Transportation Exchange presented by Rush Truck Centres of Canada
If you’re in the transportation industry, the Transportation Exchange podcast is for you. Listen in for insightful conversations with industry leaders covering what keeps us moving, from equipment and maintenance for fleets to new and upcoming regulations and opinions on the industry as it stands today and the road ahead.
Transportation Exchange presented by Rush Truck Centres of Canada
How the PMTC Supports Canada’s Private Carriers
In this episode, we welcome back Mike Millian, President of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada (PMTC), to dive into the evolving challenges facing private fleet operators today. Mike shares how the PMTC is actively educating government decision-makers on the unique needs of the industry and advocating for policies that work for carriers—not against them. From regulatory shifts to workforce development, Mike explains how PMTC is supporting its members through ongoing webinars, networking events, training initiatives, and its upcoming Annual Conference.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Transportation Exchange Podcast presented by Rush Truck Centers of Canada. I'm your host, jason Cuddy, and joining us again today is Mike Million, president of the PMTC. Mike, welcome back again to the podcast. Thank you Thanks for having me again, jason. Again to the podcast. Thank you, thanks for having me again, jason. Yeah, I mean, there's always so much to catch up on and to talk about. So it's we're always happy to have you here and obviously we will dive into probably one of the main reasons we wanted to have you on at this time of year, which is the conference. But it's been a while since we've talked and you guys have been doing a lot in the industry, kind of behind the scenes, in front of scenes. Maybe give us sort of a stated industry, as you guys see it, with within the PMTC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, I mean first of all, I guess us last week just uh talk a little bit about the PMTC and then I'll move into state of the industry. Last week we were in uh, nova Scotia.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:We held our quarterly board meeting actually in DeBear, Nova Scotia.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, hosted by Home.
Speaker 2:Hardware. We partnered with Kelly Henderson and her group, trucking Human Resource Sector Council Atlantic. We had a joint educational seminar together and then I attended her board meeting the following day, which I sit on as well. So just wanted to get that out there. We're trying to move our board meetings. Instead of having them all in Ontario every year, we're going to have one in Eastern Canada, one in Western Canada and two in Ontario, since we are a national association in Canada, and two in Ontario, since we are a national association State of the industry in general in Canada I don't think it's a surprise to anybody We've been in a bit of a recession, I'd say for over a year now.
Speaker 2:People were hoping this year it would get back to normal and start to peak upwards. But there's a bit of a disruptor south of the border who's had a bit of an influence on that. So I would say overall we're down quite a bit, I would say, and we're starting to see it happening in the US as well. So we're seeing companies kind of hanging tight to their dollars a little bit, I would say, with the uncertainty that's in the air Now, waiting to see what's going to happen with the on again, off again tariffs. And then, in addition to the tariffs, we have other issues in the industry that we've been dealing with for quite some time now that still haven't gone away.
Speaker 2:Still haven't gone away, I would say at the top of the list of issues we're dealing with, is still the misclassified driver issue that we run into, and for anybody that's not aware of misclassified drivers is when a company hires a driver or the driver comes on and requests to be incorporated and then they pay them as if they're an independent contractor, even though they are in no way, shape or form an independent contractor. They drive a company truck company pays for the fuel plates, insurance, everything else completely controls the driver's movement, but they pay them as an independent contractor, which means there's no source deductions off their paycheck for taxes, unemployment insurance, disability, wsib. What this does is save a company about 30% cost.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And then you have compliant carriers that are trying to compete on that basis. And how are you supposed to compete, excuse me, on rates or on what you want to pay your staff and your employees if somebody is flouting our tax laws and saving 30%?
Speaker 1:right off the top Behind eight ball already.
Speaker 2:And it's not just an issue with that. It's also an issue that if you're willing to fracture one rule, you're generally fracturing way more than one. So these types of carriers are also the ones that we see abusing temporary foreign worker program. Labor market information assessment programs maybe aren't going at the top of the game for safety, compliance and looking after their fleet. We've seen a number of these fleets being protested for not paying their employees and they're taking advantage in a lot of cases. They're not all temporary foreign workers, but there's a high amount of them that are new Canadians and I believe it's because they're taking advantage of their lack of knowledge of the protections that our system provides them. If they are hired as an employee, you get laid off under this model. Short term you may think you're making more because you're not paying taxes, even though you're still supposed to file your own tax return at the end of the year. If you get hurt, there's no disability, no WSIB. If you get laid off, there's no unemployment, you don't get vacation pay, you don't get 10 sick days, you don't get all the things that are provided an employee. So that's still a big issue. So that's still a big issue. And when we're pushing that.
