I’m not a big fan of regulations, but I don’t mind following the rules if I can rationalize the need, like preventing people from taking firearms on board commercial aircraft. I can’t rationalize the need to relieve me of my toenail clippers prior to boarding, however, or my tweezers, or my cigar clipper for that matter.

I can understand the need for some sort of mechanism to regulate the hours truck drivers work and sleep, but I can’t accept the notion that a driver becomes an accident waiting to happen the minute he exceeds his daily limit. Still, they need to draw the line some place.

But I can find no redeeming value in the policies laid down by Marine Atlantic, the federally owned company that runs the ferry service between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. They’re enough to make a trucker want to swim for it.

Marine Atlantic jacked the commercial rates by four per cent this year: the one-way cost to send a 53-foot trailer between North Sydney, N.S., and Port aux Basques, Nfld., is $286, plus an $87.25 charge to have the trailer jockeyed onto the boat (adding a driver and a tractor boosts the cost considerably).

You can pre-book passage, but Marine Atlantic charges double for the privilege. Otherwise, it’s first come, first served. And Marine Atlantic reserves the right to board cars and campers ahead of trucks and trailers, meaning that all the first-coming and first-serving in the world isn’t worth a hill of beans if there are more passenger vehicles than expected. Since the ferry crossing is about six hours one-way, if you miss the boat, you’re stuck for up to 12 hours.

I made my first ferry crossing this spring to attend a conference in St. John’s. Everyone told me to fly, but I wanted to see what the fuss was about. On the Saturday morning I made my crossing, there must have been nearly 100 trucks in the compound. Most made it on, because there was almost no passenger traffic, but that’s not the case in the summer. And with winter weather to contend with, and the less-than-stellar performance of the “Grief Ericson” (as the mechanically temperamental MV Leif Ericson is known), the trucker who depends on Marine Atlantic for a living would do better to buy lottery tickets.

As a result of its no reservations policy, truckers do what they must to make the boat. Even if compliance with hours-of-service rules (as opposed to genuine fatigue management) were a higher priority than boarding the ferry, there’s no place for truckers to stop and rest without remaining an unworkable distance away from the ferry terminal. On the mainland, it’s a dead zone between the Auld Cove Irving at the Canso Causeway and the town of North Sydney. On the island, Deer Lake is the last “real” truck stop before Port aux Basques, except the small lot at Doyle’s Esso, roughly halfway between Corner Brook and the Port.

While Marine Atlantic’s “no reservations” policy for trucks continues to make logbook-liars out of otherwise honest men and women, it has likely also contributed to the safety risk on the highways leading to and from the ferry terminals, with drivers pushing to arrive in time to get in line and await a spin on the get-on-the-boat-this-time-or-next-time wheel. Maybe that policy needs to be re-examined. Maybe Marine Atlantic’s priorities need to be adjusted a little so that working truckers are given some priority against the travelling public.

Maybe the federal government needs to have another look at its constitutionally mandated commitment to maintaining a link between Newfoundland and the rest of Canada. That ought to make Transport Minister David Collenette squirm, because there are no railroads to support between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, just boats and trucks, neither of which he seems to care much about.

Or, maybe it’s time the private sector stepped up to the plate.

You’ve likely heard that Shediac, N.B.-based Rigel Shipping is about to do just that, with the launch of a new ferry service between Belledune, N.B., and Corner Brook. Rigel plans two crossings a week, with up to 150 trailers at a time. That’ll relieve some of the pressure from Marine Atlantic, but it won’t keep everyone happy.

So while everyone’s busy making rules and regulations to follow, I wish someone would actually consider their impact before committing them to print. The drivers who do this kind of work are being seriously squeezed here. I hope the situation can be resolved before someone gets hurt, but I’m not going to bet my tweezers on it.