By KATHY JOHNSON
TRI-COUNTY VANGUARD
B. Reynolds Trucking Ltd, Port LaTour, has been recognized by the Nova Scotia Trucking Safety Association (NSTSA) as a safety leader in the industry with the 2019 Safety Excellence Award for medium size business.
“It’s good when people recognize when you do something right,” said founder Brian Reynolds in an interview.
A member of the NSTSA since it was first started in 2000, Reynolds came into the safety audit process fold in 2005, said NSTSA executive director Linda Corkum. “He wanted to see how he stood as a company and ways of improvement. He’s been doing it ever since. We have continuous improvement from Brian. On top of things he’s very conscious about the safety of his people and his equipment and wants to ensure he has all the proper legislation in place…he takes it seriously.”
The NSTSA safety audit process includes training and an annual safety audit by the association to the participant’s site to identify if they have an effective safety management system in place, said Corkum.
“You have to keep your nose clean, make sure all the work in the garage is up to snuff, the driver’s logbooks, everything to do with trucking had to be in tip top shape,” said Reynolds. “I’ve been working with them for a long while. There was always something that needed to be a little better and we finally got to the stage where it had to be.”
Reynolds started his trucking company 35 years ago. “I started with a 10-wheel straight truck; a Ryder rent a truck,” he said, using credit cards for operating costs. “There wasn’t a lot of money around when I started. Clearwater helped me a lot. I’ve been with them a long while, 30 years.”
Reynolds has also been the go-to for numerous other seafood companies in southwestern Nova Scotia for transporting lobsters, scallops and other seafood products over the years. “I have customers that are loyal,” he said.
Reynolds has employees who are loyal too.
“He has some really good employees who have been with him for a very long time, that alone speaks volumes,” said. Corkum. “He certainly believes in his people. He listens to his employees. If they have a suggestion, idea or a concern, he does listen and act on it. That’s good to see. That’s leadership. He’s definitely a model other companies could follow for sure.”
Over the years Reynolds has built the company up and now has a fleet of 12 trucks, a garage and mechanic on site, and employs 10 drivers as well as two office staff.
His pride and joy however is his 1986 Kenworth K100 cab over truck that has won him numerous show and shine awards over the years. “It was a Pierce Fisheries truck. I had it restored. There’s not many of them around anymore. I take pride in that, going to the truck shows.”
Reynolds’ son Richard has joined his father in the business.
“He looks after all the operations, the loading, planning, organizing," said Reynolds. "I’m here to make sure the trucks are serviced, to check the payables and receivables, things he doesn’t like doing."
Semi-retired, Reynolds said a lot has changed in the trucking industry since he started in the business. “When we started, we had paper logs and if it was close to being right it was ok, but now there’s no close. Hours of service are very closely watched (through an Electronic Logging Device or ELD). It’s done on a computer on the truck engine so there’s no cheating.”
Last year, ELDs (Electronic Logging Devices) became mandatory in the U.S. In Canada, ELDs will be required for all federally regulated carriers by June 12, 2021.
As Reynolds explained, truckers can only drive so many hours a day and then have to take 10 hours off. “A lot of times people can sleep eight hours, they can sleep seven hours but they can’t sleep 10, so three or four hours are being wasted. Sometimes the way the ELDs are graded, they give you your time back when the highway’s the busiest. We always had a system where we stayed clear of the biggest part of the traffic. We made better time and it was easier going with less chance of accidents. Now its all generated into one glob I call it.”
Trucking is getting very expensive and very tightly ruled, said Reynolds. “Everything, even lobsters going to the airport is getting harder and harder. To keep the trucks up and the way they want them takes time and money. Drivers are really hard to come by. In Canada we are 30,000 drivers short. It’s worse in the U.S.”
Being a truck driver “does pay decent but you’re never home. You’re gone a lot,” said Reynolds saying the next generation “all want to be home Friday night and go to work Monday morning." That doesn’t always work in the trucking industry, he said.
“A guy told me the other day he wanted to move some product and it was a three-day wait. It used to be if you needed something moved you could call that day and they would load it that day and go with that day. It’s not the same. The independence is gone by the wayside.”
