Professionals of the Highway Tour with Bruce Outridge and Lead Pedal Podcast

August 5, 2020

We were honoured to be included in the Professionals of the Highway Tour with Bruce Outridge and Lead Pedal Podcast, discussing how we come together as an industry to promote change and make a positive impact in the community.

Our areas of focus include SickKids Foundation, Global Dog Rescue, Canadian Cancer Society, Women's Trucking Federation of Canada, Salvation Army, Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention and more.

Looking forward to seeing Bruce's footage! Stay tuned for the links on our website!

Praxair’s Dimech to lead PMTC board

by Today's Trucking

June 18, 2020

MILTON, Ont. – Jim Dimech of Praxair Canada has been named chairman of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada (PMTC) as the council names its board of directors for the 2021 term.

Brad Fletcher of Terrapure Environmental is past chairman, while Steve Lawn of Parkland Corporation is first vice-chairman, and Jon Ratnasmy of Wolseley Canada is second vice-chairman.

While council members normally approve the board at an annual general meeting in June, they had to resort to email ballots this year because the conference was moved to September amid Covid-19 concerns.

Directors include:

Kimberly Biback, Sharp Transportation
Matthew Blackman, Volvo Trucks Canada Inc
Phil Camp, Paccar Leasing Company
Matthew Carr, CPC Logistics Canada
Gerald Carroll, Wesbell Logistics
Scott Creighton, Northbridge Insurance
Sanchia Duran, Blackberry Radar
Jessica Griffiths, Motive Media
Fred Hildebrand, Rush Truck Leasing
Sudhanshu Malhotra, Power Bev
David Marvin, Tandet
Terry Maw, Trailer Wizards
Leanne Quail, Paul Quail Transport
Kim Richardson, TTSAO
Kevin Riley, Maple Leaf Foods
Michelle Roberts, Infrastructure Health & Safety Association
Dennis Shantz, Home Hardware Stores Ltd.
Michael Thomson, MEE/ISB Canada
Claudio Venditti, Penske Truck Leasing Canada Inc
Andy Walker, Molson Coors
Donald Williams, Aviva Canada

Twenty-eight people had expressed an interest in serving on the board, which can include between 16 and 25 members, said Mike Millian, president.

“These individuals will only help to make our council and industry stronger.”

Source: https://www.trucknews.com/transportation/praxairs-dimech-to-lead-pmtc-board/1003141852/

Trucker hauls message as essential as her freight

Shelley Uvanile-Hesch hopes people will think twice about leaving home during the COVID-19 pandemic after seeing her trailer as she moves vital goods between Canada and the United States.

Nate Tabak, Border and North America Correspondent Sunday, April 12, 2020

Canadian truck driver Shelley Uvanile-Hesch has a message for anyone who thinks social distancing measures shouldn’t apply to them during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s printed on her trailer in giant letters:

“Stay home. Save Lives.”

“There’s a lot of traffic on the road that shouldn’t be on the road,” Uvanile-Hesch told FreightWaves. “What are you people thinking?”

Uvanile-Hesch, a driver for Sharp Transportation Systems, will begin hauling that message across Canada and the United States on Tuesday. The 53-foot trailer wrap will be hard to miss: Apart from the message, it features photos of medical personnel wearing face masks and the hashtag “#FlattenTheCurve.”

The idea is simple: Encourage people to embrace social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19.

It also marks Uvanile-Hesch’s return to long-haul trucking after her husband and driving partner, Chris Hesch, died in a workplace accident in August. The pandemic and the need for trucks to keep moving essential freight made her decide it was time to get back on the road.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on the road,” Uvanile-Hesch told FreightWaves. “Everyone is trying to do their part. This is my part.”

Uvanile-Hesch drives her tractor-trailer in Ontario, Canada. (Image: Kimberly Biback/Sharp Transportation)

That extends to the freight, too. Uvanile-Hesch’s first load is hand sanitizer from Ontario to British Columbia. From there, she expects to take another load into the U.S before securing a backhaul to Canada as part of the cross-border movement of essential goods.

“We were looking for ways to give back. What better way than a moving, 53-foot billboard?”
— Angela Baltkois, CEO of Big Rig Wraps

An organization Uvanile-Hesch founded and leads, the Women’s Trucking Federation of Canada, sponsored the advertising wrap with Armour Insurance. The ad itself came from a Canadian executive facing a severe disruption because of COVID-19.

