The governments of Canada and Ontario have sharpened their focus on certain aspects of the motor carrier industry over the course of the last year.

Federally, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has stepped up its targeting of the Driver Inc. model and the Canada Revenue Agency has lifted a moratorium on penalties for companies failures to issue T4A to those drivers.

In Ontario, the Auditor General (AG) has released a report highly critical of the training and licensing of commercial drivers in that province, as reported previously.

The headline figure for the AG’s report are the shocking fatality figures for accidents involving commercial drivers, but the report focuses primarily on broader issues in driver training in Ontario from shortcomings in the training schools to outright fraud.

The report found egregious concerns with private career colleges providing commercial driver training including failures to complete the mandatory training hours and the continuing operation of unregistered and suspended training providers.

It also criticized the Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) testing and licensing regime for failing to provide consistent testing between DriveTest Centres and failing to crack down on fraud in commercial driver road testing.

The media is also now focusing on driver training and carrier safety with the Globe and Mail recently featuring a series of articles focusing on systemic failures, weak oversight and dangers to the public in the industry. This spotlight seems likely to stimulate further action by the MTO.

The AG’s report follows bribery allegations related to drive tests in the Greater Toronto Area involving MTO employees, contractors and driving school instructors. All of this has brought the commercial driver training regime in Ontario under the microscope and should concern industry members who may find themselves asked to account for qualifications of their drivers. But, it also presents an opportunity for operators to ensure compliance before further actions are taken by the government.  

Ontario’s commercial driver training regime

Commercial truck drivers in Ontario are required to undergo mandatory entry-level training (MELT) to obtain a Class A driver’s license. This training must be done by a training provider approved by the province. This can be either a career college registered with the province or an MTO-approved driver certification program (DCP).

MELT requires that the prospective driver undergo 103.5 hours of training in the classroom, in the yard and finally 50 hours behind the wheel of a truck.

In theory, these programs will teach people the rules of the road and MTO regulations: vehicle knowledge such as pre-trip inspections and equipment handling; and necessary driving skills including terrain and weather training.

Drivers requiring an air brake endorsement must undergo an additional 12-hour training program. This will then be followed by a driver test administered by the MTO or companies contracted on its behalf.

Any driver who has begun working for an Ontario-registered trucking company in the last decade should have undergone this training and obtained the necessary skills.

However, as highlighted by the AG, serious concerns have been raised about the quality, thoroughness and honesty of many of the organizations offering this training and as a result of the qualifications of many commercial drivers in Ontario.

In preparing its report, the AG sent students to five driving schools, of which two required the student to complete only a portion of the mandatory training hours (58% and 78%, respectively). Students were told to sign off on training hours they did not complete in order to obtain their certificates.

Given the increased scrutiny of government bodies and the focus of the media, it is reasonable to expect that MTO may be begin looking more closely at drivers and their training when they are auditing CVOR holders or when commercial carriers are responding to show cause letters.

The MTO’s investigative powers are broad

MTO has wide investigative powers in respect of trucking companies and drivers. Ontario Regulation 424/97 under the Highway Traffic Act defines an audit as an “inspection of the records pertaining to the transportation enterprise of an operator.”

This definition is broad enough to encompass virtually any documents in a carrier’s possession. It should be anticipated that MTO will begin showing an interest not only in drivers’ safety records but also their underlying training and qualifications. Carriers should be prepared to respond.

A carrier must provide whatever records are requested by MTO related to its operations during an audit or show cause meeting and a failure to do so can carry serious consequences.

MTO has not been hesitant to pull carriers’ authorities for infractions. The best practice for any carrier is to maintain these files consistently and have them ready to produce to MTO when requested. A careful carrier should also make efforts to ensure that the information in those files coming from third parties, such as their drivers or training companies, are correct and comply with MTO requirements.  

If the MTO suspects irregularities in this training,  it can order the re-testing of drivers whom it suspects have obtained their training from a suspect institution or where there is some question as to whether the MTO’s own testing was flawed, as occurred last year.

How can companies protect themselves?

It is ultimately the responsibility of carriers to ensure their drivers possess the proper skills and training to operate commercial vehicles in Ontario and they should not take it on faith that their drivers possess the training they purport to or that any documents provided are genuine.  

Commercial carriers should work to ensure their drivers are trained in accordance with the standards required by the province and should not employ those who have not obtained the proper qualifications or taken shortcuts to do so.

When hiring new drivers, carriers should examine the quality of the training schools and contact them to confirm driver qualifications.  

If a carrier is found to have a handful of drivers whose training was not done in accordance with MELT or whose driving test results are suspect, this might be easily rectified. However, if most of a carrier’s workforce has suspect credentials or questionable training, this could attract additional scrutiny from MTO that could seriously impact operations.

A list of approved driving schools and those who authorities have been revoked is available on the Government of Ontario’s website and should be a carrier’s first stop in ensuring new and existing drivers are in compliance with training requirements.

While audits are comparatively rare occurrences, the AG’s report could encourage the government to invest more in safety and compliance, conducting more audits and better scrutinizing driver qualifications. Carriers should be proactive and make efforts to confirm that their drivers possess the appropriate credentials before the MTO begins making inquiries.