Commercial vehicle safety has recently been thrown into the spotlight across North America following a variety of incidents, such as fake licenses, poorly maintained equipment and illegal maneuvers resulting in serious collisions.
What's being done back home to keep the roads safe?
In BC, the Ministry of Transportation and Transit has made a handful of changes in recent years in an effort to ensure all “commercial vehicles on BC highways operate as safely as possible.”
A part of the assurance is ensuring that all commercial drivers meet the ICBC licensing requirements and that the place where they receive their certification is legitimate.
According to the ministry, ICBC regularly reviews all 75 schools that deliver the Class 1 Mandatory Entry-Level Training program (MELT) in BC, making sure the programs are fulfilling the needed requirements.
“If a school is not meeting standards, ICBC addresses issues through monitoring, site visits, and record reviews,” explained the ministry.
“In cases of serious non-compliance, the school loses its authorization to provide MELT training.”
The MELT program was introduced in October 2021, with input from the BC Trucking Association.
The program is taken by new BC commercial drivers and ensures that they are trained for the province’s challenging topography and climate, as well as ensuring that there is an improvement to driver training, professionalism and road safety.
Alongside the implementation of the MELT program, the ministry has added a trio of new safety measures that “strengthen and improve commercial vehicle safety rules.”
“The ministry continues to modernize commercial vehicle safety rules, including new measures such as a provincial Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate in August 2023, a Speed Limiter (set to 105 km/h) mandate for heavy commercial vehicles in April 2024, and an In-cab Warning Device mandate for commercial vehicles with dump boxes in June 2024, ensuring drivers operate within safe parameters,” explained the ministry.
Once on the road, drivers come into contact with CVSE officials in a variety of ways, including inspection stations.
In total, CVSE officers conduct more than 27,000 inspections through mobile enforcement and at inspection stations annually.
If someone is out on the road and witnesses what they believe to be an unsafe commercial vehicle, they are encouraged to report the matter to local police. Concerns can also be directed to the CVSE at 1-888-775-8785 or by email at [email protected]
