I must make amends

A year ago, I was making my debut on Sport Plus 172 with a head full of ideas, subjects with some controversy, mixed with a rebellious temperament and no radio experience. Wanting to inform the professional drivers, I also commented on various hot button topics in our industry. I must admit that I have pushed the envelope many times and I went overboard a few times.

I have never wanted to point toward an individual personally, but on the functions that they occupy and I have had strong comments on topics that I esteem important. These same topics are also some that owner-operators or small fleet owners would like to see a more open debate even if there is lack of organizations to represent them.

I know that I have commented on some points like a hunter and not like a sharp shooter. I put this on the lack of experience. I have learned from my mistakes but I won’t stop defending these issues, which many, in our industry, find unacceptable. I learned to moderate my comments but still want the message passed on. We all have to fight the pressure coming from the outside of our industry. Being able to survive and continue to serve the population that expects the goods to be on the shelves of the store, when they want it, after seeing it on a flyer, which was delivered to a distributing agency by a truck, because another truck brought the paper and the ink to print it.

The slogan of most Canadian trucking associations, “If you got it, a truck brought it”, applies to just everything we consume. Even pressure groups for intermodal transportation can’t deny that rails and rivers don’t go everywhere.

I must make amends to all that I have pointed to previously in my comments. As I have written above, I will put more moderation in my comments while keeping my efforts to inform the women and the men that are the driving force of our economy

Jean Catudal

Seat Belt Laws in North America

Radio brings up a lot of topics and makes me search some statistics that are sometimes funny and others interesting. Waiting to get for my delivery today at a truck stop that supports my internet connection, I did a little research after a call on the radio about road users that were getting tickets and no seat belts. I didn’t quite understood where it was but here is a stat from Wikipedia.

In January of 2007, all the states of the union except one had a seat belt law. The one being New-Hampshire. That state only requires that passengers under 18 years of age to be buckled up. However, as the road signs in the state say:” Under 18, Common sense for all”

25 states and the D.C. area have primary offence dispositions for the seat belts. In other words, you can be pulled over for that, the other 24 only have it as a secondary offence. You will get an extra ticket if the officer sees it after you have broken another traffic law.

In Canada, all provinces have provisions about seat belts but only in Quebec the law specifies that all passengers must be using the belts. So you can not have more passengers then the number of belts in the car.

Personally, I encourage the use of the seat belt, even if from time to time I need to be remembered.

Jean Catudal

Sources

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_legislation#United_States
Canadian Safety Council
http://www.safety-council.org/news/sc/2006/pres-jan.html
US DOT “Click It or Ticket”
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/airbags/buckleplan/mayplanner2003/clickit.html

Smoking or Non-Smoking?

When the news came out in May 2006, I had talked about it in the trucking news and thanked David Bradley of the OTA about the clarifying of the impacts of the provincial laws and federal chartered companies.

If you are working for a provincially chartered company in Quebec or Ontario, you cannot smoke in your work environment. If the company is under a federal charter, the description of the smoke-free workspace does not include a motor vehicle and you can still smoke while driving.

Also if you are an owner-operator, you can still enjoy your tobacco addiction.

It’s not specified that a carrier can ban smoking.

Source: Ontario Trucking Association News Releases

http://ontruck.org/news/releases/2006/prel_2006_05_31_171005_rt.php3

Our troops need our support

Last November, I had prepared an audio clip that was aired on Entre les 2 lignes that I was co-hosting at the time. A few days prior to that, I had my father listen to it. Dad is a WWII vet. He had asked me to burn it on a CD so he could share it with at the Legion with other members. He had a lot of good works on it and told me about them.

Being myself a former army cadet, #2725 of the Fusillers Mont-Royal, I had the ambition to follow in a military career. Unfortunately, the recruiting officers decided otherwise and I stayed in the civilian life.

Since September 2001, on my truck, there is a yellow ribbon on each side to show my support. After the years, they faded out and were hard to see on a white cab. On a fuel stop at the Irving in Cornwall, I saw on the counter red ribbons with a Canadian flag and the mention “Support our troops”. The profits are for care packages for our troops that greatly need them.

I have often said the event if we don’t agree with the decision of our elected officials about where the troops are sent, these men and women deserve our support for the job they do and when they come home.

