After working 45 years as a Red Seal heavy-duty mechanic/technician, Jim Niessen is nearing the end of his career and he recognizes there’s a revolution coming to the trucking industry.
The age of electrics and hydrogen-powered trucks is knocking at the door and Niessen, the former service manager at Prince George Western Star, knows his current employer, Velocity Truck Centres, is on the right track and making plans for that inevitability by creating the region's first hydrogen/compressed natural gas service bay.
“I know nothing about hydrogen vehicles or electric vehicles right now but that will change and we will get the opportunity for the training needed to start working on this stuff,” said Niessen.
“I’m 65, so I’m looking at another three of four years on the wrenches yet. My days in the industry are a lot shorter, so we’ll probably let the younger guys take all that training and they can start from the ground up.”
Niessen remembers a couple of decades ago when computer chips and electronics started taking over the vehicle industry. It was initially dismissed as a fad, but now every vehicle function is tied into that technology and he foresees a similar ripple effect as renewables become the fuel of choice in trucking.
“We all said when they came out with electronic engines it’s never going to last in the industry, well now, a large portion of the maintenance you do on that truck you need a computer to plug in to tell you where to go,” said Niessen. “It’s here and we just have to embrace it and grow with it. This slump in the economy isn’t going to stay and when it does come back we’ll be ready for it.”
Backed by a partnership with Innovate B.C., Velocity Truck Centre is poised to become the first in northern B.C. with the capability to repair vehicles that run on hydrogen or compressed natural gas (CNG).
Plans for the addition of the hydrogen bay were revealed Friday, July 19 at an event to mark the merger of Prince George Western Star with Prince George Freightliner.
The 156 employees of Velocity’s Prince George headquarters at 1015 Great St. in the BCR Industrial Site gathered for a picnic lunch to hear company president Rod Graham reveal what the future holds for the state-of-art 29-bay repair facility and its parts showroom and servicing operations. They are now combined into one building that will eventually house the hydrogen bay.
Graham said Velocity will work closely with regional trade schools like the College of New Caledonia to develop new hydrogen/CNG curriculum to give employees the opportunity to attain “Green Seal” microcredentials that will meet the future demands of the trucking industry, and the hydrogen bay will allow them to put the theory into practice.
“We invest a lot on training, and what this means is an opportunity for folks to start thinking about what’s going to start happening over the next couple decades as they think through from a career perspective where they want to work,” said Graham. “It allows folks to realize we are moving to a greener future and as the decade progresses they will have those credentials in pocket.”
Hydrogen is easily made, compared to conventional sources of electricity, and Velocity sees it as the wave of the future in trucking and Prince George will have the infrastructure to provide it.
Velocity operates branch truck centres in Edmonton, Kelowna and Abbotsford. Graham says Prince George is ideally positioned to serve as the company’s B.C. Centre of Excellence with its location as a hub for pipelines, rail lines and provincial highways at the geographic centre of the province, halfway between Edmonton and the port of Prince Rupert.
"When I take a look at climate, topography, range anxiety, the opportunity for allowing a portfolio of greener fuels to develop, and you take a look at the refinery infrastructure that is here, and the progressive nature of the entrepreneurs that are here, I want to embrace it," said Graham. “It’s an ecosystem, we fully acknowledge that, and without us and others being part of bigger matrix it’s never going to go. So the early adopters that want to go into this hydrogen business, you’re going to need proficient competent technicians that are going to be able to fix the trucks you’re driving. The organization is very committed to a greener future.”
