Television shows like Ice Road Truckers and Highway Thru Hell have acquainted people with the job of big-rig truck driver.
That’s good, said 40-year truck driving veteran Lane Jacobson.
However, they don’t accurately portray the professionalism and usual practice of most Canadian truck drivers, he added.
“It’s a TV show and they need to get the ratings up, so yes, they’re going to show the worst part,” Jacobson said about the show depicting winter driving over B.C.’s Coquihalla Pass.
“It’s not everybody who goes out there and wrecks trucks. It does happen. It’s part of the trade, but that’s where we need good, qualified drivers who realize, when the highways are like that, its time to park the trucks. That’s why they have a sleeper.”
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Jacobson is president of the Alberta Truck Exposition Association, a group of trucking industry people focused on attracting more people to the job.
He and others say there is a looming shortage of truck drivers that could jeopardize the transport industry’s ability to move goods to customers.
The association is planning a truck expo in Lethbridge July 18, where the public can learn more about the industry and the job of truck driving, use a truck simulator and examine some of the equipment involved.
Among those who plan to attend is Gordon Cooper, a long-time truck driver and owner of Smoking Gun Racing. Cooper holds the quarter-mile speed record for a 10,000-pound diesel truck: 11 seconds.
Though he shows the specialized side of trucking, Cooper is dismissive of television shows that he said give a false impression of the business in general.
“They are horrible examples of people able to drive a truck,” he said at a March 17 meeting.
“I wouldn’t work with any one of those guys.”
Trevor Currie, owner of Gateway Carriers, said the attention brought to trucking through television shows is good in a way, but drivers tend to be more professional than what is shown.
However, the current shortage of drivers is his main worry.
“It’s a crisis waiting to happen,” he said.
“Everything comes and goes on a truck. The car you drive comes on a truck. The road you’re driving on, the house you live in. As our infrastructure gets tighter and tighter for drivers, there’s going to be less ability to move the goods that need to move. And I haul food.”
Contact barb.glen@producer.com
