OTTAWA (Oct. 29, 2001) — The Canadian Trucking Alliance is asking federal transport minister David Collenette and his provincial colleagues to resolve some of the longstanding consistency and database concerns on a host of safety and technical matters, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In a letter to Collenette and to Darren Christle, chair of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators’ Compliance and Regulatory Affairs Committee, CTA chief executive officer David Bradley said that “while the irritants stemming from the ongoing lack of compatibility and consistency in Canadian trucking safety and technical standards seem mundane and insignificant in comparison to the murderous events of Sept. 11th and their aftermath, such irritants and incompatibilities could take on great significance in the new reality.”

Bradley pointed out that in recent weeks some Canadian truck drivers have been detained and/or charged for such things as having one name on their citizenship cards and another on their commercial driver’s licence. He also said trucking companies are reporting that Canadian truck drivers whose first language is not English have been fined by state troopers for not meeting a U.S. requirement that drivers must be able to speak English well enough to be understood by a police officer.

Perhaps of more concern, according to Bradley, are “ongoing problems like the lack of a national carrier safety ratings system and database. The line, if it exists at all, between safety and security, is very thin… How long before the US regulators raise concerns about many of these same matters and imperil the reciprocal nature of our regulatory systems?”

“We are not suggesting that our rules need to be the same as the Americans,” he added, noting that the United States plans to move quickly to resolve some of its own inconsistencies in truck safety rules. “But they do need to be compatible and the monitoring systems and data has to be in place nationally.”