00:04:36.120Yeah, the idea that Alberta wanted to lead on having a pre-trip inspection hub, essentially.
00:04:42.240So using technology to help truckers traveling across the country to be able to access not just permits on time, but also know the route that much better.
00:04:51.300Because in Alberta and other provinces, there's been an increasing amount of bridge strikes that we're seeing oversized trucks hitting bridges.
00:05:00.080And we're hoping that this hub will go a long way in helping pre-plan these routes, as well as just speed up the permit approvals for the industry so that governments can actually work at the speed of business.
00:05:10.760I mean, is there much appetite from other province provincial premiers and their staffs to collaborate extensively on this project of yours?
00:05:21.300Yeah, we found out in a lot of other ways that if Alberta can take the lead that other provinces do follow. So whether that's through this hub, through our Red Seal certification work that we've been working on for the last couple of years, it actually needs five other provinces to sign on to actually make trucking like a Red Seal certified industry is something that we're continuing to work on.
00:05:45.840So I think there is an interest and appetite for other provinces to follow Alberta's lead, just to make sure trucking is more of a regulated profession and has that high level of professionalism to attract more people into the industry, as well as just increase trucker safety across the entire country.
00:07:02.460And obviously, through transportation, we've created the need and the design for it.
00:07:07.400But now it's going into the advanced education world, which through education, through other provinces, does take some time.
00:07:14.680But we're hoping to get this signed off as quickly as possible so that we can have that higher degree of professionalism in the trucking industry.
00:07:22.140So not begrudging any provinces, but we're still advocating to have them sign up.
00:07:27.520Will this ultimately lead to lower prices in the grocery stores?
00:07:31.980because that's what people are really interested in.
00:07:59.340So obviously, trucking goes a lot into the cost of everyday goods that we enjoy every day.
00:08:06.160So to have that 8% reduction in the cost of transportation and trucking, I think we'll go a long way of having more affordable products on store shelves across the country.
00:08:17.060So this is something on the portal side that we think will go a long way of helping address that food inflation and just inflationary prices that we're seeing in everyday goods.
00:08:26.720So I think it will go a long way in helping.
00:08:47.520Obviously, trucking is a competitive market.
00:08:50.000There's lots of different trucking companies in Alberta and around the country.
00:08:53.280So when you have any cost savings that trucking companies can find to be able to be that much more competitive in whatever market they're serving, that cost obviously can get passed down to consumers, to us.
00:09:06.800And I think that obviously will go a long way in helping as much as governments can to reduce cost of inflation for sure.
00:09:15.360Especially at a time of high diesel costs and fuel costs in general.
00:09:19.900And if you're looking at food inflation of, I believe, 7.3% in Canada,
00:09:24.320last time I checked, highest in the G7,
00:09:27.180you would think that the other provinces will be jumping at any opportunity
00:09:43.080Just talking about the price of diesel, when I put my farmer hat on, it is pretty tough. We have a whole bunch of diesel tanks that have the old price of diesel in it, which is almost half price compared to refilling it up in the springtime.
00:09:56.200So as farmers, obviously, you can't pass on those cost savings because you're obviously a price taker with your commodity.
00:10:02.760But in the trucking industry itself, there is a lot of opportunities to be able to pass those costs that benefit if you can actually have any efficiencies that are gained to the consumer.
00:10:13.180But those increased diesel prices do hurt the bottom line for a lot of industries.
00:10:19.280Do your counterparts in the other provinces know that there could be an 8% savings?
00:10:26.200in the transport area for delivering products to grocery stores and that that might translate into
00:10:33.200lower prices for consumers are they aware of that yeah well we're obviously pushing that uh and the
00:10:39.600more provinces that can can use our hub style system to be able to reduce um permit costs and
00:10:46.340to be able to increase uh competitiveness in the trucking industry i think there'll be a lot of
00:10:51.100provinces that will will see the benefit of this and and will hopefully join alberta i mean there
00:10:55.780all sorts of talk, you know, after the tariffs were introduced of eliminating interprovincial
00:11:03.060trade barriers and something like this, I would think would be enormously helpful in that regard.
