Moderator:

Zachary Cunningham
Director, Transportation

Speakers:

Abraham Masri
Senior Manager, Energy Transition & Sustainability, Trimac Transportation

Jacob Adams
Director of Sustainability, Marketing and Business Optimization, Arrow Group

Dale Howard
Manager of Safety, Flying J Canada Transport

CRH2: Getting in Gear – What It Will Take to Decarbonize Heavy-Duty Trucking

Webinar Summary

Heavy-duty trucking is a backbone of Canada’s economy, moving goods across the country and supporting nearly every sector. Today, these vehicles rely primarily on diesel and, as a sector, account for a significant share of Canada’s transportation emissions.

The challenge is that heavy-duty trucking in Canada is far from uniform. Vehicle weights, duty cycles, operating environments, routes and regional conditions can vary considerably. These differences matter when assessing lower-emission technologies and can be overlooked when the transition is viewed primarily through simplified economic or emissions metrics.

Watch a practical discussion from expert panellists grounded in deep industry experience and real-world use of different technologies and fuels. We heard directly from those working on the ground about the challenges these technologies face, where they perform well and what operating conditions must be met to satisfy the demanding service requirements of heavy-duty trucking in Canada.

In this webinar, you’ll discover:

What works where: How battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell, renewable fuel, natural gas and conventional diesel trucks compare across different trucking applications.
Why duty cycle matters: How payload, range, route length, idle time and terrain affect vehicle needs.
Cold-weather performance: How Canadian winters affect vehicle range, fuelling or charging, reliability and overall fleet operations.
Lessons from real-world deployments: What operators have learned from putting alternative-fuel and zero-emission trucks into service.
The fleet operator perspective: What fleets need from an optimization, maintenance and safety perspective to allow for greater uptake of new technologies.

Moderator

Zachary Cunningham

Director, Transportation

Zachary (Zak) Cunningham is the Director, Transportation at the Transition Accelerator. He holds an MSc in Sustainable Energy Development from the University of Calgary, a B.Eng (Hons) in Petroleum Engineering, and a diploma in Petroleum Engineering Technology. Zak began his career in the oil and gas industry in the field, having spent extensive time on drilling and workover rigs in Western Canada and deepwater offshore in Malaysia in various roles, leading him to spend nearly a decade living overseas in Southeast Asia. Zak strongly connects with his Métis culture and the Métis community within Alberta and is particularly interested in sustainable energy development in remote Northern communities.

Abraham Masri

Senior Manager, Energy Transition & Sustainability, Trimac Transportation

Abraham Masri is the senior manager of energy transition and sustainability at Trimac Transportation, where he is responsible for advancing the company’s decarbonization strategy, including clean fuel pilots, emissions reduction initiatives, sustainability reporting and energy performance programs across its fleet and facilities. He also supports facilities management, helping align infrastructure operations with sustainability, reliability and business objectives.

Abraham holds a master’s degree in sustainable energy development and is a registered professional geoscientist (P.Geo.), bringing a practical, data-driven approach to the energy transition in hard-to-abate sectors.

Jacob Adams

Director of Sustainability, Marketing and Business Optimization, Arrow Group

Jacob Adams is the director of sustainability, marketing and business optimization at Arrow Group, where he has worked for the past 10 years. He focuses on identifying opportunities to improve operational performance, advance sustainability initiatives and support the adoption of new technologies across Arrow’s businesses.

Jacob is a graduate of the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University and holds an MBA in sustainable innovation from the University of Victoria. His experience combines business strategy, operations, sustainability and technology, with a particular focus on how emerging technologies can be practically implemented in real-world operating environments.

Dale Howard

Manager of Safety, Flying J Canada Transport

Dale Howard is the manager of safety for Canada and for the special products division, including hydrogen and natural gas, at Flying J Canada Transport.

Dale started his trucking career in 1978 running Alberta, bought his first truck in 1979 and waited five months for his 21st birthday to run the U.S. He later drove an armoured truck for Loomis Armored Car before starting a career in law enforcement, the last seven years of which focused exclusively on commercial vehicle enforcement. During that time, he was a Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) instructor, a level 2 collision investigator and a dangerous goods inspector, and conducted more than 1,000 level 1 CVSA inspections.

Dale continued to drive part time throughout his career. After retiring from enforcement, he spent three years with the Alberta Motor Transport Association before joining Flying J Canada Transport.

Oct 27, 2026