James Menzies
-
BEST FLEETS SEMINAR SERIES IS UNDERWAY
The Best Fleets to Drive For seminar series shares the best practices employed by carriers that drivers really like to work for. Mark Murrell, president of CarriersEdge, puts on the free, half-day seminars, to recognize the industry’s best driver-focused programs…
Read more → -
IS THERE A FUTURE FOR SMALL FLEETS?
Bill Cameron, the controversial Truck News columnist and owner of four-truck flatdeck fleet Parks Transportation, has a grim outlook on the future for small carriers. He writes in the June issue that there is little interest among big carriers in…
Read more → -
Medical marijuana and trucking: A legal minefield for carriers
COOKSTOWN, Ont. — Patti Satok wasn’t surprised when she failed her pre-employment drug test. She was more surprised when the trucking company that had offered her a driving job suddenly reconsidered the position it had proffered. Satok is one of…
Read more → -
So, you want to haul dangerous goods?
This cover story in the March issue of Truck News explores the transportation of dangerous goods by truck and changes that may be foisted upon that segment of the industry as a result of the terrible rail tragedy that occurred…
Read more → -
Remote diagnostics is the real deal
Fleets and owner/operators have had legitimate reason over the past few years to complain about a costly increase in unplanned downtime. Most of the problems can be traced back to the emissions systems installed on 2007 and later model year…
Read more → -
Adopting a healthier lifestyle: An overdue halftime report
So, I have written before about my participation in the pilot project for NAL Insurance’s Healthy Trucker program. I realize I’m overdue for a report on my progress. The title of this blog is misleading, since there really is no…
Read more → -
My commitment to a healthier lifestyle
Unless you’ve had your head in the sand over the course of the past few years, you will have noticed that the trucking industry has begun to take seriously the health and wellness of its workforce. And thank goodness for…
Read more → -
Inside the Pickles’ new Pete
You never know who you’ll run into at the Shell Rotella SuperRigs show. I’m always scouring the lot for Canadian trucks, and I got especially excited today when I spotted the Sharp Transportation Peterbilt with the telltale oversized bunk. It…
Read more → -
Keys to implementing a driver health and wellness program
The secret is out among the best run trucking companies, that a formal health and wellness plan for drivers and other staff can deliver significant benefits to a carrier’s operations. It has often been said that a healthy driver is…
Read more → -
The risk in making safety a competitive battleground
The advent of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program in the US has had a significant impact not only on how carriers manage their equipment and drivers, but also on how they sell their services. Never before has the…
Read more → -
The Top Stories of 2012
Another year has come and gone and as always, it was an eventful one. It’s always fun to look back at the top stories of the past year, as measured by Web traffic using Google Analytics. For the second year…
Read more → -
Too much connectivity can be deadly. Unless you’re a trophy whitetail.
I just returned from my annual (not quite annual, but I try) pilgrimage deep into the Eastern Ontario woods, where I spent a few early November days seeking out big bucks of the four-legged variety. PETA cardholders, relax. A flick…
Read more → -
Greed or desperation? What’s really behind Indo-Canadian truckers’ drug trade connection
On Oct. 14, the Toronto Star published a feature article exploring the Indo-Canadian trucking community’s ties to the drug trade. The report indicated that Indo-Canadian gangs are preying on vulnerable truckers to get loads of contraband transported across the Canada/US…
Read more → -
Is the high cost of Class 8 tractors ‘the new diesel’?
North American Class 8 truck order activity started off 2012 great gangbusters, leading to overly optimistic projections from the OEMs and a subsequent downgrading by OEs and industry forecasters alike. There has been an unmistakable cooling of new order activity,…
Read more → -
Riding shotgun with a paraplegic truck driver
As I’ve written in the past, one of the things that makes the trucking industry so compelling to write about is its people. The Canadian trucking industry is comprised of hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life.…
Read more →
