OTTAWA, — The Canadian Trucking Alliance has issued a release rebutting today’s front page newspaper stories suggesting that the carrier association supports increasing truck drivers’ daily driving time to 18 hours a day.

An article in today’s Globe and Mail titled “18-Hour Day For Truckers ‘Insane'” has mistakenly created the impression that the CTA is lobbying to change the HOS regulations so that drivers would be required to be on the road longer hours.

The story — which has since been picked up by other media outlets — quotes Teamster Canada chief Robert Bouvier describing the proposal to extend the daily working-window for truckers from 16 to 18 hours “insane,” adding that it “doesn’t make sense.”

“This is absolutely not what the CTA is seeking,” CTA CEO David Bradley said in a press release. “What we are trying to do is to avoid the situation where a driver would be penalized from a productivity and income perspective for taking more than the prescribed minimum off-duty time.”

The CTA says that the working-window proposal doesn’t change the upcoming rule’s daily driving time limit of 14 hours, but instead increases the available time for a driver to complete all his duties in a shift. Under the current regulations, there is no limit on the amount of time that can be used to complete a driving shift.

While the latest draft proposals would require a driver to complete all his driving time, other work, naps, meals, etc., within a 16 hour ‘working window,’ the CTA proposed an additional two hours, apparently to be used for extra rest that the association says would otherwise be eaten up waiting at shipping docks.

An 18-hour working window would provide a modest level of flexibility for those drivers to encourage sufficient breaks, the CTA says. Drivers would not be required to use the full 18-hour window — it would be available only if needed to give the driver rest opportunities to use during delays.

However, some critics question whether the 18-hour provision really has drivers’ interests at heart, and suspect that the additional two hours may be used as an excuse to avoid compensating drivers for delays at loading docks or distribution centres.

As Today’s Trucking reported in September, the Canadian Council of Ministers responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety instructed the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) at a meeting in Quebec City to review the impacts of the 18-hour working window proposal in consultation with industry and to report back within 60 days. If approved, each province would then have one year to introduce the federal rules in their legislation before coming into force. A decision is expected by the end of the year.