CTHRC updates Earning Your Wheels program

OTTAWA — The Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council has launched a new, updated entry-level Earning Your Wheels driver training program.

The program has undergone several revisions since it was developed in 1995. In this latest revision, the CTHRC worked with a committee that included representative from carriers, schools, insurance and other trucking stakeholders to finalize the new curriculum available to CTHRC “accredited” schools today.

“The technology in the trucking industry has changed so much in the past few years, that the material wasn’t relevant anymore,” said Andy Roberts, president of Mountain Transport Institute LTD. a school in B.C. that delivers the curriculum. “Carriers want employees who can work with the new equipment and technology that they use in their businesses, and this updated curriculum addresses that need.”

Twelve new streamlined modules that replace the original six.

Topics include: Trip planning (reading maps, planning routes); a new communication module (how to speak to customers and interact with difficult people); an overview of new technology (on board communication, technologically advanced equipment); An increase in the number of behind-the-wheel hours based on the industry demand for increasingly skilled drivers.

“We’re very excited about starting the new curriculum,” said Ted Sparkes, owner of the Atlantic Transport Training Institute in New Brunswick. “This new curriculum is more in line with what the trucking industry is looking for in its drivers, and as a school using the new EYW program, we’ll be able to pass those skills on to our students.”