The Day of the Professional Trucker is almost over.

Keith Brown

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I assume many of todays truck drivers are temporary and most probably recently completed their license training. The TransCanada Hwy to and around Revy is a show case for these driver to display there new skills. A case in point BC transportation had to move the "Parking Spot" on the Kicking Horse pass descent to Field, Because many of these Ramrodder's took it upon them selves to Park there rigs in a compacted format head first into a solid mass of granite. It seems to me there may have been a side bet or a contest to see who could compact the truck in trailer into the shortest length. The unfortunate consequence of this "parking competition" is that many of us ended up waiting for hours while the "Clean Up" took place. I drove from Okotoks to Victoria on the on February 1st and a Trans X team decided to park their westbound truck in the eastbound lane in a severe jack knife position just before Three Valley Gap. It took the rescuers two hours to get to the drivers as the trailer blocked the exit on the drivers side and the mountain blocked the passengers side. The drivers were unhurt, but two ambulance waited the full two hours for the clowns to be extracted. I have a suggestion for Tran X Logistics, install sun roofs in your trucks so your drivers can be exit the truck faster.

To get to the reason for my rant, I am all for protest, but if some Ding Dongs in a truck come to my neighborhood and expects to blow their horn constantly day after day. Their horn wont work very long, due to the Axe size hole in your radiator.
 

Flapjack

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Well if all this energy went towards getting some fair pay for those highway haulers some talent may replace the steering wheel holders.

Electronic logs that recently got mandated can be easily used for fair pay, unpaid wait time has to stop.
 

cdnredneck_t3

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Ya it's a hard row to hoe for truckers. We used to haul in produced water and fresh water, quit in 07. There was money in it back then. Now after expenses they are lucky if there is any left for a wage. The current fuel price, price of trucks, tiers and insurance there isn't anything left.

I write this as I'm unloading fertilizer. It isn't worth me getting my trailers full of salt for what the rates are. I didn't negotiate, just asked what delivery is and said sounds good.
 

skegpro

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Well if all this energy went towards getting some fair pay for those highway haulers some talent may replace the steering wheel holders.

Electronic logs that recently got mandated can be easily used for fair pay, unpaid wait time has to stop.
Saw a posting the other day for a Edmonton to Vancouver route hauling chicken for $130k year. (Hourly not km)
 

Keith Brown

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What's the point of going backwards?
It didn't look like he had the time to set up and turn around to go forward before the combine hopper was full or maybe the driver just wanted to showcase his talent. What ever the reason it was very impressive particularly in a stubble field. If a TransX or CN driver tried that, both trailers and the tractor would be a right off. Nowadays in the trucking industry any trip you can walk a way from is a good one, if you can reuse the truck and trailer its a bonus.
 

Keith Brown

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Make this part of the driving test....


That's why I used Just About Over. There are some incredibly talented truck drivers still driving, but the days of a 40 year accident free career are close to being over. I do agree with comment's here that truckers ought to be paid way more, plain and simple.
 

summit889

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Well if all this energy went towards getting some fair pay for those highway haulers some talent may replace the steering wheel holders.

Electronic logs that recently got mandated can be easily used for fair pay, unpaid wait time has to stop.

Thing is, they do it too themselves. As soon as something makes money, someone else undercuts them, does it next to no profit
 

Caper11

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Most of the meat heads you see pulling btrains couldn't do that with one of those trailers.

Most of the meat heads I seen in Toronto cannot do that with a 48 ft trailer let alone a set of trains.

One thing I noticed, it should be mandatory to take a road test In A manual transmission, and a automatic should not be allowed.
 
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