Speaker 2:I get one stat we saw come out of Manitoba which lets you know how much the labor market information assessment has been an issue as well.
Speaker 2:40% of the carriers in Manitoba that use the labor market impact assessment between 2019 and 2023 are no longer in business Really, which probably shows you that they were using this just to float the system, get money in, bring people in. Companies that use the labor market assessment system that had less than 15 trucks in their fleet use the LMIA process to hire on average, 192% of their fleet size, which means they are obviously not bringing these drivers in to drive for them. They're using it as a way to sell them a LMIA, sell them a permit and use it as a pathway to permanent residency, and not actually try to get them in to the industry, gotcha. So you look at those numbers. We don't have a driver shortage right now, but we did during covid and we will again. We just don't have it now because we're in a recession, right, you look at numbers like that. The program is not helping us solve our driver shortage because they're temporary right, yes, right.
Speaker 2:They're coming in, they're using it as a way to permanent residence because people are are abusing them. They're getting a terrible introduction into the industry and within a year or two they're out of the industry because of the way they've been introduced to it. So that's it's not good for for the people that are being abused as part of it. It's not good for the trucking industry as a whole, because long term it's not helping us out yeah, it's a good point.
Speaker 1:It's not solving the problem it was intended to solve right, no.
Speaker 2:Another thing we're following, which we've been talking about for years, is the National Safety Code, safety Compliance Certificate. As you know, in this country if you have a fleet in Nova Scotia, one in Ontario, one in Alberta, they're all federally regulated fleets but you may apply to Nova Scotia to get your NSC number out there. You apply to Ontario to get the one here, apply to Alberta to get the one out there.
Speaker 2:So you basically have three different fleets and each province scores them differently, audits them differently, tracks them differently when really them differently, tracks them differently when really it should. Be similar to what it is in the States, where we have one safety rating that is tied together for a federally regulated carrier. It is an issue because, you know, I'll pull a safety rating from an Ontario carrier and it's going to tell you they've accumulated 15% of their CVOR rating, right, so they're rated 15% out of 100. I'm going to pull one from Alberta and it's going to tell you they have an R factor rating of 0.042. How the hell do I compare those? Right? They're completely different systems and numbers not scored the same amount of points. So that's an issue.
Speaker 2:The CCMTA is working on that. They were directed by the Council of Ministers responsible for transportation to come up with solutions. We will be part of the process in reaching out to them and what they've told us so far is the jurisdictions have agreed to improve their data sharing process, because right now that's not the greatest sometimes either, and they need to improve the data sharing because some companies have these three or four different safety ratings for legitimate reasons, because they have to Right, because they have regional fleets. The fleet that's in Nova Scotia may cover the four maritime provinces Right, they don't go all the way out to Alberta. Good point. The fleet in Alberta may run in the four maritime provinces Right, they don't go all the way out to Alberta Good point.
Speaker 2:The fleet in Alberta may run in the prairie provinces, they don't come all the way out east. So if you've got a fleet that never comes into the east, that's registered, or never comes into the east that's licensed in Nova Scotia, how are you plating and licensing and all that other stuff that?
Speaker 2:you need to do so. There is legitimate reasons to do it, but and all that other stuff that you need to do. So there is legitimate reasons to do it, but we need to share the data better, to make sure we have eyes on each fleet, because some are using it for illegal reasons, and the illegal reasons are to avoid shutdown and sanctions. They open a fleet up in three different jurisdictions. The one in BC gets shut down. They just move all their trucks onto the safety rating in Alberta or Ontario and just keep operating with basically no penalties.
Speaker 2:They just move their unsafe fleet from one district to the other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you see it on the road just visibly right. You know vehicles say here running, that you know are all based here potentially with you know. Manitoba plates or Alberta plates, right, that kind of thing. So there's some, obviously, visibility to it, but clearly that's what's happening behind the scenes, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know we've been screaming about this for years to the regulators. I think what finally happened is a couple of years ago there was a fleet in BC called Cohon Carriers that has an issue with hitting overpasses and they hit about their 14th overpass in a year and their safety rating was suspended in BC. They had a fleet in Alberta. They just moved their entire fleet to Alberta and then still drove from Alberta into BC. Oh wow, so the sanction. But that opened the eyes to some of the regulators what we've been talking about, and now they're looking at it a bit more seriously than they were before.
