Ahead by a century
Drivers’ collective road safety record reaches 100 years
For East-West Express drivers Gordon Jones and Harold Westendorp, it’s the draw of the open road that has kept them behind the wheels for a collective century.
But let’s rewind a bit.
Some years back the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) had a Safe Driving Award program in which drivers would receive a pin for every year of safe driving without a preventable accident. As more and more carriers adopted similar programs, the AMTA program came to a close. Except the tenacious Jones, who goes by the name “Gordie” continues to send the association his yearly application, and stops by to share stories with staff and inquire about remaining pins. This year Jones is celebrating 40 years of safe driving in industry, and he brought Westendorp along to celebrate 60 years of safe driving.
Jones grew up on the East Coast in Nova Scotia but has called Alberta home for the last 42 years.
“I started with heavy equipment, and I found in the wintertime [I] would get cold, [I thought] if I’m going to stick with this, I’m going to do it in a truck,” he said.
For the last eight years Jones has been driving a Calgary/Vancouver route for East-West Express, and for 17 years before that was with Robyn’s Transportation and Distribution Services Ltd.
Westendorp got his first taste of driving when a friend in Forest Lawn talked him into getting behind the wheel of a school bus so the friend could nap in the back.
“Harold has been a part of our trucking family for the past 45 years, both as a company driver, and also a lease operator,” wrote East-West Operations Manager Tim deWaal. “My father, Sandy de Waal and Harold have known one another for over 62 years. Harold was a teenager working at the truck wash in Calgary, and dad was a lease operator with Midland Superior when they first met.”
Things have changed a little since those days and Westendorp spoke to the advancements in commercial industry today.
“Rules and regulations are stricter,” he said. “We’ve got better equipment now; more updated equipment and you’ve got to be on your toes all the time out there because traffic is getting heavier and heavier.”
Westendorp’s usual route is Calgary/Winnipeg but he also travels to Vancouver now and then. Both he and Jones stressed the importance of pre- and post-trip inspections on their routes.
Statistics released by Trucking HR Canada show 32 per cent of drivers in the country are 55-years or older. For drivers like Jones and Westendorp, they fall in with the six per cent of Canadian drivers aged 65 or older. For drivers of advancing ages, it’s important the knowledge they hold for industry is shared with new and incoming trainees.
“It’s basically priceless because the knowledge they have, the history they have, they can relate that to the younger people coming onboard,” said East-West Safety Director Dick Heikoop. “So knowledgeable and beneficial to the younger drivers…”
L-R: AMTA Executive Director Kimberley Burfoot, East-West Express driver Harold Westendorp, East-West Express driver Gordie Jones and East-West Express Safety Director Dick Heikoop.
In a recent blog from Trucking HR Canada CEO Angela Splinter, she wrote: “…the total number of truck driver vacancies in Canada has increased from an annual average of 8,600 in 2016 to 20,500 in the first three quarters of last year.”
For Westendorp, the answer to the question of driver shortages is a simple one: “We would like to see truck [driving] become a trade,” he said. “If we could ever reach that goal it would give young people something to step into.”
In the meantime, drivers like Westendorp and Jones will continue to share their knowledge and advice.
“Get an older driver that’s been up and down the roads for years,” Westendorp said. “Get him to take you out on a couple student trips so you can get the feel of it, and the act of it and everything, your safety and all that stuff.”