00:11:09.140And so the fact that there's reticence there, I mean, I don't want to harp on it too much, but it's
00:11:13.460just suggests to me that maybe some of the other leaders and provinces are not as serious about
00:11:20.100eliminating those trade barriers as we once thought yeah well we we obviously took that
00:11:26.260took that seriously and i think as as a conservative government in alberta whenever you can find some
00:11:30.660some red tape reduction to help help industry be able to compete and to to lessen that government
00:11:36.500footprint is is something that's that's really important and i think a big debate that always
00:11:40.980happens when it comes to harmonization of any cross canada um rules is is equivalency as well
00:11:47.700So it's not just you have to have one national standard and everybody has to kind of have water in their wine, but it's it's also equivalency so that even if provinces do have different rules or regulations that you can at least say that, well, at least it's it is a Canadian or it's a North American standard.
00:12:03.320And and let's at least accept that as well. So that through technology cuts a lot of that red tape to be able to have equivalency.
00:12:10.740But yeah, when it comes to interprovincial trade barriers, Alberta has been, in the last couple of years, really leading the charge to reduce that red tape for businesses.
00:12:21.360Well, it's a shame that the others are not also leading the charge, it seems.
00:12:26.760What about the feds? I mean, they could play a role here.
00:12:29.800It's not their jurisdiction, but couldn't they be helpful in terms of making this a national initiative?
00:12:37.120they could and uh and minister mckinnon uh we we've we've had some some initial talks um and
00:12:45.060that what we're hearing from from just the carny government in general is is positive so we're
00:12:50.140waiting to see some some concrete actions that can follow up but uh but yeah it's i think so far
00:12:56.300so good but i think there's a cautious optimism uh that we that at least i have uh going forward
00:13:02.080to see if the the federal government can can help in this regard what sorts of concrete actions would
00:13:06.740you like to see from the feds well i think that the biggest thing is to to well help with the red
00:13:12.520seal certification to be able to have the federal government uh lean on provinces to say that this
00:13:17.440is something that's going to help out the trucking industry i think that that would go a long way for
00:13:22.300them to be able to advocate for for that work um something that uh i've heard lots in the industry
00:13:28.100about the driver inc issue of there are some some bad actors in the trucking industry that are are
00:13:35.360essentially um going around the employee model by not having to pay for certain benefits as an
00:13:41.780employee but that's if you're a contracted trucker that's obviously it can work and there are good
00:13:48.220actors that are there are standalone independent trucking company so but there there are some of
00:13:53.460those that that abuse that and they obviously cross cross into provincially as well as chameleon
00:13:58.280carriers so you can have one trucking company in a province that gets shut down because they're
00:14:03.840unsafe or they're obviously not a good carrier, but then they can easily jump ship and go to a
00:14:09.480different province and start up with a slightly different name. So that's something that the
00:14:13.740federal government, just with that broader lens, could be helping out provinces to be able to see
00:14:18.780where those chameleon carriers can pop up in other provinces. And just last year in Alberta,
00:14:23.900we actually shut down 13 trucking companies, most of which were shut down in other provinces,
00:14:29.980but we actually had to have audit teams go out and find that they were still bad carriers that
00:14:35.420had to be shut down here in Alberta too. So there is some coordination work that the federal
00:14:40.060government can have that kind of transcends beyond provincial borders. Well, we've heard of the
00:14:46.080nightmares in the United States where states like California have handed out commercial driving
00:14:53.680licenses to people who can't read English, don't understand English, don't understand the rules of
00:14:59.280the road and they get out there and they're a disaster. They've caused the deaths of Americans1.00
00:15:06.420on the roads because of their terrible handling of their rig. I mean, would a Red Seal certification
00:15:14.860prevent that type of abuse at all in Canada or is it something different?
