Safety Services New Brunswick
Safety Services New Brunswick
Road Safety & Trucking: What You Need to Know! - Chris McKee, Executive Director - Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association
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Road Safety & Trucking: What You Need to Know! Atlantic Canada’s economy runs on trucking—but sharing the road safely is everyone’s responsibility. In this episode, host Perley Brewer talks with Chris McKee, Executive Director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA), about the critical safety challenges truckers face and what motorists need to know.
🎧 Listen now to learn:
✅ Why trucks have four major blind spots—and how to avoid them
✅ Why cutting in front of a truck can be deadly (hint: they need 300 feet to stop!)
✅ How winter weather and microclimates make driving even riskier
✅ What the industry is doing to improve safety for all road users
👉 Tune in here: https://lnkd.in/gwDvARHy
Perley Brewer 0:20
Welcome to today's Podcast. My name is Pearly Brewer and I will be your host. Today's Podcast guest is going to focus on the health and safety of issues involved in the trucking industry. Our guest today is Chris McKee, executive director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association. Welcome, Chris.
Chris McKee 0:39
Hi Perley, thanks for having me today.
Perley Brewer 0:42
So look, Chris, we're into I guess that time of the year. We look out the window, we see lots of snow starting to fall, makes us think a little bit about safety on the roads as conditions change. We also see throughout the year of course a lot of transport trucks on the road. Do you want to talk to us?
About some of the challenges that truckers would face, of course, in winter time, as well as any time of the year.
Chris McKee 1:07
Yeah. So I guess first and foremost, let me just you know, really reinforce or enforce that trucking is absolutely vital to our regional economy, about 90% of of all of our goods in Atlantic Canada move by truck at some point.
You know, our industry connects rural communities. We support the the key ports in the region and we get our exports to markets both here at home and in the US and and abroad. So you know there are thousands of trucks on our roads each day.
You know, our latest truck counts through the Isthmus of Schignetto. That's what most people would refer to as a tantrum or marsh indicate. There's about 2500 commercial vehicles a day moving through that stretch of Hwy. on the Trans Canada. So that's just one major artery that really gives you an idea of how many trucks are moving through the region.
That's almost a million a year and we move over $100 billion in freight each year. So safe to say, you know, if you've got it, a truck brought it. Now there are a lot of challenges with our drivers and for for motorists. You know, when we share the road with trucks.
You know, first and foremost, trucks are huge vehicles, right, size and visibility, they're massive pieces of equipment and visibility is always a challenge.
It's important for listeners to probably understand that trucks have four major blind spots or no zones, as we like to call them so directly in front of the driver or in front of the grill directly behind and along both sides, especially on the right side of the truck. So cars sitting in those zones are basically invisible to the drivers.
We like to say, you know, rule of thumb, if if you can't see the driver in their mirrors in their side mirrors, they likely can't see you. And we are certainly trying to educate the public on this. We're we're actually just working now with the CTV Atlantic to produce a series of a blind spot and sharing the road video.
For to share with the public to teach them and educate them on how to drive around trucks so that you know, it makes our roads safer for everyone involved because you know, passenger vehicles will often underestimate the space that a truck needs to maneuver, particularly when they're turning or merging. If you cut in too closely.
For passing.
A truck, you know, that can place the car directly in the front blind spot like I mentioned. And that creates a serious, serious risk because trucks cannot stop as a dime on a dime as cars can they they weigh, you know, up to eighty 90,000 lbs. When loaded. And you know, they don't have the braking capacity that a that a small car or SUV may have. So.
Again, we're really trying to educate the public on this. You know, technology like blind spot detection systems is is certainly more prevalent in our industry today and helping, but it's not yet universal across all fleets.
You know, again, I I alluded to stopping distance, a fully loaded tractor trailer at highway speeds needs about 300 feet or more to stop, come to a complete stop. That's that's roughly the length of a football field. So when we see cars and and then other motorists, you know, cutting in in front of drivers thinking that you know they have room.
You know, it's sometimes it's best to think twice when when sharing the load with the road with trucks and, you know, sharing that road drivers sometimes you know, you might see a truck drift a little bit within a lane. And that's often due to ruts and crosswinds or uneven pavement.
You know urban bottlenecks or another issue our drivers face each day, especially those that have to go into the South end terminal at the port of Halifax. So you know, driving through downtown Halifax, you can just imagine what it's like trying to navigate a tractor trailer through those streets.
Especially in the summer time when it's tourist season and the streets are full of pedestrians, so definitely, definitely a challenge for our drivers there. And I think as you alluded to finally in your question Perley, the weather, I mean it's Atlantic Canada, we operate in some very unique micro environments. Take for example the tantrum.
Marsh, the Confederation Bridge, the wreck house in Newfoundland. If you're familiar with that, it's a stretch of Hwy. Just as you come off the ferry at Port Basque, these are all areas where we can see extreme fog and wind and icy conditions that make the driving more demanding on our drivers. So visibility challenges.
Or even more important to to to truckers and to motorists. In a lot of cases, because we have to be able to, like I said, plan ahead those stops to be able to be more reactive and and react quicker and and allow for stopping distances and and and just the sheer weight of a commercial vehicle, it takes more management and skill to obviously.
