News

                                                                                                                           05/07/2010

OTA Education Foundation urging students to apply for scholarships

TORONTO, Ont. -- The Ontario Trucking Association Education Foundation is urging university and college students to look at scholarships opportunities through its endowed scholarship program. These scholarships have been established by trucking and service supply companies through endowments that are managed by the Foundation. Income from the endowed investments is used to fund specific scholarships in perpetuity.

"We are extremely pleased to announce that all of the Foundation's endowed scholarships are now fully developed, and available for students to make application under," says Betsy Sharples, the Foundation's executive director. "We now offer a wide array of scholarships that reflect the priorities and values of the companies that endowed these funds and then worked with us in developing several unique scholarship opportunities."

The scholarships include:

-Bison Transport Scholarship - Awarded to a full-time student enrolled in a recognized transportation, logistics, human resources or business program at a Canadian University or College.

-The Erb Group of Companies "Service to Community" Scholarship - Awarded to a first-year post-secondary student enrolled in a recognized college or university, who demonstrates a commitment to his/her community, through his/her involvement in community and/or charitable volunteer work.

-J.D. Smith & Sons "Leaders of Tomorrow" Scholarship - Awarded to a university student who demonstrates a commitment to his/her community, school or other volunteer undertaking while demonstrating exemplary leadership qualities.

-OTA Allied Trades Division Scholarships - Awarded to one university student and one college student, who have completed at least one year of post-secondary education, and who has demonstrated a strong commitment to his/her academic performance.

-OTA Professional Driver Memorial Scholarship Award - Awarded in the memory of a true truck hero, David Virgoe, who lost his life in a crash caused by street racers, for children of Ontario truck drivers who are killed or seriously injured on the road.

In addition, the following endowed scholarships have been established in conjunction with specific education institutions such as high schools and colleges. Winners are selected by the schools' respective selection committees:

-Don Anderson Haulage Business Scholarship/Don Anderson Haulage Technology Scholarship - Awarded to two students graduating from Stouffville District Secondary School who are pursuing educations in business or technology at the college level.

-Glasvan Great Dane Truck-Trailer Service Technician Scholarship - Awarded to two high-achieving students each year who are enrolled in the Truck Trailer Service Co-op program at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

-Grant's Transport Math Scholarship - Awarded to the top university-bound math student graduating from Timiskaming District Secondary School.

-Trailcon Leasing Truck-Trailer Service Technician Scholarship - Awarded to one student each year who is enrolled in the Truck Trailer Service Co-op program at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

-TST Overland Express International Transportation and Customs Scholarship - Awarded to two students entering their second year in Seneca College's International Transportation and Customs diploma program.

For more information and to download application forms, go to www.ontruck.org/educationfoundation.

                                                                                                                           04/27/2010

Setting National Fuel Economy Standards for Trucks Requires Understanding of Industry Complexities, Uniqueness

Recently, Canada’s Minister of Environment, the Honourable James Prentice, indicated through the media that the Government of Canada, perhaps in conjunction, or at least consistent, with the federal government of the United States, will be unveiling draft regulations to introduce new fuel economy standards for heavy commercial vehicles. The announcement we are led to believe could even come by the time you read this article or shortly thereafter.

The Canadian trucking industry has always been the leader in North America in terms of fuel efficiency. For a number of years now, CTA has been promoting the enviroTruck initiative for reducing air contaminants and greenhouse gases (GHG) from trucks. We foresaw the day when fuel economy standards would become a reality and wished to be proactive on that front.

It is hard to respond to something you have not seen – and to date there has been virtually no consultation on this – but CTA’s knee-jerk response is not to oppose measures that can assist the industry in improving its fuel efficiency. Indeed, a regulation that is consistent with the equipment and technologies promoted by CTA’s enviroTruck initiative and which is accompanied by appropriate financial incentives, regulatory flexibility, etc., could be a positive thing. But, there is still a lot of water that needs to go under that bridge before we can give the thumbs up or the thumbs down to whatever the minister is thinking about doing.

If, for example, anyone thinks you can basically follow the same thought processes for establishing a fuel economy standard for trucks, as for cars, they would be sadly mistaken.

The trucking industry is not a homogeneous entity.  Trucks are used as the conveyance to ship all types of commodities and products, from the lightest of weights (e.g., potato chips) to the heaviest (e.g., industrial machinery) and any number of products requiring specialized tractor and trailer equipment. A one size fits all fuel efficiency regulation will not work. This was highlighted in a recent paper from the National Academies (NA) entitled: Technologies and Approaches to Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium-and Heavy-Duty Vehicles.

Secondly, heavy truck weights and dimensions standards in Canada fall principally under provincial jurisdiction, which complicates the setting of national standards. The current vehicle standards were developed in the early 1980s and while they have served the country well (indeed they have allowed for more fuel efficient goods movement in Canada versus the United States in many respects), they were not developed with environmental concerns in mind. Consequently, in many instances they now represent a barrier to adopting some of the technologies that will be required to comply with new fuel efficiency standards. Transport Canada’s manufacturing standards have also recently been identified as being similarly problematic (e.g., impeding the use of rear trailer aerodynamic devices commonly referred to as boat tails).

Third, CTA is extremely concerned that the above issues are not well understood and if the thought is to simply adopt Made-in-USA standards, the Canadian trucking industry could be placed at a competitive disadvantage compared to US carriers and ultimately, shippers who rely upon trucks for getting their goods to market, or for receiving much-needed inputs into their business processes, could be negatively impacted.

The prevailing truck weights and dimensions standards in the United States and Canada are quite different. In general, the Canadian provinces have adopted a more liberalized weights and dimensions regime than what exists under federal and state law in the United States. It is conceivable that the US trucking industry could meet new fuel economy targets by “coming up” towards the Canadian standards already in existence. This would place an added burden on the Canadian industry to adopt additional measures to achieve similar order of magnitude fuel efficiency gains. While enviroTruck has many parallels with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Smartway Transport initiative and with the recently introduced California Air Resources Board regulations aimed at improving truck fuel efficiency, it also takes account of the uniqueness of the equipment used in the Canadian heavy truck fleet.

Again, in principle, CTA does not oppose the setting of fuel efficiency standards for heavy trucks in principle. However, we need to ensure that it is done properly and in a way that is fair to Canadian motor carriers. We have already seen policies created in the absence of a basic understanding of the complexity of the trucking industry and the uniqueness of the Canadian industry in particular. We can’t afford to see it happen in the setting of fuel economy standards.