BANFF, Alta. (May 9, 2005) — A very candid Lyle Oberg said he sympathizes with carriers frustrated by the lack of transparency with truck driver’s abstracts and promised to look into the issue further.

Taking questions at the Alberta Motor Transport Association’s conference in Banff recently, the Alberta Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation was asked to respond to carriers’ concerns that federal privacy law hampers fleets from screening drivers with a history of traffic violations.

Carriers claim such laws are interfering with their ability to conduct proper background checks on potential drivers. Worse still, many infractions caused by drivers are not recorded on the driver’s abstract, but instead appear on the carrier’s safety profile — and stick long after the driver’s left the company.

“The individual’s privacy is becoming paramount to everybody else’s safety,” Oberg said. “It seems every time we get an interpretation of the Privacy Act, it becomes more strict and regimented. I have a big problem with that.”

Oberg asked AMTA member carriers to send him a letter expressing their concerns, and he hopes to address the details with federal officials in the future.