by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | May 12, 2017 | Career Board
DeckX Transport is proud to announce that we have recently implemented a New Driver Trainee Program for newly licensed drivers and a Flat Deck Training Program for seasoned Drivers, with no previous Flat Deck experience. The program is in its infancy and is currently limited to training one applicant at a time, out of our head office based in Winnipeg, MB. Since we implemented the program, we have successfully trained two new drivers and we are welcoming a third driver trainee onto our team late May, 2017.
Will Wuss Trainee
The New Driver Training Program has been developed to provide novice drivers with an additional 6-8 weeks, on-the-road training, with a DeckX Trainer, in order to enhance their driving skills. This training will include additional instruction in the use of tarps, straps and chains with which to provide the knowledge and skills required, so as to successfully operate flat decks. New drivers will continue with their skills development once they have successfully completed the 6-8 week program and have been promoted from a Driver Trainee and have been dispatched on their 1st independent load.
the forks day
The Flat Deck Training requirement, for highly skilled and experienced drivers, is designed to teach the knowledge and skills needed, to secure loads using tarps, straps, and chains. Drivers will again continue their skills development once having been dispatched on their 1st independent load.
Our vision is to develop this program and expand it to our satellite locations based out of Aberfoyle, ON and Edmonton, AB.
For more information please contact Suzanne Rhodes at DeckX.
careers@deckx.com
1.877.558.9444
DeckX Transport
2595 Inkster Blvd.
Winnipeg, MB
R3C 2E6
www.drivetransx.com
by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | May 7, 2017 | BLOG
Meet Veronica Burgess 21 years old
I got started in high school. Was with a guy who’s family has a gravel truck company in the town of Russell, Ont. We ran old Macks, my first truck was an 1985 R model Mack Tri-axle dump truck. We did everything, hauled fertilizer, snow, aggregates all over the Ottawa and the capital region. Just last year I was offered a job all on my own driving my present truck 02 Volvo twin steer, 13 speed.
Mostly I haul Asphalt now, paving roads, parking lots and driveways. Just recently I’ve been hauling the tag-along float, chaining and moving our paver and skid-steer to all of our job sites !
I challenge you other Aggregate Haulers to post your picture and tell us how you got started – Veronica
by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | May 7, 2017 | BLOG
My name is Jodie Schriver & I live in New Brunswick Canada…this is a pic in April 2009…my 1st trip alone…I prefer flatbed so I had to teach myself everything even how to drive it as I couldn’t afford to go to trucking school or find a driver to train me where I was a “girl” & girls didn’t haul flatbed in our little town & I heard that girls couldn’t tarp & neither could I so after lots of frustration, a willing to learn & determination…I did it ????
I’m 7 yrs accident & insident free with defensive driving , clean record & the only solo female flatbedder on the east coast who drives a pink & black Pete for the breast cancer convoy
by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | Mar 30, 2017 | BLOG
CAMBRIDGE, Ont. – (March 1, 2017) – Shelley Uvanile-Hesch wants to see more women working in the trucking industry, but she knows it won’t happen without those who are already there lending a hand.
That’s why in 2014 she founded the Women’s Trucking Federation of Canada, which recruits and mentors women in a profession that is overwhelmingly male. The group estimates that only 3 percent of Canadian truck drivers are women.
The federation has about 50 members, including men, and a handful of corporate sponsors, including the Highway Western Star dealership in Ontario. The group includes professionals who hold non-driving jobs in the trucking industry, such as dispatchers, managers and parts technicians.
“We really want to encourage more women into the industry. It’s a good job and there is a definite need for more truckers,” she said. “It’s a man’s world, but it’s coming around.”
Uvanile-Hesch worked her way up to the cab of a big truck without the benefit of an organization like Women’s Trucking Federation. The daughter of a truck driver, she knew from a young age she wanted to drive as well: “I always had the bug, but I wanted to be home with my kids.”
She compensated by driving a school bus; once her children were grown, she graduated to a motor coach, then a straight truck, and has been driving a Class 8 truck for 17 years. For the past 13 years, she’s driven for Sharp Transportation, a pharmaceuticals carrier based in Cambridge, Ont., that serves Canada and most of the United States. Her regular runs include Georgia, Florida, Texas and California.
As a senior driver at Sharp, Uvanile-Hesch drives a 2016 Western Star 5700XE she’s named “Destiny Star.”
“I love it. There is so much room and it’s a smooth ride,” she said. “I’m only 4’ 11”, but I can see over the hood and I can actually see out of the hood mirrors into my blind spots.”
A solo driver for a long time, she now teams with her husband, Chris, who earned his CDL so he could join her on the road.
“There is a lot of interior room for a team. I really like the bigger refrigerator and its location. It’s literally a home away from home,” she said.
She also praised Detroit™ Virtual Technician™, which comes standard on the 5700XE. The integrated remote diagnostic system records critical vehicle performance data immediately before, during and after a fault occurs. Within minutes, Virtual Technician gives drivers and fleets a preliminary diagnosis, recommendations and, if needed, directions to nearby service locations with the available parts.
“I highly recommend Virtual Technician,” she said. “It’s nice to know exactly what the codes mean, if I need to park immediately, need a tow truck or if it’s safe to get to a dealership.”
She also likes the attention the Western Star attracts: “It doesn’t matter where we go, people are always taking pictures of my ride and asking questions about her, even when I’m fueling. Quite often, I pop the hood so they can look at the engine.”
She’s put 191,000 miles on “Destiny Star” in her first year, and she appreciates it more than ever.
“It’s my first Western Star, but I wouldn’t want to drive anything else,” she said.
When her husband is behind the wheel, Uvanile-Hesch stays busy with the Women’s Trucking Federation, which is active on a number of fronts, from mentoring women in driving school and hosting career events at high schools to giving interviews to polish the public image of truckers. The federation also is involved in a number of charitable causes and appears at industry events to gain visibility and recruit women drivers.
Women truckers can do a lot to encourage newer drivers by mentoring them and becoming fleet and school trainers, she said: “They’ll get a wealth of knowledge from all angles.”
Contact: Nicholas.Smith@Daimler.com
Western Star Trucks Sales, Inc., headquartered in Portland, Ore., produces tough custom trucks for highway and vocational applications. Western Star is a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America LLC. Daimler Trucks North America produces and markets Class 5-8 vehicles and is a Daimler company, the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer.
