Page 9
Page 15
Page 16
Sly as a fox
Arrested and charged
Friendly roads
Alberta town charging fee on some trucks using municipal roads.
Truck driver involved in Humboldt collision faces 29 charges.
Rise of self-driving trucks spurs call for autonomous friendly corridor.
AUGUST 2018 VOLUME 29, ISSUE 7
Reach us at our Western Canada news bureau Contact Derek Clouthier Derek@Newcom.ca or call 403-969-1506
WWW.TRUCKWEST.CA
RETAIL ING IS ADVERT PAGE
Curbing added costs Through safety programing and government advocacy, MTA aims to ease growing industry costs
S 2 5 -3 3
By Derek Clouthier
MELT coming to Alberta Government says Humboldt tragedy was ‘real impetus’ for hurried announcement By Derek Clouthier CALGARY, ALBERTA Mandatory entry-level driver training (MELT) is coming to the trucking industry in Alberta, with an expected implementation date this coming January. Alberta’s minister of transportation, Brian Mason, made the announcement July 10 at the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) office in Calgary, saying in the wake of the tragedy involving a tractor-trailer and the Humboldt Broncos team bus, the need to address driver training was moved to the front burner. “The horrible tragedy at Humboldt was the real impetus for today’s announcement,” said Mason. “The matters that we are working on today were matters that we were working on at that time, but clearly the terrible tragedy has focused everyone on the need to do even more to make sure that our highways and the trucking system are as safe as possible.” Once mandated, anyone in Alberta looking to obtain a Class 1 or 2 licence, or an ‘S’ endorsement to operate a school bus, will be required to take entry-level training for commercial drivers. Though the specifics of what the MELT program will look like in the way of on-road and off-road hours, in-yard hours, and time in the classroom is yet to be determined, Mason said the Alberta government will be consulting with stakeholders, such as the AMTA, over the next month to iron out the details.
The Alberta government had been working on a MELT program since 2016, consulting with truck and bus stakeholders, as well as the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, where the first entry-level driver training program was implemented last summer. Ontario’s MELT program requires a minimum of 103.5 hours of driver training, including 36.5 hours in the classroom, 17 hours in the yard for pre-trip inspections, 18 hours in the truck off-road, and 32 hours on-road. The Alberta program will aim to enhance, regulate, and standardize a curriculum that will include skillbased in-class, in-yard, and in-vehicle training, as well as an improved Class 1 and 2 knowledge and road test. “We’ll be consulting with stakeholders about what Alberta’s MELT program should look like,” said Mason. “We’ll be talking about the curriculum, the length of the training, and we’ll be examining the experience they’ve had in Ontario.” Mason said the main focus is on Class 1 and 2 drivers because they operate the largest vehicles on the road. He added that the industry in Alberta has been insufficiently regulated for some time and that the abuses in trucking and lack of oversight are quite striking. Government officials from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba were expected to hold a teleconference to discuss standardized trucking regulations during the week of July 16-20. In addition to the introduction of a MELT program, the Alberta government will also tighten the rules for new commercial carriers by removing the issuance of Continued on page 14
Continued on page 19
Careers: 20-23 Ad Index: 37
PM40063170
The Alberta government said the tragedy involving the Humboldt Broncos bus collision with a tractortrailer made retooling the province’s trucking regulations a top priority.
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA The Manitoba Trucking Association (MTA) says it’s doing what it can to help mitigate the added costs of the province’s impending carbon levy, set to kick in this September. At the crux of the association’s efforts is increasing safety, namely through its RPM – Trucking Industry Safety program, which was originally spurred by a need to reduce WCB costs. Terry Shaw, executive director of the MTA, said the provincial government had committed to implementing a safety program years ago, but “hung a left” on the promise. At the time, industry members had and issue with rising WCB rates and were looking for a way to lower the costs. Collaboratively with the MTA, members worked together to create the industry-based safety program, RPM. “And go figure, our incident rates are going down and our premium costs are going down,” Shaw