Bridge to Someday Top 10 of 2017 Waiting for a new U.S. crossing PG. 10 Products that topped our list PG. 36 The Business Magazine of Canada’s Trucking Industry EVERYONE’S TALKING TESLA W 5C4. Will it be the game changer? January 2018 www.todaystrucking.com plus Yard Dogs Tools to keep your trailers rolling Sleep Well Canadian Mail Sales Product Agreement #40063170. Return postage guaranteed. Newcom Media Inc., 451 Attwell Dr., Toronto, ON M9 Researchers fascinated by fatigue Contents January 2018 | VOLUME 32, NO.1 5 Letters 7 John G. Smith 10 16 9 Rolf Lockwood 31 Mike McCarron NEWS & NOTES Dispatches 13 MacKinnon Sold Ontario fleet sold to Contrans 22 Heard on the Street 32 36 23 Logbook 24 Truck Sales 25 Pulse Survey 26 Stat Pack 27 Trending 30 Truck of the Month In Gear 44 Yard Dogs Features Keep trailers moving in the yard with 10 Bridge to Someday specialized equipment Work on the Gordie Howe International 48 Southern Stars Bridge continues, but at a slow pace By Elizabeth Bate Cabovers gaining ground in Mexico 16 Talking Tesla 51 Product Watch Elon Musk (partially) unveils his electric truck. 52 Guess the location, Will it be the game changer he promises? By John G. Smith win a hat 32 Sleep Well Good health begins with proper sleep. Researchers want to know if drivers are getting what they need. By Elizabeth Bate 36 The Top 10 Here’s the tech that topped our editor’s list in 2017 By John G. Smith Cover Image: Courtesy of Tesla For more visit www.todaystrucking.com JANUARY 2018 3 BORN TO BE Designed with decades of experience BETTER. in quality and craftsmanship, Stoughton® introduces a new standard in refrigerated trailers— PureBlue™. We developed PureBlue using proven components, customer input, thor- ™ ough testing and the same durability and value you have come to expect from Stoughton. The lighter weight PureBlue will deliver more thermal efficiency and safety than competitive trailers on the road today. PureBlue— It’s just born to be better. 877-776-5505 • StoughtonTrailers.com/PureBlue U.S.A. Owned & U.S.A. Made Letters Is the computer my boss? The Business Magazine of Canada’s Trucking Industry Eventually we will need an Electronic Logging Device [in Canada], but who am I as a PUBLISHER Joe Glionna single truck owner and self-employed businessman reporting to? The computer in my [email protected] • 416/614-5805 office – since, as I have been told, my ELD will need to send the information somewhere. VICE PRESIDENT, EDITORIAL Rolf Lockwood, MCILT Seems a little silly that I will need an internet connection and a program in my office [email protected] • 416/614-5825 to receive data from one truck, but I guess the regulators can’t differentiate. EDITOR John G. Smith — Peter LaRocque [email protected] • 416/614-5812 JPL Storage ASSOCIATE EDITOR Elizabeth Bate Haileybury, Ontario [email protected] • 416/614-5828 Email: CONTRIBUTORS: Steve Bouchard, Mike McCarron, [email protected] Jim Park, Nicolas Trépanier The insurance ‘myth’ is a reality DESIGN / LAYOUT Re: Generation Next (November 2017) Tim Norton, Frank Scatozza [email protected] • 416/614-5818 I need to point out a rare error in your latest magazine. SALES AND MARKETING CONSULTANT The above article states that it’s a “myth” that insurance Anthony Buttino SEND YOUR [email protected] • 416/458-0103 premiums are higher for younger/new drivers. I suppose, LETTERS TO: SALES AND MARKETING CONSULTANT technically, it is a myth, since if you are a small trucking Nickisha Rashid Newcom [email protected] • 416/614-5824 company you can’t hire them at all, at any cost. But even after Media Inc., some experience, premiums are considerably higher, at least QUÉBEC ACCOUNTS MANAGER 451 Attwell Dr., Denis Arsenault for a small company. Since the majority of trucks are operated [email protected] • 514/947-7228 Toronto, ON by smaller companies, this “myth” clearly is a real problem. CIRCULATION MANAGER M9W 5C4 Pat Glionna I’ve had to reject several good, qualified drivers, young and 416/614-2200 • 416/614-8861 (fax) old, either because of lack of experience, or demerit points. If we publish PRODUCTION MANAGER Lilianna Kantor When the company reaches a certain size, you are allowed your letter, we’ll [email protected] • 416/614-5815 one rookie for every six or seven experienced drivers, at an even send you a increased rate. When I question this logic, or the logic that Today’s Trucking Kenneth R. Wilson hat as our thanks. Award Winner every driver I’m not allowed to hire ends up immediately at a large company, I’m given the phrase: “risk management”. Why don’t we call it what it really is – “profit management”? Once your insurance bill reaches a certain level, the insurance companies will