Help Guide the Future of Your Industry
Our industry is confronting the same labour shortages that many sectors in Canada are facing. In particular, we are in critical need of professional and qualified drivers because demand for trucking services is growing as the economy expands and many drivers are nearing retirement.
Truck driving is a demanding profession, the least of which involves knowing how to drive safely and responsibly in all sorts of road conditions, terrains, weather and congestion. Today's truck drivers have to be customer service representatives, safety and regulatory experts, planners, time managers, communicators, computer operators and salespersons. Specific sectors may also require knowledge about crossing the border, hazardous materials regulations, and load securement.
Today, someone wanting to be a professional driver is faced with a bewildering array of choices. What kind of training should I get? Will an employer recognize my training? How can I finance my training? Where should I go to get trained? And, ultimately, who will hire me if I get a Class 1?
The road to becoming a truck driver today is not a straightforward path with easy to recognize markers. Plus, our industry has often been unfairly saddled with a negative image by people who have little understanding about us. The public doesn’t think about how stock reaches stores, manufacturers get product to market, and their lives are made simpler because a truck delivered it. They don’t know about the superior safety record of the trucking industry, that we have the highest environmental standards of all of the transportation modes and how much their daily lives depend on trucks being operated.
The BC Trucking Human Resources Planning Committee, led by industry and funded by Service Canada, has spent a year developing a strategic plan to help the trucking industry attract and retain more professional, qualified drivers. The Committee commissioned research on driver training programs across North America, a comparison of BC’s Class 1 driver licensing standard and testing process with those across Canada and how to reach non-traditional and underrepresented groups in the trucking industry. The Committee also relied on research already conducted by the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council.
The Committee has developed several, inter-related recommendations, including:
- that a non-mandatory, minimum truck driver training program be developed and made available through a coherent and consistent training system of approved institutions
- that the minimum training program consist of pre-Class 1 licensing training and on-the-job training by employers who also have to meet certain standards
- that the Class 1 driver licensing standard and testing process be improved
- that more and varied financing mechanisms for truck driver training be identified and made available
- that trucking companies be provided with information on best human resources practices and retention strategies
- that while career opportunities in the trucking industry should be publicized to every potential worker, particular effort should be made to highlight the advantages of working in the trucking industry to women, young people and the Aboriginal community
To read the reports below, you will need Adobe Acrobat. To download Acrobat, click here.
To read the full report, please click here (3.6MB PDF file).
To read the driver training report, please click here (2.8MB PDF file).
To read the driver licensing report, please click here (2.1MB PDF file).
To read the careers marketing report, please click here (532KB PDF file).