00:15:20.520Well, we think obviously just increasing that professionalism and that extra training for
00:15:24.580red seal certification will go a long way but something that we think just on on your point
00:15:30.740that we're looking at is having a two-year wait so obviously if you come to alberta you have a
00:15:36.820class fives or a regular driving license to at least wait uh two years before you could actually
00:15:42.740apply for a class one trucking license we think that'll go a long way of of having obviously we
00:15:48.100have four very distinct seasons in in alberta so to have two years of driving a regular vehicle
00:15:53.940under your belt before you get behind the wheel of a large semi truck we think that'll go a long way
00:15:58.740of just improving the overall safety especially of of newcomers that are that are entering the
00:16:03.700industry so we think that's something that we're looking at here in alberta and again
00:16:07.700you would be leading the country with that two-year pause let's talk a little bit about federal tax
00:16:12.740changes i i understand that you're not quite extremely well versed in that just yet i hope
00:16:18.340that you get there but there are changes that were brought in in the last budget the 2025 budget
00:16:23.620federally, that are kind of cracking down on quote-unquote driver ink. These are the owner
00:16:29.680operator in trucking that have been doing this for decades, and they've been benefiting it
00:16:36.360through their ability to get write-offs, tax write-offs, through putting various purchases
00:16:46.080and writing them off. The government's cracked down on that, and truckers are telling me,
00:16:52.640frankly, that this is a disaster for them, that it's making operating a rig no longer profitable
00:16:59.100to the point where some of them are leaving. I mean, there's already a 20,000 shortage,
00:17:05.360number shortage, trucker shortage in Canada. They need people on the road. And if the federal
00:17:11.200government is bringing in tax changes that are making it less profitable to be an owner-operator,
00:17:17.200and you're seeing truck drivers leave the industry altogether, then something is wrong here.
00:17:25.200Well, obviously, when the federal government was calling small business owners tax cheats, that obviously wasn't very helpful or looked very kindly on a lot of really great owner-operators, especially in the trucking industry.
00:17:38.080So I think, as I mentioned before, Drivers Inc. can have some bad apples. You can have bad trucking carriers, truck carriers that actually are using, you know, essentially having employees, but contracting them out as individual contractors.
00:17:54.220And that obviously can can have its own problems. But if you are a legitimate good owner operator truck company, you should have all those benefits of a regular small business to be able to write off to to remain competitive and to be able to provide a great service.
00:18:11.120So I think that I'd hate to see the federal government throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to some in the industry that that are actually giving giving the industry a black eye, essentially.
00:18:21.900Well, yeah, I mean, you're punishing an entire industry, the thousands of truckers for the
00:18:30.060actions of a few bad actors, if that's what you're doing. And regardless of what their
00:18:35.940motivation is, I mean, there could be a huge consequence, ultimately, if you're a consumer
00:18:42.260and there aren't enough drivers, you know, moving products, there are strict regulations around how
00:18:47.860many hours you can drive and all this sort of thing and so ultimately it's going to lead to
00:18:52.260higher prices so that's that's what the bad decisions do so i appreciate you addressing
00:18:58.060that for us today thank you devin yeah well appreciate you coming on the show awesome no
00:19:03.340thank you mark really appreciate it oh one last question while i got you on the line how do people
00:19:07.280access your your portal how will be they be able to do that so it'll be a website uh that'll go
00:19:13.160live on on the 22nd and then trucking companies themselves can be able to to go through it and
00:19:18.280then when they put in their actual route it'll streamline on our side even the permit process
00:19:23.900so that they can be able to our our employees our bureaucrats will be able to look at what that
00:19:29.840permit looks like and can be able to fast track it as well so it'll have the weights and dimensions
00:19:35.060of if they have an oversight load that they're going in they can say this is the height of their
00:19:39.660whatever it is that they're hauling. And it can actually indicate instantly the bridges that would
00:19:45.840be problematic so they can reroute it. So it'll be a really interactive website, but it has to
00:19:51.260have that point A to point B kind of mapping tool built into it. Thank you so much for coming on the
00:19:58.820show. Appreciate it. You bet. Thanks, Mark. If you enjoyed this show, consider supporting great
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00:20:15.880Thank you so much. We'll see you next time.