Truck drivers may obtain the new handbook at their local MTO Driver and Vehicle licensing offices and various retail outlets. Hazardous in Trucking Truckers are five times more likely to be killed on the job than other workers. Transport Canada data indicates that in 1996 there were 58 truck drivers killed and 2,852 injured in big truck collisions. With about 3,000 truck drivers killed or injured a year, the Federal Government needs to take a more active role to improve the safety and working conditions of Canada s truckers. If 58 workers were killed in one year in any other industry there would be government action.
Truckers require equal protection.
Recent Labour Canada statistics for employees covered by the Canada Labour Code indicate that in 1996 a worker in interprovincial road transport was five times more likely to be killed on the job than workers covered by the Code in general. Some of these deaths can be attributed to sleep impaired truck drivers forced to work too many hours in a cut-throat deregulated market. Proposals by the trucking industry and some provinces to increase truck driver hours of work from the current 60 hours a week to 84 could make the fatigue problem even worse. Les chauffeurs travaillent dans des conditions ind centes . Le combat se poursuit.