Excuse me? You can you can probably cut this part out, but again, it just takes more, more. Can we just drop that? Can we just cut that at the end there? Because I really don't know where I was going with that thought.
Perley Brewer 6:02
OK.
Confederation bridge. I want to go back to it for a second. You know, people used to joke in the old days. You had to time everything according to when the ferry departed. Confederation Bridge must cause a lot of problems for trucking, especially during periods, especially highwind cycles.
Chris McKee 6:05
S.
Yeah.
Well, it can, but our island carriers and those carriers that regularly travel to PEI or I think they're very accustomed to this. And again, it's the old days of waiting for the boat and missing the boat and maybe missing 3 sailings, especially in tourist season. There's no comparison to the bridge closing for a few hours or for an afternoon. Those fleets are very.
Very familiar. Again, we're in Atlantic Canada. I will say having the bridge, if you talk to any old truckers having the bridge is much more efficient and much more reliable than having to rely on a vessel to get you to and from. So yes, it obviously can cause some bottlenecks and scheduling, but.
You know that's a reality we live with everyday in our industry in this region, whether it be bottlenecks at the port of Halifax, waiting to pick up containers, whether it be cancelled sailings from port of Basque or North Sydney to Newfoundland on marine Atlantic sailings or or on the North Umberland ferry Services. And even again those closures of the Confederation Bridge, so.
Yes, challenging does cause a little bit of a ruffle in plans on getting a goods to market on time, but something that we just have to live with because Mother Nature in Atlantic Canada is just a wild card most days.
Perley Brewer 7:34
Now, how does a trucking industry work from the point of view of of truckers, for example, they're carrying a load, say, from Montreal to Halifax. Do they have a specific time period that that they're given to make that route, or how much flexibility do they have?
Chris McKee 7:52
Yeah. So I mean the, the, the, the, the, the, the delivery times and dates are are often coordinated with the dispatch to the to the customer. So and that has to account for the drivers hours of rest, right. So a driver can't drive more than 13 hours in a day and then has to have a reset.
So that essentially is a big factor and we have electronic logging devices. So they are something that keep real time tracking. It's not like the old days of filling out a logbook drivers are this is heavily enforced and so good professional drivers and good safety.
Much as fleets, in short, their drivers are not going over their hours, mandated hours of rest under the National Safety Code for trucks and and so when schedules are are designed, this is definitely considered. It has to be.
Perley Brewer 8:46
So when you look at the hiring of truckers in, in this environment, in this economic situation, obviously it's it's challenging. I think everyone's finding the hiring of good employees is is probably more challenging than.
It has been in the past, you know, when you talk to trucking companies, how will they make a note in the hiring of truckers today?
Chris McKee 9:09
Well, you know, I think it's always always a challenge even in today's economy with, you know, we're seeing kind of depressed freight volumes right now and definitely the the need for good qualified drivers is not necessarily as as as urgent as it was during COVID when when we were just, you know running wild.
Ragged, I should say with with demand, but it's always going to be an issue in this, in this region. In fact, you know we have I believe the number is something like close to 50 if not 60% of our professional drivers are over the age of 55. So we're facing.
A big retirement Cliff, as I would call it. You know we're going to see a lot of these people exit the industry at the same time. So you know our our Members have have have multi pronged approaches to recruiting. You know we've we've seen a lot use you know immigration programs such as the Atlantic immigration program and the provincial.
And E programs. In fact, we've worked with some colleagues in Nova Scotia to ensure that we have preferred employer models for these. So what what this does is this is ensures that if you want to bring in new drivers as a carrier, you have to go through a pretty rigid auditing process from the Sector Council.
The the the trucking HR Sector Council in Nova Scotia and this ensures that the drivers we bring in and the companies that are recruiting them are going to be trained properly. They're not coming in. You know there's No Fear of immigration fraud like we're seeing in in other parts of the country.
So we're we're trying to really do it right. And and here in Atlantic Canada, we do have, I would say that the gold standard when it comes to driver training, we have what we call a 12 week internship program. So that's over 300 hours in classroom and and on site training. And then they're put into a truck with a.
With a coach or a mentor for at least a month by the carrier company that is going to recruit this driver to ensure that when they do take the wheel on their own, they are qualified and ready to be out there on their own. We're not looking to fast track drivers just because we need them.
To ensure yes, we have a problem with recruiting and in a lot of cases we're just recruiting to basically keep up staff counts. Like I said, we're facing retirements all the time. It's a demanding lifestyle. We see people leave the industry, but at the end of the day, safety is first and foremost and.
And we certainly have have an issue, you know, in other provinces with with some let's what we call less than less than ideal training standards and training schools. So we're lucky out here in Atlantic Canada that we have good training schools offering good training, you know very.
Very detailed and robust training and that we have carrier companies who are prepared to go that extra mile with a finishing program and not just give the driver the keys and say OK, you graduated. So here you go, they need to ensure through their own people that these drivers are ready to drive their trucks because they're driving.
Billboard down the road with their name on the side so you know there's there's all kinds of reasons why why we we we need to ensure our drivers are qualified and and you know reputation, you know risk insurance you know that's another big thing is is you know insurance can get out of hand for companies that are that don't operate.
Right, properly or operate by the letter of the law and don't take safety seriously. So yeah. And you know, there is a catch 22 because a lot of fleets are hesitant to hire inexperienced drivers or new entrants. But again, if nobody hires you, how do you get experience, right? So.
