President’s Report for September 2023

September kicked off a busy schedule of contacts, conferences and calls.

We continued working on the Instructor Certification project. With the change in leadership at MTO, Caroline Mulroney switching posts with Prabmeet Sarkaria, we have already pressed forward. We were fortunate enough to get an early meeting with the new Minister. We found Minister Sakaria to be very approachable and have a good early grasp on issues important to the TTSAO. It’s a very promising start.

Another prominent meeting was held on the 14th at the OTA office. I met with Geoff Wood to discuss our areas of common concern. A very robust discussion took place, during which time we found a number of common goals, and a promise to work together closely in the coming months. Very good to work with the OTA. Stephen Laskowski is coming to Hamilton to address our Transportation Club on the 18th of this month.

The Board met on the 12th at the Wellington Group’s Equestrian Center, and despite the rain, and spotty WIFI, we had a productive and busy meeting!

We introduced the new TTSAO Carrier Group Chair, Boysie Dindyal, Director of Driver Recruiting and Retention, Challenger Motor Freight Inc. Boysie, an industry leader, brings a broad base of experience and knowledge to the TTSAO Board!

We also introduced Jeff McKay from Transport Driver Training Kitchener / Waterloo, as our newest member on the TTSAO Membership Committee. Jeff brings a great deal of experience to our board and we are very happy to have him!

The Committee on Insurance reported the progress of the Heavy G program and its readiness for adoption.

The Program and Services Committee is working on another captive structure, taking in a new insurer, to help uniformity amongst the group.

The Impirica Road Tests are up and running at a few schools who volunteered. Pricing is a consideration in attracting this business.
IBC has been in contact with us numerous times, and asked us to do an interview with MNP for background research.
Our position with respect to the new ELT is to allow us to train our own instructors in Adult Ed, as we do that now with every student, and there is an approved course in effect that MCU has already endorsed. This will alleviate the problem of waiting for courses in Mississauga, and the resulting travel and accommodation costs.

A special opportunity came about to present our segment of the industry to the Mohawk College Transportation and Logistics class. This was a very welcome return to the classroom, and a chance to raise the bar for driving jobs and the way they are looked at. A very fun and interesting class.

We attended the TTN Mega Job Fair in Brampton on the 23rd. Very good turnout and our booth was promoting the Carrier program for Mark’s Commercial to draw attention to how we can help the carriers that were in attendance. Reported more than 70 business cards given to us.

Next day we attended the Waste & Recycling Expo to make contacts with those carriers, but found very few carriers and a host of suppliers on hand.  Made a good contact with Samsara for possible use with our carriers, or schools.   Follow up meeting is scheduled.

Following on the heels of Executive Directors Eke of the Driving Schools Association of Nigeria arranging to come here to get trained in our curriculum for his schools, we have had another query from Africa, this time from Uganda to essentially do the same thing.  I have talked to the Ugandan Minister of Transportation and he is very open and optimistic about the TTSAO helping to organize professional training for their citizens.

We ended the month with a very good meeting with Dr. Gina Anderson from Luma on the use of Adult Education in our curriculum, and how we can expand or improve upon that.  

All in all a very productive month in the TTSAO