Donald, the Prophesy & Crap

Okay, there is no simple way to describe this TNT podcast. It begins with a prophesy then segues to an interview with trucking journalist and driver, Jim Park about Music City, the Trump tariffs and saving trucking costs and the earth with cow crap. Yes, we are all over the map on this one. You just have to listen.

Fabiana – The Rescue Lady

“Disaster and Pandemonium on the highway.”  Big rigs off the road and trailers upside down. Who you gonna call? Rescue 51 and Fabiana!

It can be a mess out there and it’s not getting better. Much of the carnage is due to the growing number of unsafe poorly trained drivers released onto our highways. Some drivers churned out by crappy driving schools have never driven on ice and snow….so, they end up in the woods, sometimes rolled over and in worst case scenario, injured or killed, not to mention the damage and/or loss of the vehicle and cargo. So who is going to get them back on the road again. Well, at least get the truck back on the road. The driver is another issue.

My guest is Fabiana Quinteros. To be more exact is it Fabiana Quinteros Ireland, along with his partner husband they own Rescue 51 Towing & Recovery just outside Barrie Ontario. Fabiana is not just a pretty face in the office…she gets out there in the ditches and the weeds in the cold winter nights with guys hauling a tractor trailer out trouble.  Fabiana did not grow up with wintery nights. She is originally from Uruguay in South America.  I will talk to Fabiana.

Thanks to Howes Products, makers of Diesel Defender, a diesel Fuel Lubricator & Injector cleaner with advanced IDX4 Detergent.

Bon School-Bad School

There has been a lot of talk and deep concern within the trucking industry about the rapid growth of quickie cut rate trucking schools releasing poorly trained drivers onto our highways. It is not only a concern to the trucking industry, but it should be a concern to every driver whether a trucker or four-wheeler. Those poorly trained drivers are often hired by equally shady trucking companies operating unsafe equipment and therefore offering rates far below standing rates…meaning unfair competition. Some shippers and receivers don’t care as long as they get their stock quickly and a good price. There is now another victim…the reputable truck driving schools. Young potential truckers and often immigrants just want to get their license as quickly and cheaply as possible. They make a choice between a $3500 school versus a 10,000-dollar school, one that gets you in and out the door and to your license on less than half the time. Meanwhile, the reputable school’s classroom size drops dramatically.  In fact, some classes had to be cancelled. Talked to one very reputable school in western Canada. It might the best school in Canada. It’s the Mountain Transport Institute. They even have students come from the US to train there. The owner is Andy Roberts.

Thanks to by Howes Products, makers of Diesel Defender, a diesel Fuel Lubricator & Injector cleaner with advanced IDX4 Detergent.

50% FEMALE TRUCKERS – PINK POWER!

Every once in a blue moon someone comes along that gets you fired up and excited. They are forward thinking creative people to break the “we’ve always done it this way” mold in the very conservative trucking industry. In a search for someone to talk to me about the crooked truck driving schools, I connected with a lady who sounded excited to be in the trucking industry but also hell bent of changing attitudes and killing stereotypes. Her name is Isabelle Fournier. She works for the huge Contrans Group as a Recruitment & Marketing Specialist…but she also wears another hat. Maybe my enthusiasm to invite Isabelle to talk to me on the TNT Podcast is because she and I agree on a couple issues that I have sounded off about for the past 10 years. One, the is the less than appealing image of the trucker by the public, and how few efforts have been made to polish that image. I have great respect for the successful business leaders in trucking. Many are former truckers themselves, but their skill set is in moving goods and handing business and employees etc.  Creativity and imagination is not a required asset for the job…unless recently. My guest fills that role exceptionally well, and her efforts have paid off. Thanks  to great people at Howes Products, makers of Diesel Defender, a diesel Fuel Lubricator & Injector cleaner with advanced IDX4 Detergent…and Diesel Treat, a Diesel Anti-Gel & Fuel Conditioner.

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LUCKY CHUCK’S SCHOOL OF TRUCKING

Are you impressed by that unbelievable chance to drive a tractor trailer up and down our highways without having to deal with all those pesky rules and regulations? And safety? What’s the big deal with safety when the load just has to be there, and you make a decent dollar.  

Okay, maybe I am being a little over dramatic…or maybe not. Back when we produced the Trucker Radio Show, we invented a bogus crooked driving school, we called, “Lucky Chucks School of Trucking.”  Well, it might have been a make-believe trucking school, but it was pretty close to reality.

Lately, there has been an increased concern regarding the number of shady fly-by-night driving schools turning out unqualified drivers onto our highways, often resulting in injuries and loss of life, not to mention loss of equipment and cargo. Especially in the Mississauga and Brampton area in Ontario, unscrupulous truck training schools are offering cut rate truck driver training courses to get a prospective driver just enough info and training to pass a test.  While the Torontoland area is in the epicenter of these scam schools, it does happen elsewhere across the country. The one possible exception seems to be in the province of Quebec, although a small handful of shady schools exist. There is a good reason why crooked truck driving schools are almost non-existent is Quebec. That difference between Quebec and the rest of the country raises an important issue…sorry…question.  I wanted to find out more about what makes Quebec different, when it comes to professional driver training and why the whole country doesn’t follow. I talked to Steve Bouchard. He is an Editor at Newcom Media’s Transport Routier in Montreal.  That conversation is coming up right after this message from Howes Products, makers of Diesel Defender, a diesel Fuel Lubricator & Injector cleaner with advanced IDX4 Detergent

THE GHOSTS OF TRUCKER RADIO

The Trucker Radio Show was a syndicated program that combined music, news, information, interviews, and entertainment, airing for 17 years on radio stations across Canada and the USA. What was its mission? Did it truly benefit truck drivers and the trucking industry, or was there a strategy that was misunderstood? Did we waste our time? Absolutely not! Above all, we enjoyed ourselves for most of those 17 years. Our guests included truckers, fleet owners, critics, and supporters, each bringing their unique perspectives.