That's where again, where insurance can can make it tough because you know, especially with smaller fleets who may not be self insured who may be out in the open market, you know they're going to, they're going to find difficulty in hiring those new drivers onto onto their fleets because of the insurability of these of these young people. So again it's it's it's.
Other challenge that we face in recruiting is getting we want to recruit new young people out of high school, out of college or what have you into our profession because it is a good profession and you can have a very good life driving truck.
But again it it it, there are some hurdles to and some barriers to to new entrants that we're we're trying to, we continually work with our our partners and governments with on to try and to make it easier.
Perley Brewer 13:45
So when you talk about wanting to recruit, obviously a lot of local talent as well as as foreign talent, how are you making out recruiting local, local talent?
Chris McKee 13:58
I really don't have figures for you on that Perley. Unfortunately. You know, I think it's it's again. You know, if we can get, if we can get youngsters captivated by our industry are attracted to our industry is probably the the proper word. You know it's it's great and and we want to try and get them.
Into driver's seats, but it can be difficult dependent on age, right? So there's a couple of years where this student or this young person may have to work at another role in a trucking firm before they can actually be feasibly put into the driver's seat.
I know we, you know, during COVID we we relied on immigration pipelines, certainly now with restrictions being put on by the federal government in the provinces on the number of applicants and the number of renewals, this is making it more difficult. So again that's why where I discussed the the preferred employer program that's certainly is is one.
Avenue to ensure that you have success using immigration programs, but in terms of of of trying to get, you know, our young people from our own high schools and and so on into into our industry that's that's something we constantly work with our partners on at the sector councils at the HR sector, Councils we.
We have representatives oftentimes at job fairs, whether it be colleges or even in at the NBC locations or other colleges. And I will say it's not just truck drivers that we're seeing shortages of. I mean, try to find a good diesel mechanic, a Red Seal diesel mechanic. There's a lot of.
Perley Brewer 15:30
Mm-hmm.
Chris McKee 15:32
Roles in our industry right now where we're struggling to find people and and you know, driving, driving being the most prevalent.
Perley Brewer 15:39
When you hire from foreign markets, is there any country that stands out as providing a lot of truckers to the Atlantic trucking organizations?
Chris McKee 15:50
So I mean anecdotally, I can say that you know, when the carriers I speak with in this part of the country it's it's it's it's really mixed. I think we see you know especially to Nova Scotia, we've seen a lot of drivers come up from Jamaica.
You know, we see, we see drivers from the Philippines, we see drivers from Ukraine and of course we've seen a number of drivers with Southeast Asian heritage as well.
Perley Brewer 16:19
Now you mentioned a moment ago the industry. If you look across Canada and you know we read a lot about what's going on in states from a point of view of obviously don't have things in place, certainly not at your level by any stretch.
From an insurance point of view, how? How are they surviving when when they're hiring with some of these schools that don't necessarily have good reputations and and perhaps getting people that really haven't been properly vetted and trained from an economic point of view, insurance point of view, that that must be pretty tough on them?
Chris McKee 16:55
It is now. I guess I'd like to differentiate. So we have we have an issue in this country right now and we call it driver rink in our industry and what it is, it's a misclassification of truck drivers. So we'll see companies set up, they'll they won't pay their drivers as employees, they don't provide them with proper training.
Perley Brewer 17:23
OK.
Chris McKee 17:23
Who pay their workers over time, who pay their workers, you know pension plans, who give them benefits, who you know, you know that there's protections in place every Canadian is afforded a protection under the Canada Labour Code. So what we're doing is it we're we're seeing these companies come in and and we're seeing them hire.
You know, drivers under a contractor model, which is essentially, you know, cash. Let's, let's face it, it's it. There's no, there's no paper trail to CRA, right? So there there's a lot of let's say we would call them payroll deductions that are that are not being put in like EI, CPP and so on. And then we question whether the driver.
Are paying their taxes so all that to say is there's this group right now in this country who are really making things tough because they're undercutting legitimate carriers by 25 to 30% in payroll just because they can. They're saving this in payroll burden. They're saving this in safety initiatives. They're saving this on.
You know not updating their fleets and having good running gear on the road, so they're a bit of a, I'll call them the bad actors in our industry and to circle back to your question Perley, you know, they're putting these people are putting also inexperienced, untrained or poorly trained drivers behind the wheel in many cases. And again, I want to differentiate, this is not.
Our Members or the industry in general, I'm talking about this is a subsection of our industry primarily based in Ontario and Quebec and how they're getting around insurance or how they insure their drivers is we have a thing in this country called the facility association. So everybody.
Perley Brewer 18:40
MMM.
Chris McKee 18:54
Is guaranteed to be insured. It's just what is it going to cost so it can be fairly expensive to ensure these drivers, but that is how they're getting around it. The facility does not deny coverage.
Perley Brewer 19:06
So trucking in general, it's it's obviously long hours, lots of pressure, tough lifestyle if you're doing a pitch to potential truckers, someone you're trying to recruit, what is your pitch?
Chris McKee 19:21
Well, I guess start starting with the, you know, the lifestyle pressure. You're right. It you know it. It is a tough it's it's it's a different way of life. Not every not everyone can do it. And I think that's why we face some of the challenges we do in recruiting. But you know our industry is built on resilience.
