A blurred-red trail of brake lights queue up on 16th Avenue, across the top of Calgary. Local radio isn’t as entertaining as it ought to be for this burgeoning town, so you turn it off. That lets the roar of the jackhammer next to your rented Taurus take its full toll on your eardrum. Chalky gravel dust rises — could be from any one of a number of yet-to-be paved sites nearby — and gets into your teeth.

You don’t notice the car ahead roll up and allow you another six feet of asphalt because you’re distracted by the shadows of towering cranes and swinging scaffolds that dot the city skyline. It’s 8:50 p.m. And Cowtown plows on through the evening, expanding its waistband to make room for the stampeding herd.

The well-documented, energy-based riches flow into this high-plains city on the Deerfoot Trail, but they’re pumped in from Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray, which don’t have much milk or honey, but do produce a heck of a lot of oil. And in case you’ve been under your truck trying to manually adjust your brakes for the last six years, the worldwide demand for crude is 1,000 barrels a second — making oil worth a lot more than anything cows or bees can come up with.

Tanker Alley (officially known as Highway 63) from the provincial capital to the tarsands, despite its current treacherous state, is paved with gold — black gold, anyway — for Albertans.

On the back of the ‘patch, the province is expected to create 400,000 jobs in the next 10 years, but like the rest of Canada, low birth rates and the lack of a robust skilled immigrant policy means about 100,000 of those positions will likely never be filled.

Trucking is one of the industries caught in the vortex as long-haul drivers leave their cabs for the lure of high-wage work in the north.

“There’s a lot more than just trucking jobs. There are many opportunities and people will try them,” says Darshan Kailly, President of Canadian Freightways in Calgary. “There’s simply not enough people in our business to satisfy our needs.”

Helping to fill the vacuum somewhat is a steady convoy of eastern Canadians eager to cash in on the emerging market, and other out-of-towners in need of an income after their manufacturing jobs were packed up and shipped overseas.

Just how many prospectors are dashing to mark their territory here, and, more specifically, Fort Mac? Consider this: The population of this once-upon-a-Hudson’s Bay post has doubled in 15 years, swelling from 34,000 in 1991 to 65,000 last year. That number is expected to top 100,000 by 2011. Only half the population is native Albertan — 18 percent are thought to be from Newfoundland alone. It may not be long before “How’s ‘e gettin’ on, b’y” is Fort Mac’s new official greeting.

The exodus of skilled trades from the Maritimes, and to a lesser extent, Northern Ontario, is evident not just in the oilfields and growing southern Albertan commerce centers, but also several feverish B.C. markets and key regions in Saskatchewan, which, seemingly ready to back away from socialism, is now on the brink of its own commodity-driven economic awakening.

“We do see a lot of drivers heading that way. Mechanics too. It’s a hell of a time finding people,” says Gerry Dowden, owner of East Can Transport, a 25-truck fleet on The Rock. Dowden says he’s had a few drivers apply this year, but by the time he’s processed the application, done reference checks, and called for an interview, “they’re gone. Gone to Alberta,” he says. “It feels like we’re always playing catch-up.”

Several industries — trucking, vehicle mechanics, forestry, and fishing –have recently formed taskforces charged with figuring out ways to stem the westward migration. One obvious solution — a lot more cash — would probably anchor down most workers, but Dowden says market conditions for industries in the region make it impossible to match western wages. “If the market is so that you can’t recoup those rates in trucking or in the garage industry, then you’re just going backwards all the time.”

On the mainland in Rexton, N.B., Warren Transport President Vaughn Sturgeon confirms he’s seen up to 10 percent of his drivers leave for other jobs in the west in recent years, although 2006 seemed to be the zenith of the migration. “But there are some big projects out there that are supposedly in the intermediate stage and are waiting to take off again, so we may see guys go again later this year or next year.”

Warren’s boss says that the labor shortage, if it continues at the present rate, could seriously jeopardize regional growth and long-term economic initiatives like the much-hyped Atlantica concept and expansion of the Port of Halifax. “As a region, we have to do a better job of identifying and creating strategies to retain our people in order to have a competitive enough environment to maintain a certain core group of businesses working here.”

If Atlantic businesses are reeling from the over-fishing of manpower –estimated by the four provinces to be about 1,000 people a month — to what degree are western employers really benefiting? Surprisingly, not a lot — at least as it pertains to trucking’s needs, says Yanke Transport President Scott Johnston.

There’s no doubt migration has been good for some businesses. For others, Johnston says, it’s a stopgap solution at best. It’s difficult to plan for sustained growth and to secure essential long-term contracts when workers, Maritimers especially, tend to return home for part of the year instead of relocating the family in the west.

