January 27, 2016 Vol. 13 No. 2

Like our dog with the big bone he’s been working on for more than a year, I’m going to keep chewing on the issue of wheel-offs to start things off here. I’ve got a new angle by way of some great feedback from a guy who knows what he’s talking about.

I’ve been at this one for ages. Like 20 years, most recently in two newsletters late last year (Dec. 2 and Dec. 16). My motivation to return to wheel integrity every so often usually hinges on events, sometimes just a conversation that tells me for the nth time that the matter still merits discussion. 

Anyway, my good friend Dave Brennan, a veteran of Canadian trucking and a very smart guy, had a lot to say on the subject in a recent e-mail. Useful comments for sure. I welcome that sort of feedback, even though he took me to task on a few points. As he says, the wheel-off conversation simply has to continue.

I should note that Dave is semi-retired after a long career with Fontaine Fifth Wheel, though he still represents a small Canadian company called Safety Trigo which sells, among other things, a simple and seemingly effective wheel-retention product called the Skirt Nut. More on that next time out.

ARE WHEEL-OFFS BACK? That was the question I asked by way of the headline for my newsletter on December 2, last year. I wondered aloud, are we slipping? It arose because truck and trailer wheel separations had hit the press again, at least in Ontario. Action was called for by the province’s Transport Minister, Steven Del Duca.

Herr Brennan said my question was off the mark because wheel-offs had never left. He’s right, of course, but it was just a rhetorical device anyway. Regardless, he offered numbers, and more besides. I could paraphrase him, but instead I’ll just include most of his e-mail here, edited very lightly. It’s instructive…