FTLComm - Tisdale - December 14, 1999

Monday morning it was like a truckers convention in the Northern Steel yard as both contractors and Northern Steel's own trucks were loading up finished products for delivery. Six large tanks were ready to go and a trucking firm from Saskatoon was on hand. Production at Northern Steel

runs on a tight schedule with two shifts working each weekday to get the tanks built. Tanks once assembled have to be fitted with the necessary accessories for their use and then finished. Once completed you can see them moved to the yard ready for delivery and it just happened that Monday morning these six large tanks were picked up while other trucks were also in the yard picking up other products. None of this is unusual it is just another normal day at

this busy facility on the North side of Tisdale where products are made and shipped all over this continent. Because of Northern Steel's reputation for building environmentally safe and robust products their market is ever increasing as the life time of installed tanks runs out

companies are turning to Northern Steel for replacements.

As I watched the loading proccess take place the image below is quite remarkable. The two front end loaders have picked up a fertilizer tank from its yard handling vehicle and edge their way backward as each driver matches the movement of the other, gently edging their way to the right until the Northern Steel truck can slip its trailer under the dangling tank. Very impressive workmanship with a high degree of possible catastrophy. Everyone had to be sharp paying close attention and able to match movements, all of this was being accomplished without a loadmaster giving signals.