Commercial Vehicles

Commercial drivers operating within a 160 km radius of their home base are not required to record their hours of service in a log book. However, they are still required to abide by the hours of service rules which, even with a log book, is not a simple task.

Here is a series of four videos from TranBC that are part of the Be Truck Aware initiative.  They illustrate dangerous choices made by the drivers of small vehicles when they fail to share the road properly with heavy commercial vehicles.

Once upon a time, there was a 33 year old guy in town, who decided he wanted to get a class 1 license. Since I have trucks, and my instructors certification, (albeit from...Alberta) he asked me if I would spend some time with him while he drove one of my trucks.

I ended up going out 4 times with him, 2 to 3 hours each time.

every week or so, I haul a load of dead fish to another town, in a 53 foot tanker. This trailer is loaded by the fish producers, then it is sealed, brought out to the highway, where I pick it up and begin my 3 hour trip to deliver.

I don't know if you drive much along Hammond Bay Rd, but it can be pretty frustrating on garbage day, or even morning commute on school days, with buses stopping very 100 - 200 yds.

I dread the new "automatic" garbage trucks which I think will take far longer to pick up cans and put them down using hydraulics, rather than arm power.

Harvey Truax stopped his empty B train combination on the shoulder of Highway 1 near Sorrento, B.C. He allowed the 4 vehicles that had been following him to pass by before he started to make a left turn across the highway into a pullout. His left signal was in operation and he had 300 to 400 m. of highway visible behind him. Finding no overtaking traffic, he began to move from the shoulder into the pullout across the highway.

While out for a walk the other afternoon I approached a driver who had stopped in his lane, in a corner, to talk to a couple of pedestrians on the other side of the road. Normally, this is a relatively quiet street but the driver is still making a poor choice. His action was unsafe due to poor sight lines for approaching drivers.

I have a one ton truck, commercial, increased GVW (14,000 I believe), under NSC number, licenced for farm use. With this vehicle I do the following: 

Just pickup, running for parts errands etc

Pickup and commercially plated trailer to haul water

Pickup and commercially plated trailer to haul hay, farm supplies, cattle, farm equipment

Pickup to haul horse trailer with horses/tack

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has announced the implementation of Pilot Car Load Movement Guidelines to regulate the safe movement of oversize vehicles on B.C.'s highways. Part of the Traffic Management Manual for Work on Highways, it also describes new temporary signs with a fluorescent pink background to warn of an emergency situation. In this case an example might be an overwidth load stopped so that it obstructed a lane of travel. It would be up to the pilot car operator to place the sign appropriately to warn approaching traffic.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has released it's final report on the safety of motor coach transportation in the province.