Canadian truckings dirty little secret... we all knew it.

What is the problem you refer to and how was it created by this 'truck lobby'?

 

The requirements to get a license haven't been lowered in the last 10,20,30,40 or fifty years.

Are there drivers out there who shouldn't be, absolutely.

Should the companies do more to ensure they have properly trained, safe drivers, sure.

Should we make it harder to get a class A/1 license in Canada, perhaps.

Was this accident a result of standards that are too low, no.

Based on averages more than 100 people will have died in crashes since the bus crash involving the Humboldt hockey team.

Every single crash is due to driver error and in almost every case the driver who caused the crash did something they knew they shouldn't do. Yes, they knowingly did something they shouldn't have.

In other words people often get complacent/impatient/reckless behind the wheel and make bad decisions.

Whether the driver of the truck in the bus crash purposely ran the stop sign or purposely let himself get so distracted as to not see the signs he did what countless drivers do every day. The end result is rarely, if ever this bad but to the families of the 100 or so that have died in the few weeks since that terrible crash the loss is the same.

Blaming training for this high profile crash does a disservice IMO. It wasn't a lack of training, it was simple complacency. It should be a wake up call to every single person who drives a vehicle and doesn't take it as seriously as they should.

 

The state of our industry is due to big business. All of it. Large carriers can run for less cents per mile and still make profit if they have enough trucks. So rates go down.
Wages go down so "professional" drivers go away.
Now it's time to fill seats.
We all know how that's been working and the abuse some will take just to have a low paying job. Some people (and I know I'll get flamed for this) are really never destined to do anything but say "would you like fries with that"? Now tho.. they can be a truck driver... doesn't take any skills or common sense, just hold the steering wheel, you don't have to be smart enough to run your own business, or maintain a truck, or even think for yourself.
Big business.
Carriers should have been limited to 25 truck operations. Things would be MUCH different.

 

Created by them because they are the lips for big business carriers. And big business carriers only. they are responsible for the state of the industry.
It's all about the money.

 

That would never work in a captialist system. Plus how would you regulate 1 owner from having a fleet of 25 unit carriers... It’d be a beautiful thing no doubt but impossible to actually implement.

 

Sure, but when you say 'the state of our industry' that means nothing. Is it in a good state, a bad state?

While high profile crashes like this one get a lot of attention the stats show that highway safety continues to move in the right direction.

 

The whole thing. "Driver shortage, driver wages, overall rates, safety, driver aggression, speeding. It's all brought on by the dumbing down and devalued state of our "profession" buy letting big business have their way with it.

 

You nailed it dude, its the same in Construction, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, IT and soon to be Engineering/Banking/Finance. Everything it cut rate, cut cost, bare minimum, #### quality, if a disaster happens #### it, cause we will have made the money and moved onto the next project by then.

One thing to remember tho, as bad as these scabby outfits and Mega's have made things. There are still lots of quality companies out there, running the good miles and making the world go round. They don't really advertise they're hiring, and they're tough as hell to get into, but #### do they do trucking right!.