Ice Road Truckers Needn't Fret

Western Canada’s Trucking Newspaper Since 1989 December 2016 Volume 27, Issue 12 Rock slide: B.C. rock slide Helping truckers: Truckers STA gala: Saskatchewan RETAIL wipes out section of Trans- Christmas Group looks for Trucking Association holds ADVERTISING Canada Highway, costs donations to help trucking annual gala, addresses Page 13 Page 16 Page Page 12 Page industry thousands. families. industry issues. PAGES 29-39 truckwest.ca Safety on winter roads Winter driving conditions can pose challenge to even the biggest rig By Derek Clouthier Many believe that the use of airships, like the one depicted above, to deliver cargo to Canada’s northern region would bring REGINA, Sask. – Don’t be fooled by the business to the trucking industry. balmy mid-November temperatures that hit Western Canada this year – winter is just around the corner. And whether you’re trucking through mountainous terrain in British Colum- bia or making your way across the prai- Ice road truckers ries of Saskatchewan, slippery roads and reduced visibility can wreak havoc. The Saskatchewan Ministry of High- ways and Infrastructure urge truck Reach us at drivers to conduct thorough trip in- our Western needn’t fret spections, and to give extra time dur- Canada news ing the winter months to complete. bureau “Checking your truck, trailer(s), tires, brakes, lights and other equipment be- Contact How the use of airships would fore you start a trip is always impor- Derek Clouthier tant,” the ministry informed Truck Derek@ West. “With cold weather, extra care should be taken with these regular in- Newcom.ca help the trucking industry spections. Allowing extra inspection or call time to catch any potential defects can 403-969-1506 By Derek Clouthier airships is set to begin in 2018. save you time in the long run.” If the idea of moving cargo into northern Cana- The ministry also said checking out WINNIPEG, Man. – It’s not something from the dian communities comes to fruition, it would cer- the Highway Hotline for information on front cover of a Led Zeppelin album, but it’s just tainly alter the landscape of the trucking industry, current road conditions is a good habit as innovative as the legendary hard rock band. which is the primary mode of transportation of to get into. Look up and someday soon you could see a zep- goods in Canada’s north with the use of ice roads “Although provincial highways are pelin-like airship floating across the Canadian – made famous by the show Ice Road Truckers. treated throughout the winter for ice skyline, transporting goods to remote northern Alan Handley, CEO and chairman of Varialift and snow conditions, it’s key to check communities. Airships out of the U.K., which also manufactures the Highway Hotline, Saskatchewan’s Aerospace company Lockheed Martin, which airships made of aluminum, said the idea of uti- road information system, before head- manufactures airships, have been advocating for lizing such a mode of transportation would mean ing out,” the ministry advised. “The the use of airships, mainly to service Canada’s a ‘bright future’ for the trucking industry. Highway Hotline provides the most mining industry, but also as a means to trans- “Using the Varialift would mean that truckers currently available road condition in- port freight into northern communities, which would be able to continue to bring their loads to formation, such as if a highway is icy, the company believes would help bring down the marshalling yards close to where the ice roads snow packed or not recommended for cost of food and increase supply in the segregat- would have started, and then transfer their loads travel.” ed region. to the airship,” Handley explained. “The airship Drivers can find the Highway Hot- California-based hybrid aircraft operator would then transport their loads to the other side, line online at www.hotline.gov.sk.ca. Straightline Aviation has a contract for the just like a ferry at sea or on a lake.” General tips are also available on the first 12 airships from Lockheed Martin, and Handley said his company has been in talks hotline’s Facebook page at www.face- the company has indicated that Canada would with Canadians for the past five years during book.com/SaskatchewanHighwayHo- be an ideal testing ground. Production of the Continued on page 22 tline, while closures and travel not recommended notices are on the hotline’s Twitter account under the handle Careers: 18-19, 20-21, To view list of advertisers @SKGovHwyHotline. PM40063170 24-25 see pg. 45 Continued on page 9 22 MANITOBA delivery,” said Prentice. “This would be much faster than Prentice said airships would ocean container movements, and Both interest and funding never compete head-to-head with much less expensive and polluting trucks where roads already exist, as