Friday, April 19, 2024
Opinion/ColumnRide Hailing newsTaxi industry newsTrucking

Dan McTeague: “The suggestion we can make emissions fall 40% in 8 years is absurd”

Guest Contributor

As Vladimir Putin wreaks havoc in Ukraine, he rests confident knowing that Canada – one of the world’s most energy-rich nations – remains utterly incapable of doing anything to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas. The Europeans are, after all, the bank for Putin’s military aggression. Europe needs Russian oil and gas and they have no other plausible supplier in sight.

In a slightly different world, Canada would have been in a terrific position to supply Europe with an alternative supply of oil and gas. But, because once upon a time, Justin Trudeau discovered that it was “2015” and Harper was out and he was in, the Trudeau Liberals declared war on Canada’s oil and gas industry. 

Read More
NewsOpinion/Column

Vaccine travel ban faces compelling testimony from Charter signatory Brian Peckford

Guest Contributor

In his sworn affidavit, Mr. Peckford states: “What I find perhaps the most disturbing is that the federal government has mandated a two-tiered society where one group of people has benefits while another group is disadvantaged. As a person who has chosen not to receive the new medical treatment, I am all of a sudden treated as an outcast, labelled a “racist” and “misogynist”, and as an undesirable person not fit to be seated with vaccinated people on an airplane … The Covid-19 vaccinated are allowed to travel by airplane and to see their families and the unvaccinated are not. This is not the Canada I know and love, and this type of segregation causes me utmost sadness.”

Read More
Guest ContributionsTrucking

Is it more dangerous to hit a bear than a moose? Don Taylor details the differences for you

Guest Contributor

Suddenly, I was jolted awake by the truck rocking from side to side. I lay there wondering what had woken me up. Did I imagine something? Was it a dream? Did someone back into me? Was the wind picking up? Where exactly was I? As I lay trying to figure out what was going on, the truck rocked again.

Okay, not a dream, and I’m not imagining this. Where am I? Perhaps someone had backed into me? It does happen in truck stops, seldom causing damage, but both drivers can feel the bump. I thought for a minute, remembering that I was in the Marathon rest area. Being backed into, therefore, wasn’t likely. No evidence of the wind picking up. What in the devil was going on?

Read More
Opinion/ColumnRide Hailing newsTaxi industry news

Happy Anniversary! But still no driver training program, three years after unanimous Council vote

Rita Smith

Unfortunately, it also marks the one year anniversary of the Freedom of Information (FOI) request filed with the City of Toronto, asking how many vehicle for hire drivers have been trained under the mandatory driver training program Council unanimously directed Licensing and Standards staff to re-instate in July, 2019.

One year ago, the answer to our question was “Zero.” Zero drivers have been trained since staff received the direction in 2019.

Today, the answer is still “Zero.” Zero drivers have been trained since we published the FOI response on April 11, 2021.

Read More
NewsRoad Safety DiscussionTrucking

Speeds to be increased to 110 on select Ontario highways, governors remain at 105

RWN Staff

The Ontario government is raising the speed limit permanently from 100 km/h to 110 km/h on six sections of provincial highways in southern Ontario.

“With road safety top of mind, these sections have been carefully selected based on their ability to accommodate higher speed limits,” said Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Transportation.

Whether the change will increase highway safety or efficiency is “a tough one to call,” says Travis McDougall of Truckers for Safer Highways.

“So long as our trucks are still governed at 105 kilometres per hour, it won’t really make any difference except that now we will be driving slower than the traffic around us,” he says. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation has not yet indicated whether the governor set point will be raised along with highway speed limits.

Read More
The first time some new drivers drive in snow, they are driving a truck through Northern Ontario. Photo: "Somewhere Out There," Mike Murchison
Feature/ProfileRoad Safety DiscussionTrucking

Confessions of a small-town Driver Examiner: “GTA students are flooding our offices for tests”

Rita Smith

e frames are more than lengthy enough that a guy who is licensed to drive at home can who has a G license in April or May can finish training for an A license during the summer; and receive it by September or October. Some of them have never even driven a CAR in the snow. Their first experience of snow and icy roads is as a brand-new driver of a transport truck,” Grey points out, highlighting a reality described to RWN other industry professionals.

Read More
Feature/ProfileTaxi industry newsTrucking

Jaw-dropping, shocking, hilariously fun reading: Don Taylor’s “Stories from the Road”

Rita Smith

Don Taylor spent the first nine years of career driving Taxi in Thunder Bay before he transitioned to Truck driving. His stories from both industries are fast-paced, vivid and memorable. He spent years around the campfire with family and friends, regaling them with Taxi and Trucking stories before they finally convinced him to put the stories in writing, in a book.

“I have thousands of them, really,” Taylor told Road Warrior News shortly after the book’s launch. “I hardly knew where to start. But once I got a rhythm in place, writing every weekend I was home, one story led to another and I would look up to see five or six hours had passed.”

Read More