New legislation has been passed that introduces new mandatory entry-level training for new Class 1 commercial driver’s license applicants.
MELT (Mandatory Entry-Level Training) is a framework that was established by the Federal government prior to the 2018 Humbolt tragedy, however that incident significantly accelerated the process.
Once MELT was created, each province took on a new policy to abide by the standard, with BC being the final one to do so.
Dave Earle, President, and CEO of the BC Trucking Association says the training is going to be more expensive for those looking to become Class 1 commercial drivers, as now training is going to cost upwards of $15,000.
However, creating additional training in BC is very important and was much needed.
“What it was before was there was no standard, and so what schools would do is they would teach and train people to pass the road test and we saw really really bad outcomes in some instances,” he explained.
Earle adds that he isn’t sure if this new policy is going to add to the shortage of truck drivers already seen in BC.
However, Dardo Krueger, General Manager of O’brien Training in Prince George agrees the new training is definitely needed, but says the new legislation will most definitely exacerbate the labour shortage.
“And the main reason is, they can’t afford to do it now. Prior to this, most of the people who wanted to take class 1 training had to access funding from somewhere unless they had the money themselves, and a lot of people are doing this for a career change or starting a career, and they simply don’t have a big pot of money saved up to use for training,” explained Krueger.
Krueger explained that $7,500 of Employment Insurance (EI) was funding available through Work BC with minimal requirements, however, with this new policy came more requirements to access the funding.
“So most of us driving schools had our Class 1 Driving program set up around that budget, and for my school, we allowed 72 hours of training for the $7,500 including an Airbrakes course. So 72 hours at $100 an hour, we have simulators as well as trucks,” explained Krueger.
He says now accessing the funding is very onerous, and now 140 hours of training is required to access the funding.
Krueger explains that this new policy won’t only impact the already low rates of Class 1 drivers, but it will also impact the number of available instructors.
“We agree totally with the entry-level training, but one of the difficulties of Class 1 training today is Class 1 instructors. There’s quite extensive training required to become a class 1 instructor, and one of them is you’ve had to have been a Class 1 driver for at least three years, then you have to take an actual instructing course which takes about a month and costs $10,000 and now with the MELT, you have to take additional MELT training so it’s extensive and pretty expensive to become a Class 1 instructor,” he stated.
According to Krueger, a lot of one-on-one training is required to become a driver and instructor and happens in various settings outside of classrooms, and now the cost of training has gone up by about $10,000 as a result of the MELT program.
“I would just say that there’s a pretty big disconnect between the program as laid out and now put into effect, and the ability for potential new drivers to access the funding to allow them to go through the program and also for schools to be able to gear up to provide the program,” he stated.