The President of the BC Trucking Association believes the majority of trucks in the province are safe despite a recent blitz in Burnaby where almost half of the nearly 300 trucks pulled over failed a roadside inspection.
Dave Earle stressed that while there were almost 300 trucks pulled over, that is only a fraction of the transports heading through the area. “It wasn’t 40% of the trucks on the road. It’s too many. The bottom line is we shouldn’t see any of this stuff. And I mean we encourage the enforcement to pull these vehicles off the road and keep them off the road. The bottom line is it is too many, but it is a small fraction of the industry.”
Earle says some of the defects that were seen, such as brakes in close to unworkable condition or a booster seat being used in the cab of the truck, those types of things didn’t happen overnight and he is unsure how they could have possibly been passed during a mandatory inspection that takes place every six months.
“We looked at some of the vehicles that were on the road, the defects that were there, I would submit that those didn’t happen over the short term and I don’t know how these vehicles got through the commercial vehicle inspection program. Something that we discuss with the government on a regular basis and we continue to do so.”
Earle added that the majority of these vehicles in question appeared to be doing local routes as it easier to get away with these types of issues if you stay close to home. “The anecdotal pictures that I saw were local trucks. They were running local routes, they weren’t running long-haul. But I mean it is going to depend, and we will have to wait and see what data we get or what type of data the RCMP are willing to share in that type of thing so we can understand a little bit better where exactly these things are originating from. But regardless of that, it’s just got to get better.”
Earle says BC has the most stringent inspection process in Canada. but this blitz does indicate that things need to be better.
Meanwhile, Liberal Transportation and Infrastructure critic Marvin Hunt thinks a lot of the blame lays directly on the trucking companies. Speaking on NL Newsday he says it shouldn’t just hang on the driver. “It should be hanging on the company that’s putting this person behind the wheel. And, what are they doing putting these people behind the wheel, especially when you’ve got the ridiculous situation of an ‘L’ (learners permit).”
Hunt thinks companies are putting undue pressure on drivers by making unrealistic demands. “Maybe what you’re saying is that in fact these companies are pushing these drivers so hard that they’re taking risks and chances that they shouldn’t be taking. You know, rather than stopping, chaining up, doing everything right, they’re just pushing it, thinking ‘Naw, I can make it through, the roads will be okay’.”
Hunt wonders if the province has the resources to deal with the problem, calling it “one big alarm bell that needs to be addressed”.