Speaker 1:And it makes sense right To your point. You have I mean, the US does it well from that point of view and you know, from an insurance point of view just regulations. But even for you would even think, from the sake of the customers who want to work with certain carriers, you want to make sure the product's actually going to get there right and if they are, you know, if they're third not third probably, but if they're, you know, dedicated to you and you've got your branding on their equipment as well, you want to make sure that you know you're, you're, you are protected visibly.
Speaker 1:you know from carriers that you know are are running properly, and so having it across the board would just helps them choose the right carrier to work with as well.
Speaker 2:And you, you want a shipper, uh, to obviously be part of this process and select a carrier that's safe and compliant, Right. Well, if, if the carrier has three different safety ratings, as an insurer, how am I supposed to know? Or as a shipper sorry, how am I supposed to know they have three different safety ratings? So if I ask them to share with me their national safety code number, well, if one of them is bad and two of them is good, which one do you think they're going to share with me?
Speaker 2:They're not going to share the bad one with me, so it makes it harder for that as well. So the data sharing is a step in the right direction. Our push with the regulators, however, will be. Data sharing is a start. What we need to have here is a system that is identical in all jurisdictions and it needs to be fed into one database where all the data if you're registered in three jurisdictions, all the data should be fed into one database and we get one score.
Speaker 1:Right, it makes sense, right, and maybe you hope, like you said, there's reasons behind doing it, obviously, which is clear. And you know, with the climate currently, you know that we're in right now, we're seeing a lot of interprovincial kind of trade opening up, or at least talks of trade opening up. So this is, you know, the climate might be a good time to know add that I mean you guys are already advocating for it, but, it again, it's another reason to take down some of these barriers and try and unify certain things, to make the country, uh, you know, one united whole versus, you know, every province doing their own thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, exactly in the you know, we just saw yesterday, uh, ontario, new brunswick, nova scotia, uh and I believe I read late last night pei signed on it onto it too where those four provinces have signed a memorandum of understanding where internal trade barriers, they're working towards recognizing each other's regs, not only in some cases for wide loads, for transportation, but the big thing is they're talking about opening up their markets to alcohol and other products, because a lot of people don't know this.
Speaker 2:But you know, and this really came into light from the US tariffs. Yeah, but in some cases it's easier to sell our products in Europe, in Asia or down into the States than it is to sell a product from Ontario into BC or from Nova Scotia into Ontario.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I think that the tariffs have opened that up because I think you know, you know in our industry we're a bit more aware of it, because we understand what a lot of the companies do, move stuff around. But as the general consumer, I don't think you realize why you're not seeing. You know, say, beer from Alberta, or you know wine from the Okanagan Valley, or something like that as much as you should. And then this really brought light into like oh, you didn't realize that I was assuming there's trade barriers between provinces, which seems silly.
Speaker 2:Well, and not only don't you see it on our shelves, if you drove over to a neighboring jurisdiction and bought alcohol, there's actually a limit on how much you're allowed to take across provincial boundaries. Right, right, which is kind of ludicrous when you think about it. Yeah, it's crazy, but the economists from the Bank of Canada estimated that if we loosened up our internal trade barriers and recognized other people to be able to sell their products from one jurisdiction to the other, it would increase our internal trade by about $200 billion Wild.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So does that replace the $700 plus billion in trade that we have with the US? No, but it replaces some of it. It helps, and we have to increase our own internal balance. The same economist said that some of the trade barriers we have between our own jurisdictions is the equivalent to having about a 23% tariff on the United States, which is in line with the 25% 23% tariff on the economic. Yeah, which is in line with the 25% that we're getting from the state.
