They have been doing them a fair bit here in Ontario too, and I've chatted to the guy in charge of them a few times and he is amazed at what they find sometimes. In his words "absolute deathtraps" are trucking along our roads, and this guy is a long-serving officer who has "been there, seen it, done it"!
A local truck workshop backed up something which the officer told me. They say that before they work on any truck, they take a peek inside the cab. If they see a hole cut in the floor, then they refuse to work on it.
Let me explain that further. Around the Toronto area, a lot of the truck training schools and large trucking companies are now owned and operated by immigrants. These people bring over poor immigrants, put them through their driver training schools, then set them to work for very low pay with one of their trucking companies. Often you will find two or three drivers running a long distance route, and they use the hole in the floor for bathroom breaks!!!! rather than stop.
It is this type of stuff which is killing the trucking industry and making it harder and harder for a independent trucker to compete and make a living. Obviously, any decent mechanic is not going to work on a truck like that, so who do you think repairs these trucks. And if a company can condone this type of practice, what do you think they are like when it comes to truck maintenance!!!
Something really needs to be done about this, and quick!!!
By the way, I'm not a trucker, I just don't like to see the good drivers out there have to put up with this kind of competition, and I certainly don't like to see the rise in trucking accidents that we have been witnessing lately.
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Truck inspections
10-13-2000, 04:09 PM
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