LCV’s, Does it ring a bell?

“LCV” is the short for “Long Combination Vehicle” or as more commonly called Road Trains.

On June 24^th of 2007, if you go and look at the archive of this blog, I was writing about it and leaving you to think about the subject. Last week the Government of Ontario by the voice of the Transportation Minister announced the start of a pilot program. About one hundred special permits to haul LCV’s will be issued to carriers making the demand. The OTA and the PMTC will overlook the distribution of these permits during the pilot program.

To obtain an LCV permit, a carrier must

-Have an exemplary safety record

-Be a member of either association

The permits will be given by lottery and up to fifty carriers can apply for them. A limit of two permits by carrier. Nothing is said if less carriers line up demands how many permits they can get.

The web site of the MTO talks about SPIF for “Safe and Productive Infrastructure Friendly”.

What do I think about it?

Some of my comments I shall keep for myself. The reasons given by all parties involved are an increase of productivity, less fuel and, here again, less GHG’s, fewer trucks on the road, reduced transport costs.

The average Joe Roaduser reading the paper will be happy to read that 2800 trucks are going to be removed from the roadways but, nowhere is it explain to him that the trucks replacing them are going to be over 125 foot or 38 meters long. Me, as a truck driver, I see 2800 less jobs. The carriers could take advantage to increase their profit but again, this may happen on the back of the one driving the rigs.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to LCV’s, I am against the idea to have double responsibility, having a greater fuel expense, if you are an owner operator leased to a carrier, and not getting a fair and equitable rate. Do a simple math. If accordingly to the OTA in the press release (http://ontruck.org/news/releases/2009/prel_2009_04_17_073049_r.php3), a LCV runs at 30% less fuel then two trucks, a fair and equitable rate should be a 70% premium of you r regular rate for hauling an LCV before fuel surcharge. For company drivers I have only one comment, Negotiate a wage worth the extra responsibility.

I’ll leave you on these thoughts…