COMMERCIAL VEHICLE SAFETY & ENFORCEMENT DIVISION

Commercial Vehicle Safety & Enforcement Division

A message from Component Chair Byron Goerz Members of the Commercial Vehicle Safety & Enforcement Division of the Ministry of Transportation are an important part of the Environmental, Technical & Operational Component. While the public understands that commercial vehicle safety should be one of the top priorities of keeping our roads safe, that attitude seems somewhat lost on our current government. Actions do speak loader than words and while our members are being told that they have the support of their executive, they continue to face wage reductions following their return from ICBC in 2003. These actions are having a devastating effect on staff morale and causing real retention and recruitment challenges. Inspection stations are currently understaffed, lack equipment and working reduced hours due to the shortage of qualified, trained staff. As the wage rollbacks progress it is obvious we are going to lose more staff, exacerbating the situation. Furthermore. at the current wage offering the employer is having difficultly hiring individuals that are capable of doing the job to the level necessary to ensure that our roads are safe. Your Component Executive would like to do everything we can as a component to try and remedy or mitigate some of these problems. To that end we can’t do it alone and as such I feel that we have to engage these members and form a committee of the Component to grapple with the issues and make recommendations to the Component. Dean Draper, who is the Component’s Chairperson of the Classifications and Grievance Committee, and has extensive experience with Component Bargaining, will chair the committee. As the Component Chair, I personally have visited most "inspection stations" across the province to get a grasp of the issues and the current situation. This webpage hopefully will help to better communicate to the members and the public what we are doing and what is happening in the province. If you have any ideas on what you would like to see on this website feel free to drop me a note. Byron.Goerz@bcgeu.ca King of the road inspectors Langley man North America's top commercial vehicle safety inspector Richard Roberts wins a trip to next year's Minneapolis contest. Nicholas Read, Vancouver Sun Published: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 He may not be as well known as Tiger Woods or Lance Armstrong, but in his field, specific as it is, he is just as celebrated. When you consider that he might be the only thing standing between your 1989 Volkswagen and an 18-wheeler careering helter-skelter down a hillside at break-neck speed, whom would you rather have in your corner? He is Richard Roberts. He lives in Langley, and he is this year's grand champion of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's North American Championships. In other words, when it comes to making sure commercial vehicles -- that is, big trucks, vans and buses -- are roadworthy and safe, there is no one better in all of North America than Roberts. "No, it's probably not something the public would know about," Roberts, 29, said modestly about the competition held earlier this month in New Orleans. "But it is something we do." In fact, it is something the Washington, D.C.-based Commercial Safety Vehicle Alliance has done for the past 14 years, and Canadians do disproportionately well. In the last six years, Canadian inspectors have won the title three times, although this is the first time it has gone to someone from B.C. Collin Mooney, the alliance's director of enforcement programs, is at a loss to explain why Canadians are so good at making sure wheel nuts are tight and brake pads are cushiony, but he can explain what those Canadians have to do to win the title. First, the competitors -- and there were 53 this year from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico -- had to win the right to go to New Orleans by winning their own provincial or state championships. Roberts did that last June in Dawson Creek. Then they have to compete in a number of events to determine their prowess at the following: - Understanding what is required of an inspector if he is to place a vehicle out of service. "How broke is broke," is how Mooney puts it. - Interviewing a driver and examining his log book. - Conducting a full mechanical inspection of a truck or coach, and deciding whether any faults they find are serious enough to pull the vehicle off the road. - Making sure that any and all hazardous good are being transported in a safe and secure manner. It was in the last category that Roberts, who works at inspection stations throughout the Lower Mainland, felt he was most disadvantaged, so, just like any good competitor worth his cleats, he trained for it. He didn't just wait for trucks leaching acid and belching poisonous gas to come to him, he went to them instead. "I felt that was one of my weaker points, so it was something I wanted to work on," he said. "Not every vehicle carries it [a dangerous good] so I could go a month without doing it." And the training paid off. Because not only was Roberts named over-all grand champion, he also won the individual hazardous-goods title too. That was a surprise, he said. Nevertheless it's the competitor with the highest cumulative score -- in this case, Roberts as well -- who is declared the CVSA's grand champion and earns the pride, the trophy and the free trip to next year's championships in Minneapolis. It's true, says Roberts, Minneapolis is not Acapulco, but he still intends to go. Not that he was able to see much of New Orleans this year. "They keep you pretty busy," Roberts said. In fact, after the banquet where Roberts was presented with his trophy, he and his wife, Kari, simply returned to their motel and relaxed. No wild celebrations Big Easy-style. None in Langley either. "When I got home, I did a quick laundry and headed to Kelowna for a quick road check." So it may as well be in Minneapolis. It was the third time Roberts, who is one of 225 commercial vehicle inspectors in B.C., competed in the North American championships since he got his inspector's licence in 1997. He's also been to Milwaukee and Salt Lake City. He does it because "we always get a bit of training when we compete," and that keeps him sharp, he says. But he's not competitive, he insists. "I guess I do it for the fun. I always enjoy it. I get to meet other inspectors from all over North America."