OTA seeks clearer guidelines on trucker smoking regs

I don't know how it is in Canada but down here truckers smoking is out of control. We have laws in place but they aren't enforced and if you say anything about people blowing smoke in your face then you look like the ### at work. Being a trucker pretty much guarantees exposure to secondhand smoke. Something really needs to be done about it. It's miserable.

 

How does it almost guarantee being exposed to second hand smoke? Dont tell me your exposure is when you walk past a driver at a truck stop who is smoking or something like that....

I dont smoke, and I dont feel like I'm exposed to it.

 

"Truckers smoking is out of control"

......LOL

I don't smoke either. So I don't sit on the smoking side of the restaurant. Or if a place is particularly displeasing, I don't go back.

I think here in Ontario they tried to say the cab of a truck is a workplace environment and therefore has to be smoke free, because a mechanic could have to go in there to work on it. I don't think it's ever been enforced. Drivers just light up anyway. I don't expect others to change their habits to accommodate me.

 

What about a smoker borrowing your truck for a few days? It takes weeks to get that stink out. Why do smokers think it’s ok to smoke wherever they want to? Have some respect for those of us who don’t want to smell that.


BTW, I am a reformed smoker. Quit in 2008.

 

Never was an issue for me, when I was a company driver it happened one time, said I won't tolerate that again it's like I was living in an ashtray. Didn't happen again. Now I run my own truck, so it is not an issue.

Not all smokers are ignorant pricks who will smoke anywhere they darn well please. It's just like anything, a few ruin it for everyone. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's a Canadian thing. People here don't want to be in other people's business here. Much more reserved, and conscious of others. Sometimes too much..

 

Never had that experience. I’ve made it clearly known to dispatch that I can’t stand that stink. They’ve still done it though. Guess I need to buy my own truck.

 

The most evangelical people against smoking are ex-smokers.
And no, I never did.

 

Depends where you work I guess. When I was a company driver we had (pretty much) assigned trucks. It was the opposite for me; I had to take a truck for a week and it was like living in an ashtray. Only happened once. Perhaps I was spoiled.

Here's a picture I found of one of the trucks the old boss runs. This one must have been stretched recently. Not mine, I drove #37, a black 2003 w900L with a 6nz, 8" pipes, 250", awesome truck.

 

I run a few trucks in the oilfield and tell any guys I hire no smoking in the cabs, if I smell anything there get let go. In Alberta the cab of the truck is a workplace and by our laws you need to be 5 meters away from any workplace when smoking.