Speaker 1:What do you think If you open it up between to your point to $200 billion yes, it's not to $700 billion, but eventually things will settle down and kind of massage themselves out over time so that market will pick back up, you know. But then if you open up that $200 billion, that won't really go away, it'll just be additional, you know. So that's basically. Now. You have growth in the country right, which, which is even better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gives us more selection coast to coast. We're a little more reliant on each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then in the business we're in with this industry, it opens up different routes and lanes for carriers, right Different opportunities for them to work within the province. You know it might be easier to find drivers to stay within the country instead of having to cross the border. It opens up a whole different business model that you know wasn't available to them before, which is great, you know For sure so it's yeah, so that could be a great thing if they get it figured out At least one other thing I wanted to touch on too, is, and this just got signed into law Monday and we're still working with the US Embassy, cvsa and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association and Transport Canada to find out exactly 100% what this new bill means.
Speaker 2:But the state of Arkansas passed a bill 82-0, which was then voted in by their or sorry, written into law by their governor on Monday, and there's two parts to the bill. The first part of the bill that they covered pretty heavily in the media was there's an English proficiency part to it, where when you go through Arkansas, they can actually pull you over, whether it's the DOT, state police. They can give you a document that you have to be able to read Okay, it's in English and communicate. They will have you write some stuff down to make sure you can write and communicate in English and if you can't, it's a minimum $500 fine. The first time a thousand and moves up from there.
Speaker 2:The English proficiency law has always been in the US DOT regulations, so it really isn't new. They used to take you out of service for it. Back in 2016, they changed that. Where they don't take you out of service, they just fine you. We don't really have an issue with the English proficiency part, to be honest, as long as they're testing you on a relative level, like test your English proficiency, not to a university master's degree.
Speaker 2:It's just general understanding For sure, Because of the road signs and stuff are only in English and are operating down there. It is a road safety concern, 100%. That makes sense. But another part of the bill is stating that any driver operating through the state who doesn't have a license issued by one of the US states needs to have a work permit or a visa and according to what we've read in the law, this includes Canadian and Mexican drivers. What has always happened in the US. It's written right into their regs and this is on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety side and USDOT a Canadian or a Mexican driver who takes product into the US, delivers it, picks up in the US and comes back to Canada, is exempt from having to get the work permit or the visa. Right, we just have reciprocity. We can't pick up a load within the states and deliver it in the states, that's called an sabotage.
Speaker 2:There's different rules against that Right Makes sense, but that's always been exempt. We're getting conflicting messages right now. The Arkansas bill says this includes Canadian drivers. So if you're driving through their state you have to have a work permit or visa. They're calling it an I-9 or a B-1. Uh, i-9 is for US citizens only, so you have to get a B-1 visa. Well, you're a driver that's going to go through. You don't want to apply for this today and get it tomorrow. Right, right, um, like this is a lengthy process which would throw kind of international trade going through.
Speaker 2:Right now it's just Arkansas. This isn't a federal law, so it doesn't affect anybody else. We're getting some indication from Transport Canada and communications with Global Affairs that they think the federal law overrides the state law for interstate commerce, but the state's kind of giving us conflicting evidence and it's the state that's going to enforce this Gotcha. So we're still trying to flush that out. But obviously this is a bit of a concern. Our advice to members right now is if you don't have to go through Arkansas, don't Right Go around it, yep.
Speaker 2:And we'll keep our members appraised as we find out. We haven't broadcast this live through all our members yet because until we get certainty on this, there's no point in raising massive alarm bells. But it's something to be aware of and we've also raised it with the US Embassy and Consulate, because even though it's a state law, not a federal law, obviously this is not something we want to. If you have a hodgepodge of rules from one state to the other, there's a reason we have federal rules in the first place. How are you supposed to do this? They're saying they're doing it to combat fraudulent licenses. Texas put in a same bill about a year ago, but most of their issue with fraudulent licenses were coming from Mexico, right, so they exempted Canada from it and then they concentrated on the Mexican side.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:There's got to be other ways we can do this than changing our whole commerce with trucks.
Speaker 1:No, I agree. I mean you get the concept behind it, but it's you know for how trade moves with vehicles. You know in and out of states or even just through the state right, not even necessarily even stopping or originating from the state going back to Mexico or Canada.
