The Commercial Vehicle Training Association (CVTA) announced its online instructor certification program will be available for Truck Training Association of Ontario (TTSAO) members.

CVTA is the largest association of professional truck driver training schools in the U.S., with 100 member schools that collectively train 100,000 entry-level drivers every year in 400 locations across 46 states. 

“We have the chance to work with very established organizations – such as the CVTA – in making this announcement and partnering with them for instructor training. So, let’s turn good drivers into good instructors,” said Philip Fletcher, the president of TTSAO during the organization’s annual conference in Brampton on Feb. 29.

The program is in the final stages of development and updates, and Fletcher expects it to be available in the next 60 to 90 days. He adds the training is not only for new trainers, and that even experienced instructors at TTSAO’s established schools will be asked to obtain that certification.

The courses, based on the materials registered at the Library of Congress, will consist of five levels, said Fletcher, adding that TTSAO will add relevant Canadian information to the CVTA’s modules to adapt them for Ontario drivers to ensure compliance and avoid confusion on the roads in Canada and the U.S.

It can take up to two years for drivers to become completely credentialed instructors since the training will be completed on a driver’s own time. Each module will take around 40 hours to complete the only way to access the next step is to complete the test on the material learned.

The modules will consist of various topics and will include communication and conflict resolution aspects.

“It starts with just a basic way of dealing with other adults so that you can exchange information, treat them properly, and make sure that you have respect within the framework of going one-on-one with the students, or also within a group setting,” Fletcher says. “There are five or six different courses within the curriculum of that level.”

Some other topics include conflict management and defusing anger in the workplace.

“We don’t experience [these issues] very often in the training situation, but they do come up.”

Currently, the criteria to become a truck driver instructor in Ontario includes having five years of verifiable experience, a clean criminal record and CVOR abstract, a full A/Z licence, and providing an Ontario Driver’s Abstract with less than three points on it.