than airplane movements,” Prentice the cost to move freight would signif- said. “It could also create a huge infor airships has returned icantly higher for an airship. He esti- crease in trucking activity that is com- mated that an airship moving 20 tons plementary to the airship.” could cost around $25 million versus The idea of airships is no longer Continued from page 1 about climate change. International a tractor-trailer being around $250,000 some ‘wild-eyed idea,’ Prentice be- conferences in Calgary, Winnipeg, agreements to curb carbon emissions or less. lieves. He pointed out that there have Yellowknife and Toronto. have been signed and carbon taxes But in areas where there are no been a number of ‘old’ technologies Varialift’s ‘monocoque’ all alu- (and) cap and trade programs have roads, and the price tag to build such which have become new again – elec- minum airships will be manufac- been created.” infrastructure for truck use being ap- tric cars, wind turbines and hydro- tured and assembled in Chateaudun, Prentice said airships burn far less proximately $3 million per kilometer, gen fuel cells – not because they did France. They are designed for short fuel because they use no energy to Prentice said airships would be bene- not work when originally released, and long range trips and can carry but because at the time, they were loads from 50 to 1,000 metric tons. not economically viable given the Handley said the total operating cost alternatives. is 17 cents USD per ton kilometer for And Prentice said airships are much the 50 ton capacity model, the ARH50, the same. and it can land on any flat surface in “Airships crossed oceans on a temperatures down to minus 60 de- scheduled service 80 years ago and set grees Celsius. endurance records that still stand,” Truck West contacted Lockheed he said. “They were discontinued be- Martin several times seeking infor- cause jet engines came along and be- mation on the company’s airships, but came the dominant technology of the did not receive a reply. ‘jet age’, which not only dominated the Dr. Barry Prentice is a professor at skies, but eliminated ocean liners and the University of Manitoba’s I.H. Asper passenger trains.” School of Business’s department of But with many today focusing heav- supply chain management, and he ily on fuel and greenhouse gas emis- has long had an interest in airships sion reductions and sustainable trans- and even became part of this master’s portation practices, airships have thesis while in school in Guelph, Ont. reemerged as a practical environmen- In the 1980s when funding for air- tally-conscious option – one that both ships diminished, Prentice went on Handley and Prentice believe would to work more on other forms of trans- bolster the trucking industry. port, with a particular emphasis on “One day, people will look back on rail, air and truck. this era and ask, ‘Why did it take so “Around the year 2000, news was long’,” said Prentice. emerging that climate change was “I predict that when the cargo air- happening and we could see it in the ship matures – in about 40 or 50 years reducing length of the ice road sea- A rendering of a Varialift ‘monocoque’ all-aluminum airship. Airships are said to product of growth – it will be as large and sons in the north,” Prentice said. “It 80%-90% less carbon emissions than conventional aircrafts, and, if used to transport important as the airplane industry occurred to me that cargo airships cargo into Canada’s northern region, would help bring business to the trucking industry. is today.” would provide an ideal solution.” Prentice attended a conference on lift, and can use alternative fuels like ficial to both the communities served airships but was disappointed that methane and hydrogen without com- and the trucking industry. there was no focus on the a business promising cargo space due to their “Year-round access is denied to re- case for implementing such a mode of large size. mote communities and mining op- Statistics transportation to Canada’s north, so “Lighter-than-air airships have erations,” he said. “If we had airships he organized his own business confer- much higher fuel efficiency than to serve the north, a lot more freight (may vary ence – Airships to the Arctic – bringing heavier-than-air aircraft,” said In- in general would be required. All together potential user and providers ternational Air Transport Association this additional freight would be on a depending of airships to discuss whether the idea spokesman Jean Baptiste Meusnier, truck and transshipped to an airship. was a viable solution to Northern Can- as noted in ‘Sustainable Transpor- Hence, more business for trucking, on model and ada’s supply chain woes. tation’ report provided by Prentice.

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