In January 2022, BCTA submitted a letter to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) in response to the concerns raised in the Independent Audit of Commercial Vehicle Safety conducted in 2018 by the Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia.
The letter outlines BCTA’s Safety Committee recommendations that highlight key priorities in order to advance safety in BC’s commercial road transportation industry, which include:
- Publicly available Carrier Profiles: Providing shippers easy access to Carrier Profiles promotes safety on the roads and across the industry, allowing the customer to incorporate a carrier’s safety record into their selection process.
- Increased National Safety Code (NSC) auditor staffing: To address delays in conducting audits for non-compliant carriers, BCTA is requesting MoTI staff the NSC office at sufficient levels to meet its own audit standards and ensure road safety.
- Increased audits for non-compliance: A particular focus on audits for non-compliant carriers and audits for new carriers is needed to decrease the opportunity for additional non-compliant and unsafe behaviour.
- Mandated speed-limiters: Mandating the use of speed limiters on all heavy-duty commercial vehicles with the maximum speed set to 105 km/h in conjunction with the implementation of provincial electronic logging devices to advance road safety and manage fuel consumption.
- Improved highway maintenance: Immediate creation a working group to thoroughly review the level of road maintenance in the province and help develop recommendations to improve the level of transparency of service standards.
- Increased quality and quantity of commercial vehicle rest stop facilities: Rest stops are essential to the health and safety of commercial vehicle drivers. The availability and quality of rest stop facilities on main highway and arterial corridors throughout the province must be improved.
For full details of BCTA’s recommendations of key safety-related initiatives please see BCTA’s January 28, 2022 letter to Deputy Minister Kaye Krishna.
Have your voice heard. If you would like to become involved and join our Safety Committee, please contact Cory Paterson, BCTA Vice President, at CoryP@BCtrucking.com or 604-888-5319 ext 211.
