HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-05-18, Page 5BY TOBY RAINEY
Local truckers are apprehensive
about the impact that a welter of
new federal and provincial rules
and regulations will have on their
industry, and many are fearful that
the next few years could mean the
end of their chosen way of life.
“If (the new rules) are totally
implemented as proposed, this
operation may very well cease to
exist.” says Ted Weishar, presi
dent of Hyndman Transport 1972
Limited of Wroxeter, one of the
largest carriers in the area.
If he’s right, the impact would
devastate a large part of the local
economy: 75 people collect pay-
checks from Hyndmair Transport
on a regular basis, while another 25
or so work part-time. Many of the
company’s owner-operators are
from the Brussels, Wingham,
Teeswater and Goderich areas,
while others hail from Walkerton,
Hanover, Chesley, Paisley and
PortElgin, which means that 75
families do most of their shopping
locally, as well as benefiting their
communities in a number of other
ways. Another local trucker told
The Citizen that few full-time
drivers take home less than
$30,000 to $45,000 a year, adding
“That’s darn good money around
here.”
Hyndman Transport purchased
$1.2 million dollars worth of fuel in
Brussels alone last year, Mr.
Weishar said, while at least 75 per
cent of the Wroxeter branch of the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Com
merce’s business is a direct result
of Hyndman Transport’s location
just outside the village.
The feeling of most is that the
new federal regulations for the
transport industry, in conjunction
with the proposed deregulation of
the industry, will spell the end of
many smaller trucking companies
across Canada, as well as making it
virtually impossible for indepen
dent owner-operators to continue
to operate as more and more firms
compete for less and less of the
market.
“Nobody seems to know for sure
what deregulation of the trucking
industry - or re-regulation, as the
government likes to call it, is
supposed to do for us,’’ Mr.
Weishar continued. “But they’ve
had it for a number of years in the
US, and they’re finding it’s not
working out in a lot of ways there. ’ ’
Bill 88 is an underpublicized
piece of proposed legislation first
introduced to the Ontario Legisla
ture lastDecember by the Minister
of Transport, Ed Fulton. Its
purpose is to provide the enforcing
mechanism for the provisions of
the new 1987 Motor Vehicle
Transport Act which was given
assent by the federal government
late last August. Bill 88 now awaits
second reading at Queen’s Park.
The bill’s aim, say its support
ers, is to enhance competition
which will in turn lead to lower
prices and better service for
Canadian consumers. But Mr.
Weishar, in agreement with the
Ontario Trucking Association,
says the actual reality of deregula
tion is much different.
Regulation ofthe trucking in
dustry, he explains, was first
introduced to Canada and the US in
the late 1940’s, and part of the
mandate was to limit entry into the
business so that each operation
could make a reasonable profit,
while in return the industry had to
guarantee service to less profitable
areas of the country, which took in
vast stretches of both nations.
Nobody wanted to operate in an
unprofitable area, he went on, but
they had to provide the service
which was part of the overall
authority. But when deregulation
was introduced in the US, all the
big trucking companies dropped
any route that wasn’t making them
big money, leaving those for the
smaller companies which also
swarmed into the market under
deregulation.
However, by virtue of the fact
that the routes WEREN’T profit
able, Mr. Weishar said, few of the
Hyndman Transport President Ted Weishar has been leading the fight
to gain exemptions from the tough new Hours of Work legislation
proposed for the industry under new federal-provincial safety
guidelines for some truckers, notably long-distance livestock haulers.
Some exemptions have been promised, he says.
smaller companies were able to
survive, and he says he can see the
same thing happening in Ontario
when the new regulations go into
effect.
“Deregulation will certainly put
more players into the (Canadian)
market, butnoneofthemwillbe
abletosurvive,’’ heconcluded.
“Goods are now being moved at
whatlfeelarefairrates, butthe
rates can ’ t go much lower than they
are now, or none of us will be able to
hang in.”
Dan Bailey, owner and operator
of Maitland Valley Trucking of
Blyth, who has been in the trucking
business for 14 years and now runs
three company-owned transports
and two owner-operator units as
brokers, doesn’t agree.
‘ ‘The only guys that say deregu
lation will kill the industry are the
guys who’ve been in business for a
long time, or who have inherited
their license,” he says. “Deregu
lation to me is a beautiful thing; it’s
the only way I’ll ever be able to get
my PCV (Public Commercial Vehi
cle) license, which is the only way
I’ll ever be able to expand.”
Getting a PCV license, which
would allow him to haul a much
wider variety of goods than the
handful of “exempt” commodi
ties, mostly logs, that his present
license allows, is like getting a milk
quota, Mr. Bailey explains. It costs
so much to get in that most guys
can’t do it, he says, and every new
application has been vigorously
opposed by those already in the
business, up to now.
