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Ferocious competition in Canada
Page 30
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• Intense competition and high labour rates within the Canadian trucking industry may drive some professional hauliers out of business, according to a leading Toronto transport manager. Speaking to the Canadian Progress Club recently, Mr Harold Whiting, central division manager for Kingsway Transports Ltd, of Toronto, said that unlike most industries, entry into the trucking business required only a relatively small capital investment in rolling stock. Hence, competition within the industry had become in the past 10 years, "literally ferocious".
"For-hire" carriers, required under the terms of their public commercial vehicle licences to accept all freight, were suffering because of the proliferation of specialized carriers, freight forwarders, and rail express operations, said Mr Whiting. These operators could enjoy the benefit of lower costs because of lower wage scales, less overheads and better rated traffics; they were not obliged to provide service to everyone, as for-hire carriers were.
Appealing for restraint by trade unions in their wage demands, Mr Whiting said that carriers bound by collective agreements with the Teamsters union last year spent more than 50 per cent of their revenue for wages and salaries, with annual wage increases between 1968 and 1971 averaging 10.1 per cent.
Pay talks between Ontario long-haul truckers and representatives of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters began last March and have yet to be finalized. The current agreement expires on September 30. Informed circles believe that the Canadian drivers will seek parity with drivers in the northern United States, who are paid almost $ 2 an hour over the $3.80 base rate of Ontario drivers. The last negotiated wage settlement for long haul truckers provided for a 41 per cent increase over three years from 1968. The base rate in that year was $2.70 but this applied only to carriers moving general cargo. Cartransporter drivers last year won a 50 per cent pay increase spread over three years.