The Canadian Trucking Alliance Tuesday issued a press release to counter reports that the organization supports allowing up to 18 hours behind the wheel for Canadian truck drivers.
The alliance is the Canadian equivalent of the ATA.
According to the Alliance release, “a front page article in today’s Globe and Mail that has since been picked up by other media outlets may be creating the impression that the Canadian Trucking Alliance wants to change the hours of service regulations for truck drivers to require them to drive for longer hours. Many in the media have been reporting that CTA is seeking 18 hours a day of driving time. This is absolutely not what CTA is seeking.” The Globe and Mail is a major Toronto daily.
In fact, UPI did pick up the story, which appeared in some U.S. papers, including the Washington Times.
The story quoted Robert Bouvier, the president of the Teamsters union that represents 70,000 Canadian truckers, who said the union reached an agreement three years ago with the Canadian Trucking Alliance that drivers could work 14-hour days, 13 of them driving, before they had to take breaks of at least eight hours. Bouvier said the industry decided it needed more flexibility and the industry came "through the back door."
“In no way are we attempting to increase driving time,” says David Bradley, CEO of the alliance in the press release. “What we are trying to do is to avoid the situation where a driver would be penalized from a productivity and income perspective for taking MORE than the prescribed minimum off-duty time.”
The release explained that the daily maximum amount of time a driver can spend behind the wheel will actually be going down under new rules being proposed from 16 hours under the current regulation to 13 hours. Moreover, the daily minimum rest time will be increased from 8 hours to 10 hours per day.
These factors were the essence of an agreement between the Canadian Trucking Alliance and Teamsters Canada in 2002, the release said.