Commercial Trucking

[grefer]

Does the Commercial trucking industry have more problems than most think. I had one tell me this week they wont even haul to Robin Hood in Saskatoon. I'm certainly not a trucker but from the north side that takes one left turn at 33rd street on an arrow. I get the feeling there are many more drivers on the road driving those rigs that shouldnt be.

[Oliver88]

I believe this is beside the P&H Mill, located between Warman Road and Idlewild on 33rd Street?

Either way this should be an easy delivery for any trucker. P&H Mill usually has the highest wheat price and trucks are delivering constantly?

[LEP]

It probably has more to do with sitting in line for 4 hours a load. Terribly slow unload.

[walterm]

Not sure what the issue is. I spent 2 weeks in Grande Prairie last spring, I was staying in motel. There was a O/O trucker form Keremeos BC also staying there.

Now Grande Prairie and surrounding is big oil country, but is supposedly in big trouble, there was/is trucks sitting all over the place with no work and trucks parked.

I ask him how he got a job in GP when he lives in Keremeos? He said they were looking for guys to haul fert from dealer to farmers and nobody up there would do it for the $ they pay. Yet he had to rent a second truck and hire a driver, they were both living in motel figured they would be there a month. He couldn't figure it out either other than locals didn't want to make commitment incase the oil turned around and they got called to work. There is a case of supply and demand doesn't work.

[grefer]

Wait time.wasnt mentioned. They said they wont deliver into Saskatoon. Period.

[Taiga]

GP is pretty busy right now, probably the one bright spot.

[walterm]

GP is pretty busy right now, probably the one bright spot.

Agree was up there again couple months ago. Hard to find a motel room it was so busy but my point is there is trucks a heck of a lot closer than southern BC. Just seemed weird to me and him.

[makar]

The fertilizer thing is probably a back haul.

[helmsdale]

Wait time.wasnt mentioned. They said they wont deliver into Saskatoon. Period.

When I was custom hauling, there was a running list of places that we pretty much refused to go into. Certainly not because we weren't capable...

For instance, when you show up at 10am for a friday unload with only 3 trucks in front of you, and at 4pm they tell you you'll be first in line monday morning because nobody feels like unloading anymore, you AVOID THAT PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE going forward! Union shops were horrendous. They'd think nothing of leaving you stranded on a weekend to camp in your truck.

Places that notoriously overbook and leave you hanging in 6+ hour lineups.

Brokers that were notorious for jerking truckers and farmers alike around. You only haul 1 load of organic wheat to south dakota to have it rejected, then told by the broker to drag it 600 miles back in the direction you came from, thereby having to send someone empty to north dakota for your back haul. All for ZERO extra dollars.

The list was pretty large sometimes...

It's a wonder I stuck around as long as i did!

Last of reasons for blacklisting a location, was because it was ignorant to get to...
ADM/ADL in calgary can be a pain in the ass in traffic.
Loading on the dock in vancouver is a gong show.
Places that had to use forklifts to skid your pup around so you could manouver in their yard.
Places that were guaranteed chainups.

I've heard rates are steeply on the incline at the moment. Hearing of issues getting insured, which would be limiting the available truck fleet. If you own your truck and trailers outright, you can get PLPD through facility, but if you are paying on anything, a general condition of the loan is that you are insured for all perils. Company I used to run with has ZERO at fault collisions in a dozen years of operation, full ELD logging, and commercial insurance for each unit increased by 40+% this year over last year.

If rates are on the incline, it certainly allows companies to be far more discriminatory about what, where and when they haul.

Don't know about the other provinces, but my insurance on 05 pete, and '11 trailers strictly insured for farm use went up 20% this year over last. Claims free in 12+ years of trucking, never failed a roadside vehicle or paperwork inspection to date, closing in on 2 million km...

[makar]

I am near gp and be assured you may be working in a truck but few are getting rich, buddy is o/o and has to haul gravel for county for maybe 120, I know many that park their own trucks and work for wages, two years ago a guy was offered 90 an hour with his own super bs to haul frac sand south of gp, he told them he needs a lunch allowance because he can't feed himself at that.

[Quadtrack]

What is the point of this post? There is several different trucking companies hauling into that mill every day.
Or do you mean they want to charge more that $8/tonne? Or are your bins placed in a shotgun arrangement with a hicap 7” auger to load with?

It’s so annoying when those that have never hauled grain or anything else criticize those that do. There are lots of good truck drivers that work hard and none of they are getting rich doing it. Many are retirement age and still going.

There is almost no commercial farms around me that don’t run their own trucks. More reasons than simple economics to do it yourself. The few I can think of that don’t are lazy or think they are too special to drive a truck. Whatever, but don’t whine about those out there trying to scratch out a living by doing it.

If you think you can turn into Robin Hood when going east on 33rd street, might be best you don’t try for a 1A on your own...

[biglentil]

They aint making a penny hauling for $8/ton if the place makes em wait 5hrs to dump. $350 would hardly cover the fuel, but I guess with the good comes the bad.