The Canadian Trucking Alliance wants to raise the bar for all new companies entering the trucking business.
The alliance is developing new guidelines while also calling for a National Motor Carrier Entry Standard for new companies.
The move is in response to the Humboldt Broncos bus crash. In April of 2018, 16 people were killed and 13 injured when a transport truck ran a stop sign in rural Saskatchewan, slamming into the bus carrying the junior hockey team.
Alliance President Stephen Laskowski told AM800's The Afternoon News that it's important for the public to feel confident trucking companies are operating properly.
"We need to make sure that companies coming in to our industry, that hire these drivers, have the same level of commitment to safety that our members have and that the vast majority of companies have," says Laskowski.
He says Alberta and Ontario have a set of rules in place now and that will form a starting point for the entry standard.
CTA has established the Truck Safety Working Group made up of leading trucking industryrepresentatives from coast-to-coast as well as Transport Canada. The Truck Safety Working Group was created to promote CTA’s 10-point action plan, which provides policy makers some direction on how government and industry can work together on improving truck safety compliance.
Laskowski says having Transport Canada is essential to have some control over trucks that come into the country from the United States and Mexico.
"What are the elements that we should have in such a program? So we are working through those issues as we speak and I expect to have some conclusions to take to our board of directors in the fall," he says.
Laskowski points out that rail and airline companies have to meet standards be be able to conduct business in Canada.
"There needs to be proof and evidence that a carrier entering our industry understand the safety requirements and commitments that is required to run a trucking company," he says. "Not only to show that upon entrance but then to prove it."
Laskowski admits it's a balancing act to have a standard without closing the door on entrepreneurs who want to enter the industry.