Young men cruise the classifieds looking at cars. Old guys read the obituaries. Me, I read the job ads. Whoa, hey, hold on-this magazine is a steady gig for me. It’s just a comparative exercise on a Saturday morning, more for entertainment and bemusement than anything.

Rolf Lockwood’s cover story this month is a much more serious exercise. It delves into a salary survey published recently by Cerno Research, a Toronto-based company that offers a revealing look at not only how much managers, dispatchers, company drivers, owner-operators, and other workers in this business are paid, but what elements comprise their overall compensation package.

If reading “Join Our Team! 42 Cents Per Mile!” blurbs on trailer doors is your idea of benchmarking, you don’t know what you’re missing. The study covers everything from per-mile pay to wages received during jury duty.

“Compensation in trucking is so much more complex than in manufacturing,” says Stephen Harrington, Cerno’s manager of special projects. “Look at how drivers are paid. At just one company, you might have a whole array of pay structures: some hourly, others on a per-kilometre basis, others on a percentage of the load value. There may be pay for waiting times, tarping loads, border crossings, or fuel mileage. There are special considerations for company drivers and others for owner-operators.

“Then you have to put the numbers you see in a broader context,” Harrington adds. “If the average company driver makes $41,000 a year, you might say that’s not too bad. Yet the guy might have to work 12 hours a day and turn 100,000 miles to earn it. Other industries might offer comparable pay for comparable skills, but with a 39.5-hour week and excellent health benefits.”

It’s a juggling act few trucking companies are equipped to handle well. The trucking industry is bereft of professional human resources managers. “Most companies have a girl who can process resumes and call that the HR department,” a headhunter once told me. That might explain why HR managers in the trucking industry are paid 17% less on average than their counterparts in manufacturing.

Back to the newspaper. So I’m flipping through pages and come across the following: WANTED: Director, Carrier Safety & Enforcement Branch, Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Location: St. Catharines, with regular travel.

“The Ministry of Transportation, carrier safety and enforcement branch, offers a challenging leadership opportunity,” the copy says. “You will: develop, plan, co-ordinate and implement the strategic delivery of carrier safety and enforcement programs; liaise with other … agencies, interest groups, the public, media; negotiate and develop national/international programs; develop/manage relationships with other ministries, regional offices, and central agencies.”

Shoot. This is the most important truck-safety enforcement job in Canada, held down for many years by the very able Mike Weir, who’s been promoted. It requires “extensive experience managing within a strategic, operational enforcement and regulatory environment; sound knowledge of transportation compliance/enforcement issues, the trucking industry, and relevant legislation; experience . developing/managing relationships with . industry, the public, interest groups, the media; demonstrated knowledge of government decision-making processes, policy development, and the role of central agencies; strong communication/presentation and conflict/issues-management skills.”

And it’s being offered as a two-year temporary assignment. A contract position.

I’m not questioning the government’s commitment to safety, or its desire to replace Weir with the most qualified person it can find. But how can Ontario, a jurisdiction with some 40,000 trucking operations to look after, and which regulates an industry that’s screaming for continuity and consistency from policymakers, afford not to commit long-term to its next director of truck safety and enforcement?