OTA President & CEO Stephen Laskowski thanked the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) for its support of a national commercial trucking database.
“A unified national data-sharing registry is a tremendous step forward. It will finally help close the gaps that allow unsafe, stripped-of-certification carriers to play jurisdiction hop – shutting down operations in one province only to resurface under a different corporate name in another,” said Laskowski.
However, he pointed out a database is a tracking tool, not an enforcement mechanism, citing a TCA report showing how the FMCSA is equipped with world-class data systems, but 90% of carriers still operate without ever facing a physical safety audit.
Likewise, in Ontario 80% of fleets sit under a “Satisfactory-Unaudited” safety blanket. “We cannot afford to build a passive digital repository that simply records data. We must … build a national database tethered to a strong, modern, and aggressive enforcement regime.”
OTA maintains an effective system requires real-time, data-driven interventions that actively flag and shut down high-risk operators; 24/7 corridor inspection infrastructure to catch non-compliant networks like “Driver Inc.” in real-time; and the outright elimination of “assumed” safety statuses that allow carriers to bypass on-site facility verification
“Let’s seize this momentum generated by the IBC and industry advocates. Let’s collaborate at the provincial and federal levels to build a system with real teeth.”
Read the IBC press release here
To Read TCA White paper here