allow a percentage of your NEWCOM MEDIA INC. drivers to be less-qualified. The driver hasn’t gotten any safer because they’re part of 451 Attwell Dr., Toronto, ON M9W 5C4 416/614-2200 • 416/614-8861 (fax) a larger fleet, just as they become no safer because the name on the door belongs to a CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER larger fleet. This nonsense, along with all the other exceptional and true reasons in the Jim Glionna article, leaves no mystery why few millennials stay in such a demanding, thankless, and PRESIDENT Joe Glionna underpaid industry – one that is increasingly and unnecessarily over-regulated. One other point on the projected shortfall of 34,000 drivers? This is strictly count- VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS Melissa Summerfield ing empty seats, I assume. From what many of us seasoned “old-farts” see daily, if we CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER include licensed drivers who should never have become employed in the first place, Peter Fryters that number is deceivingly small. DIRECTOR OF CIRCULATION Pat Glionna — Bill Cameron Today’s Trucking is published monthly by NEWCOM MEDIA INC., 451 Attwell Dr., Owen Sound, Ontario Toronto, ON M9W 5C4. It is produced expressly for owners and/or operators of one or more straight trucks or tractor-trailers with gross weights of at least 19,500 pounds, and for truck/trailer dealers and heavy-duty parts dis- tributors. Subscriptions are free to those who meet the criteria. For others: Surviving one of those days single-copy price: $5 plus applicable taxes; one-year subscription: $40 plus applicable taxes; one-year subscription in U.S.: $60 US; one-year subscrip- Just wanted this day to end. Tell me if there is a the opening for a paperboy in your office. tion foreign: $90 US. Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without prior written consent Got hit in the windshield by a flying pie! (Lemon I think). In a way it was a good of the publisher. The advertiser agrees to protect the publisher against legal omen. While I pulled off to survey the mess, I of course was passed by a whack of action based upon libelous or inaccurate statements, unauthorized use of photographs, or other material in connection with advertisements placed trucks. Got back in behind these guys and, boom, [another truck was] hit eight trucks in Today’s Trucking. The publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising which in his opinion is misleading, scatological, or in poor taste. Postmaster: in front of me by a four-wheeler heading the wrong way on Highway 2 in Sussex, New Address changes to Today’s Trucking, 451 Attwell Dr., Toronto, ON M9W 5C4. Postage paid Canadian Publications Mail Sales Agreement No.40063170. Brunswick. Both vehicles burned to the ground. ISSN No. 0837-1512. Printed in Canada. If it wasn’t for that pie it might have been my plastic truck burning. We get through that. I switch out in Moncton, start heading to Prince Edward Island. Damn kids were burning giant tractor tires on Highway 15! Ugh! Tell me why I still do this job! Member — Lance Nolan Cambridge, Ontario JANUARY 2018 5 Editorial By John G. Smith Musk Matters Tesla’s launch was light on details, but it’s sparking important conversations he recent reveal of the Tesla Semi was like none other Look no further than the launch event itself. In some ways, – and not simply because it offered the first look at a Musk’s presence eclipsed the truck and Roadster in its trailer. T prototype of the company’s electric Class 8 truck. If The 1,000-plus-strong crowd greeted him much like Apple anything, there were still plenty of unanswered questions once devotees once hung on every word of tech visionary Steve Jobs. the lights dimmed and fog machines were stowed away. Every product claim was greeted with cheers. The Tesla Semi is Other than acknowledging the truck battery sits beneath fast! It can be charged with sunlight! The windshield can survive the cab, offering a low center of gravity, Tesla has yet to a nuclear blast! offer any real insights into the underlying power supply. This Tesla isn’t even the only manufacturer exploring electrification all- important power-pack promises to store enough energy to – as ongoing coverage in Today’s Trucking has shown – but this offer an 800- kilometer range, but we’re still missing spec’s such is the truck the general public is talking about. It’s certainly the as how much it weighs. only truck launch that friends A pretty vital measure “ In some ways, outside the trucking industry when trying to deter- ever asked me about. (“Were mine how much freight Musk’s presence you really there to see the Tesla? it can haul.