Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

As I’ve alluded to in the past few articles I have been working closely with Jim Papineau, a longtime industry friend and confidant. Jim and I have collaborated on a number of consulting projects over the past 10 years related to the transportation industry. So it was a natural for me to approach him when…

I heard a phrase the other day and it set my mind to digging deeper into the thought. The individual I was with was talking about his wife’s shopping addiction. He said that she was a ‘want person and not a need person’. Some time back I actually did some research on the internet on…

Insurance premiums are going up, and when I say up, I don’t mean by just the rate of inflation. Oh no! Not just two or three percent. No No No. I see rates going up in some cases by one hundred percent! I’m seeing trucking insurance rates doubling in many cases and I see more…

Available soon for OTA Members to train from within their organization (May 3, 2017) — The “Essential Driving Skills; Tractor-Trailer Driver” curriculum package is now complete and approved by the Ministry of Transportation (MTO). The materials are now in production and will be available shortly as an off-the-shelf program to OTA member fleets wishing to…

How many times have you been stuck trying to make a specific task or project perfect and then got completely frustrated to the point of quitting when, in fact, you had probably nailed the task some time ago? My partner Jimmy Papineau and I have been working for just under a year on a retention…

Recently a trucking company client told me a story. Their Safety Director received a telephone call from a man who stated that he was currently in the hospital. He told the Safety Director that he had been rear-ended by one of his trucks and he claimed that the truck driver simply took off after the…

What makes a word relate better to a male or a female? According to Kat Matfield, who created a gender decoder for job ads (http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com), “we all use language that is subtly “gender-coded” and this affects job advertising as well. Matfield based her web-based tool on a study by professors from the University of Waterloo…

While I was visiting a small trucking company recently, I was reminded of FMCSR 392.9. This regulation specifies what you must do, and when you need to perform cargo securement checks. I had forgotten all about this regulation, but it’s important because we have similar laws here in Canada. So what new information might you…