Grey Areas: Do Older Drivers Need More Tests?

It’s not the kind of attention you want on your 65th birthday: a slip of paper from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation reminding you to book an appointment to take your commercial driver licence exam. Not just a medical check or a written test. The whole megillah, every year, for as long as you want to keep driving professionally.

I doubt Jim Rylance props up his annual renewal notice among the Hallmark cards on the mantelpiece.

Rylance works part-time for a fleet near his home in Woodstock, Ont., logging around 1,000 miles a week. At 72, he’s passed the test seven times now, although he actually failed the first time he had to renew-you can read why in our Dispatches section this month. Rylance re-took the test a few weeks later (with a different examiner) and passed with flying colours. Ironically, Rylance is a former fleet safety manager who once held MTO signing authority for commercial driver licences.

Ontario is the only jurisdiction in North America with an annual testing requirement for trucks drivers who are 65 or older. There must be a good reason for it: surely the results of those driver evaluations show cognitive slips and degenerating reflexes caused by the passage of time.

They don’t. They can’t. Because the MTO gives seniors the same commercial driver’s test as everyone else.

“I don’t have any problems out there on the road, and I can’t imagine what they hope to prove about my present ability to handle a truck by making me do
a circle check and drive a few miles around town,” Rylance told contributing editor Jim Park. “Unless I was completely out of it, I could do this test in my sleep, provided the examiner knew what the hell he was looking for.

“I’ve never had a problem with the written or medical tests, but the driving test is way over the top. If they wanted to test my reaction time and awareness of what’s going on around me, they could do that on a pinball machine.”

The cost and scheduling demands of getting a truck for the test especially rankles him. Rylance says he’s lucky his employer lets him take a truck and trailer out of circulation for a day each year so he can do the test. Other older drivers aren’t so fortunate.

“If not for his understanding, I’d have to dig into my own pocket and rent a tractor-trailer from somewhere,” Rylance says. “Why should I have to cover the expense of renting a truck? At my age, I’m working because I enjoy it, but there will come a time when I’m not going to bother with it, and we’ll be short another experienced driver.”

No question, the MTO (and any other jurisdiction that issues driver licences) has a responsibility to turn away people who are unfit to drive due to mental impairment, a physical problem, or a history of recklessness. Older drivers just happen to make an easy target. “Age-related impairment” comes up every time someone on the far side of 75 dents a fender, especially since 1996, when Ontario eliminated rules requiring drivers aged 80 or older to take an annual road test in favour of a classroom course every two years. They also must pass vision and “rules of the road” tests to keep their licences.

Those classroom sessions should be required for drivers of any age and any classification, starting with those involved in crashes. A qualified driving instructor could explain what went wrong to cause the accident and what could have been done to avoid it. If there’s any special attention to be paid to older drivers, it could be to help them realize when bona-fide, age-related changes in hearing, vision, flexibility, and reaction time threaten their own well-being and that of others. That way, they don’t have to be coerced into giving up their licences by nagging family members, insurance companies, or the MTO.

Over the past decade, the older working-age population (45 to 64) has increased by 36 per cent, jumping from 5.4 million to almost 7.3 million people. Over the next 10 years, that number is expected to swell to 9.5 million. On the other hand, the youngest generation-the 25- to 34-year-olds-has dropped by 18 per cent over a 10-year period to below 4 million.

Do the math. Today, there are only 2,000 drivers over the age of 65 holding a commercial driver licence in Ontario, so the number of older licence holders isn’t overwhelming. But tomorrow there will be more, and this industry needs older drivers-skilled, experienced people who understand the demands of the job and are up to them.

We also need continuity in driver training, evaluation, and testing to make sure everyone understands the rules of road and can follow them. We need traffic laws to be enforced and driving privileges promptly stripped from those who no longer deserve them.

But not because of age.


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