The BC Trucking Safety Council was initiated on February 1, 2008 with financial and professional support from WorkSafeBC. The Council started out with a Managing Director and a mandate to plan a course of action for the future; over the next six months, with the help of both WorkSafeBC and BCTA, the Council created a two-year work plan and put a Board of Directors in place.
The trucking industry plays a key role in BC’s economy and the quality of life for our citizens. Trucking handles about 70 percent of all goods transported in BC and over 60 percent of our trade with the US. Trucking is also the link that allows other transportation modes to work together. Marine, rail and air transportation all rely on trucking to initiate or complete the flow of goods to and from their terminals.
There are almost 50,000 women and men who are involved in trucking in some capacity – either in for-hire or private trucking. The BC Trucking Safety Council’s sole purpose is to develop and implement programs and services designed to reduce workplace risks that can lead to injuries and fatalities. The Council’s mandate will include raising awareness and educating the industry about safety problems that are unique to trucking.
This Council is funded through a very affordable surcharge on WorkSafeBC premiums paid by thousands of employers in trucking who employ about 25,000 of these workers.
The need for a Council doesn’t mean that the industry is particularly unsafe. It doesn’t mean that workers don’t have a shared responsibility for their safety and well being. It does mean that the Council does not accept the current level of losses and is committed to working harder and smarter to make improvements wherever and whenever it can.
Although the industry’s injury rate has declined steadily over the past five years, the trucking safety “toolkit” needs to be improved and expanded to further mitigate risk on the road, in the yard or warehouse and at shippers’ facilities.
With advice, information and cooperation from WorkSafeBC, all three levels of government, ICBC and BC police forces, other provincial employer associations and safety councils, and educational and safety research institutions, the BC Trucking Safety Council intends to work with employers across the province to make our industry a safer and better place to work.