LANGLEY, B.C. (Mar. 11, 2005) — B.C. truckers want to know what role a pair of Lower Mainland trucking companies played in the licensing fraud scandal in Alberta.

The B.C. Trucking Association is asking the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General to investigate allegations that two trucking companies were complicit with Calgary’s Delta Driving School, which was shut down last month for allegedly doling out class 1 licences to untrained people — most of who are from B.C. — for fees of up to $2,500.

The BCTA reports that it’s alleged the two B.C. trucking companies suspected of being involved with the Delta school did not actually require Delta graduates to drive, but were instead asked to falsify logbooks in order to keep trucks on the road for longer periods of time.

Calgary police have charged the Delta schools’ head instructor Jaswant Singh and a medical doctor, Gurdip Bhullar, with forgery of documents and breach of public office. Police had been tracking more than a 170 people during the two-year sting — dubbed Operation Humbug — who started out with Class 5 licence and left the school with a Class 1.

While Alberta law requires drivers to get their basic licence in the province before they can be tested for a Class 1 permit, police said the school used fake lease agreements so many B.C. students could claim residency to acquire Alberta licences, a process not requiring testing if an applicant has a valid licence from another recognized jurisdiction.

Since the Delta school incident unraveled, ICBC has retested B.C. drivers associated with the school, and each one of them has failed, the agency said.

ICBC driving test records also allow the agency to identify people who may have failed a test in B.C., but obtained a license in another province. These drivers are flagged and generally re-tested, and in almost all cases, are not granted a B.C. driver’s license. Also, ICBC follows up with the province that granted the license to ensure that the original license was either revoked or reduced.