The problem with rail is that the Class 1 railroads are severing small lines that only get a car or two a week. They don't want to pay for a bunch of local jobs to build a small train and take the cars from the yard to these small customers. All they want to do is move 2 mile long trains and service customers right off the mainline that will take 25+ cars at a time. I used to work for a railroad that has been buying some of these up, but they have only so much reach and can't pay what the Class 1s pay so many industries are getting forced into trucks. I work for a Class 1 railroad these days because of the pay so I'm not exactly contributing to fixing this either.
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OVERKILL
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Totally agree, and it sounds like you know more about this than I do, but I know much of the freight infrastructure was ripped up here in Ontario when JIT started to become popular and so warehousing less so. We had an absolutely massive National Grocer warehouse here with a line that served it, Ventra Plastics, and several other industries. JIT made that warehouse obsolete and now the Kenworth dealership operates out of it, with like 90% of the warehouse not in use, because the building is just too bloody big. The old rail line sits there, abandoned, and segments of it have been ripped up and converted to bike and walking trails.
Trucking will continue to win out against rail because its impacts on infrastructure aren't properly accounted for (damage to roads, bridges...etc) and because fuel is still too cheap to make rail the preferred choice. We've been able to import labour to keep those costs down as well.
Interesting post... Transport trucks are generally driven by professional drivers who cannot afford to get a ticket or they may lose their license. Not saying pickups are not work vehicles, but how many people need the pickups they drive? And are they qualified?
Of course the same can be said of many vehicles; are Tesla Model 3 Performance drivers qualified to drive a rocket car? Am I?
It's your money; buy what you want. But it is dangerous out there. Your attachments show that.
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Transport trucks need a CDL, no? In theory they're "trained drivers". [Not sure about reality, my son was telling me about the 18 wheeler that decided to go through the local roundabout--in the wrong direction, and apparently getting stuck while doing so. And apparently not able to speak English?] So they are more dangerous, but licensing structures is supposed to mitigate that risk.
Rail would be interesting to bring back. Not sure about dedicated truck lanes (would that be more or less space than rail?) but trucks can deal with grades that rail can't, and we seem to prefer trucks instead.
If your point is that you don't want to be regulated in a way which increases safety for others by restricting your freedom to choose the size of your vehicle, that's an opinion argument and is fair enough, I suppose.
However, that gets lost when you make statements which are flat-out incorrect. If all else is equal, a heavier vehicle brings more momentum into a crash than a lighter one. At a certain point, too much velocity change over too little time kills. Arguing with that fact makes it hard to take the rest of your position seriously.
OVERKILL
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You need to check out the Swift trucking memes, lol.
I can go to Penskie and rent a large straight-frame with hydraulic brakes right now, no special license required. If I took the air brake course, I could rent an even heavier one. It is not difficult to be able to get behind the wheel of something much, MUCH larger than a pickup.
Let's compare this to airplanes. There are different licenses depending on what you are flying. This means that buddy in his personal Cesna puddle jumper isn't subject to the same restrictions and aptitude testing as the guy flying the 747.
The problem is, we don't have that same range of qualification/testing for transport. It is far easier to get your heavy truck license than it is your jet plane license, and you don't need thousands of hours before you can haul 80,000lbs of cargo.
If you take a look at the qualifications and escalating requirements for training and experience coupled to responsibility in this document:
Pilot-Licensing-in-Canada-2021.pdf (bramptonflightcentre.com)
You can see the relative chasm that exists here.
The problem of course is that transport truck operation is very sensitive to labour costs, and you can't keep those down if you impose these sorts of training and experience requirements.
OVERKILL
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I firmly believe the licensing structure is wholly inadequate, which can be readily observed on any given day just watching some of the drivers. I think it should be more like aircraft regulation, per my reply to Jeff.
Trucks are cheaper. The dedicated truck lanes are more about ensuring passenger traffic safety, not space utilization. If we look at the condition of roads, it's clear that inadequate monies are being collected to maintain this infrastructure.
Part of the problem is if it isn't using existing rail it takes a lot of cost and zoning to add rail to anywhere. The railroads aren't going to pay for something like that unless they're adding a significant amount of traffic. Not only that, but city and county boards make any of those ideas come to absolute gridlock as people fight to not have a railroad come through their community. I've only seen one section of rail in my career be added and it was 10 miles of track to connect one railroad to another and then 2 miles of it was immediately taken out of service and never used. I think it was about $2 million for each mile of track they added. This was for a Class 2 railroad and the job would take 12 or more hours to make this run to service about 5 customers, taking 10-12 cars in each direction. I'm amazed it even happened.
Railroads are also slow to give up rail they abandon. They usually just hold it but don't use it just in case it would be put back in service they already hold the land. If you have any walking trails in your area that used to be rail beds assuming Canada works in a similar fashion as the US, those were officially labeled as "abandoned". I think there may be a tax incentive to giving up rail to become a walking path.
