By James Peters

Kamloops Chamber highlights call for better truck driver training

Dec 12, 2018 | 3:16 PM

KAMLOOPS — A damning report from BC’s auditor general has the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce renewing its call for more training programs for commercial truck drivers.

The report from Auditor General Carol Bellringer stated though commercial vehicles constitute just three per cent of vehicles on BC highways, they are involved in nearly 20 per cent of fatal crashes.

President Joshua Knaak says the chamber first adopted the lobbying position pushing for more training in 2016, spurred by the trucking industry itself.

“The trucking industry was saying, ‘First of all, we need to attract more drivers and in order to do that, we need to make this a more qualified position,’” said Knaak. “There were a number of recommendations that came out of that. One of them was actually the trucking industry themselves saying, ‘We need to boost the amount of training that goes into this.’”

“In this case, it was Greg Munden of Munden Ventures, and he worked with Bob Dieno, who was president at the time. They worked with the advocacy bodies of the trucking industry as well to co-present this policy.”

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In a news release, the chamber notes commercial drivers are currently required to take a two-hour road test and a 16-hour airbrake course.

The chamber says it can take as little as three days for a driver to go from applying for a license to receiving it.

While Knaak says a national standard on driver training is preferable, a provincial standard would be a good start.

“There have been some recent news stories about some action at a provincial level. We’re just coming alongside those who are pushing for that at a provincial level — again, within the trucking industry — and saying, ‘We, as a chamber, support this.’”

Knaak insists the lobbying effort is not driven by external criticism, but by commercial operators and their families, and notes a recent contact reinforced the importance of the effort.

“This was probably about six months ago. There was an incident that happened between Revelstoke and Salmon Arm. Because we had this policy on the books, we were contacted by the wife of an individual who had been involved in an accident and who had passed away. The issue at hand was a driver who had inadequate training.”