Here's a letter I received today from a concerned industry insider, looking to keep us all informed of the pending issues of the day in the industry. By their accounts going largely unnoticed and not being addressed effectively by the Canadian Trucking industry.

Ever heard the phrase:

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
For obvious reasons, this is one of my favourites

In an industry where the average business plan amounts to working for 60 days - getting paid for 30 and hoping to have something left over after satisfying our obligations, it really isn’t much of a plan.
There are many issues that face us in the transportation industry and the future will test our resolve like it has never been tested before.
One such issue is CSA 2010 – “Comprehensive Safety Analysis”
a subject that Jim Park touched on at our AGM

CSA 2010 has largely gone under the radar here in Canada because it is a US mandate, an initiative that will combine the safety and compliance ratings of companies and drivers along with roadside checks and audits – the end result will be far more accurate and timely - safety ratings. To this point, the FMCSA has only been able to audit 2% of the fleets on the road in the US; that is going to change radically upwards, to 100%

In typical Canadian fashion, most of us choose not to pay close attention to the goings on in hopes that we will escape their attention; not so in this case, every commercial driver and transport company that operates in the U.S. will be subjected to the new scrutiny and this will undoubtedly change the way that “all” carriers choose to hire their new employees and contractors, it will also cause employers to review who is already on the payroll and cull out the ones that pull low compliance marks and have repetitive infractions.


“Failing to plan is planning to fail”

If you run into the US and fail to do your homework on CSA 2010, you run the risk of being the next victim on the chopping block.

Your relationship with your employer or employee’s is about to change forever and it is perhaps time that we all pull our collective socks up and keep them up, compliance-wise
I respectfully suggest that as history has shown, we’ll not be able to hide from this type of safety initiative here in Canada; there will undoubtedly be a red headed step-brother or second cousin coming to visit us at some point and like it or not, they will be here to stay.



Negative……… me thinks not…………

It is not undesirable to be completely professional - it is honourable - that type of professionalism will come with a price tag.



All of this goodness is set to kick off July 2010

There is a decent but superficial look at CSA 2010 in Truck West this month



Here is the link for more information http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov