TORONTO, (July 7, 2004) — The Ontario Trucking Association is endorsing a recent movement to make truck driving one of that province’s 144 apprenticed trades.

As reported over the last several months by Today’s Trucking, A group of carriers, schools, driver trainers, and insurance stakeholders are talking with Ontario Ministry of Education and Training officials about establishing “unrestricted” or voluntary apprenticeships for truck driving school graduates.

The idea behind an unrestricted apprenticeship — or finishing programs — as opposed to traditional apprenticeships, is that employer participation is voluntary. Only carriers who choose to get involved would reap the rewards, with no penalty for those who don’t. Among the benefits to such a program are tax credits and training subsidies for both students and carriers.

Although it had in the past been reserved on the issue, the OTA recently lent its weight to the initiative at a June Board of Directors meeting, where the 80-plus board voted in favor of an of lobbying the Ontario Apprenticeships Board to designate truck driving as an apprenticeable trade.

The group that is walking this plan forward — including KRTS Transportation Specialists, TST Truckload, and MacKinnon Transport, whose CEO Evan MacKinnon is also chairman of the Canadian Trucking Alliance — report that the plan is picking up steam. At least one major insurance company is taking a serious look at the program, it says.

According to Brian Botham, manager of safety and driver resources for Guelph, Ont.-based MacKinnon Transport, the program could act as a bridge between young drivers and a good cross-border job in trucking. Currently, drivers must be 21 to qualify for U.S. service, but Canadians allow 18-year-olds. “If we took these young drivers into the program, by the time they reach 21, they’ll already have a couple of years of experience on Canadian highways,” he says.

Joanne Ritchie, new executive director of the Owner-Operator’s Business Association of Canada (OBAC), also supports apprenticeships as a way of developing skills of young drivers. “We have the talent as resources in our senior, more experienced drivers and we should put it to good use,” she said. “Until now we haven’t had the mechanism to make apprenticeship work in trucking; this might be the opportunity we’ve been waiting for.”

Recently, an Ontario Chamber of Commerce study warned that the entire province is on the verge of a massive labour shortage. The survey on skilled trades released by the OCC says that 52 per cent of trades people are expected to retire within the next 15 years, with 41 per cent of survey respondents indicating they will face a labour shortage in their industry within the next five years.