You know, whether it's drivers on the road or even dispatchers in the office or or the technicians. Like I said that we we can never seem to find enough of, you know, safety professionals, IT staff, shippers even you know everyone in the industry feels the pressure of long hours and high expectations. But you know at the end of the day these.
These are some of the most important workers in our country. They keep our entire supply chain moving. They keep our grocery store shelves stocked. They keep all of the raw materials moving into our manufacturing plants or or or from mines and and. And you know, whether it's our seafood exports, whether it's moving fuel to the people of Newfoundland.
And home heating oil, whether it's just again, we saw it during Covic, when our stores were empty because of supply chain issues, it doesn't. It takes two or three days of a supply chain choke point and shells start to go bare so.
To to become a part of the trucking industry to me is is a very important role. It's a very important career and you know it's it's at the end of the day it's it's not an office job. So it's certainly suited for someone who doesn't want to be, you know driving. It's certainly suited for someone who.
Doesn't maybe want to be behind a desk 24/7, you know? See the world from a windshield as we like to see.
Perley Brewer 20:51
So financially, if again sort of looking at it from a point of view of your, you're doing a pitch to a potential future driver, what kind of monies can can someone make trucking now? Obviously it's going to vary tremendously, but.
Chris McKee 21:04
So.
Yeah. I just.
Believe that I have the number in my head, but I just wanna confirm it.
So my understanding Perley and I I'd have to Fact Check this, but so we're, you know, a lot of companies now will either pay hourly or they'll pay by the mile and then they'll be wait. There'll be no weight bonuses and things like that. And and my understanding it's about $0.72 a kilometer and you know I I guess just anecdotally I will, I will tell you that.
I know some drivers who travel to Newfoundland and back and that's not an easy route. I mean that's a challenging route, Newfoundland, but they can make close if not in excess of $100,000 a year. I would expect the truck driver starting out in this industry could make about.
$60,000 a year. So it's not, you know, it's not a, it's not a small salary and and it and it's, you know certainly something that I wouldn't want to say, it's an unskilled profession because you need that training. But at the end of the day it's not something that necessarily requires a university degree so.
Again, it can be a really challenging industry. It's the lifestyle's not for everyone, but it certainly is a part of something bigger and something very important in this country because again, geographical size of Canada rail is our other primary mode of freight. But rail doesn't get the products to the.
The loading dock at Sobeys into Home Hardware.
Perley Brewer 22:35
So your association moving away from safety for just a moment here, how many Members would you have in Atlantic Canada?
Chris McKee 22:42
So our association represents about, I think at last count, we're about 335 member companies. That's about 60% carrier fleets over the road for higher carriers. So you know you could see your, you probably see them rolling down the highways every day. Your armours, your Midlands day in Ross Easons.
And then you know we we go from 1 truck fleets to to thousands of trucks. So we have we have a very good representation of our carrier membership in our association. And then we also represent vendors to the industry. So those would be our.
You know, suppliers, you know the the repair shops that the truck manufacturers, the tire makers and and those types of folks. So we represent the. So like I said 335 companies and they would encompass 10s of thousands of employees.
Perley Brewer 23:30
So if someone were to come to you today and say, look, what's the biggest challenges you're facing in the tracking industry here in Atlantic Canada, what would what would they be?
Chris McKee 23:40
So yeah, so I think I touched on it earlier when we spoke of the driver misclassification model, where we're seeing these companies, you know, set up and not do it properly, basically breaking laws and and not investing in their drivers, not investing in safety, not investing in equipment. So this is really creating a strain on those law abiding.
Carriers in this country, you know the generational family businesses that have been around for 50-60, if not long years, if not longer. So this this issue is, is something that we're we're actively lobbying Ottawa with on right now.
Myself and my colleagues appeared before House of Commons committee a few weeks ago. Transportation Committee on this issue because it needs to stop, it needs to end. We're seeing, you know, we're seeing it impact the safety on our roadways, especially in Ontario and Northern Ontario, that Hwy. 17. That goes up through Thunder Bay.
We're seeing more and more of these drivers and these fleets, you know, start to operate down here and it's it's not the, it's not the imager, it's not the people we want representing our industry. So that's a huge challenge because like I said, not only is it jeopardizing the safety on our roadways, but it's also jeopardizing the livelihoods of those law.
Carriers who again follow the rules because these people can come in and undercut lanes and the lane would be like a load from, let's say, Monkton to Toronto, right? They can come in and undercut sometimes at rates that we've not seen since the 1990s.
So this is really challenging and it's really it's really, really affecting the, it's an existential crisis for our smaller members because, you know, you know, it's safe to say, most likely some of the larger fleets we have out here can can weather a storm. But some of the smaller ones can't.
And we need to, we need to nip this issue, we need to we need to stop this because you know, we're we're going to see companies go out of business, we're going to see people lose their livelihoods and we're going to see just reduce safety on our roadways. If this continues, another issue you speak of or to speak of would be, you know, just trade barriers and and tariffs.
Or the threat of tariffs. I don't even, you know, depending on what day it is. I don't even know what's tariffed today. Right? So but again, this has put our industry in a holding pattern because it's uncertainty. You can't operate a business in uncertainty and you know, even the largest carriers we speak with, they're, they're they're they're kind of holding.
