New Brunswick to review driver training standards

FREDERICTON (Sept. 3, 1999) — The New Brunswick government plans to review training standards for professional truck drivers in response to complaints from the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association about private driver training schools.

Education Minister Elvy Robichaud said he would meet with trucking and training industry representatives about whether the government should mandate training standards, according to the Times & Transcript, a New Brunswick newspaper.

While trucking schools are legislated under the province’s Private Occupation Regulating Act, training standards are set by the industry and not by government.

The APTA has argued that the government gave its implicit support to a lower standard when it amended its student loan program a few years ago, reducing the minimum training period for an approved loan for accredited truck-driver instruction from 12 weeks to six.

APTA president Ralph Boyd wants the province to do more to support a 12-week training mandate.