Speaker 1:You know you're dealing with, you know guys just traveling through it to get to the final destination. So and then, yeah, this is again where the value of that federally regulated part of the industry can help, right, you know, like we talked about Ontario, you know, in the different provinces, you know kind of doing one thing from a safety point of view, but this is where you know, try and don't have rogue states or provinces doing up their own rule. That messes up. You know the the trade between the two countries, yeah for sure. Well, so, so those are good things to keep an eye on and I guess you know, um, the next big thing for you, for you guys, as a pmtc, is is the conference that's coming up really soon. The last year's was great, it was phenomenal. You guys had great speakers. You know it's really well done. I think that the pace of the day, of the two days, is great. But yeah, maybe fill us in on what we can expect for this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the conference is two months away. I guess Today's April 17th, I believe. So the conference starts June 17th with our annual general meeting for members only in the afternoon, from 3 to 5. After that, one of the highlights is the kickoff night, where we have our cocktail party, sponsored by Truck Right. This year it's our young leaders group cocktail party from 5 to 7. All our exhibitor spaces are sold out.
Speaker 2:We'll have 59 exhibitors in the room, so that's sold out. Back in March, anybody that's interested could still come on board. We have a waiting list. Some people will decide to give up their booth space and then we go to our waiting list to see the next one on board. But that's two hours of free beverages and snacks, which is always a hit in our sponsor area.
Speaker 2:Excuse me, we gave out $300 cash draws at that one, two of them for fleets that are in attendance to kind of encourage them to be there. So that's the fun part of things, I guess. And then on the 18th we move into the educational sessions. There'll be nine educational sessions over a day and a half, okay, plus our awards program. Obviously we kick it off with Heather Devine, who's been doing her legal update, I think, for six, seven years now. It's always one of the top-rated seminars in our conference. So that starts at 8 am on the 18th, so people are going to want to be on their seats for that.
Speaker 2:Another mainstay is Tom Moore from the National Private Truck Council will be doing our Canadian benchmarking survey and going over the stats and stuff that are involved in that Benchmarking survey is sponsored by the Ontario Truck Driving School. Okay, it's open for entries from private fleets. You don't have to be a PMTC member until April 30th, so that's still out there if you want to get your dad in. And then all our members receive a copy of the benchmarking report for no charge, thanks to the sponsorship We'll have. Fmcsa Transport Canada and the Canadian Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance will be on site for our third session to provide an update from Transport Canada and FMCSA on regulatory issues and oversight and what is going on within their departments or any upcoming initiatives. And then CVSA is going to go over the results of RoadCheck and BrakeSafe and other initiatives that they have Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators.
Speaker 2:Their new president, Linda McCausland, is going to be on as well to kind of give people an overview of what the CCMTA does, what their role is in working with jurisdictions in Canada and south of the border and bringing them together to kind of work together on common initiatives and regulations. The CCMTA is the one that is the caretaker and oversees the National Safety Code and the 16 standards that are in there to bring together the memorandums of understanding for federally regulated carriers. We'll then have our lunch on the first day, which is always a highlight. We'll have the Dispatcher of the Year Award, Rick Austin Memorial, sponsored by CPC Logistics, and then one of my favorite ones, I Austin Memorial, sponsored by CPC Logistics, and then one of my favorite ones I know you're not supposed to say a favorite one, but the Driver Hall of Fame introductions, where we'll induct up to four drivers into our Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2:It's sponsored by TruckRite this year, so we have a new sponsor for the Driver Hall of Fame. In the afternoon we're going to have a discussion about Red Seal. There's been a lot of talk from a new group called the Professional Truck Training Alliance of Canada. They're a national association that represents truck training schools. Okay, I sit on the board of that as well. They've been putting forward an initiative to have the profession of a truck driver declared a Red Seal Right, forward an initiative to have the profession of a truck driver declared a red seal right. So we're going to have a panel on that to discuss what exactly is the red seal occupation, what's involved in making something a red seal, uh, and what are the pros and cons of it for the industry. So, thanks, I'll be good. Yeah, I think it's something that a lot of people don't understand. A lot of people just say well, make it a profession, make it a red seal. Well, you can't just snap your fingers and do that there's a lot involved in the process.
Speaker 1:And it's even good to discuss and understand. You know everyone just thinks of pros, you know. But you know there could be some negatives that people haven't thought of, or just challenges of okay, if you go that route, what does that impact down the line?
Speaker 2:So give people a lot of information that maybe they didn't have before. We then have our Education Bursary Awards Young Leader Education Bursary Awards sponsored by 10th Street. We get two winners. One is a student from our Mohawk Supply Chain Program, where we've partnered our Young Leaders Group with five Mohawk students each year, where we assign them with mentors and get them out into the industry.