Holding the line on on any capital, spending on expanding fleets, expanding their infrastructure, buying new equipment, hiring more people or new people because they just don't know where the economy is going to be in six months or a year from now. So that's a huge challenge for us and and of course you know as we as we as we kind of take our team.
Canada approach here in this country, trade barriers has been a buzz topic now for eliminating trade barriers. So we have a number of them in this issue or in this industry, and that ranges from harmonizing our weights and dimension standards so that you can drive a tractor trailer loaded with a certain weight.
From one coast to the other, without having to adhere to different tolerances. You know, you know, even silly, silly regulations like where to place a fire extinguisher in a truck vary from province to province, so those types of harmonization issues are certainly something that have presented challenges for us over.
Years and continue to infrastructure. You know we have infrastructure gaps, you know, namely I would look at Route 185 in Quebec. They've been twinning that section. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. It spans from, I think Revere de Lou to roughly the Edmondson area.
And and you know that's that's that's an area where a lot of trucks go. It's the key link to from eastern Canada to to Ontario or Quebec and Ontario and West and and so how that impacts us is that we run a lot of what we call LC VS now on our highways, they're called, they're long combination.
Vehicles and that is where you would see one single truck hauling 2 full trailers. This just makes so much more sense to our industry from an economical standpoint, from an environmental standpoint and from a manpower standpoint. We talk about a driver shortage. Well, if you can haul 2 trailers.
With one driver, if you can haul 2 trailers with one tracker, you know you're using less gas. It's just it makes more sense and. And so where we're having an issue with this on the Q185 is that these big long units are only allowed on four lane highways.
So they have to come up to the untwin section, basically find a place to decouple one of the trailers, take it through park that trailer, come back, pick up the the other trailer, take that through, then reconnect the two trailers together and carry on about their journey. So that's that's essentially.
Adding about 3 hours to the driver's driving time, and as we alluded to earlier, you know a driver has only so many hours a day, they can be on duty and that eats into that. So that's very inefficient for us. So that would be one challenge that's infrastructure related, winter road conditions, that's something we're constantly lobbying.
So on and really what we use a uniform standard of winter maintenance across all jurisdictions in all provinces and even just within zones in our own provinces because in a lot of cases you have different garages looking after a section of Hwy. or you even have private contractors such as MRDC or brunaway operating.
Maintenance on sections of highways, so we need to ensure that we're seeing or holding these folks to uniform standards with snow clearing, we constantly work with our carriers to identify trouble areas. So we have identified several routes around Atlantic Canada that we traditionally see.
Very poor weather and very poor clearing. You know, following a weather event. So those are definitely some challenges we face, you know, fuel pricing, fuel pricing is always going to be an issue. You know, we generally in Atlantic Canada pay more for fuel than our peers in Ontario and.
Quebec, because our our pricing, our base price is based on New York Harbor, which can be more volatile right because East Coast heating season and so on, especially in the winter East Coast, US and and so on. So that's a much more volatile right where Ontario and other provinces they base their base fuel price on the Texas crude.
So that's why we often see a big discrepancy in the price of fuel between here and Ontario. And of course, taxation effects that as well. So all that to say is that we traditionally as an industry paid more than our peers for fuel in this in this region and we often see longer empty miles too.
As well, that's, you know, trying to return from a drop off, obviously a truck, if a truck's moving and it's empty, it's not making money and. And so, you know, our our dispatchers and our and our sales folks are always trying to ensure that if there's a drop off, there's not, there's a pick off, not too a pick up, not too far down the road to come back east and but a lot of time.
That that's just not possible, especially in this economy today. So yeah. So I mean those are some of the some of the major major challenges we're facing right now and you know like I said couple that with you know continued weather delays in the winter months, especially with whether it be marine Atlantic, whether it be the port of.
Or with the Confederation Bridge or other Services in the region that's out of our control. But it's something we have to mitigate. And then we always have a customer at the other end wondering where their freight is. So yeah, so that's a challenge. And of course, the driver shortage is always going to be there, like I said.
It's not as pronounced right now because because of the kind of freight recession we're weathering, but but we will see a big retirement Cliff here in the next few years of drivers leaving our industry to retire and we don't know if we're going to be able to replace them.
Perley Brewer 31:44
So when you talk a few minutes ago about issues like harmonization and and ensuring that there's similar sort of standards across Canada who enforce, is there anyone I should say to enforce the sort of standards within the trucking industry?
Across Canada.
Chris McKee 32:00
Yeah. So, yeah, so I'll just to give you the the Kohl's notes version early. So the, the any carrier, any motor carrier that, that travels into more than into into a different province from their, from their what we call their their home jurisdiction.
Is is federally regulated. The minute you cross a provincial border with a truck, you're federally regulated, and if you're federally regulated, you there was a set of a set of standards called the National Safety Code. And there are 16 standards and what they do is they basically dictate all of the rules for trucking in in, in Canada.
For trucking companies in Canada, and that ranges from truck driver training to hours of service or hours of rest to pre trip inspection. So every time a driver, you know, leaves on a trip or every time, I should say they, they they they leave the truck and get back in.