Sturgeon agrees that the increasingly high cost of living in Alberta has dissuaded many drivers from making a full-time commitment in the hyper-heated west. “I think for some the total reality of the situation has set in,” he says. “The best-case scenario is they’d like to work some of the year out there and be able to come home.”

The white outline represents Alberta truckers in comparison
to the percentage of Canada’s labor force (colored bars).

He acknowledges, however, that the continuous human turnstile doesn’t bode well for the long-term stability of businesses in either region.

In the meantime, one of Warren Transport’s strategies has been to get a piece of the action out west, and then use some of that extra revenue to reinvest in homegrown talent. “We’re a little bit in the ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ camp. Those people that do want to go out there can do it with us for our [western operation]. At least that way we can keep our core group of people.”

The truck-driving prospects in northern Ontario, despite the growing unemployment rate in some manufacturing-dependant regions, are perhaps the most disappointing, says Johnston from his Saskatoon office. As a fleet manager, he’s well aware of the number of loads that have disappeared when the plants and paper mills closed down. “But what happened to all the [idled] workers?”

That question was answered on a recent recruiting trip to one northwestern town whose paper mill had closed 18 months ago with no prospects of reopening. Many of the union workers were “basically living off the returns from the accessories they accumulated over the years” like ATVs and boats.

Johnston explains how he offered to train the laid-off workers for a flip-seat, team operation from eastern to western Canada and triangulate them to the U.S., through Toronto, and back home again. They wouldn’t even have to change addresses. “It was mind boggling to me that most people’s response was that they’d rather keep doing what they were doing and hope there was a change,” he says. “It was a stark realization on my part, that essentially, most people these days are creatures of habit. It’s amazing the extent people will attempt to wait patiently for things to return to the way they were instead of moving forward on a new journey.”

OVERCOMING THE BIRTH DEARTH

Canada’s current population growth hasn’t grinded to a halt — at least not yet. It’s certainly struck in neutral, however, resulting in an anemic labor growth rate of 0.8 percent, and sliding.

Our fertility deficit (1.5 births per man and woman) suggests Canada isn’t sustaining the current population by natural means. The median age is extremely top-heavy — an inflated boomer population of 50 to 65 year-olds that are living longer than any parallel generation in history presides over ever-shrinking successive generations.

In other words, the main reason why it’s so difficult to get 20-to-35-year-olds into trucks is because, simply, they don’t exist in the numbers their parents did. (For a more detailed report on Canada’s demographic origins and outlook be sure to check our September print issue for the second installment of this two-part series.)

But while birth rates may be falling, the sky over Canada isn’t, says expert demographer and University of Toronto economist David Foot. The author of Boom, Bust & Echo: Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the 21st Century, insists that astute businesses — yes, even trucking outfits — will be able to maintain a steady veteran workforce sprinkled with young people for at least the next 15 to 20 years, provided they look in the right places.

First the young. One thing is clear: they demand more flexible work hours than their parents. “As far as young people go, the frontier lifestyle is not the problem that some would believe. They don’t have families yet, so they’re able to be out on their own for extended periods,” Foot said in an interview. “But when you’re in your 20s, you’re not going to be the workaholic your parents were. If you’re going to work four days on the road, then you want four days off to go skiing or whatever.”

Adds Roy Craigen of the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council: “To a 20-year-old these days, lifestyle is not about selling their souls to dispatch and being on call for the entire existence of being a driver. They have no intention of doing what Dad did. ‘Sorry, change of plans.'”

Accommodating such schedules, to be sure, is no easy feat for a capital-intensive industry with low margins and veracious just-in-time demands. But whether old-schoolers like it or not, it is the supply chain that’ll inevitably have to evolve, not future younger employees who know where the buying power lies.

The last few years, Alberta has been one of the few
provinces that has seen an influx of young workers.

Lifestyle, agrees Scott Johnston, trumps all working conditions and it’s simply a matter of time before the market dictates an operational revolution.

“We need to reengineer our operations to get people home so they can sustain a more normal work-life balance. Changing length of haul, the way you operate as far as a relay system, is part of it,” he says. “Ultimately, people want to go to work, drive a truck, and go home every night. And if not, then at least they should be arriving home every 60 hours in seven days. Going out for these extended tours … a very small minority are willing to do that, so we see them migrate to things like delivery trucks or private fleets.”

Accommodating young employees’ social needs, however, is the second part of the battle. First you have to find them. And it isn’t news to anybody that the trucking booth hasn’t been the first stop for young people at the local high school career fair.

Despite the efforts of various trucking associations and select human resource councils, transportation and most skilled trades simply haven’t marketed themselves well to young people. That’s partly because of roadblocks created by academic institutions and guidance counselors, who, with the urging of parents, would rather push kids into university –even if it means that after four years they’ll be waiting tables with a Liberal Arts degree in their back pocket.