Speaker 2:And then we have one from our regular YLG membership and the winner gets supplied with roughly the funds of about $2,000 to complete two logistics courses from CITT Excellent. We're then going to have a discussion on AI as a force for safety. Yeah, a hot topic that everybody talks about all the time. We then have our chairman's dinner.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And that involves a few more awards as well. We have the KRTS Driver Training Scholarship and that program is a person will be awarded. They have to be nominated by their company employees. They can go onto our website to find out what's all involved with it. Gotcha, but the winner receives free training from KRTS, thanks to the sponsorship of KRTS, to obtain their Class 1 or Class 8 license. Perfect, that's up to a $10,000 value for somebody. We also have our private fleet safety awards, sponsored by aviva, which awards save the safest large private fleets in canada large fleet category, mid-fleet category and small nice. And uh, we'll also have our driven to lead graduation ceremony. This year was our fourth class of people that went through the dale carne Driven to Lead Education Program. That wraps up the middle day and then the next morning we kick it off with the 3M Vehicle Graphic Awards. Those are always fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like those ones. It's usually one of the highlights we have.
Speaker 2:Bruce Outridge puts together a nice video for us.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Sets it to usually an old country song. Yeah, so we kick off the morning with that, and then we're going to have a discussion on heavy duty emissions and regulations for next year and beyond. Right, and hiring people who last, and then the last one of the event understanding impairment and the role of cognitive testing on reducing risk. So Good, lots of good topics. Again, I think there should be something there for everybody.
Speaker 1:I think so Sounds like I mean, it definitely covers what I, like you know, even from our world, is it covers there's a lot of interesting information that you learn, you know, from us being, you know, supplier to, to a lot of the carriers. We don't see all that day-to-day challenges they have, so it's very eyeopening for us. It allows me to see you know outside of just a vehicle what are the other you know day-to-day issues they face, whether it's, you know, hiring the right people, safety regulation it's just there's so much being thrown at you at a different angle. But then also I love that there's recognition you know, for within the industry and it's, you know, the fleet safety one's a big one. I like that right, because that's what we talked about earlier with you know, with reducing costs for some other carriers, trying to find loopholes.
Speaker 1:It. This rewards, you know, at least the carriers who have done everything right and are and are winning. In that the driver ones are great, because I think the story you get from the drivers is incredible and I think when you look at how many miles they've logged, how many years they've driven, you know it's, it's impressive. I remember being there last year and just the stories and they have the family come out, which is great, I think. I think it's it's really well done that you not only recognize them, but you recognize the family that supports them doing their career as long as they have as safe as they have. So there's a lot of great pieces to it. I think there's something for everybody, I agree.
Speaker 2:It's just a great event Some of the companies who nominate these drivers. They put together some great videos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there were some great ones last year.
Speaker 2:Tell their stories.
Speaker 1:Some of them put a lot, of, a lot of thought in it, which is nice, and I think that alone, I think, tells you you know how important the drivers are and how much, how respected they are with a lot of these companies right To put that much time and energy and investment into you know the promo reel that gets shown, it's not just you know, someone with a camera sitting there they'll bring a crew in, they'll film them.
Speaker 1:you know make like a mini documentary. It's incredibly well done and I think it's a testament to how important the drivers are to that business.
Speaker 2:I think it allows the driver to tell their story a bit too, Not a lot of drivers are comfortable, not a lot of people. True. They're comfortable standing in front of 250 people with a microphone and saying thanks but doing a video and putting it out isn't quite as intimidating. No it lets them tell their story.
Speaker 1:And it shows their story too, which is nice too right. You see them in their truck, see them in their house and their family and like, yeah, it's a really great way to kind of get a quick glimpse in their life, which is nice.
Speaker 2:So that's exciting and, as usual actually you've got now the Western's kind of expanded over the years, I think, because everybody knows we hired a Western Canada business manager. His name is Marcel Poullion, november of 2023. Right, he lives in Calgary, represents our interests out west, really trying to expand our presence out there. And our seminar out there used to be a half day. It used to give 40, 50 people. Now it's a full day event. Last year we had 92 people at it.
