Commercial vehicles have hit overpasses, bridges and infrastructure on 29 occasions in British Columbia this year. There was at least one incident a month, with March witnessing a whopping five such crashes.

And according to the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, every one of them was due to driver error. Investigations revealed a lack of — or improper — permits, failure to follow an approved route, unsecured or incorrectly measured loads, equipment not lowered and failure to obey traffic signage.

It is easy to blame drivers, who are ultimately responsible for their actions. It is also easy to demand more training. So, should schools train students not to crash into bridges or does this responsibility fall on the shoulders of carriers?

Typically, an entry-level driver is not going to be given an oversized load straight out of driving school.

Andy Roberts, president of Mountain Transport Institute in Castlegar, said students are overwhelmed with knowledge imparted to them during training.

“If we went deeper at that level, how much is going to be remembered?” he asked. “Schools don’t have the time to teach all that stuff, and the student will never retain it anyway.”

His instructors show students how to use a height stick to measure the height of trailers and freight.

“That’s not a mandatory entry-level training requirement. We do it because it plants the seed about tools that can be used once you start your trucking career,” he added.

Roberts said shippers are also to blame. Sometimes they contract out a load to the carrier with the lowest price. With oversized loads, shippers should make sure that when the freight leaves their yard it is legal and the driver knows the actual height and width.

“Common sense is a dying thing these days,” he added.

In February, the B.C. government issued a formal cancellation notice to Chohan Freight Forwarders, the carrier that crashed six times in two years into the province’s infrastructure.

“Everybody has a role to play.”

Dave Earle, president and CEO of BCTA

Dave Earle, president and CEO of the B.C. Trucking Association called the numerous overpass crashes “a not caring problem.”

The customer must give accurate information to the carrier, he said. “The guy who writes the cheque has a role to make sure he knows who he’s hiring. Carriers and drivers also have a role to play, but ultimately, everybody has a role to play,” he said.

Earle noted it does not take long to measure the load, but sometimes the paperwork and actual dimensions don’t match. Some carriers continue to haul these loads as they don’t want to lose business.

“It’s a holistic problem and starts with conversations that carriers have with customers. If a customer is hiring you to do something illegal, that’s not business, it’s criminal activity,” he said.

Training less experienced drivers

In the past, senior drivers would help train rookies, and new people were slowly absorbed into the industry. There were also experienced dispatchers who could respond to questions and doubts. As older drivers retire and younger people are reluctant to get behind the wheel, this knowledge is vanishing quickly.

But there are some companies, like Arrow Transportation System — which employs about 650 drivers — that are using mentors to train less experienced drivers.

Matt Cook, the company’s director of HSE and operational risk, explained how this works.

Entry-level drivers spend six months mostly hauling containers in Edmonton. They then start doing local deliveries in the area for about another six months. They begin longhaul highway driving after a year.

For example, when driving from Edmonton to Vancouver, they’ll follow an experienced driver on the route to learn the ropes. Before winter, they’ll spend a day with a mentor brushing up on driving in the snow.

Lisa Savage, Arrow’s director of people systems, said the time mentors spend in the cab with a driver depends on skill levels – sometimes it’s three days and on occasion it’s been six weeks. They provide daily progress reports to supervisors.

These mentors must have a minimum of five years accident-free driving. An ability to teach and loads of patience are part of the job description. They also undergo training at the Mountain Transport Institute, sharpening their skills.

Cook said every truck is equipped with a measuring stick and drivers are provided with a load check sheet. Drivers measure the height of the load, record it on the sheet, take a picture and send it to dispatch. The dispatcher cross-checks the information and the driver can proceed if there are no issues.

“If you deviate 1% from the expected, it becomes a norm. It’s called normalization of deviation,” he said.

Savage and Cook noted that although this training costs time and money, the company has benefited in terms of customer confidence, insurance costs and driver retention.

And their trucks, sometimes carrying oversize loads, roll smoothly under bridges and overpasses without damaging infrastructure in the province.