4WD
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Our Mayor worked hard and tossed in our money to help bring rail back - but part of the deal was a switching yard with trucking terminals - Jobs and tax base … Never happened - That was a long time ago and thought about it waiting on a train last night …
Hope it’s in an EIA phase or something - silent for now …
But that's my argument. You posted transport trucks which I believe are a different game than pickups. Aircraft is on yet another level. And there's a difference between a Cessna and a helicopter...
Regarding the Penske large truck, my BIL and I rented the biggest one and moved my niece from Arlington to San Diego. Mark was raised driving commercial trucks; he handled it like a dang Civic. On the other hand, I had no business getting behind the wheel.
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That's the opposite of here. Any yard that isn't completely isolated from a city causes voters to rally against removing it. They have whole Facebook pages to complain about it and the police on there are going blue in the face trying to explain why trains are needed and we're following the law.
4WD
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They acquired acreage on the edge of town - wonder if there is still not some legal back n forth to avoid annexation - next town over (also small) moved the city limits (by allot) in an obvious move to suck in businesses that built out there on the freeway …
Think it will fly eventually bcs we’d better tie Mexico to Houston, Dallas, and Louisiana’s industrial complex … KC & SL of course …
Intermodal is a game changer …
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Yes, it’s KCS …
Interesting mix of freight, livestock, and tanker cars …
Personal choice is all well and good, but we don't drive on personal roads. We all share the same road infrastructure and that should serve to place some limits on personal choice for the good of all road users.
In the absence of any limits on personal choice in personally owned road vehicles we have observed an arms race in which many drivers feel compelled to purchase much larger and heavier vehicles than they otherwise might.
The laws of physics are immutable and the outcome of any accident, even one involving two of these oversized and overweight vehicles will reflect that.
Let's not even bring in the facts of poorer braking and handling as they impact road safety.
Sorry, but I don't think anyone needs a pickup hauling a bed full of air for their daily commute.
But I need to haul?
Me too, and for those few times a year events, U-Haul will rent me a pickup for $19.95 for as many hours out of a day as I need to use it. I can't see many people wanting to put mulch or outsized scrap in the pristine bed of their personal truck anyway and you'd have to remove the tonneau cover to haul anything which just seems like too much trouble.
They also make these things called "trailers" and you can haul just about anything within reason locally behind any sedan using one of them.
In the absence of any limits on personal choice in personally owned road vehicles we have observed an arms race in which many drivers feel compelled to purchase much larger and heavier vehicles than they otherwise might.
The laws of physics are immutable and the outcome of any accident, even one involving two of these oversized and overweight vehicles will reflect that.
Let's not even bring in the facts of poorer braking and handling as they impact road safety.
Sorry, but I don't think anyone needs a pickup hauling a bed full of air for their daily commute.
But I need to haul?
Me too, and for those few times a year events, U-Haul will rent me a pickup for $19.95 for as many hours out of a day as I need to use it. I can't see many people wanting to put mulch or outsized scrap in the pristine bed of their personal truck anyway and you'd have to remove the tonneau cover to haul anything which just seems like too much trouble.
They also make these things called "trailers" and you can haul just about anything within reason locally behind any sedan using one of them.
OVERKILL
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But should aircraft be on that much of a different level? That's my point here, the licensing system is inadequate, but it is maintained at this level because the industry's current setup could not absorb the cost of making it sufficiently rigorous and the loss of human capital, in the form of drivers that don't make the cut, would be massive. This is all a result of JIT and the razor thin margins and competition born from this, which resulted in the pursuit of the cheapest possible labour, which often ends up being families living in the bloody trucks. Properly regulated, trucking wouldn't exist as it does, it would be regional, with better pay and better operators, while major backhauls would revert to rail, which has to maintain its own infrastructure and is considerably safer for road-going traffic.
I posted transport trucks, but the same argument applies to straight trucks, which I also noted, which are just slightly smaller and with the trailer as part of the chassis and as you say here:
You could have gotten behind the wheel of, despite feeling you aren't qualified to be doing so.
Just like there's a difference between a Cessna and a helicopter, there's a difference between a pick-up and a Hino, and a Hino and straight frame, and between a straight frame and a day cab hauling hay and a day cab hauling hay and a full loaded sleeper hauling scrap steel. But even if you get into the licensing for B-trains, despite the considerable increase in liability, there is not the commensurate increase in licensing requirements and accompanied hours like there is with the different tiers of aviation licenses.
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We’re going to be the minorities on this one. It doesn’t matter how much absolute sense it makes. Some people’s freedoms to drive outlandish vehicles will trump our right to not die getting hit by them.
I see your point, but disagree. It's your money so it's your choice.
I honestly didn’t think you’d be one to disagree with that. I’m all for personal choice but these oversized illegally modded vehicles that share the same roads as me will encroach on my freedom when it hits me.
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