Poached Salmon: Haulers roaming for freight

TORONTO — There’s some fear among cross-border haulers that the U.S. is becoming more reserved, at least trade-wise.

Though, one not-so-unintended consequence of cooling trading relations with the U.S., some traditional domestic truckers might point out, is less of them Yankee trucks on this side of the border poaching our freight (see this week’s online feature, Protection Racket, for more on growing protectionist sentiments stateside). 

In the meantime, more than a few Canadian carriers seem to be doing a pretty good job of cutting their neighbor’s grass all by themselves — particularly in southern Ontario, where the collapse of the auto market has prompted scores of truckers lacking in the diversity department to stalk any piece of freight that has to leave a dock.

"I blame two types of fleets," says Rick Way, owner of Wayfreight, a two-dozen-truck, flatbed carrier in Guelph, Ont. First, he says, the very large fleets with former automotive capacity to spare are muscling into any area they can. "It’s always the same story … with the big carriers right under us," says Way. "Now, Wayfreight rates are ‘too high’ and we’re told we have to be more ‘competitive’. How I hate that word."

Then there are the two-to-five truck operators who "have gotten into this rate reduction game to keep the fleet moving and generate cash to make payments."

It’s true many carriers are trimming capacity.
But then, where does that capacity go?

According to the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA), many Ontario-plated carriers have been pushing farther east, much to the dismay of Atlantic outfits.

Atlantic Canada has long been a major importer of goods from Ontario. But with the influx of new eastern trucks in those parts, many Maritime trucks are being parked, APTA director Peter Nelson told local media there.

Despite the extremely difficult operating environment in trucking, there’s a lot more capacity today than most predicted a few months ago. One ­reason is that fuel prices crashed to almost half of what they were last summer, giving many carriers on the brink a new lifeline — or, probably more accurately — a stay of execution.

But it won’t last, says Way. "We just need to wait this out while the capacity problem eases thru attrition and then we will go back to our customers and get the increases we shouldn’t have given up in the first place."


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