“We were looking for ways to give back. What better way than a moving, 53-foot billboard?” said Angela Baltkois, CEO of Big Rig Wraps, a company that places advertising on commercial vehicles.

Sharp donated three trailers for the “Stay Home” message. Baltkois hopes other fleets in Canada and the U.S. join the campaign.

Beyond the public health message, Baltkois said she wanted to show the key role trucking plays.

“I wanted to help elevate the trucking industry,” Baltkois said. “It wasn’t for truckers, front-line health workers wouldn’t get supplies.”

Uvanile-Hesch also plans to use the trip to showcase some of the conditions truck drivers face during the pandemic, including closed or dirty bathroom facilities and few places to eat.

“Hopefully this will bring attention to the plight of drivers on the road so that something changes,” Uvanile-Hesch said.

How you can help: Big Rig Wraps is seeking sponsors for the “Stay Home. Save Lives” wraps, and U.S. and Canadian fleets willing to place them on trailers. For more information, contact Angela Baltkois at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Source:

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/trucker-hauls-message-as-essential-as-her-freight

‘People die’ if US-Canada medical trade stops, pharma hauler says

Sharp Transportation Systems keeps Americans and Canadians supplied with essential medicines and vaccines as tensions mount over cross-border medical supply chains.

Nate Tabak, Border and North America Correspondent Monday, April 6, 2020

A tractor-trailer of Sharp Transportation Systems — Sharp Transportation Systems specializes in transporting pharmaceutical products between the Canada and the United States. (Image: Brian Steckley/Sharp Transportation Systems)

Shawn Baird’s trucks move essential medications, vaccines and the raw ingredients to make them between Canada and the U.S. every day. He painted a stark picture of the consequences if the cross-border medical trade breaks down.

“People die. That’s what would happen. It can’t happen,” said Baird, the president of Ontario-based Sharp Transportation Systems, which specializes in hauling pharmaceutical products.

Whether medical products will continue to flow freely during the COVID-19 pandemic came into question last week after the Trump administration pressed 3M to stop exporting its N95 respirator masks to Canada and other countries as U.S. medical personnel and hospitals face shortages.

While Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would not take any retaliatory measures if the U.S. cuts exports of N95 masks, he noted that “the U.S. will be hurting itself as much as Canada will be hurting if we see an interruption of essential goods and services flow back and forth across the border.”

Carrier moves four truckloads of insulin to US each day

A Sharp truck in New York. (Image: Jeff Betts/Sharp Transportation Systems)

Sharp Transportation sends 10 trucks to the U.S. on a typical day. Four of those trucks deliver insulin to a distributor in Indiana, while the others haul essential medications ranging from penicillin to human growth hormone in addition to a number of vaccines.

“These are lifesaving medications,” Baird said

Sharp’s trucks haul a different mix back to Canada. The raw materials used to make medications — drug precursors and pharmaceutical-grade water — represent a large portion of the backhaul in addition to medications needed in Canada, such as chemotherapy drugs and birth control.

Baird is not that worried that the tensions over N95 masks mark the beginning of the breakdown of the cross-border medical trade.

“It’s just completely illogical for both sides,” Baird said.

Cross-border pharma trade a $10 billion industry

Pharmaceutical trade between the U.S. and Canada totaled more than US$10 billion in 2019, according to Statistics Canada. Canada also exported $1.9 billion more in pharmaceuticals to the U.S. than it imported.

Baird expects that demand for pharmaceuticals will ramp up as treatments become available for COVID-19. He also has the option to buy 10 new trailers to handle the additional freight.

Meanwhile, Baird has started taking on bonuses for his drivers who go to the U.S., depending on the length of the trip.

“These drivers have really stepped up,” Baird said.

Nate Tabak, Border and North America Correspondent

Nate Tabak is a Toronto-based journalist who covers Canada for FreightWaves. He spent seven years as an investigative reporter, producer and editor based in Kosovo. He previously worked at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News. He graduated from UC Berkeley. Contact Nate at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Article Source:

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/people-die-if-us-canada-medical-trade-stops-pharma-hauler-says