Dear Editor:

Having run the Ontario-Quebec corridor for four years with a wide variety of equipment and often on various schedules, I have been forced to stay away due to a lack of available parking.

I distinctly remember one night shift a couple of years ago when I stopped for a coffee at the Mallorytown Eastbound service centre on the 401. I was barely able to meander back out through the numerous rigs that were parked “ad-hoc” leaving only enough room to ever so slowly squeeze back out onto the highway.

I was running a switch for a linehaul carrier and would have been in a lot of trouble if I had gotten jammed in there for the night, since it was a time-sensitive load. Needless to say, I learned my lesson and stayed clear of these antiquated facilities during the night shift.

I thought the Ontario government had promised us drivers new and improved service centres with buffet-style restaurants, hot showers, drivers’ lounges and lots of space for the boys that put the food in the grocery stores and so on? Or was this just more smoke and mirrors and yet another empty promise from the Liberals?

Maybe the current Minister of Transportation, Ms. Kathleen Wynne, needs an education on what we drivers all do and have to put up with in order to get the freight moved and the shelves filled. Example: using an outhouse to go to the washroom for a sit-down task in the middle of the night due to the lack of access to clean, safe and well-maintained facilities, in order for her to get a better understanding of the current deplorable situation.

Shame on you Minister and your colleagues for being so ill-informed or uncaring about a large demographic of hard-working taxpayers who keep the economy rolling!

Kirk N. Semlitsch Via e-mail