John G Smith

John G. Smith is the editorial director of Newcom Media's trucking and supply chain publications -- including Today's Trucking, trucknews.com, TruckTech, Transport Routier, and Road Today. The award-winning journalist has covered the trucking industry since 1995.

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For-hire fleets hauled 745.5 million tonnes in 2014

Canada's for-hire trucking operations hauled 745.5 million tonnes of freight in 2014, up 7.9% over 2013, Statistics Canada reported today. The related revenue was up 14.8%, reaching 14 cents per tonne-kilometre, while domestic freight generated 16 cents per tonne-kilometre. Most of the weight (86.2%) involved domestic shipments, which rose 8.3% in the year. General freight led the way in Ontario and Quebec, while petroleum was the driving force in Alberta. General freight and motor vehicle parts accounted for most of the cross-border shipments by weight.

OBIT: Pat Sheehan, Volvo dealership founder

BURLINGTON, ON - Pat Sheehan, who owned and operated a Volvo truck dealership that bears his family name, has died of cancer. He was 75. Sheehan emigrated to Canada in 1965 and began work as a long-haul truck driver before switching to heavy truck sales. In 1989, he and his wife Gayle opened a used truck lot, and two years later they secured a Volvo franchise. Sheehan's Truck Centre moved to Harvester Road in Burlington, ON in 1996. The funeral will be held in the community's St. Gabriel's Church on March 17 -- St. Patrick's Day. The family patriarch retired in 1999, when control of the business shifted to their daughter, Kelly, and son, Dennis.

Summit focuses on “women with drive”

TORONTO, ON - Barely 3% of Canada's truck drivers and techs are women, but that is something the organizers of Trucking HR Canada's second annual Women with Drive summit hope to change. More than 180 industry representatives packed into a Mississauga, Ontario hotel on March 3, discussing ways to recruit, train and retain more women in a traditionally male-dominated field. "It isn't very often in our industry that we have this many women together in one room," said Angela Splinter, CEO of Trucking HR Canada. "Our goal is to keep that conversation going." There were plenty of conversations to be had.