“Now the only way they can
refuse me a license is to prove I’m
unfit and I’ve got no worries there.
My record is as clean as a whistle, ”
he says.
As for dealing with the competi
tion, neither Dan Bailey nor his
wife and dispatcher, Linda, feel it
will be a problem for the company.
“We don't operate on price, we
operate on service, and they can’t
beat us there.”
But regardless of how the
truckers feel about the future
under deregulation, they all agree
that the rules of the business are
going to get a lot tougher on
everybody in the near future, and
that the only way to survive will be
togetthe entire industry to pull
together.
Explaining the new rules to
truckers and managers was the
reason that Blyth’s Radford
Group, a corporation that embrac
es several branches of the trucking
and service industry, as well as
construction, called a meeting at
the Blyth Hotel on May 11 that
attracted more than 80 industry
representatives.
The timing was critical, accord
ing to Radford’s Doug Scrimgeour,
who organized and chaired the
meeting, because the new regula
tions that will govern the industry
into the foreseeable future have
been in effect since last January,
and will likely be enforced by the
Ministry of Transportation and
Communication as of July 1.
Originally supposed to be enfor
ced as of May 1, the date was
delayed to July 1 largely because of
the outcry that has arisen through
out the industry, partly because so
few fully understand what is
happening, while even some MTC
enforcers seem confused as to
exactly what their role will be in
some areas.
“If I don’t know the answers to
your questions, I’ll certainly find
out and get back to you,’’ the
meeting’s keynote speaker Adam
Alderson, Area Enforcement Offi
cer with the Clinton MTC office,
told the truckers in Blyth.
Part of the confusion comes from
the tangle of federal and provincial
regulations that are contained in
more than 60 pages of the two
federal acts and three provincial
bills that will likely become the
trucking industry’s terms of refer
ence. It’s even harder for truckers
to predict with any certainty what
will happen to them a few months
down the road, as even interpro
vincial truckers operate under
provincial jurisdiction, which
could mean different rules will
govern the industry in every
province, with each province hav
ing the right to enforce its own.
The federal government has
been pushing the provinces to
adopt common licensing and safety
standards so that truckers can
operate across the country with a
minimum of red tape, but so far the
provinces have not even been able
to agree on a common date for
implementation of the new code.
Provincial regulations and li
cense requirements used to be so
varied that former federal trans
port minister Jean-Luc Pepin said
in 1981 that it was easier to drive a
truck through the European Eco
nomic Community (EEC) than
across Canada.
“We hope it is getting better ...
but we’ll still be working on it for
the next five years,’’ said John
Pringle, a Transport Department
official who has led federal
attempts to gain provincial agree
ment on trucking deregulation, in
an interview with the industry
magazine Truck World last Febru
ary.
“The involvement of so many
government departments makes
deregulation of trucking harder to
complete, he said, adding that
“we’ll justhavetowaitand see
how the rules are applied.”
A key component of trucking
deregulation is a national safety
code for truck drivers and their
equipment, which was to have
been in place last February but now
won’t be fully operational until at
least year’s end, officials say.
And a key part of the new safety
Blyth trucker Dan Bailey, centre, along with his wife Linda and driver
Bruce Richmond don’t agree that deregulation will be all bad for the
trucking industry in Canada. “It’s the only way I’ll be able to get the
license I need to expand,” he said.
code for Ontario truckers will be
the implementation ofthe Com
mercial Vehicle Operators’ Regi
stration System, or CVOR as it is
commonly called. The MTC’s
interpretation of the new code took
up the lion’s share of the Blyth
meeting last week, and it was
obvious that many of those present
were apprehensive.
“This CVOR, fellas, as I see it, is
so severe that unless we all get
working together to comply,
there’s people in this room tonight
that will be out of business by this
time next year,” Mr. Scrimgeour
said.
More than 340 Ontario carriers
have already received warnings
from the ministry under CVOR,
and more than 90 have been called
in to explain their record, although
officially little can be done beyond
that point, since the system is not
yet operational. You can’t revoke a
license that hasn’t been issued.
The CVOR computer lists more
than 30,000 convictions of Ontario
truckers since it was first set up in
the fall of 1986, and each conviction
carries a point value, much as does
the demerit system governing
Ontario driver’s licenses. As the
points add up, the ministry takes
more and more interest in the
truckers and companies that col
lect them.
The point limit varies with the
size of the fleet, varying from a
limit of 10 points for a carrier with
one truck to a total of 43 points for a
carrier with a fleet of 47 trucks, but
at some point the carrier will get a
letter telling him that the ministry
is watching.
The letter comes with a tran
script of the carrier’s record, and it
warns hirn that if he keeps racking
up convictions, he will have to
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