Higher semi-truck training standards should apply to farmers, too

Certain events shake our very foundation, and no event shook the foundation of Saskatchewan harder than the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.

The deaths of 16 people and horrific injuries to 13 others forced all of us — including the Saskatchewan Party government — to think about what’s happening on Saskatchewan highways and why things on our roads occasionally go awry.

For years in this province, large semi-trailer truck operators roamed our highways with nothing more than an air-brake endorsement on their Class 1 driver’s licence.

Let us be clear that this is, by no means, nothing. That we haven’t had more tragedies in this landlocked province heavily reliant on semi traffic to haul everything from household goods to the grain we produce suggests the Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) testing has been rigorous enough to be rather effective. The overall pass rate for Class 1 is 72 per cent.

Nevertheless, the notion that anyone who passes the tests can drive anywhere in any driving conditions with any size load without taking any training is unsettling. Yes, you read that correctly. Without any formal training requirements.

While your 16-year-old kid has had to go through a learner’s permit process and endure a graduated period limiting everything from the number of people allowed in the driver’s vehicle to zero blood alcohol content, there are no restrictions for new Class 1/air brake licences.

Again, context is everything here, so let’s be fair to the licensing system as it has existed for years.

Roughly 90 per cent of those seeking semi-trailer licences do go to the trouble and costs of taking formal, professional driver training costing more than $2,000, according to SGI.

And while SGI Minister Joe Hargrave may have badly fumbled in making his point Monday, there is validity to the notion that long-haul truckers do face greater challenges driving in B.C. (Think that’s province’s Coquihalla Highway in the winter or Ontario’s 401 Highway that sees 420,000 vehicles a day.)

If Hargrave’s argument is that farmers shouldn’t necessarily have to face the same rigours as long-haul truck drivers on the road for 365 days a year, the numbers bear this out.

Between 2010 and 2017, there was an average of 1,189 collisions per year involving semi-trailer units in Saskatchewan. (These numbers do not reflect who was at fault.) Of those, an average of a mere 86 collisions a year involved farm-plated semi-trailers. Of interest, an average of 439 collisions a year involved out-of-province plated semis.

Unfortunately, in the new rules for trucking licensing, farmers aren’t just being treated differently. They are exempt from the new rules altogether, and that doesn’t seem right.

Effective March 15, 2019, new rules will require 121.5 hours of professional written and road training for future semi licences, However, Hargrave and the Sask. Party government grandfathered existing Class 1 licence holders and exempted farmers from having to take any formal professional training. He did say there will be further consultations.

Even if one accepts that farming semi-truck hauling is a small percentage of both the semi traffic and collisions on our highways, shouldn’t all drivers face similar rules?

We do know that there is a pattern of concessions by all Saskatchewan governments to the agriculture sector, including child labour laws, property taxes, PST on inputs, etc. Irksome to some is that the latest concession exempting farmers from the $8,500 course and from enduring the more stringent testing requirements, in effect March 15, is being made over public safety.

Shouldn’t there at least be a compromise? Shouldn’t farmers still be required to take at least a slighter-less-intense professional training course? Shouldn’t farm semis have separate licensing and driving restrictions better reflecting farm-based operations?

The government needs to put more thought to the matter than simply grandfathering old rules or completely exempting anyone.

Surely, the lessons we should have learned on the evening of April 6 at the intersection of highways 35 and 335 have taught us we need to do all that we can.