“The average age of a trucker is 58”

Via email from a trucker I know personally, names withheld at request.

To my friends and family who are not familiar with the trucking industry: get a few extra essentials if you’re in a position to do so. Fill your tank with fuel.

Truck drivers have hit the proverbial wall & every tactile thing in your life is moved by them. This goes far beyond the mandate issue, that’s just the snapping point for many. There are many factors at play – truckers being the constant, proverbial scapegoat for a crumbling supply chain is front & centre.

I want to be clear that this has been brewing for decades. The horrible state on our Canadian highways is similar to what I’ve experienced traveling in third world countries. Safety has declined to where there’s almost daily fatalities. I’ve had to unfollow most trucking groups because they are just so negative & defeating showing all the daily wrecks that don’t hit the news. Real, undoctored pictures, video, & dashcam footage of “professional drivers” showing absolutely no regard for human life.

What’s the answer? Feds throw mass quantities of undocumented drivers who simply have to say they have a license or experience. They pay large sums to “handlers” that facilitate throwing them right into the fire on our mountainous, snowy, icy highways. I have personally helped drivers that had absolutely no idea how to chain up, free a frozen brake, fuel up a tractor or reefer, add diesel exhaust fluid, back up one trailer (let alone two), which airline went where, how to check fluid levels, hook up a trailer, etc. And this was in the parking lot! Now to watch them pass people on double yellows, over the crest of a hill, around a blind corner, driving loaded super B’s 6 feet from my passenger vehicle at highway speed. I’ve taken the ditch or shoulder several times this winter alone as I knew my family would be hit & perish when the loaded tailgater couldn’t stop in time. Because I have decades of off-road & trucking experience.

Unfortunately, I could no longer afford to run a viable business in transport. The rates are the same as in the 90’s but every expense has tripled. My last three months hauling grain I couldn’t even pay myself a dollar, I was just working for the bank. Mary insisting I “get out while I could” was the best thing to happen to us in years. All those long, wasted, unpaid hours of my life never to return. Then, months later, she saw her cancer return & we were very thankful a semi with a $3K+ monthly payment wasn’t sitting on the driveway.

I also knew that every extra mile I drove on the decaying state of our roads would increase the chance of my ticket being punched. Not a sacrifice my family was prepared to make. I was sick with stress every Sunday night before going to work. All so people could give me dirty looks, cut me off in the city & on the highway. It didn’t matter if I had dynamite, aviation fuel, crude oil, or apples in the trailers. The end result would be the same for them. 💥

Try and find a place to pull over and rest, eat, use a washroom in Saskatchewan. Especially a safe location with adequate room and not just a litter-ridden highway shoulder with a frozen porta potty. How many times did I stop just to see a “no trucks” sign, locked garbage bin, jugs of pee everywhere, and an out of service or locked bathroom.

Next is drivers being driven to financial ruin & physical distress with ridiculous fines and penalties. Many of those lie squarely on shitty trucking outfits & brokers that push people far beyond their limits. Shippers & receivers as well. But it all falls on drivers that are quickly thrown under the bus.

What’s the answer? I don’t know.

• make trucking a recognized trade
• keep diesel prices in check
• insurance costs will stop escalating if drivers actually qualify for what they’re operating without the resulting chaos
• a decent wage available for competent, experienced drivers

So many of my former colleagues are finding different avenues than driving to earn a living. Or getting out of the industry entirely. The average age of a trucker is 58. Would you venture out to do this thankless job? Encourage your kids to pursue this? It’s nearly $15K just to get a 1A now. Even if you love the idea of everything the road has in store for you, good & bad, would you do it today? Maybe give a little space, sprinkle some respect, and consider what a truck driver is currently dealing with on the road before branding us all as the source of domestic terror.

I think there’s a reckoning ahead.

Update – Thanks to Rex Murphy at the National Post, there’s additional commentary from drivers in the comments. Just keep scrolling.