On Monday 17 Jul 2018, a group representing drivers and small business owner operator truckers meet with a contingent from Transport Canada to discuss safety issues.
The Canadian Owner Operators Co-Operative, under the direction of Rick Beckwith, organized the meeting in Ottawa.
After explaining the driver position on many issues, we asked that this not just be a listening session from which nothing is accomplished. We asked for four points on which immediate action is required.
The driver’s committee asked for Canada to host interprovincial meetings amongst all provinces and even government agencies in the US. in an effort to bring some standardization to rules, regulations and laws. Also to bring some standardization to training and for strides to be made to recognize truck driving as a skilled trade.
Most of the issues raised, was on their radar and that action was being taken but the driver’s point of view did cast some additional light on the issues.
One request was for Canada to host several, regular driver’s symposiums in various parts of the country to hear the driver message first hand and not only hear but enact some recommendations. These symposiums would be annual or biannual.
Another request was for action leading to making truck driving a skilled trade with a defined career path, education path and even advanced pay for advanced knowledge.
They were intrigued at the concept and agreed to help guide us through the process but asked us to take the initiative to contact other government branches that are involved with training and employment issues. They committed to making contact with those same agencies in an effort to attack the problem from two directions.
We asked the automation be considered carefully, Unless and Until 100% of vehicles on the road have 100% v2v technologically, do not implement policies that would allow mixed v2v and non v2v vehicles. Leave the testing on the test track. Testing all scenarios never tests all scenarios.
There was also a firm commitment to keep this line of communication open.