They have. They're supposed to do what they call. We call a pre trip and that's where they do a walk around visual inspection, check brakes, check tires, check lights, you know? Check. Check that ever there's there's a set of standards that are that are subscribed to in in this, in this National Safety code and and that's what really is the.
Say the Bible for the industry, for safety, for the industry to Atlantic Canada and for rules and regulations, and how that's enforced is is at the provincial level. So each jurisdiction and and by jurisdiction, each province has, you know, Department of Public Safety in New Brunswick, Department of Public Works you know motor vehicle enforcement.
In Nova Scotia, and so on. And these officers are mandated with enforcing those National Safety code standards as well as any provincial rules and regulations that may be in place. So when you pass what we would call a weigh station or inspection station, you know, that's where.
Oftentimes, these officers will look for any defects, so they might check brake adjustment and things like that on our trucks to ensure that you know, nobody sneaking by with unsafe equipment.
Perley Brewer 33:55
So in the past I noticed those stations.
If you went back 1020 years ago, they used to be open a lot. Now you don't see them open near as often. Are they suffering? What a lot of companies are suffering from and that's staffing issues and and financial budget constraints and so on.
Chris McKee 34:17
Yeah, I think that's a good point, Perley. I think you know what? I can't answer that from a from an expert standpoint, but you know anecdotally, you know from talking with with some of my colleagues and enforcement, I think, yes, there is. There's definitely a staffing issue. You know, recruiting the right people and getting them on boarded, you know and again budget. Yeah, there's always budget.
Considerations and unfortunately yes, we are seeing these. We are seeing them maybe close more than they used to be. Now with that said, we also have weigh in motion technology that wasn't around years ago where the scales are now built into the pavement. And generally if there's one officer on duty, they're just checking.
You know the scales will be in advance of the weigh station so that if somebody is overweight, they can call them in and and they have to either adjust the loader or face a fine or what have you. But you know, we do have a number of. We do have a number of.
Excuse me for a second. We do have a number of events each year that we really support and that would include the, the North American Rd. check event and that's at the 72 hour blitz where inspectors are out and they're just pulling trucks over at random and they're giving them level 1 inspections, which is.
You know that's down in the creeper underneath the truck. It's. It's a full, full inspection of just about everything on that vehicle. And you know those, those are really good events to to try to gauge, you know, how safety is on our roadways. And we see the numbers, you know, fairly.
Fairly consistent. Each year we we would call out of service numbers out of Services when a truck is pulled off the road because there's a there's a, you know I'd say gross violation, but you know so something brakes are brakes are you know need replacing or there's air hose needs replacing or something like that.
So we have events like that. You know, again, you know safety is is it's not just about the driver, it's it's about the machine too and and we at the APTA we have a Safety council and Maintenance Council and and and they play a pivotal role in promoting a culture of safety.
Across the region, you know that's what it's promoting safety. It's promoting that culture. So these councils will bring together what we would say or call a fleet manager, safety officers from trucking companies and even technicians and government representatives from all four Atlantic provinces. And we share best practices.
Identify emerging risks, whether it be related to winter road conditions in a trouble area, or other safety issues like one, we had a meeting of this Council this morning actually, and one issue we identified is that we're starting to see new rest areas in this region, which is great for our industry because when a driver.
Needs to come off the road. They need to have a safe, safe space to do that, not just park at the side of the highway and one one thing we did notice is that they don't. They don't have any snow clearing stations set to clean the tops of a trailer off. So you know, that'll be something we'll likely start chatting with government about and advocating for is to build some some sort of infrastructure to remove.
Snow from the top of a trailer so you know, let's say a driver has to pull in. I'll use the Cobb pass for as an example in Nova Scotia because we just saw two new rest areas open there, let's say a driver, you know that's a that's a that's a snow belt, a drivers pulled off the road or has to come off the road because of a snowstorm.
Perley Brewer 37:23
Mm-hmm.
Chris McKee 37:34
So the driver will pull off nice, safe new facilities, great place to Park. But you know when they when they, let's say wake up and the storm's over, they're probably going to have quite an accumulation of snow on top of their trailer, so that's not safe for them to proceed down the road. Right. So we we certainly that's something we've identified. And again, I just wanted to kind of.
Throw that in as an anecdote. So that's something that we'll certainly be working towards is is seeing what we can do to to cooperate on snow clearing stations. But again, just to go back to say that, you know this safety Council, we, we, we we identify all kinds of different issues that may affect our industry and try to get out ahead of them, right.
And and again it's, it's just promoting that that, that safety culture and you know we also focus on accident reviews or preventability. So we'll look at dash Cam footage. We'll look at an accident report from, let's say, a a carrier and and then determine whether you know the driver was at fault or not, right. A third. We know we're we kind of act as a third party.
Decision maker there now is it doesn't hold any weight in in terms of quarter or with insurance, but it's it's educational and it helps you know teach these professionals what they should maybe be advising their drivers to do or not to do. And you know we we look at driver documentation requirements, we look at training like I said you know that the internship program.
We have here we look at training standards and other provinces and how they might not be, you know, as robust as we have. We look at vehicle inspection standards, regulatory and compliance issues and and of course just preventive maintenance and we do webinars on these types of issues. We again just hold.
