Earlier this year, the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety, led by Minister Garneau, tasked the Canadian Council for Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) with developing a pre-licence training standard (mandatory entry level training) for class 1/A commercial drivers. The project group established by CCMTA to address this issue began developing standards in June.
In the lead up, feedback was solicited from CTA and the provincial associations, which included:
- Making the standard mandatory coast-to-coast;
- Aligning written and road tests with training content;
- Developing the standard by building on the pre-licence framework of the National Occupational Standard for Commercial Vehicle Operator {Truck Driver} (NOS);
- Addressing oversight with respect to instructor qualifications, oversight of training schools, standardized testing and evaluations among training schools and consistency in road test application amongst jurisdictions, and;
- Addressing consistent reciprocal recognition of pre-licence training when a driver is physically changing residence from one jurisdiction to another and applying for a new licence.
Comprised of government members from all Canadian provinces and territories as well as Transport Canada under the umbrella of the CCMTA’s Drivers and Vehicles Program Committee (D&V), the project group will leverage the recent pre-licence standards work developed in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan as well as the work of other Canadian jurisdictions.
The standard, slated to be presented to the Council of Ministers in January 2020, will be designed with the intention of being embedded into the National Safety Code.
The next touch-point with industry is expected around August when the group is further along with the standards development. At this point, further input will be provided by CTA.
The 10-Point Truck Safety Action plan developed in 2018 by CTA and its provincial association partners as a national vision for truck safety in Canada highlighted the need for mandatory pre-licence training.