President’s Report for September 2024

Your Association was heavily involved with working alongside other stakeholders who need to be involved with Entry Level Drivers.   This stakeholder group was aligned with 12 members in our industry, including IBC, OTA, CTOA, OSL, WTFC, TFSH, CTSA, SOSA and some training operators.

The Ministry of Transportation was alerted to this group coming together to help create input to the “comprehensive review” that the Ministry is taking with regard to Entry Level Training.

The regulations have not been changed since 2017 when MELT was introduced. 

As the industry reacted to these changes, it has created gaps and service voids that need to be addressed.  So, this Stakeholder Group will suggest areas to put in a fix, or structure the course to coincide with industry demands of the day.

The White Paper is expected to be delivered to the Minister’s office by late October, and the office is prepared to accept it at a meeting.

As well as the above noted group that ran all summer, we also had drop in visits with a number of the newer schools in the GTA.   This was a very strident step to understand what our schools are concerned about, what items of interest are current, and it also helped to identify change of locations in some instances.

A better direct dialogue is emerging from visiting in person and developing working relationships.  This will continue and will be a vital aspect of ensuring engagement.

One of the interesting results is uncovering a development whereby our school(s) may expand, but they are doing it with new partners and ownership that the application to MCU does not reveal, and they are given a new location under the existing umbrella.   MCU has been made aware of this and is approaching this as an investigative step for correct administrative practices on their end.

Our new Heavy G program is beginning to pick up momentum and funding is being sought for this through Driver Verified.  If, and when, funding is consolidated, the new year will expand the program dramatically.

The Smart Driver Mentorship program is approved and has been used a few times in the last month, and there are 3 insurers that are already approved to use this for new drivers for onboarding and getting our grads into good jobs.  This also helps the carrier have a much greater retention rate.

Instructor Certification is going live on October 17^th, with the link through our website so all TTSAO instructors will be able to log into a professional training module that will help to elevate their understanding of adult education and create a higher level of consistency among our members.  This will be one of the banner achievements of going to a TTSAO school, over the alternative.   And it is not cost prohibitive.

We have added on a new school for Air Brakes training in Cambridge.  The school is CHEC, Canada Heavy Equipment College, and has both AZ and heavy equipment training.  They are ready to take on their 1^st class in the next week or so. During my visits to the schools, there is another school looking to bring their program over to TTSAO, if we can work out the instructor situation.  

We have opted out of the CFIB program due to shrinking revenue and a tight economic climate for our schools.   This can be taken on by any individual school that wishes to remain, and CFIB granted us a couple of extra months to cover our members.   This can be started up once again, if the climate and economy improve.

TTSAO has attended a couple of CTOA meetings and is trying to bridge our efforts to bring more carriers into the workings of our membership so that the industry can benefit from superior training and keep rates and incidents down.

The KPI results were released by MCU in the last couple of weeks, and shows that our schools are reporting accurate information, and not just papering the report with 100% completions across the board.   Reliable and trustworthy information is the best form of helping students pick the right school for their training.