‘Pothole season’ is an annual annoyance for most Winnipeg drivers, but for those carrying fragile cargo, navigating the city’s streets can be a costly affair.
Hi-Tech Energy Windows general manager Shawn Kapusta told 680 CJOB that worrying about glass windows getting to job sites in one piece is a constant concern with current road conditions.
“It’s stressful. You put a package of windows into a truck or trailer and you just pray that it’s going to get to the site in one piece,” he said.
“The streets are just horrible right now. You can have nice, straight streets, and you see the people in front of you bobbing and weaving like they’re on a NASCAR circuit because of the potholes.”
Kapusta said despite research into the safest methods of packaging, strapping, and using rubber to keep windows intact, heading out on spring roads in Winnipeg can still be a crap shoot, and can potentially cost his company a lot of money.
“A window package … you could range from $5-to-$20,000 sitting there, so you need to get it to the house in one piece.
“There are weeks that go into a job, and then your guys get there and they open a truck and see broken glass.
“It’s heartwrenching, for one, and you’ve got to scramble for the homeowner who has been waiting all this time. It’s a scramble getting something done in time so we can get the job finished for them.”
Kapusta said the trucks and trailers don’t have the same type of suspension as a standard SUV, for example, and that his drivers will go out of their way to avoid problem streets just to protect their cargo.
“There are roads in the city – you look right around here, St. James Street, Empress, Saskatchewan – there are roads the guys will not go down.
“There’s better gravel roads in the province.”
WATCH: CAA Manitoba launches 2019 ‘Worst Roads’ campaign
Comments