BIG RIGS TAKING OVER OUR HIGHWAYS

Why so many trucks on the highway?  Trucking is big business and an even bigger source of air pollution. The tractor-trailers we share our roadways with have become a menace and a hazard in more ways than one.  These big rigs use diesel,  and diesel emits dioxins into the atmosphere, tons and tons of it!  Why are we as commuters and occasional drivers subject to emissions testing and the trucking industry is given free rein? 

  Truck stops are full of idling tractor-trailors which sit for hours! Why are they allowed to do so?  Why is there an anti-idling law in cities,  fining citizens if they are caught idling their vehicles’ engine for more than 5 minutes?  There seems to be a double standard at work and the government knows it. 

 The trucking industry is in dire need of regulations regarding emissions, especially since the government needs take action regarding climate change and air pollution.  Since the Conservative Government of Canada  is responsible for the dismantling of the Trans Canada  Railway system only because they felt it was costing them too much;  the trucking industry has taken over the transportation of goods in Canada.  The lame reason for this madness?  Consumers want their products now! not tomorrow and rail would be too slow.   Well, that is nonsense! but the trucking industry seems to have everyone believing this is true.  We need to change the way we buy and sell produce and goods in Canada.  We are a large country and rail has always been our link across this continent.  Canadians need to start thinking smaller more local,  the closer we grow our produce to home the less energy we waste transporting it.  This would also increase local jobs and maintain our agricultural industry while offsetting carbon and dioxin emissions due to all that trucking! 

 We seriously need to stop the trucking industry from further expansion!  There are no laws put in place to regulate who can teach a person to drive tractor-trailer.  Anyone can open up a business and teach, and this is what is happening in Canada.  In the past 10 years accidents involving truck drivers increased;  and many trucks have been pulled off the road for safety violations.  The drivers are responsible for daily maintenance checks during a long haul, those drivers not taught by a certified school will not know this.  When the first fatality due to a loose wheel coming off a tractor-trailer and bouncing down the highway, through a windshield killing the innocent driver;  we should have made the government implement strict regulations regarding who can teach a person to drive tractor-trailer. 

 Trucking is an industry we cannot due without,  but,  we must not rely on it so heavily.  We need to start manufacturing/growing our goods thereby reducing the need for so many long haul operators. Put our railroads back to work for us and making our highways a safer place to drive.   Think about it,  and it  makes sense.  Why should we buy garlic from China, ship it buy sea or air, and then truck it all over the countryside?  Its stupid!! We can grown our own garlic! We can sustain ourselves and stop letting big business get bigger while we become consumers of everything and… Growers and Manufacturer’s of  NOTHING!