Dealing with the cell phone ban is easy...

So recently the new ban has actually been a mixed blessing. With no blue-tooth I don't have to answer the phone while driving... I can even mute the phone and only check it when I am waiting at a loading dock etc. Also its nice not to have the expectation that I must answer the phone ASAP... and while I even got a new phone which can have blue tooth, I am not going to buy one. I like that I can't answer the phone while behind the wheel.

Are you a supporter of the Afghan's

True story:
A cross-border Canadian driver approached the border crossing @ Lewiston USA. He was wearing a red poppy (the kind that the Royal Legion sells every year) on his sweater. When his turn came to speak with the USA customs officer the much younger(age) officer asked him if he was supporting the Afghan's. The driver politely asked what the officer was talking about.

The office became very insistent on having an answer from the driver. "You are wearing a poppy. Are you not? Poppies are a major drug export of that nation and you are wearing one." replied the officer. Now the driver was is a retired Canadian Armed forces member and took great offence to the line of questions and the tone of the officer.

The driver expressed that he was deeply offended by the officers remarks and question. The Driver through the use of  some choice words towards the younger officer expressed his rage at the officers disrespect towards all those whose memory the driver and both our nations were were trying to protect and remember each time this year. The driver was not afraid of the officer and his gun. He was enraged by the younger officers disrespect for the poppy and what it means when worn.

What the driver and customs' officer did not know, was the the customs supervisor was listening to the entire conversation from the office and came out to address the problem. It did not help that the conversation was being over head across the parking lot at this point.

Finally the driver decided that enough was enough and was just about to ask to speak with the supervisor, when he appeared. The supervisor interrupted the heated argument and thanked the driver for taking the time to explain why he wore the poppy and wished him a good day. The supervisor then turned to the young officer and began to berate the young officer very loudly.

The driver left the station and would not easily forget the encounter.

So how do you remember?? Are you ready to defend yourself?

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?