Peter Hurst, director of carrier safety and enforcement for the Ministry of Transportation in Ontario, Canada, recently began his one-year term as president of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).

Although he’ll be keeping up with his regular position in Toronto, Hurst sees a busy year ahead in his work with CVSA, North America’s leading commercial vehicle safety organization.
Hurst said consistency, uniformity and quality training are the hallmarks that have led to excellence among enforcement staff and helped alleviate much of the truck and bus industry concerns regarding different rules and inspection protocols among states, provinces and territories.
He said drivers and carriers are no longer faced with uncertainty regarding the inspection they will undergo when they pull into any one of the 1,400 permanent inspection stations and weigh scales located across North America.
"Wherever they are in North America, drivers can rely upon standardized inspection procedures and uniform out-of-service criteria. The professional enforcement staffs have all received the same training and instruction. This means a level playing field for all carriers, regardless of home jurisdiction," Hurst said.
Hurst sees commercial vehicle safety and enforcement as having come a long way, but now faces change and new challenges. "The volume of goods moved by commercial trucking grows almost daily, as trucking has become the economic lifeblood of our three nations. And now there’s the unwieldy balance of maintaining security at our international borders while striving for the seamless movement of freight across the borders," he said.
"As we face these and other challenges, our tradition will provide firm footing as we stretch, explore and probe to the edges of the envelope to find new ways to advance our cause – an environment free of commercial vehicle accidents and incidents."