Truckers roll into town
GILEAN WATTS, TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF Published Saturday June 13th, 2009
Environment, technology hot topics at weekend's Atlantic Truck Show
Nearly 300 companies wheeled into Moncton for the bi-annual Atlantic Truck Show, held at the Coliseum yesterday and today.
 VIKTOR PIVOVAROV/TIMES & TRANSCR Darrell Nelson and his grandson Ethan MacKenzie check out the trucks in the Moncton Coliseum parking lot yesterday in the rain as they take in the Atlantic Truck Show |
The two-day event brought trucking companies from across Atlantic Canada and the country together to share new ideas and technologies in the industry. The environment was a hot topic at the show, with many companies promoting environmentally friendly products. "It's starting to gain popularity," said Brandon Harvey, a presenter from Eastern Greenway Oils. "It's a little slow here in the Maritimes because there's not any real mandate from the government to use (environmentally-friendly products)." Transportation is responsible for a quarter of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, and freight transporters comprise almost half of that total. With climate change becoming more and more problematic, many companies are choosing to market biodiesel fuel and lighter products that don't weigh trucks down, thus using less gas. |
"I don't think we'll ever get rid of the regular petro diesel completely," Harvey said, "but if the government stepped in and offered an incentive for people to switch to biodiesel, or something of that nature, people would definitely take a harder look at it."
Other concepts such as purchasing streamlined trucks and adjusting tire pressure according to road conditions were discussed all in the name of reducing fuel emissions within the trucking industry.
The industry showed it's up to date with current technology, with two companies boasting driving simulators used in training truck drivers for adverse driving conditions.
"We use this to do things that we can't do on the road," John Dalton of JVI Provincial Transportation & Safety Academy said of his Transim driving simulator. "We can blow your tires, we can make you lose your brakes, we can put in a big gust of wind and icy roads."
Similar to a flight simulator, the Transim has the driver sit at a wheel and navigate a road on a screen. Dalton said the simulator has proven to be vital to training, as it allows drivers to watch a replay of their driving to see what they did wrong.
"A lot of driver training courses take place in the classroom," he said. "We don't believe in that; we want to get you doing something."
The Insurance Bureau of Canada presented at the show, also bringing along a driving simulator called the DUMB Car 2.0. The DUMB car taught drivers the dangers of driving while distracted and other driving hazards such as identifying when it's too late to go through a yellow traffic light.