In this TNT Podcast, we will showcase some of the voices from our guests. Some were serious, many provided valuable insights, and a few were quite entertaining. Perhaps you were one of those voices.

Join us as we present a medley of familiar voices from the years since 2006. You might hear their thoughts for the first time.

We extend our gratitude to Howes Products for being our longest-standing supporter, almost from the very beginning.

Sex Investors.

Want to end sex trafficking? Stop investing in this multi-billion-dollar illegal industry. It’s simple. No buyer means no victim which means no sex trafficking. Yes, it’s simple, but it’s not easy. Most sex buyers are men, yet only six percent of men purchase sex. That means that there is an opportunity for the other 94 percents of us men who do not buy sex to speak up.

sychology.  He has spoken to groups all over North America on the subject of human trafficking.On this podcast, we focus not so much on identifying victims and traffickers, but the men who provide the money to keep sex-trafficking a growing ilIn this TNT TruckNewsTalk Podcast I chat with Dylan Wecht, TAT Public Sector Engagement Specialist, and Field Trainer. Dylan is well qualified to speak about human trafficking. Not only is he a lawyer but holds a degree in criminal justice and plegal industry.

No Buyer = No Victim = No Sex Trafficking.

For more information on the buyers: https://tatnonprofit.org/addressing-demand/

SEVEN BRAVE WOMEN IN A MAN’S WORLD

There appears to be a symbiotic relationship between adventuruous women looking for a challenging career and an industry that needs them…and for reasons that I won’t go into here, they can’t seem to connect.

Women make up about 50% of our population yet in the US, only 9% are professional drivers and in Canada, that percentage is even lower at about 4%. 

When you consider that there is an alleged pro driver shortage, doesn’t it make you wonder, why isn’t there are a huge recruiting strategy to attract women?  They’re not just going to walk into the H&R department and say, “I wanna be a trucker.” So, because trucking fleets are probably not going to place ads in Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Elle magazines or Thrive Magazine, maybe hearing directly from seven happy, successful women who are professional truck drivers. They are all smart, educated and articulate.

They are from the US and Canada. They are Carol Nixon, Caroline Carter, Susie DeRidder, Claudia Winterhalter,  Sherry Mukelston, Kellylynn McLaughlin and Stephanie Klang

Who’s old enough to remember this hit song from 1966 by the Bobby Fuller Four, “I Fought the Law and the Law Won”  The law usually wins…but they need all the help they can get, especially when it comes to human trafficking, otherwise known as sex-trafficking.  We know a guy who can help. He is a Public Sector Engagement Specialist at TAT…TAT an acronym for Truckers Against Trafficking. His name is Dylan Wecht and although Mr. Wecht has a long title that may not at first describe what he does. Dylan assists and educates law enforcement; he is eminently qualified. He is an attorney based in Washington DC and holds a degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology.

Dylan Wecht speaks throughout the United States and Canada about TAT’s mission and trains law enforcement on human trafficking, the victim centered approach, and how to identify human trafficking at routine interdiction and inspection stops. He holds a Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University School of Law and previously worked as an immigration attorney in the Washington, DC area. The fact that Dylan is former immigration attorney allows him to have a front row seat into the area of cross border sex trafficking and domestic servitude. 

That’s Dylan Wecht Public Sector Engagement Specialist at TAT. If you would like to have Dylan speak to your organization, get in touch directly with him. His email address is [email protected]. or just email TAT at  [email protected]

Just recently, Dylan spoke at a TAT coalition build in Dartmouth, Nova Scota a few weeks ago on September 11th, an event attended and co-hosted by the Atlantic Trucking Association and CN as well as local law enforcement. That half day event agenda included Human Trafficking prevention and awareness training, training resources for the trucking, truckstop, bus and energy industries, a survivor presentation, a law enforcement panel and Q& A discussion.

We’ve been talking to Jane Jazrawy about the Best Fleets to Drive for competition for several years but this time I have some probing questions. Questions like, who benefits? Just how many questions do you ask? Who cheats?  What if you’re a driver and you hate your company? What about women drivers? Where do they fit in?

If the trucking industry is going to attract drivers…and not just any driver, but great professional drivers…you have to demonstrate how professional you are as company.  Well, there is a way to do that…all least within the industry.  It’s an in-depth survey called, “Best Fleets to Drive For”.  However, the drivers are the judges.

 I will talk to Jane Jazrawy about how it’s all done…and although I’ve talked Jane before, this time, I chose to ask some tough questions.  If the “outside world” only knew how serious most trucking companies were about their professionalism and how drivers cared to work for the best companies…it might change John Q. Public’s view. Please listen as I talk to Jane Jazrawy about the “Best Fleets to Dive For” competition. We may discover some surprises.