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RICK MacLEAN: Like farmers, we just hope for better days

Somehow they’re invisible. No mean act given they’re about 80 feet long, and when lugging a full load they can weigh about 80,000 pounds, or more.

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Yet it took the shutdown of a major bridge in my hometown for repairs that were at least a decade overdue for me to notice.

Turns out, only when tractor-trailers are forced off the highway and onto a city street do they become impossible to ignore. They’re huge. They’re loud. And they’re slow.

Go ahead, try to get one of those giant suckers rolling quickly after being forced to stop at a street light on a hill. I dare you.

Oh, and one more thing. They’re essential, every year. How essential?

“Ninety percent of all consumer products and foodstuffs were shipped by truck throughout Canada, and almost two-thirds (by value) by trade with the U.S., which remains Canada’s largest trading partner. Without the trucking industry, the wheels of commerce would stop rolling,” says the Freightera blog, which is devoted to the shipping industry.

Which brings us to people like Nathan Lawless. And........

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