Truckers drive crazy hours to get to the mill scales on time. The scale people want to go home so truckers drive all night to get to the scales early and then there is enough time to make one more trip.
I always wondered why the mill scales didn't stay open all winter so the drivers weren't pushing themselves so hard. Who is more dangerous driving tired, the scale operator or the logging truck driver?

The call for training and qualification for drivers is ludicrous.

The organization which preceded BCFSC (FISA) and the efforts which proceeded even that organization which was born from interior logging organizations tapping into Forest Renewal funds in order to provide low cost safety training tried that tactic to virtually no avail. That is one of the reasons for the creation of the BCFSC.

Now we have this Council trying to get a system back up and running which virtually parallels one which has been dismantled.

Independently, WCB had developed the faller training and certification package. That took virtually a decade to put in place.

It is now in place, at least the certification part; everyone has pretty certificates in bluewood frames to decorate their living rooms with and fallers are still getting killed at the same rates as before.

Did anyone hear of 30% of the 4,000 + fallers tested in BC not passing? 20%? .. 10%?? .. how about 5%?? ...

Of course not! They all knew how to fall a tree under ideal conditions. They got their certificates and went back out and continued to do their work the same as they had done it before. And they continue to have serious accidents and even die as they have done before

Whether it is faller, trucker, harvester operator or whoever, the cause of serious accidents has much more to do with the conditions under which these people have to work. If this was taking place in a manufacturing plant, responsibility would be clear and action would be quickly taken, as it has over the years.

I keep repeating that the problem here is one of jurisdiction, a problem no one is willing to tackle or has even the first clue of how to tackle. Signing a Safety Accord is one thing, acting effectively to implement its objectives is another.

The BCFSC has no authority in the matter. All they can do is sweet talk the parties involved into action. As they do, they will ruffle feathers of organizations, such as the MoF, WCB, and even licensees, which have been around for a long time and will not take kindly to being pointed at as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

That is the real story in all this.

Here is the Australian TruckSafe program training.

Notice it hones in on managing the so that operators must provide documentary and auditable evidence they are complying with the standards.

In addtion, they recognize that the key problem on the drivers' side is fatigue. I am not sure if I agree with their method of handling it. In my mind, whatever method you use to get drivers to be able to drive 14 hours in a 24 hour period speaks of unsafe practices from the onset.

Lets face it, we need higher hourly rates for drivers and more drivers sharing the same trucks in ordert to get the timber out in the volumes people want them removed, in addition to the infrastructure changes required to improve road conditions.

Driving back into town yesterday, I took this picture of a logging truck passing another one on a passing lane stretch of the highway. You would think that a safety conscious driver would have let all the passenger verhicles lined up behind pass first so that they would not have to slow down to 80 km/hr behind these truckers each time they had to climb shallow grades.

http://ye-olde-owl.tripod.com/forest_safety/index.album?i=0&s=1

Head of BCFSC on the hot seat on this past week ....

http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/monitor.cgi?paper=9&id=554436

This person has it right.....

“You want us to tell you about something you can do right now? Recommend the implementation of a 40-hour work week,” Teresa Bennet suggested.

http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/monitor.cgi?paper=9&id=554436

The words from the article make it abundantly clear why the BCFSC is not the body to make effective changes .... the government, specifically the Minister of Labour, has skirted the issue by creating an ineffective body ....

"The council is a not-for-profit society made up of industry representatives and is charged with making recommendations to governments and employers."

http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/monitor.cgi?paper=9&id=554436
OWL the link to NDP and union theatrics on Vancouver Island is disappointing. With friends like that who needs enemies. If these are the guys that are supposed to change things, better build some more pine boxes. That Vancouver Is crowd are there own worst enemy, as they do not want change, change means less union jobs.
Unions looking for an opportunity to captalize on the backs of dead workers won't make for safer highways. Ask the drivers what they need, the union can get stuffed!

Yama ...

so now safety issues are left against right as well?????

great, add one more stupid impediment like that and it will never get solved ...

your thinking thus has become part of the problem rather than part of the solution .....

Oh, OK then - don't ask the drivers.

Hours of work is a hard one lots of these trips into the bush and back out to the mill are maybe 4or6 hours so you need to do the extra hours to make a days pay.As for passing other trucks its a inconvenience for passanger traffic but these passing lane which thier is not enough are a safe place to pass if trucks slow down to let every one by they lose the momentum and probably won't get to pass and its a lot safer for small cars to pass when thier is no passing lane then it is for truck.We need more passing lanes so we don't end up with these long lines of traffic in the first place.But as everyone knows safty has a price.

The amount of time saved by one logging truck passing another is miniscule, and if the passer hits a red light then he has gained nothing. The same applies to most car drivers who go like a bat out of hell only to be sitting at a red light looking stupid one minute later. All of us could have a major effect on traffic safety if we applied some common sense, (Put the ego in the glove compartment) and had some consideration for others. At the end of the day you would be able to isolate the real problems and be able to deal with them. Will this ever happen? I doubt it.

Until the scales are open longer hours, drivers are going to try to pass and keep their pace up, or no pay today.