Nothing Facile About It

If you have ever experienced a facility audit at the hands of your provincial or territorial ministry of transport, you’ll know that it can be an intimidating and costly affair. If you’re caught unprepared, an audit can be painful, too.

Sometimes, you receive two-to-three days’ notice before an auditor arrives, but occasionally he or she will show up on your doorstep without warning and then hang around for a few days. Either way, you will have very little time to prepare.

In this and subsequent columns for Today’s Trucking, I’ll be going through the facility-audit process so you’ll know what to expect.

You can be audited for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you have crested a threshold on your safety rating and you’re due for a checkup. Maybe you have been involved in a serious accident or had a vehicle. In Ontario, a wheel-off will typically result in an audit.

Each province or territory is required to follow Standard 15 of the National Safety Code when conducting audits. For the most part, they do but some have modified the process a bit.

Generally, if an auditor arrives, you will be required to give him space to work and open your books for him. You should assign one individual to work with the auditor and I always recommend carriers record everything they turn over to an auditor. If charges are laid, this will assist you in building your defence.

The auditor is going to look at key areas of your operation; your drivers, training, maintenance, record keeping, collision history, and they may also conduct CVSA level-five inspections.

The auditor will look at a specific number of your drivers and vehicles based upon your fleet size. For example, if you have five trucks, the auditor will want to inspect at least two of them. If you have 15 drivers, the auditor will want to examine the books of 10 of them.

The auditor might also look at drivers and vehicles that are known to them.
These are drivers and vehicles that have been involved in roadside events, such as CVSA inspections, citations, etc. The ministry might also include “no-stop observations,” which is when enforcement officers record the date, time, location and unit or plate numbers of your vehicles while on the road.

I recommend complete compliance with any requests auditors make, as long as they are within Standard 15 guidelines. Ask your local ministry for a guide to audits so you’ll know what you’re in for.