BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in regard to the safety of the trucking industry in Ontario and is written by a trucker who works out of the Simcoe County area.
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We write to you today as a concerned group of truckers that have become extremely concerned regarding the direction the trucking industry is heading towards. We are known as Truckers for Safer Highways based in Ontario, but we have the goal of improving the standards of training for commercial drivers throughout Canada.
We, as drivers within the industry, have become aware of some major flaws within the licensing of new drivers throughout the country. Drivers are being trained to pass the test and not necessarily understand everything it takes to be a safe operator of a commercial vehicle.
Another problem that only compounds these issues is what seems to be a shortage of commercial vehicle enforcement officers across Canada. As a long haul driver myself, and my colleagues and I can tell you with a high level of certainty which scales and inspection stations will be operating and when. This makes it much easier for drivers to avoid such inspection stations, which should be verifying that their equipment is safe, and ensuring drivers are properly licensed and following all laws for commercial vehicles.
These are not the only issues facing the safety of the trucking industry, however, they are some of the most concerning ones. We have reached out to the Federal Minister of Transportation with little support but we have gained the support of several NDP MPPs of northern Ontario. It's time for major change.
Travis McDougall
Truckers for Safer Highways
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