February 26, 2010

FEATURE | Roadbuilding

Canadian Construction Association, B.C. road builders join forces to push for regulation changes

SHANNON MONEO

correspondent

VANCOUVER

The B.C. Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association and the Canadian Construction Association are challenging the federal government over the definition of an inter-provincial carrier.

The main beef is how a cross border carrier is defined and how it affects their work hours. If a trucker crosses a provincial border one time, they are classified as an inter-provincial carrier and thus subject to federal legislation as well as being prohibited from provincial exemptions.

“We’ve raised our voices and said this doesn’t work for us,” said BCRB president Jack Davidson.

Instead, the 230-member organization, representing privatized highway maintenance contractors, construction contractors, underground/utility contractors, paving contractors and service and supply companies, wants the definition of an inter-provincial carrier to be a company that does more than 25 per cent of its work outside of B.C.

Once a company is classified as an inter-provincial carrier, it’s subject to the federal legislation, which restricts the number of hours that employees can work.

The maximum daily number of hours one can drive are 13 and no one can work more than 14 hours of on-shift time.

And if the worker has to drive home, they cannot exceed 16 hours for the day. For example, if they work 14 hours, their drive time to work and back home cannot be more than one hour each way.

They say most road building and heavy construction workers don’t drive for 12 straight hours.

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