Mike grew up on a beef farm in rural Southwestern Ontario in Huron County. Mike began his career in the Trucking Industry in 1990 at the age of 18, spending three years working for a local carrier Hauling Livestock and bulk agriculture products. At the age of 21 Mike went to work for a long Haul Refrigerated and general freight carrier and spent 5 years hauling all sorts of freight in all 48 US Mainland States and 6 Canadian Provinces. The Carrier then opened a Certified Driver Training School in 1998 and Mike came off the road and become one of the Schools first Certified Driver Trainers. In 2000 Mike Transitioned into Safety and Compliance for the Fleet, while still working part time as a Trainer for the School. In 2002 Mike moved over to a Private Fleet and became the Safety, Compliance, Maintenance and Training manger for the Hensall District Co-operative’s Commercial Trucking Fleet. Mike spent the next 12.5 years with Hensall and oversaw the Fleets as it grew from 40 Trucks in 2002 to over 140 in 2015. In January of 2015 Mike moved into the Trucking Association business and was named the President of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, where he remains in his current role.

Readers of Industry Publications are no doubt aware of the study that Newcom Media released on the changing demographics in the Trucking Industry. The stats were reported on in great detail in the October issues of Today’s Trucking, Truck News, and picked up on by other publications since. Just as a quick reflection, the numbers showed that as of 2016 visible minorities accounted for 24.5% of Truck Drivers in Canada, up from 3.5% in 96. South Asian drivers account for 17.8% of the overall truck driving population as of 2016, up from 1.8% in 96. In Vancouver and Toronto, the number of South Asian drivers is even higher, at 55.9 and 53.9%. As reported, anyone who has been in the industry for the last number of years will have noticed the shift, and the increasing presence of immigrant drivers roaming the highways.

What I want to discuss is a little more controversial in nature, but something that needs to be addressed in my view. Racism in trucking in Canada. I don’t have hard stats that I can point to that will show you the number of racists incidents on the road, whether it has improved or intensified in the last 20 years, rather I will report on my own experiences in recent times.

If you follow trucking blogs on Facebook or twitter, you will no doubt have seen the racist noise that is spewed by some of the driving, and non-driving population of this industry. I receive, on average, 2 to 3 personal messages per month via email or social media, spewing views that are racist and not based on facts. In these messages new Canadian’s are blamed for everything and anything that is wrong with our industry. They are called unqualified, poorly trained, dangerous to our highways, being the sole cause of any increases in accident rates among commercial drivers, and in some cases called names that I won’t repeat on these pages. I do believe the people who make these comments represent the vast minority of opinions in our industry, and that most people in our industry are progressive, accepting and adapting to our changing culture and ways. However, any amount of racism is to much in my view. Let’s concentrate our views and efforts towards facts, and specific incidents, not blame every accident or unsafe issue in our industry on a specific culture or race. Do we have untrained and unqualified drivers on our roadways? You bet, and that is unfortunate, and something we need to improve on. However unsafe operators do not have a specific skin colour or ethnic background, they come in all forms. As an industry, we need to work together to remove all untrained, unqualified and unsafe operators from our highways. We need to improve on and expand MELT, to ensure we have minimum training standards for all drivers. We need to ensure we monitor and follow up to ensure those providing MELT are doing what they say they are doing and training our new drivers to the standard set forth.

All carriers need to ensure they properly qualify new drivers, continually train them, mentor them and monitor them. If they are unsafe and unqualified, they need to be removed from your fleet, even if this means parking more trucks against the fence.

Drivers need to ensure they practice defensive driving skills, remove the distractions from their cab, and continuously work on improving their knowledge and skills, in co-operation with their employers and fellow drivers.

Enforcement needs to find ways to get at more of the unsafe operators on our highways and target them. They need to inspect more vehicles, lay more changes for unsafe and aggressive behaviours, and remove drivers and carriers from our roadways who do not follow and comply with the rules and are a danger to our highways.

As a whole, I am proud of this industry, and the skill and safety of our professional drivers and operators. Professional drivers are some of the most skilled and safe drivers on the roadway. We must however never rest on our laurels. If we want to continuously improve not only the safety of our industry, but it’s image, we all need to work together to make it better. This includes all races, religions and cultures working together, there is no room for racism in our society, or our industry, and I for one am tired of hearing the comments. If you are unsafe operator or driver, I want you targeted and either forced to improve, or removed from our industry, and I don’t care what race, religion or cultural background you are. Comply with the rules of our industry or get out……

 

 

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Mike grew up on a beef farm in rural Southwestern Ontario in Huron County. Mike began his career in the Trucking Industry in 1990 at the age of 18, spending three years working for a local carrier Hauling Livestock and bulk agriculture products. At the age of 21 Mike went to work for a long Haul Refrigerated and general freight carrier and spent 5 years hauling all sorts of freight in all 48 US Mainland States and 6 Canadian Provinces. The Carrier then opened a Certified Driver Training School in 1998 and Mike came off the road and become one of the Schools first Certified Driver Trainers. In 2000 Mike Transitioned into Safety and Compliance for the Fleet, while still working part time as a Trainer for the School. In 2002 Mike moved over to a Private Fleet and became the Safety, Compliance, Maintenance and Training manger for the Hensall District Co-operative’s Commercial Trucking Fleet. Mike spent the next 12.5 years with Hensall and oversaw the Fleets as it grew from 40 Trucks in 2002 to over 140 in 2015. In January of 2015 Mike moved into the Trucking Association business and was named the President of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, where he remains in his current role.