Three years today at 9:30 a.m. (PST) my life changed. Thank you all for the messages today but can we use this as an opportunity to contact your MLA, your MP, share our website, share our FB page, drive with more care and attention, respect the heavy vehicles that you encounter on your path down our highways and give them some room.
TRUCK DRIVERS... will you please focus on safety and respect the professional career and license that you use to transport our goods across this country?
CARRIERS... will you please train and supervise your drivers? Provide continuous training, not just until they receive their license.
SHIPPERS/RECEIVERS... will you please plan your deliveries with more than enough time to have your goods safely transported? Also, maybe the rates need to be increased a bit to support safe travel.
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA... not just the Ministry of Transportation but other ministries such as Public Safety, Employment and Social Development, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Infrastructure, Justice and lastly ALL THE PROVINCIAL AND THE FEDERAL MINISTER OF TRANSPORTATION… I plead with you, take the safety of our roadways seriously. No more politically correct responses to our quest. We ask for real action. We ask those in power to make the changes necessary to make our roads a safe place for all to travel. Entry Level Training is not a solution but rather an interm solution to a long term problem. ELT is a licensing training program rather than an employability training program. At a minimum, truck driving must be considered a trade with a Red Seal endorsement. Minister Garneau, please do the right thing. Respect the lives of those that share the road with the industry that you license.
Lastly buy not least... the organizations such as the provincial and national trucking associations. Please do not get stuck on the hamster wheel of acceptance. This industry has evolved. The days where the generational truck driver has changed. With a driver shortage of 20,000 drivers we are now seeing new drivers that are not familiar with the industry. New drivers that are not familiar with our weather systems and vast terrain, mountain passes, freeways etc. To be fair to the new drivers as well as everyone on our roadways, this class 1 licensing system must change to accommodate the fact that it is currently very inadequate. Again...one can get a Class 1a license in a prairie province with a flat deck and a day cab, One can then use that very same license and haul heavy loads, logs and even dangerous goods (with a 2 hour online TDG course) across our mountain passes in the dead of winter. A hair stylist, cook, mechanic requires MUCH more training and experience to acquire their ticket (or license) than a truck driver. SO WRONG!
Lets make truck driving a trade with a Red Seal endorsement.
Lets take this day and make it a day of true support rather than sympathy. We all have a social responsibility to make our roads safe. Nobody ever wants to receive that knock on the door at I did at 2:30pm (PST) March 13, 2017. My life has changed but I am very grateful for those I have in my life and my life as it is. I am very blessed. I ask for support rather than sympathy. Please take action in making our roads a safer place for us all to travel.
Safe travels everyone.
Pattie Fair
Executive Director, Safer Roads Canada
March 13, 2020
