PTTAC pushes for national standards in truck driver training
The Professional Truck Training Alliance of Canada (PTTAC) is calling for national standards and greater oversight of commercial truck driver training schools to address safety concerns.
“The explosion of commercial truck training schools across Canada is affecting road safety, and we need to do something about it now before the carnage continues,” said Jim Campbell, PTTAC founder and chairman, in a news release. “If we are going to fix this problem of poorly educated and licensed entry-level commercial drivers, we must unify as an industry and as a nation and work together.”
Since May 2024, the organization has conducted meetings in five provinces — Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Alberta — gathering nearly 200 industry and government representatives to discuss objectives such as establishing a Red Seal Apprenticeship for commercial drivers, implementing a national instructor training program, and improving accessibility to funding for training programs.
With additional meetings planned, PTTAC aims to work with provincial trucking associations and other stakeholders to push for compliance and standardization across training schools.
A town hall meeting for members is set for November 27 to continue advancing these initiatives.
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I agree that there should be a national standard for truck driver training and for the schools that provide this type of training.
However, getting all the provinces, territories and Transport Canada to agree on national standards is a complex and time consuming process, and even when an agreement on a national standards is agreed upon it often not long before one or two provinces come up with their own bells and whistles to add to the national standards.
The hours of service rules are a good example of this.
I am in agreement with a standard of training that should be a national rule. I am reluctant to take out a membership in any organization that I am sure will soon ignore the small operator as he does not have enough clout to be heard by your group as larger groups do so they count. Evidence with this is the lack of any support for the present day MELT courses in opposition with the vocational courses with funding, test dates and other items that the vocational schools enjoy.
A great idea but in Ont major changes needed in the testing and training for all truck bus and disabled people transport
We also need improvement in some of the school bus training and min requirement for Uber drivers in my opinion.