  Let this sink in. The Highway Traffic fatality rate across the province of Ontario in 2021 was 3.94 per 100,000 people, yet the fatality rate in northern Ontario that same year was more than 99.25 per 100,000 people. That's a 135% increase! So far, the Ontario government s...

Dumbing Down Driver Training Have you ever heard the metaphor about the "crabs in a bucket"?   It's based on the observation that if a single crab tries to climb out of a bucket, the group will pull him down, preventing him from escaping. It embodies the mindset: "If I can't have it, neither can you." We have a crabby example in this TNT podcast where we learn about one province being compelled to...

A NATIONAL TRUCK DRIVER TRAINING STANDARD WITH JOHN DEGROOT Just when you thought that everything that needed to be said about the Red Seal Certification plan for trucker driver training was already said, we discovered that there is more to learn. Jim Park and Stan Campbell talk to one of the most passionate people behind the Red Seal Certification process, John DeGroot. We thought we had heard it...

Rollover Avoidance Remember when CB radios were the main communication system between truckers? There was an entire lingo between drivers…but maybe the most popular one was "Keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down."   CB radios aren't as popular as they once were, but it seems that these days, keeping the shiny side up is also not as popular as it once was. Hardly a day goes by when we don...

Fuel Tools You Can Use We have come down with the crude oil blues. Thanks to Donald Trump's adventure in Iran and the subsequent closing of the Strait of Hormuz, we are feeling the pain at the pumps. Diesel is at an all-time high in Canada and the USA, and it may get worse before it gets better. We aren't left with many options, except to moderate our driving habits, in an attempt to cut down on d...

Andy's Red Seal Questions With all the buzz around Red Seal designation for truck drivers, even turning truck driving into a designated trade, some skepticism remains. Most industry stakeholders, including us here at Truck News Talk, believe the objectives are solid, and worth pursuing. But ... Driving school owner Andy Roberts wonders, if schools are interested in training to a Red Seal standard,...

DRIVER ABUSE   According to the authors of a recent report on labour abuses in the Canadian trucking industry, one of the worst problems drivers face is wage theft -- which they frame as uncompensated work. Think, waiting time, inspections, layovers, etc. While the report deals primarily with the Driver Inc. environment, many of the problems they highlight exist in traditional employee/employer re...

Driver Inc – The Epitome of Evil Driver Inc. The epitome of evil? A scourge on the trucking industry? Or, is this the new way in the gig economy, the future of trucking employment.  Driver Inc. is a label that describes a tax-avoidance scheme in which truck drivers are treated as independent corporations rather than employees - even though they function as employee drivers. Instead of being paid w...

The Red Seal in the Hot Seat Over the past couple of months there have been any number of questions being raised about the feasibility of a Red Seal certifications for truck drivers. We know that many truck driver schools are supportive, but I know of a few that question the probability that such a project will ever happen. Many have other questions about how such a high-minded project will solve...

The Pilot Program Good quality truck training schools are not doing as well as they once were, thanks to the budget quickie so-called schools. A good quality school can cost anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000. It's tough for a young guy or girl to come up with that kind of money.   But this is interesting…did you know that there is no shortage of young people showing up to fork out around 20 thousand...

The Enforcement Province There seems to be a lot of handwringing and anger about the scourge of bad poorly trained and sometimes fake licensed truck drivers on our highways…and the suggestions and strategies to fix the problems. There have been, as usual, plenty of disagreements about what needs to be done to make our highways safer.   The one seemingly logical simple solution that obviously evade...

Slightly Revised Trucking journalist Jim Park and podcast creator Stan Campbell will discuss the proposed Red Seal idea for truck drivers on this TruckNewsTalk podcast. Anything that cleans up the crooked schools and suspect testing and licensing would be a move in the right direction. However, other ideas have been tried and failed. Are there options? We have a lot of questions. In addition, Stan...

Safety Sam Lately there have been far too many stories about crooked driving schools and unsafe drivers on our road.   In the big move lately to rid the trucking industry of quickie budget schools, we sometimes forget that Canada is a long list of excellent driving schools from coast to coast.   Schools that can almost guarantee a good career with a reputable fleet. New and prospective drivers ass...

Ace and Red Seal Truckers What the hell is going on in the trucking world? ·          Unsafe equipment operating on our highways. ·           Fake safety inspection decals? ·          In a recent highway inspection, a third of trucks were placed out of service. ·          Truckers' licences suspended after uncovering dishonest testing and training ·          Quickie Driving Schools and driving tes...

I was a teenager in the mid 50's. I remember weird stuff, like dimmer switches, fender skirts, milk delivered to our door, adjusting the TV rabbit ears and crazy rules, like…women were not allowed in taverns and pubs. I remember once, when my buddy Howard and I saw transport truck pass by, driven by a woman. Wow! Look at that! A woman driving that big truck! We have come a long way since the 50's...

Thank you President Trump! We appreciate what you have done for Canada. Thanks to you, we are becoming stronger and more self-reliant. (this is my attempt at sarcasm)   One of the positive results of your bullying and tariffs is that we have begun to eliminate some of our own tariffs.   Okay, we don't call them tariffs but there have been restrictions on trade within our own country and they have...

TRUCKING FAKE NEWS BREAKING NEWS!   Donald Trump has just resigned the Presidency of the United States. In other news, Prime Minister Mark Carney has just announced that all trucks in Canada must be electric by the end of 2026. Unbelievable?     Well, just as believable that what we read and see on the internet…on Facebook, Instagram, X, Telegram, podcasts, and the hundreds of questionable news ou...