If you feel like dropping them a good word to help them keep their moral up, here is the web link to do so

http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/community/messageboard/message_add_e.asp

Jean Catudal

Mexican Trucks and Driver, Part 2

While, north of the Mexican border, our neighbours are wondering how to keep a possible flow of uncertainty about trucks coming from the south, we are wondering what can happen if we loose the buffer zone crated by the whole country of the USA. As I have written earlier, my view is more on the financial impact of the outpour then the trucks and the drivers with non verifiable skills and records.

In this whole question of letting Mexican trucks run freely north of the actual buffer zone along the southern border, one concern is coming out from them too. In 2001, the Mexican government has been petitioned by a group called “CANACAR”. This group seems to be about the equivalent of our Canadian Trucking Alliance or of the American Trucking Association. CANACAR, in 2001, had asked the Mexican Senate to cancel the trucking section of NAFTA, as reported in Land Line Magazine. Still today, CANACAR is claiming no real benefits to open the borders.

In the appearance to the Mexican Senate, the president of the group, Tirso Martinez Angheben, expressed the following points to stop the American Pilot Program.

• Transportation prices in Mexico are lower than in the USA or Canada;
• It will cause transportation prices in Mexico to increase;
• It will not accelerate the border crossing process;
• It will generate strong pressure on salaries paid to Mexican drivers, which in turn will increase the cost of domestic freight in Mexico; and
• The Mexican government lacks the capacity and infrastructure to supervise U.S. carriers entering Mexico and to prevent foreign companies from providing domestic transportation only reserved for Mexican nationals.

Don’t we have the same concerns but the other way around?

• Transportation prices in Canada are higher than in Mexico;
• It will cause transportation prices in Canada to decrease;
• It will not accelerate the border crossing process;
• It will generate strong pressure on salaries paid to Canadian drivers; and
• Can the Canadian government have the capacity and infrastructure to supervise any carriers entering Canada and to prevent foreign companies from providing domestic transportation only reserved for Canadian citizens?

These are some talking points that the associations representing carriers, owner-operators and drivers could sit down to see the full impact on our industry here in the great white northern.

Jean Catudal

What can I do during the World wide road safety week?

I was wondering on that question this week and I am asking you to think about it too. I have put as head liner the bumper sticker that OOIDA gives away to promote the “Run Compliant” program. This says a lot and we read beyond the message to see the big picture.

The first thing a professional driver should do, keep a legal log book. I can hear you sitting in front of your keyboards…Please watch you vocabularies…It isn’t nice for the ears…

I am also one that makes a living driving a big truck and I know that when the wheels don’t turn, there are no incoming revenues. Being between two contracts and facing all kinds of twists and turns that are keeping me at home, I will be tempted to bend and stretch the creativity of my log. But guess what? I won’t. I did it before and I am still alive, hate well every day and I faced my financial duties just the same. I will admit that I did cut on some fancy stuff. I still have a laptop that is over 3 years old, I am not on the cutting edge of communication technologies such as Blackberry, satellite internet or TV.

Running compliant is also to drive at posted speed limits. I know some states and provinces do have some tolerance. I do use some of it but, 100Km/h is not 120. Without claiming to be a scientific analyst, I do read local papers and watch newscasts here and there and, on many Mondays, I noticed that most fatal accidents did occur on secondary highways, in towns or cities. When a wreck happens on a limited access highway, it’s a bad one. These are usually caused by driving too fast for the conditions or, simply by following too closely.

In a nut shell, running compliant pays is less stressful and mostly safer!

On these words, you all have a good road safety week and a good road safety year.

Jean Catudal

I was taking a break

I am leaving this message just to let you know I was taking a short break. The last few weeks were quite busy for me. My participation to the first leg of the World's Largest Truck Convoy for Special Olympics took a lot of my time.

We, the orginizers, had the support of Newcom Business Media to be part of Expocam in Montreal the 12th to the 14th of April. It did give us a lot of exposure to let the word out about this wonderful event. We are sure this will be a blast!

I invite you to use the link on the sidebar to go look up the latest news on the convoy that will be posted on a special blog I have put up. www.qcconvoy.blogspot.com

I am still doing some updates on the entrance of the Mexican trucks in the USA and Canada. The impact that this will make and the views I can read from all across North America. This should be up in the next few days.

Thanks for your patience.

Jean Catudal