QUESNEL, B.C. (Dec. 20, 2004) — Niche sector truckers have always had their own thing going — not totally dependent on general trucking market conditions.

But if there’s one thing lumber mills, trucking companies and truck dealers in B.C. agree on these days, it’s that business is booming, and just like general cartage folks, they’re scrambling to keep up.

A record year for grain, coal, steel, chemicals and forest products has taxed the ability of mills to get their product to offshore markets — so much so that a trucking industry which normally takes a backseat to rail movement of these goods has been feeling the pressure, too.

“There’s certainly no shortage of work this year,” says Mark Thomson, North American transportation manager for West Fraser Mills Ltd. “And very similar to the rail carriers, the demand for trucking services, especially in B.C. and Alberta this year, was such that truckers could command more for prices at certain times of the year.”

Joe Chicoine, owner of TC Trucking of Quesnel, agrees. He’s got 20 trucks “going full tilt right now,” hauling lumber and engineered wood products for West Fraser Mills and Tolko Industries.

Normally, says Chicoine, when one client is slow, the other is busy, which means TC Trucking seldom sees a slow time. But with everyone busy these days Chicoine is hard pressed to keep up.

Any doubt that trucking companies are being kept busy in B.C.’s wood products industry is easily swept aside by Mike McPhee, sales manager for Kamloops Freightliner.

Sales of super B trailers and heavy-spec trucks are up 30 per cent over last year. In fact, all dealers are doing well, McPhee says, notably Kenworth, which is the strongest dealer in vocational equipment in northern B.C. Kenworth is followed by Western Star and Freightliner, who McPhee describe as “neck and neck” in the battle for fleet and owner-operator business. “It’s been a good year for all truck and trailer dealers, there’s no doubt about it,” he says.

Meeting the demand is complicated by a North American-wide shortage of qualified drivers. Complicating matters in B.C. is that many drivers have entered high-demand, high-pay fields like housing construction for both housing and building for the 2010 winter Olympics.

Worse still, says Chicoine, drivers who are available aren’t always the most qualified — especially for forestry work. “In the old days they were classed as professional drivers and it was a profession,” he says. “It was good to be a truck driver 10-15 years ago and now people are thinking ‘Well, I’ve got nothing else to do, so I guess I’ll be a truck driver.'”