MONTREAL, Que. – The long-awaited “contrat type” (sample contract) under development by the Forum of stakeholders in the general freight trucking industry will contain a fuel formula.

The purpose is to provide guidance to owner/operators and those they work for when adjusting fuel surcharges when the cost of diesel rises.

“If there is an increase in the cost of fuel, the Forum will ask (O/Os) and givers of work to negotiate, together, a compensation or readjustment,” says Forum president Paul-Emile Thelland. The Forum has expressed its concern publicly that high fuel costs are harmful. This is the first glimpse, however, it has offered to the industry on the specific content of its sample contract, which may be ready for use by as early as June.

Encouragingly, it appears that the fuel formula will be more than an empty gesture, too.

“The Forum has decided to start an awareness campaign,” Thelland explains. “The responsibility of the drivers is to ask the givers of work for compensation if the price goes up. The giver of work is responsible for adjusting the compensation of the drivers, apropos (with regards to the cost of) fuel.”

The standard contract is said to even contain an arbitration procedure in cases where the interpretation and application of the requirement bogs down. Independent arbitrators will be available to listen to both sides in disputes, and will prepare written decisions that both parties will be obliged to follow.