OTTAWA — The association representing Canadian carriers participated this month is a “blitz” of meetings with Washington officials, covering everything from safety ratings reciprocity to FAST cards, to the environment.

Canadian Trucking Alliance staff recently met with the director of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Office of Safety Programs to discuss a variety of truck safety initiatives, including an to establish reciprocal recognition of Canadian and U.S. safety ratings.

Progress on this issue has been slow for many years, but the newly appointed FMCSA Administrator John H. Hill has stated he wants to see an agreement in place by the fall of 2008.

The CTA blitzed U.S. rule makers on issues that could
make life easier for Canadian truckers across the border.

Presumably, notes CTA, part of the renewed U.S. interest in reciprocity stems from the amended MVTA and the Canadian requirement that carriers — including those from the U.S. — have a “home” in one province for purposes for safety ratings.

One of the hurdles discussed at the meeting is the different treatment of drug and alcohol testing in Canada and south of the border. While mandatory drug tests make up a significant part of the U.S. rating, the rating process in Canada does not take drug and alcohol resting into account, and the practice of random drug testing is arguably against Canada’s human rights laws.

Redundancy in security protocols and fees for cross border truckers has been a hot issue for Canadian carriers since Sept. 11. While CTA flagged a number of new concerns — the treatment of drivers and confiscation of meat-packed lunches at the border; implementation of new Dept. of Agriculture fees for all truck shipments; and the lack of transparency regarding the denial or revocation of FAST cards, American officials didn’t seem to budge from the official government stance, CTA reports.

Officials, for example, reiterated that the proposed agricultural inspection fee is necessary to fund additional agricultural inspectors at the border.

CTA says it will be working with the Canadian Embassy to quantify the cost of various fees and border initiatives on the trucking industry.