Letters to the Editor: Thank you, Trucking; Outsourcing; Lane Restrictions

These letters appear in the Sept. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Thank You, Trucking

Editor’s Note: This message was directed to everyone served by trucking from the head of the British Columbia Trucking Association and applies equally well to every other province or state.

Most of us who travel British Columbia’s roads know they carry large numbers of trucks of all sizes.

What we may not consider is that the loads those trucks are moving will end up in our homes or offices or at local hospitals or banks through an efficient supply chain that transfers goods from manufacturers, distributors, farmers, importers and other suppliers to locations that serve us all.

In honor of National Trucking Week, Sept. 7-14, let’s take a minute to think about the trucking industry and the thousands of men and women who work within it to make our lives functional, comfortable, healthy and safe.

While we’re just getting up, trucks already have visited grocery stores, restaurants and fast food outlets to deliver both fresh and packaged foods.

If you commute by car or take transit to work, trucks help get you on your way. They deliver gasoline and diesel to service stations and to bus, air, rail and marine terminals throughout the province. Because a truck got there, you’ll get where you need to go, too.

If someone you love is due for a hospital stay or being cared for in a nursing home, you have trucks to thank in part for their clean, safe, well-stocked surroundings. Many hospitals have meals delivered daily. Trucks also deliver clean, sterile sheets and gowns and pick up soiled articles for treatment. Medications, radiopharmaceuticals and oxygen all come in by truck.

Trucks whisk domestic garbage and recycling away from curbsides or drop-off depots. They move potentially toxic biomedical and hazardous wastes — batteries, oil, asbestos and solvents — to facilities where they can be treated and discarded safely. The livability of our communities and homes is enhanced because trucks are on the job.

In addition to our day-to-day reliance on the industry, we also benefit from its contribution to the economy. Here are a few facts:

• In 2005, trucks transported 66.7 million shipments across Canada, carrying 6.15 billion tons of cargo.

• In 2006, trucking was a $1.67 billion industry in British Columbia, with a growth rate of 4% a year between 1997 and 2006. The growth rate of all other British Columbian industries combined was less than 3%.

• In 2006, the trucking industry employed 366,390 people across Canada, of which about 55,000 are in British Columbia. Projections continue to show a shortage of truck drivers and mechanics, creating employment options and career paths for many.

Few of us ever think about the ways in which truck transportation supports both the economy and our well-being. And we shouldn’t have to. Trucks quietly, consistently and efficiently keep things moving, because that’s what the industry is about.

But we should all occasionally remember just how important the industry is to British Columbia and our communities — to our daily lives. If you got it, a truck brought it. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

Paul Landry

Chief Executive Officer

British Columbia Trucking Association

Langley, British Columbia

Canada

National Truck Driver Appreciation Week sends a message to all the men and women who are truck drivers — those who work the late-night linehaul runs, the coast-to-coast drivers, the local cartage drivers, the less-than-truckload drivers, the tank haulers, the flatbedders, the car haulers and all the others who do their job the safest way possible under conditions that aren’t always perfect.

Driver-appreciation days allow transportation desk jockeys who sit in a climate-controlled office and tell drivers how to do their job — even though they’ve never been in a truck, much less driven one — to take time to appreciate the job drivers do despite weather, problems at home, traffic conditions, being cut off by automobile drivers who are not aware (or don’t care) about the consequences, getting raked over the coals by a customer because their dispatcher lied about the delivery time or missing their kid’s ball game or school play because the load has got to go now.

They deliver the products and goods that keep this country moving and do a job many others could not or would not do. They drive equipment that is not always new and fancy, but they take the time each day to inspect it and ensure it’s safe for the road — not just to protect some unknown person driving by but to make sure their vehicle is safe around my family and yours.

We all can find faults in others if we look long and hard enough; every profession has its problems. But maybe this is a good time to consider the men and women who have dedicated their lives to a business that is sometimes unforgiving and unappreciative.

My appreciation goes out to all the men and women who have chosen to make the transportation industry their profession, even with the rising fees and ever-changing regulations. They do their best every day to help our country stand strong.

Without them, where would our country be?

Larry Lile

Safety/Security Director

Louisville Cartage Co. Inc.

Louisville, Ky.

Outsourcing

Overseas staffing = one less U.S. citizen with the means to buy the commodities your truck fleet delivers (8-25, p. 5; click here for previous Opinion piece). You can’t have it both ways.

Erik Wolfe

Owner-Operator

Wolfe Transport

Richmond Hills, Ga.

If we continue to outsource everything, who will be left to work as a middle-class citizen? I know your op-ed writer mentioned noncore jobs, but it’s both the value-added and non-value-added jobs that are leaving.

This practice has cost our country a tremendous amount of money, and I’m afraid we will wake up some day and found ourselves working as slaves to support this global economy.

Perry Johnson

Logistics Specialist

Richmond, Ky.

Lane Restrictions

Why don’t states make the left lane strictly for trucks? When the trucks have to get off at the exits, they can move over just in time.

Also, why don’t states ticket left-lane passenger-car drivers for going too slowly in the left lane and making faster

drivers cut off the big rigs that are allowed to stay only in the two lanes?

I think each state, if it were smart, would make lanes for big rigs and cars that want only to continue through that state — the express lanes.

I know that the people who make these decisions haven’t ridden in big trucks and had a chance to see how many times they have to risk their lives because of the passenger-car traffic. It’s just too easy to say that accidents are because of a big truck.

Debbie Williams

Owner

GW Trucking

Gaffney, S.C.