Trucker hazard is real, says broker

Trucker ‘licensing mills’ could be turning out as many as 15 per cent of the new drivers on the road, says one fleet insurance veteran, and will only get worse without government regulation.

Risk Management News

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Trucker ‘licensing mills’ could be turning out as many as 15 per cent of the new drivers on the road, says one fleet insurance veteran, and will only get worse without government regulation.

“You’ve got unregulated schools that are bringing people in, doing the minimum that they have to do, and pushing them out the back door,” says Norm McIntyre, senior vice president with Jardine Lloyd Thompson Canada Inc., in Toronto, Ont. “I know the (trucking) industry is understaffed by 24 per cent, and I would say the ‘mills’ are running out 15 per cent. The whole industry could be in a really bad situation in the next four to five years.”

What’s worse, of the 15 per cent of new drivers coming from these ‘licensing mills,’ there are those drivers who eventually have accidents, says McIntyre, and are forced into non-driving positions by the insurance carriers.

A Toronto Star investigation this week shows that cut-rate truck schools in Ontario are producing poorly trained drivers who put the motoring public at risk, with some 24 unregulated schools in the GTA alone that offer to teach students just enough to earn their AZ licence.

Called ‘licensing mills’ by experienced truckers, thrive by exploiting a provincial loophole. They evade government scrutiny by charging $999 or less, just under the $1,000 threshold the province has set for regulated courses.

“Once you have that licence, you could be driving a double-tanker filled with gasoline down the 401 tomorrow,” David Bradley, president and CEO of the Ontario Trucking Association, told The Star. “(Some drivers) really don’t know what they’re doing. They’re a menace to themselves and everybody else.”

For McIntyre, the problem will only get worse as the baby boomers begin to retire. (continued.)
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“Young drivers have to be taught properly to be accepted by insurance carriers,” McIntyre told Insurance Business, “because of the amount of drivers that are leaving the industry through retirement. There is going to be a real problem here.”

In fact, many trucking companies are training drivers themselves, says McIntyre, and not relying on schools to provide the training.

What is worse is that the trucking companies paying the price – and the premium – of the bad drivers out on the road.

“The trucking owners aren’t getting the kind of insurance premiums that they should be from the qualified drivers that are coming out of the good driving schools,” he says. “That’s the problem.”

Statistics show that 4,000 collisions that happen each year involve tractor-trailers. The most recent complete provincial statistics show that of the 101 fatalities resulting from large-truck crashes, tractor-trailers were involved in 55 deaths in just one year.
 

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