Canadian Trucking

So I was watching the TV series Highway Through Hell about the Jamie Davis Tow Truck Company in southern Vancouver British Columbia Canada, and I really like watching all the different Canadian trucking companies and all the different equipment they use. They have a lot of stuff you never see here in the states like B-Trains and Tri Axles and they must be allowed to handle more weight then us.

GFS also makes a cameo on that show if you watch season 1 episode 3 about 39 minutes in you see a set of GFS doubles on the Coq highway going the opposite direction. Now the GFS Canada doubles are different then the USA doubles for one while the trailers are only 28' long there 13'6" high they are deffinatly higher. I know GFS Canada uses a lot of different equipment then regular GFS United States of America. They have straight trucks and everything. Also the truck they were towing from a wreckage I swear was a Core Mark truck it sure was wrapped like a Core Mark truck and the trailer 28' was all busted open full of plastic red totes.

Personally I can tell an American truck from a Canadian truck out on the highway just by looking at it Canadian trucks have a different look to them you can just tell by the livery if a truck is Canadian or not.

I don't make it out to Vancouver British Columbia very much (gee really? Were shocked!) however they had some carriers out there I never heard of, probably because there Canadian and operate in that part of the world.
Like Van-Kamp and a few others. Now I've heard of STI and XTL see them here in Cleveland because were not that far from Canada.

Anyhow what I like about Highway Through Hell was they spend 3/4 of a million dollars on some super duper Western Star Miller Wrecker Rotator that can do it all. It's so typical Miller ends up making a mistake and builds the thing wrong leaving a gap a foot and a half between the cab and the body then as there driving it back from the factory the step falls off the cab I mean what do you want for 3/4 of a million bucks? Then of course there out doing a job with it and a tree limb falls on it and breaks the mirror and bangs up the air cleaner. So typical one of the transit drivers at work said "Ehh here in Ohio it doesn't pay to have anything nice." He has an old Dodge Durango and I said "Bill your trucks rusty like mine." He laughed and went "Yeah last night driving here the trim piece around the wheel well just fell off it just fell off. Doesn't pay to have anything nice around here."

You know if it was me, I would have just bought a Miller Rotator used for $100,000 and just had it remarked to have my name on it and put another $75,000 in it to get it fixed problem solved, I mean there has to be a used one for sale somewhere, however they have there reality TV show money.

The funny part is, it shows him going "Yeah we have a couple new trucks, but I also have a few old 1980s Peterbuilts and Western Star's because I need spares and also stuff that's paid for."

What I want to know is you call Mr. Davis out and he brings his Western Star Miller Rotator Super Wrecker and his other super duper Kenworth W800 wrecker to clean up a 10 truck pile up. That tow bill has to be $30,000 dollars of course gee with 2 million dollars worth of equipment out on the road and you have $20,000 a month payment I tell you what that's a lot of debt to be in, that's a big risk man.

You guys ever watch that show what do you think?

Or you could be SYGMA Group buy a bunch of fleet Volvo's brand new at discount and go off and sell $100,000 worth of steak to Texas road house on 1 delivery. Of course I'm simplifying that because SYGMA has huge warehouses with expensive refridgeration, but still $100,000 dollars worth of steak and all you need is a guy a ramp and a two wheeler a little less can go wrong until the two wheeler breaks down.

 

This was the company I was thinking of I guess these trailers haul wood chips never heard of this outfit before (of course there a Canadian outfit far away from where I live hauling a commodity we do not have where I live ha-ha.) Anyhow kind of a cool set up and that's certainly a lot of wood chips. B-Train set up pretty cool:
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/nelson_lovell/picture044.jpg

 

Ha! I find the gear we run a little odd as well. Each state has goofy length and weight laws. Company I work for used to have all lift axle trucks I'm not 100% sure what that was about, but they had them for years and years and years.

 

The Tri Axle trailer certainly is more Canadian however, in Alaska I think they run Tri- Axle trailers. I say American ha-ha. You might have gotten me ha-ha!