Dave Cranley’s a 48 year-old mild-mannered owner-op who hauls wood shavings out of Thamesford, Ont. Back in February he had his licence yanked after being diagnosed with angina — an illness indicating that a portion of the heart is not receiving enough blood flow. So he has heart surgery on March 11, and is told by the doctors he’s looking at four to six weeks recovery.

While he’s not thrilled that his truck’s wheels won’t be turning, he understands the rules, and he and the wife tighten their belts a bit.

Weeks later, he passes a post-surgery physical and is feeling as good as new. It’s now late May, and a recovered Dave is starting to wonder what the status of his licence is. He’s told by the Ministry of Transportation he was supposed to take a stress test. It’s news to him. It must have slipped the doctor’s mind, and the MTO didn’t bother giving him a head’s up either.

“It says nothing about a stress test in their paperwork listing all the requirements,” he tells me. “I’m just a truck driver. What do I know about a stress test? All I needed was a letter weeks before saying, ‘don’t forget this is what you need to do.'”

So he books a stress test. Meanwhile, there’s still no new digits on either his ’95 Eagle International’s odometer or in his bank account.

It’s now late June, and the cardiologist who administers the stress test gives him a verbal thumbs up after the results come in. “He basically said I’m okay to go,” Dave tells me. One last hurdle to jump, however: send the results to the MTO, whose own physicians are supposed to review the paperwork and rubberstamp it. He faxes the stress-test results on June 28.

It’s now mid July and still no licence. He’s calling the MTO, who say they’ll look into it and get back to him. Trying a different route, he calls his local MPP, who tells him to be patient. Next he dials up the Premier’s office, whose office manager, Dave says, was sympathetic, but refers him back to the MTO. By now, he’s cashed in all his RRSP’s and even tried putting a driver on his truck — a kid who, Dave says, is giving his truck a bit of a beating.

He finally gets through to a nice lady at the MTO’s medical review office who’s located his paperwork and apologizes — they misplaced it, she admits. But don’t worry, she says, it’ll be processed right away — right after the long weekend — or when the physicians who review this stuff meet (2-3 times a week, apparently).

And Dave waits some more.

“Look, I’m not asking for any preferential treatment,” Dave says. “I just want them to do what they need to do to get me on the road so I can do my job. Is that too much to ask?”

No it isn’t. And in my opinion, neither is “preferential treatment”. What’s wrong with moving someone whose licence is their livelihood to the top of the list? There should indeed be a separate, expedited process for truck drivers and cab drivers, even if it means moving ahead of the little old lady who takes her car 0.5 clicks to the corner store twice a week.

I called the MTO and asked if they would consider the idea. Ministry spokesperson Danna O’Brien — one of the nicest PR people around — got back to me. “No,” she said, quite frankly. Okay. Why not?

“It may be something worth looking at, but government is not going to wake up one day and decide to change the rules,” she says. “It’s up to industry to [lobby] us.” She has a good point.

So, the next call went to the Ontario Trucking Association, who said it’s an issue they’ve taken up in the past on behalf of members. Well, that’s nice, but what the Dave Cranleys of the world need is some heat on the MTO to change policy. Now I’m no bureaucrat or lobbyist, but it seems to me that expediting the approval process for those whose livelihoods are at stake is a relatively cheap and painless concept.

It’s now the first week in August and Dave calls as we’re going to press. I tell him I’m not sure things will get better by next year (or every year thereafter) when he’s required to go through this bureaucratic spin cycle again. But he just wanted to tell me he got his licence back. I’m happy for him. It’s been half a year, and he’s allowed to make some money again.