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Truck Talk
Posted 10/29/2012 1:53:00 AM

The re-opening of the XL food plant in Brooks is affecting more people than you may realize.  Gloria and her boyfriend bought their own semi.  It’s a refrigerator unit and they are professional long haul drivers.  Like all entrepreneurs they have company and personal bills to pay.  Back in November they were hauling things south and veggies back when the client went under and cost them 40 grand.  They picked up another company and lost 27 thousand when they closed their doors, with mortgage and truck payments due.  Then XL shut down and left them really hurting.  It always seems so romantic when you see those gleaming rigs on the highway.  You can hear the music: Eastbound and down, loaded down and truckin’...Eighteen wheels and a dozen roses.  Con-voy.  Gloria says you may have felt sorry for the workers shut out of the plant, but she bets you didn’t even know about the struggles of those who get the meat to market, on a long dash across the country on some of the worst roads.  Thanks for taking the time to write, Gloria, we’ll see those drivers differently now.  Have a safe and profitable run.

BTW - Hello Barrhead - I'll be speaking in your community Friday at Women's Wellness Day.

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Posted By: Bob Layton  

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  1. Lorne Corbett posted on 10/29/2012 09:06 AM
    Hi Bob...this certainly is another example of the many people who are affected by a company that closes its doors either temporarily or for good or restructuring or government layoffs or closed because of fire or...
    Those of us with a secure career or financially well off should think about those who are struggling to make ends meet. Someday "they" could be "you".
  2. Bob $ posted on 10/29/2012 10:30 AM
    That is not the only obstacles that Gloria and her boyfriend, I am sure, are aware of in the trucking industry.
    We used to have trucks that would park on the streets, near where my shop was on the NE side of town, near the old stock yards. They would park their trucks there overnight on the bare serviced streets, then go to their night jobs as cab drivers.
    They were servicing their trucks there, changing their oil and lube, right there on the street, dumping the empty 5 gallon containers, and the dirty oil, right there, in the tlall grass.
    Hell, they changed a transmission right there on the street. Any other legitimate trucking company would have fines up the ying yang for pulling that crap...because they are required to have a lot and shop facilities for their trucks.
    I reported them, and got NO response from the city....who has their service buildings just west of there, by the LRT tracks. NO RESPONSE!!!!
    Upon moving to another location on the south end of town,...just off 50th street south, north of the Whitemud, we discovered another location, where these cab drivers, were doing the exact same thing. Paved streets, with no businesses, that became their private parking lots for their rigs, and servicing of their trucks.
  3. The Infidel - Mr. John posted on 10/29/2012 10:49 AM
    How 'bout Bob,...the trucks running up and down the highway, and in particular, to Vancouver and such, that have 4-5 drivers in them, all running on the SAME license.
    A lot of these trucks have been stopped by the Highway Patrol, and these guys pour out of them, and they are all driving on the same license, with absolutely NO training whatsoever!
    A couple, like Gloria and her boyfriend can't compete with these guys, because they follow the law and fill out their logs....these guys don't and constantly underbid the good guy operators!!!
    These trucks are poorly maintained, sometimes the brakes are "white hot" from poor maintenance. I remember driving, near Golden, BC, which has some very "steep" curves, behind one of these trucks, and you could "smell" the burning brake shoes as they were trying to keep the trucks from going over the edge. They are supposed to stop at check-points to check their brakes, and I've seen some of these trucks roll right by these spots!
    Infrared sensors have been installed at various places, like on QE11 highway, to catch these trucks, but it is sporadic. It should be permanent!!!
    Don't know if you know this, but the railway has these heat detectors installed all over the railway system to detect hot wheels, bearings, and brakes that are overheating. This should be permanent on these highways,...24 hour operation to detect these trucks that violate their servicing of these trucks!!!
    1. Garry Chubb posted on 10/29/2012 01:58 PM
      @The Infidel - Mr. John I remember, a highway inspector telling me a story, about a rig stopped at a QE 2 weigh scale....where they were doing heat checks on the wheels of the rigs....one rig stopping and lighting up the sensors and the screens with white hot heat coming off the tires.
      They pulled the truck over to the side and as soon as the truck applied the brakes for the last time.....the tires fell over at one of the locations. The bearings had overheated so bad that they literally melted off the axle.
      Same style of driver was driving this rig. And this is the kind of driver that I am sure Gloria and her friend experience everyday.
      Where is the pride of the companies that hire these guys???
      Don't they have concern even for themselves on the highway?
  4. Ken posted on 10/29/2012 12:06 PM
    Bob. Not all truckers are great. Twice in the last 3 years I was almost road kill in the area between Sangudo and Gunn corner. Both times I was in the right hand lane and saw in my mirror that 2 semis sid by side were coming up on my vehicle. Both times I was forced to pull onto the shoulder at (literally) the last second or they would have run right over me. Were they on cell phones or CB radio or whatever? As it took several minutes for them to catch up to me they should have been aware of my presence.
  5. Gail posted on 10/29/2012 03:13 PM This comment was edited by a moderator at 03:44 AM on 10/30/2012
    It is a real shame that there is no recourse for Gloria and her boyfriend. Trucking can be a hard business at the best of tmes. The comment regarding Vancouver, that have 4-5 drivers in them, all running on the SAME license. This tye of thing was in the news some years ago. Obviously, it is still happening!
  6. Glen S.R. Woytuck posted on 10/30/2012 03:06 AM
    The REAL "Trickle Down" in action. These HUGE corporations make their money on the backs of the little guy. From their own workers, to people like these truckers who likely don't get paid for at least 90days after submitting an invoice for work done. Something goes wrong with the big corporation, and the little contractor is left holding the bag and maybe not getting paid for 90+ days worth of work. Perhaps there is some kind of law needed where corporations have to put up bonds to cover bills owed to small contractors instead of being able to just close shop and walk away from debts owed to workers/sub-contractors.
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