The calls we have a joint safety conference that we hold each year with our our neighbors in Maine, The Maine Motor Transport Association. So we, you know, alternating years we'll get on, we'll get together on one side of the border and we'll we'll we'll have a couple of days of sessions and and safety with safety professionals in the room just to to talk truck safety and and and always be pro.
Fact of how can we be better? But also how can we promote a culture of safety across our industry?
Perley Brewer 39:37
Do you have an opportunity to very often meet with your counterparts from across Canada?
Chris McKee 39:43
I do. So we have a monthly call. So there are seven other 7 provincial associations in total. We have the fun of representing 4 provinces, which means 4 governments and four ministers to deal with on regulatory and compliance issues. But that's okay.
So yes, we we meet monthly and then we make up what is called the Canadian Trucking Alliance. And so the Canadian Trucking Alliance is a is is a national representation. So when we're lobbying at the national level, we want to have a clear consistent voice across all jurisdictions and we do that through the CTA and.
And and then so we also get together at those meetings as well. So yeah, probably 4-5 times a year, you know or I'm sorry, 3-4 times a year we we meet in person and then usually once a month we're on, we're on a phone call.
Perley Brewer 40:32
What kinds of issues are there in trucking into the US?
Obviously, with Maine being very close, it's a big issue.
Chris McKee 40:37
Well, right now.
Yeah. So, I mean there's, there's always, you know, issues with with borders and and the technology used at the border and and there can be some backlogs there if if something goes down or a system goes down, whether it be on the US side or the Canadian side, you know right now we're seeing a A and rightfully so we're seeing a lot of scrutiny on international drivers crossing the border and there's.
Been some restrictions put on. I shouldn't say restrictions. They're starting to really enforce English language requirements in the US, and they're also limiting the types of visas that can travel to the US right now. So all that to say that really hasn't impacted our Members at this point, but it speaks to creating a safer culture on our.
Perley Brewer 41:07
Mm-hmm.
Chris McKee 41:19
Ways by ensuring that only properly trained good drivers operating with a compliant carrier are the ones you know crossing the border.
Perley Brewer 41:28
Now in the US, do they have one standard across all the states, or does every state have their own standards?
Chris McKee 41:35
Oh, that's I can't answer that Perley. I don't know. That's right.
Perley Brewer 41:38
Yeah, but when you go from one state to another, are there different rules you have to follow or your truckers have to follow? For example, let's say you were doing a haul from seafood to from the East Coast, say to the West Coast to the US.
Is it? Is it fairly easy for a tracker to sort of go that route, or is there a lot of red tape going from one state to another?
Chris McKee 42:02
My understanding is it's fairly straightforward, so I I believe they operate under federal federal regs. There's a federal federal motor carrier safety association in the US Overseas commercial commercial vehicles. So yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's, it's certainly, I wouldn't say there's, there's it's any more challenging than travelling across Canada, that's for sure.
Perley Brewer 42:04
Yeah.
OK.
Yeah.
So are we going to see any harmonization or any better harmonization? You know, there's a lot of talk in the from the politicians about we need, you know, to break down a lot of the barriers. We need more harmonization. You mentioned it. It goes all the way down some cases to in your case.
You talked about fire extinguishers, a lot of talk. You think we're going to see some action there or not?
Chris McKee 42:43
Yeah. So we are starting to see some movement there and and and so I will kind of use a different term for it. At this point. It's called mutual recognition right now, not true harmonization and what that means is so like Nova Scotia for instance, just adopted it.
Perley Brewer 42:53
Mm-hmm.
Chris McKee 42:59
So Nova Scotia adopted a new pilot that essentially if another truck configuration is allowed anywhere. So let's say there's a truck configuration that's not currently allowed in Nova Scotia, but it's allowed in Ontario OR out West. They have now started a program where any other configuration that is licensed or.
Permitted in another Canadian province can now be applied to be used in Nova Scotia, so that's essentially opening the doors for those. I mean, 11 instance, we're already seeing carriers apply, would be car carriers. Ontario has a different standard for the the car trailers that can be used on the roadways than we do here in Atlantic Canada.
Our configurations are a little more dated, so those carriers are really wanting to get down here, whether it's into the port of Halifax to pick up cars or drop cars off at dealerships in the Atlantic provinces.
We're seeing those provinces now be willing to accept different configurations, so that is certainly easing up the some of the challenges now with that said, we as an association support true harmonization and that's where each configuration is put into.
What we would call our mutual agreements, harmonization agreements and put it on paper, essentially not just be part of a special permitting process. So, yes, to answer your question, yes, we are seeing some movement on harmonizing and opening up trade, I guess and configurations and so on.
You know, there's continues to be work done, work being done at the national level on better harmonization where we really see some kind of differing rules would be heavy and oversized loads. You know, just the requirements from for what hours they can operate to.
You know where you know where the placards have to be or the the the the wide load signs and also what lights are required, whether pilot vehicles are required to accompany these trucks and so on. So that's one place where there's work being done. We're also looking to better harmonize.
Our LCV regulations, as I alluded to earlier LCV's are those long combination vehicles that haul to full length trailers. So there's still some discrepancies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction with those. So we're working and yeah, I would say it's we're seeing some movement. We are seeing some movement and it's.
Encouraging and you know, we just continue to work with our colleagues and government to ensure that our Members needs are represented in terms of harmonizing these these rules.
