Giving out parking tickets???

So this past week I was getting more and more annoyed with 4-wheelers who parked in and around loading zones which would make it impossible for me to get loaded and unloaded at the shippers .... So I found online a site which you can get funny tickets to use for jokes... The ones I found were very insulting and nasty. I didn't want to be that mean. So I made my own tickets up and had them printed on neon orange paper at the local copy shop.

Friday I used 6 'tickets'. Four at a grocery store downtown Toronto. This store has a very narrow ramp for the trucks to back down to get unloaded. At the street level there is just enough space to back the truck into and open the rear doors before backing down the ramp. The truck and the ramp are very visible to the car passing that area. The problem is that there looks to be enough space for the truck to get out from the vantage place of the 4-wheelers who decide that they can park in the loading zone... marked by paint and sign age on the wall that its a loading zone and they can be ticketed for parking there. Yet people park there. Its not very close to the store entrance.

So of course while I was trying to back off the street and into the Loading Zone. two cars tried to park in the spot where I needed to go. I just pulled the horn and starting to back up. They moved away. once in the dock I walked back up and told two other cars that it was a loading zone and to find parking in back (which is closer to the store than the parking in front) they moved. I had grabbed a bunch of 'tickets' from the truck knowing that I would have to use them when I was trying to leave. After unloaded for all of 10min. I found three new cars parked in the loading zone. I walked up to each and made a show of witting the 'ticket' and then placing it under the wiper. By the third ticket was being issued. A lady with bags of food came running up to me and starting to plead with me about the ticket. She has no clue that its only the city parking authority who can give out tickets. She was freaking about another ticket which she could not afford.

I took pity on her, and told her that it was a joke ticket and that it is how I vent when people block trucks and myself from working.

What a great laugh!

Cell phone band starts monday!

So my company decided that they finally HAD to issue a policy on it.

But here is the kicker.... we have mike phones... which use a push-to-talk feature. Which means that they phone can be held away from the mouth and face... etc. So under the law we are allowed to the use that feature if the phone is attached to the truck or our person. So we can't just hold it while chatting away.

I just hope that people like the person I saw this morning rush are paying attention. Driving in the express lane, while his RIGHT foot on the wheel and his hands, and eyes on his crack berry!

Which reminds me I need to get a new cellphone with a hands free device this weekend.

fall out of no handsfree device?

So yesterday I was working / driving along the 401. I had the radio up and couldn't hear my mike phone beeping and my dispatcher talking to me about a redirection. Turns out that another customer called, and they wanted me to pickup on my way to my other pickup first. Well, I didn't get he page till I arrived at the original location and my dispatch was pissed off. oh well. They are not going to be able to give us a hands free device that can use the mike feature on the phone that work gives us. And we can't be talking on the mike while driving, so I guess that in the end the customer and then our boss will lose business with this law in place.

can't drive and using your cell phone... in ontario!

So if you want to talk while driving... that's fine but you must be using a hands freed device. So why after talking to people for the past few years, does the provincial government decide that they need to take 3 months to educate the driver who are using cell phone or other electronic devices while driving and how its so very dangerous? And why does the government think that a small $500.00 is enough to stop people from putting those stupid things in their hands?

I would much rather have the fine around the $1-2,000 range and with a 2-4 point range depending upon what you were doing while on the phone/electronic device.

I truely belive that the cell phone comanies can really help to get the message across to their users. They do have the technology to track when a cell phone is being used and when it is moving, so why can't they send a message to the user that warns them of how dangerous it is to be using the phone while driving? They could also only enable features like speaker phone, or even bluetooth technology while the phone scenes a movement of more than 15kph. Hey, if the movement is along the road, and Bluetooth is not active, then features like texting, games, etc would be disabled altogether.
Thought the problem is that what if the person is taking transit, or even just the passenger? Then what?

So the simple solution is for people to understand how expensive talking etc on their phone is going to be. Make the fines and point so horrible that they will think twice about using it. Also allow the cops to have access to cell phone records when they stop or deal with an accident. If they show you - the driver were on the cell phone, then you are given x points on your licence regardless...

police on their cell phone

Howdy,

Just wondering if anybody else has seen a cop on their cell phone while driving? I see it far too often on the roads, esp in Toronto, Ontario. I am concerned that their might be a double-standard when it comes to the anti-cell phone laws. I don't understand that with their union that they can't find a way to have a hands-free device mandatory on their cars.

Should I report their usage to the police? Of would cops policing cops be a bad idea?

Please don't bomb my fuel station???!!

So on Monday (sept 13) during work I passed by what looked like a Police action in a strip mall along Markham Rd, North of Finch in Toronto, Ontario. There were a LOT of Toronto Police cars and other trucks. But of course having seen this sort of stuff before and trying to get my load of cargo delivered, I pushed on pass and didn't stop to look around.

Good thing I did keep on moving. Because about ten min later another of my fellow drivers was stopped and redirected away from the Markham rd location where the police suspected a car bomb to be. My friend was diverted during the evacuation order by the police... it took him 1:30 min to get to where I was and had driven in 15min. Talk about good timing on my part.

The van as it turned out was not a bomb, but an attempt at an alternative fuel source... but what the heck, if it was a bomb how much damage would it have done, to the propane storage facility, the fuel station and even the rail station down the way? I was could have been so very close to being part of the news instead of avoiding it.

I just wonder what would have happened to the towing company who moved the van who has lots of parking tickets to that location without even checking to see ... WTF

My cursaid for driver testing...

Not sure if this sits well for you, but in Ontario the G1, G2 and then full G class driver test are provided in 17 different languages. Thinking about our two official languages of French and English would have been assumed to be offered. But why does our government offer more than just the two official ones?

While driving or even operating a car do you not think that being able to read and understand English or French wold be critical to operation of said car? Do you not read traffic signs and street names in English or French. How are you navigating? Most people can't navigate a route to a new place if their life depended upon it... I don't have to site examples of this... Or do I?

I really think that any distraction while you are driving is a very dangerous thing indeed.  People we really need to focus on what is going on around you while you are piloting that car.

This is why I believe that people should be retested every five years to keep their driver's licence. We as professional drivers are tested every five years with a written test. And each time we change companies we are tested on the road. We can be tested by the MTO officer who pulls us over etc.

I know that its too bad that us trucks and you have to share the road, but its the only way for you to get that thing you just went to the mall to get. Hey without trucks you would have to go to the train station to get your food or even that new cell phone you are using.But I am not getting into that.

All drivers should be tested every five years... yes write the test and then drive the test. So much has changed even in two years let along five years. The government needs to keep on educating you the driver on all the new and updated laws and even the traffic signs.

Would you pass the test?