A delegation of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) in July asked the Deputy Ministers of Transportation and their collective officials from across Canada to begin a dramatic uptick in enforcement on Driver Inc. carriers of all their illegal practices like misclassification, tax evasion and, most importantly for transportation safety leaders, a complete disregard for public safety.
This week, CCMTA officials, who all report to the deputies, announced three days of meetings with the industry to craft how to fix the issues and move on recommendations that will be presented to the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highways Safety in February.
“With the proper plan, timeline and resources, this could be a defining moment for the trucking industry. An overhaul of how oversight is applied will lead to positive changes to regain control of the damage caused by Driver Inc. to the industry and public safety,” said CTA CEO and president Stephen Laskowski. “We believe CCMTA, the Council of Deputies and the Council of Ministers, along with CTA and its provincial association partners, must now jointly deliver a national enforcement plan that brings an effective, sustained and holistic approach to enforcement. It starts with a solid foundation of how carriers are rated, monitored and audited. We applaud CCTMA and the Deputies for expediting this process at our request.”
Specifically, the meetings will ask the industry, provincial and territorial jurisdiction officials to consider what amendments should be made to National Safety Code Standards 7, 14, and 15 to effectively improve the safety fitness of trucking companies.
“CTA will present its recommendations at the September meetings, and continue to offer precision improvements into the NSC process, and continue to push all levels of government to bring more enforcement attention before February,” said CTA SR VP Policy Geoff Wood. “Federal departments – most importantly, ESDC and CRA – need a regular presence at truck inspection stations, and those facilities need to be open 24/7.
“Provincial and federal policing resources need to also be present at inspections stations alongside provincial truck inspectors to enforce the authorities required to adequately deal with today’s trucking industry. This can and needs to happen today for the sustainability of the industry, public safety and combat the types of criminal activities that permeate through the industry.”
CTA will be highlighting the impact Operation Deterrence in Ontario has had and how similar enforcement strategies could be rolled out across the country to be more effective in regaining control of an industry that has a host of challenges.