Perley Brewer 45:36
When you talk about those vehicles that can haul 2 trailers, given the economics of it, why aren't we seeing more of those?
Chris McKee 45:45
Well, I think it's there's a number of reasons that it's a fairly new, fairly new several years now, but not something that's been around forever. They are limited to certain lanes. There are restrictions, municipal restrictions placed on them. So there's peak periods where you can't try one of these through Moncton, let's say.
Investment in the equipment there is a requirement that drivers have a certain amount of experience and expertise to be able to operate them. So there's a number of, but we are seeing more and more companies start to take advantage of these configurations. So I think it's coming. It's just a matter of letting industry kind of catch up to the regs and.
Again, you know where where we're in such a, you know, we are facing some, some real, some real Rd. bumps in our industry right now. You know a lot of carriers especially due to tariffs are not looking to invest in any new gear right now or or really change anything. So that could be another reason why we're not seeing more. But definitely we are seeing.
An increase in them so it could just be a matter of time and I think too once this route 180. Excuse me, Perley, once this route 185 that I alluded to in Quebec opens up, that could really open the floodgates as well because right now it is, like I said, it's about a three hour hindrance to get through.
Perley Brewer 46:48
Well.
Yeah.
Chris McKee 47:00
Get into Quebec with these units just because of that 4 kilometer section. That's left. That still needs to be twinned.
Perley Brewer 47:09
Well, look, Chris, obviously you have a lot of issues in your plate, a lot of your complex ones that I don't think most people appreciate. You know they see a truck driving down the road and yeah, they recognize there's challenges from a safety point of view of blind spots and breaking, but.
They don't see all the other thing to go into it as well, whether to hiring the training, all the regulations that that you guys are responsible for.
Chris McKee 47:33
No, I think you're right. I mean, again, it's I think it's a a very under appreciated profession. And and I say this is someone coming from outside the industry. You know I think COVID really, really again I've said this once or twice already, but it really I think highlighted to the general public just.
What the importance that the truck drivers in the trucking industry have on our daily lives? Everything almost everything that you touch touches a truck too. We're vital, especially in this part of the country, vital to the regional economy. I think New Brunswick has the highest.
This GDP generated by trucking per capita in the whole country and that exceeds the GDP generated by the hospitality sectors and fishing and all combined and manufacturing combined.
You know, we are just, we're a major employer. I think we we employ, I'd have to excuse me, but my numbers might be a little off between 15 and and 20,000 drivers here in Atlantic Canada, 10s of thousands more in support positions such as dispatch technicians.
You know managers and and and logistics folks and and so on and and and safety professionals. Obviously you know safety is a huge investment for for trucking companies and then you know indirectly we touch 10s of thousands of more jobs whether it be you know repair shops or parts.
Counter guy at a truck garage or even just somebody working in a manufacturing plant that relies on our industry to bring those raw materials to that plant. So yeah, we're vital to the economy and public perception's not always great in our industry unfortunately, just because the issues we talked about at the start of.
Our discussion, just sharing their Rd. with trucks a lot of times trucks are big and they can be in the way. They can be slow, they might need to take up two lanes on a roundabout and again they need to be treated with respect. I think both just for the work that drivers are doing, but also just the machines themselves.
To be treated with respect by drivers or four Wheelers as we like to call them cars just so that you know people just remember that again they they can't stop on a dime they have you know blind spots and and they're they're big units who are driven by professionals but you know there's there's there's a lot of lot of variables that can.
Can you know? Make it a make it a stressful job for a driver. So we just you know we we hope the public remembers that you know what they bring to the table for us each day. And you know our suppers and our lunches and and and you know, we're out there and it can be a thing. It can be really a thankless job sometimes.
Perley Brewer 50:16
So one last question, Chris, how critical are ports like the port of Halifax Port of Saint John? How critical are they to your industry?
Chris McKee 50:24
Oh, very critical. You know, we have we have a number of Members that are that are in and out of the ports on a daily basis and you know a lot of a lot of goods come come into this country and leave this country. A lot of our exports go to to European and and South American markets and and elsewhere via the port of Halifax and via the Port of Saint John and and and you know a lot of the the products we consume.
Come in there. So they're vital. They're vital. And you know, we work very closely with our partners at the Port of Saint John and at the Port of Halifax. You know, there, we're always, you know, trying to work to improve process, whether it be something, you know, a new, a new appointment system or a new truck gate or something automated.
You know there can be, you know, like I said, bottlenecks at a port, whether it's due to weather, whether it's due to you know, the delay of the vessel coming in and and creating you know a rush for everybody to pick up containers or there are a number of different reasons. But you know we we certainly see some delays. We can see some bottlenecks. But at the end.
Of the day, you know, they're they're vital to our economy. I think that, you know, our industry is vital to to supply and to taking goods out of the ports. So we're it's very symbiotic, I guess I would say.
Perley Brewer 51:30
Well, look, Chris, thank you very much for taking the time from your schedule. I know you're a very busy guy. Certainly have a lot on the go, a lot on your plate. Thank you again very much for taking the time to talk with us today.
Chris McKee 51:43
It's been a pleasure, Perley. Thank you so much for having me.
Perley Brewer 51:45
So to our listeners, stay safe. Have a good week. We'll be back at you next week.
