Over-capacity blamed for industry's woes.

• Author: Dunning, Paula
• Position: Trucking industry - Transportation Report - Industry Overview

Add the list of woes plaguing truckers across Ontario to the special economic problems facing Sault Ste. Marie, and you have an industry in trouble, say representatives of two trucking firms with head offices in the Sault.

Joe Bickler, manager of Steel City Truck Lines, says his company is running close to capacity, but it is not making the profits it saw a few years ago. He blames the decrease on the deregulation of the industry, the value of the Canadian dollar and direct competition from American transportation companies.

"We were quoting the same rates a few years ago as we are working with today, but then we were getting 25 cents on the American dollar. Now it's down to eleven or twelve," he says.

And although local drivers were not involved in recent border-crossing blockades to protest government policies, they suffer the same ills as their southern Ontario counterparts, according to Bickler.

"There is no protection for the transportation industry the way it is now," he says. "We all have long arms, and we reach into each other's territories."

Too many truckers and not enough goods to ship is how Bill Siddall, terminal manager of Trans-Provincial Freight Carriers, sums up the problem. The result is cut-throat competition to gain market share, and an industry that is feeling the pinch.

The major commodities moving out of the Sault are steel, paper and wood products destined for southern Ontario and the American Midwest. All three industries are in decline, which has an immediate affect on the transportation sector.

There is some debate among the transport companies in the Sault about the role of American competition in the industry's decline.

Siddall says his company, which ships primarily within Ontario, is not affected much by American competition. That is because American trucks which deliver goods into Ontario can return to the States loaded, but once they have discharged their loads they cannot haul to other Canadian destinations.

In addition, Siddall points out that Northern Ontario's unique market depends heavily on big payloads of raw materials - lumber, steel and ores. The multi-axle trailers which carry those loads have been designed specifically for Ontario roads, and few out-of-province companies have equipment as well-suited to the job.

Bickler's situation is different. Steel city, which does ship into the U.S., has faced growing competition in the past few years from American carriers which are hauling steel and lumber...