To change that elitist attitude will require a full-blown philosophical shift of skilled trades at the educational level and an earnest private-public investment strategy. We’re already seeing some attention paid to trucking apprenticeship and certification programs in some provinces, but it’s still not enough, says Johnston.

“Academia isn’t going to get there without business leaders providing them insight about what our industry has to offer. The public and certainly students have a very rudimentary, if not misinformed, understanding of what supply chain management and logistics really is.

“At the same time,” he continues, “we need to recognize that our [recruitment] and training costs have to be built into our budgets, have to be built into our rates, and the customer has to pay for it.”

What about the old-timers? A critical mistake made by fancy-acronymed Bay Street-type marketing agencies is that they focus solely on young people.

Often ignored, writes David Foot in his best-selling book, are the boomers — the most affluent and healthy 50-plus generation in our history. Plainly, it’s an age pool that will continue to represent Canada’s largest demographic bubble for the near future.

“Provided [newcomers] receive the proper training, this could be an occupation that someone looking for a short-term challenge could enjoy doing part-time, or a third of their time, as they gradually scale down toward, and even after, retirement. Trucking is a profession that could accommodate that very nicely.”

Trucking, though, which already has challenges retaining its current pool of veterans, needs to get far more creative if it’s going to try fishing in a new stream.

“The very same things we’re talking about for the 20-year old, are the very same solutions for the 60-year-old,” says Craigen, who is also president of Edmonton-based Transcom, a trucking-specific training and management consulting firm. “We’re still using old methods to attract new people.”

BOXES ARE FOR HAULING, NOT THINKING

When he was with Economy Carriers, Craigen took the worn trucking cliché “your drivers are your best sales people” and applied it literally. At the time the company didn’t employ a complete traditional sales staff per se, it used drivers to drum up much of its business.

Their primary job was delivering freight, of course, but they were trained with communication, customer service, and sales skills, so on their downtime they could follow leads if they wanted to.

ECL paid the drivers finders’ bonuses, but in searching for new ways to give drivers both young and experienced a new sense of accomplishment, why couldn’t carriers today assign them to a few accounts while on the road and pay commission?

“I love it,” says Foot. “It’s extremely important for people to feel they’re progressing in their career. Older people perhaps may find it less appealing, as they’ve ‘been there done that’ and are looking to scale down. But you can get a lot out of people in their 30s and 40s by trying new things like that.”

All this talk about lifestyle and creative responsibility, however, doesn’t mean that remuneration can take a seat in the sleeper berth. Long gone are the days where fleets can continue to attract productive and loyal people with a standard rate per mile, a soft fuel surcharge, and a year-end bonus provided the driver doesn’t smack the truck from now till Christmas.

Jim Mickey, president of B.C. Lower Mainland’s Coastal Pacific Xpress, has taken driver compensation to perhaps an unprecedented level. The long-haul truckload and expedited carrier is one of only a handful of large fleets that has a profit-sharing program with its drivers. Last year, the company shelled out more than $400,000 in company profit to its drivers and owner-operators who CPX says helped generate revenue of $100 million. That was on top of a 45-percent boost in pay rates CPX gave the truckers the year before. To boot, the carrier also cut back miles across the fleet to about 10,000 a month.

“The system is kind of a self-perpetuating machine once you get going because when you’re attracting the best and charging the most, eventually you attract better and better and charge more and more,” he says.

What do other neighborhood carriers think about the system, Jim? “I’m sure some guys think we’re crazy, or perhaps they’re a little annoyed we don’t toe the line. Despite the fact it works, they don’t copy it, so clearly they think it’s not a valid strategy.”

In an industry where the qualified driver turnover rate hovers around 120 percent, CPX’s rate is now below 20 percent — not bad for a 300-truck fleet.

Seven years ago, CPX didn’t stand out from a lot of other carriers –competing on price and paying the standard rate per mile going. But even before the company ever thought of overhauling its payroll system, Mickey and co-president Glen Parsons came to the realization that in a war for talent, the best way to compensate an employee is to make their choices easy for them.

“We ask them exactly what they want to do. ‘Do you want to work days, seasonally, part-time?’ We evaluate each man and woman’s situation individually,” says Mickey. “We have a bunch of these older guys past retirement, who are highly functional. No one’s ever asked them what they want to do. We make it clear that we’re going to honor their long contribution to their industry by making the finest few years of their careers their last ones. That’s a powerful statement to make to these guys.”

— Next Issue: Life After the Boom. The demographic challenges Canada faces in the coming decades, and the immigration-based labor strategies companies must consider to hedge for the future.