Speaker 2:Nice, we're expecting probably over 100. This year, we have a cocktail party the night before for our speakers and sponsors. And new this year, ptac, which I talked about, is having their first annual conference and they're going to have theirs the night before ours oh perfect, october 7th in the same venue, and they're going to have theirs the night before ours, on October 7th, in the same venue.
Speaker 2:Yep, that works so you know, if people want to attend both, they can, and then we're going to have our board meeting out there the morning and the night. So the agenda is still being worked on. Okay, it'll be released prior to our conference in June. Perfect, so we can probably put a promotional material out at our conference. Sponsorships are being sold. We have sponsorships are being sold. We have 12 sponsorships available for it. That's what we're limiting into, and I believe eight of them are gone. Oh, wow, that's good. So if people are interested, the info's up on our website. We do have not an educational end, but we do have our golf tournament coming up soon too on may 27th in.
Speaker 2:Uh, it's in the milton area.
Speaker 1:I'm drawing I'm drawing a blank on the golf course right now no worries. Uh, glencairn Gotcha, glencairn Golf.
Speaker 2:Course Uh, so people are interested in that. Registration's open on our website and we're still have sponsorships available. Uh, as well. It's hard to think, uh, spring the way the weather's been. It was just snowing a couple of days ago, but.
Speaker 1:I know we had freezing rain and the next day I was in t-shirt and shorts. So it's been spring hasn't figured itself out yet. No, all over the country. Exactly, and I guess in the last piece, just to wrap it up for those who aren't already members and we don't know why they aren't, but for those that aren't, maybe just quickly a quick overview of the additional benefits, outside of all the things today, of becoming a member of the PMTC.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess one of the biggest benefits is we represent your views and interests with governments.
Speaker 2:We speak to federal and provincial governments on a regular basis. Make sure our members' views and interests are heard from. Also, I tell everybody we're like a consulting firm. If you have a question that you can't find the answer to, a lot of cases, if you reach out to us, we can get the answer for you. Lot of cases, if you reach out to to us, we can get the answer for you pretty quickly, instead of you spending hours trying to google it or yeah, or reach out to a government official and if we don't know the answer, we have lots of contacts within the government to get the answers for you.
Speaker 2:Um communications for our members. We have newsletters that go out on a regular basis with regulatory updates to keep you abreast of the changes that are going on. And in addition to all those benefits, we also have cost savings for you, where we have an online driver training academy powered by KRTS and Carrier's Edge, which allows you to the library of a whole bunch of online training platforms. Pmtc members get it at a reduced price. Nice Driver license verification system powered by VeriX Direct. You don't get the whole abstract. What you'll get back is within hours you'll get the status of your driver's license and the class of the driver's license. Okay, and it costs you $2.75 per check. That's down right through our partnership with them. Isb has an identification verification system where they'll run criminal checks for you driver abstracts, cv wire abstracts, two background checks all that for you for one price for the PMTC member. And then we have a job portal which is free to all our members to post any jobs that they have on there.
Speaker 2:And then it's free for the, for the public to look at Excellent, that's good to know.
Speaker 1:So lots there, lots to look forward to. Obviously, the conference is the big one and we'll definitely see you there for sure, yeah, thanks, it should be fun.
Speaker 2:Thanks to Rush, as always, you guys. He's a sponsor in the trade showroom and we appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yep, no happy to. We definitely see the value of it and you know we have a lot of customers that are there as well to attend. So it's a great networking event and, just you know, great exposure all around right. I'm happy to support it.
Speaker 2:And I will just say to that registration's open on our website Perfect. All our awards are open until April 30th. So all the awards. So please go on our website and check it out. A lot of uncertain times. To recognize your employees through our awards program costs you nothing other than some investment of your time and I think the way it is. Now. It's important that we recognize and show our employees that we value them. So please take time to recognize them and in some cases there's free training. Adversaries are involved in it, and I did mention our booths are sold out. Sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 2:However if people are interested, there's just no booth space that comes along with it. We expect 250, 300 people in attendance again, like last year. Nice, so it would be great to have people come in Excellent, good Well again, like last year, so it'd be great to have people come in, excellent, good.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll definitely see you there and thank you for joining us today. Thank you, so that concludes today's episode. We do want to thank Mike from the PMTC for joining us and to catch up on past episodes. Check out transportationexchangepodcastca. Until next time, thanks for watching.