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Partners in Compliance - Overview

operators, and allow Government resources to be focused on carriers that pay less attention to good safety practices.

The Program operated successfully until spring 2003, when the Program’s administration was temporarily suspended due to the withdrawal of the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) as the Program’s  administrative partner.  In fall 2003, at the request of the (then) Minister of Transportation, a joint government/industry re-engineering effort was initiated with the overwhelming support of PIC carriers.  

The focus of the re-engineering initiative has been:

• The development of a valid, but more manageable, system of measuring highway safety performance of the motor transport industry;
• The identification of mutual industry-government benefit; and
• The development of a sustainable business model.

This Policy and Operations Manual, the three-year (2006 – 2008) Business Plan, and the proposal, “Alberta PIC Pre-clearance System Specifications” from International Road Dynamics Inc. are the culmination of the re-engineering effort.  These documents address each of the above three focuses of the re-engineering initiative. 

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Mission, Vision and Principles

The Partners in Compliance Program (PIC, or PIC Program) will provide leadership in achieving a recognized, collectively superior level of roadway and workplace safety performance, supported and balanced by tangible value to stakeholders.

PIC stakeholders will include, but not be limited to:

• Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation

• Member Motor Carriers (Motor carriers are defined as per NSC definition)

• Other industry-related government departments, agencies, associations and organizations

PIC will be recognized as an assembly of superior motor carriers with respect to their safety performance and will consistently:

• Achieve the highest overall level of safety performance;

• Be open and enticing to all segments of the industry and all sizes of
  carrier firms; and

• Be recognized as industry leaders in safety by carriers, customers, contractors, the Alberta Government, other North American jurisdictions, and the public-at-large.

Principles

The affairs of PIC will be conducted according to the following Principles:

• Continuous improvement practices will be used to constantly enhance safety management programs;
   

• Open sharing of safety results and best practices through PIC-facilitated networking forums and reporting systems;
   

• Continuous attractions of new members;
   

• Demonstration of superior safety performance, as measured by recognized Alberta, Canadian and U.S.A. industry benchmarks and government statistics;
   

• Utilization of consistent and meaningful data to permit individual members to measure their safety performance relative to other operators in their industry segment and/or relative to the industry at large;
   

• Maintenance of the defined standards/benchmarks of PIC. Operators that do not maintain these standards shall be held accountable and must expect consequences.

.Member Value / Benefit

Stakeholders expect to derive tangible value from their membership in PIC and be able to justify the decision to join and sustain their PIC membership. Therefore, PIC will:

• Help members improve their safety performance and firmly establish the principle that excellent safety performance is ultimately a good management decision;
   
• Enhance highway safety and public perception thereof;
   
• Foster a safer workplace;
   
• Provide the very best in safety programming. This programming will be comprised of jointly developed best practices and be available to all members;
   
• Be recognized for safety excellence;
   
• Provide and utilize data that are useful, consistent and meaningful for comparison and continuous improvement by carriers and government;
   
• Engender feelings of pride and serve as a motivator for current employees and also serve to attract the best prospective employees to seek employment with PIC members;
   
• Serve as a selling tool with customers and have associated selling/ marketing materials that are fit for this use;
   
• Maintain simplified reporting requirements and, overall, require minimal incremental costs from membership; and
   
• Negotiate with Government to seek benefits for PIC members, such as scale bypassing (through the development of the transponder system), authority to self-issue permits, and such other benefits as are, or may be, appropriate and of value to the industry’s current or future legislative, regulatory and economic environment.
   

. PIC Advisory Council

Volunteer members from the commercial motor transport industry community, funding partners and government bodies will populate the PIC Program.  There shall also be provision for Associate Members, which may include customers, shippers and associations.

The Program will be governed by the “Partners In Compliance Advisory Council”, which is a duly chartered Advisory Council of the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA).   The PIC Advisory Council will be responsible for the governance and management oversight of the PIC Program and operate in a semi-independent manner within AMTA. 

The membership of PIC will elect the members of the PIC Advisory Council, which will govern the affairs of the Program. The PIC Advisory Council shall be comprised of nine (9) members, as follows:

• five (5) Members elected by member operators (It is hoped, but not required, that one Member will be elected from each of motor coach operators, school bus operators, large-fleet trucking carriers, small-fleet trucking carriers, and resource industries.); and
   

• two (2) Members appointed by the Government of Alberta; and
   

• the Executive Director of AMTA, who will be appointed ex officio; and
   

• the PIC Director, who will also be appointed ex officio.

Committee appointments will normally be for a period of two years, with half the membership of the Committee standing for election each year. The first election will be an exception, with four (4) Members elected for the standard two-year term and the remaining three (3) Members elected to one-year terms. Members are permitted to serve more than one term.

Annually, the Advisory Council will elect one of its members to serve as Chair. The Chair is permitted to serve more than one term.

The composition and the number of members sitting on the Advisory Council may be amended, if approved by the General Membership at an Annual Meeting of PIC members.

Scope of the PIC Advisory Council

• The PIC Advisory Council will develop the PIC Policy and Operations Manual, which shall be approved by the membership-at-large at a PIC General Meeting.
   
• The PIC Advisory Council, in conjunction with the AMTA Executive Director, will hire the PIC Director, who will be an AMTA employee.
   
• The PIC Advisory Council will have overall responsibility for, and provide guidance to, the PIC Director. The AMTA Executive Director will be responsible for the day-to-day supervision of the PIC Director.
   
• The PIC Director and the AMTA Executive Director will jointly develop the PIC Program’s annual business plan and budget, which will be presented to the PIC Advisory Council for approval. The business plan and budget, as approved by the PIC Advisory Council, will be presented to the AMTA Board of Directors as an information item.

.. Measures and Benchmarks

Safety performance measures and associated excellence benchmarks constitute the core of PIC. The goals of the measurement system are to:
 

• ensure that roadway and workplace safety performance is measured
  with statistical validity, consistency, accuracy and reliability;
   
• reduce the risk of collision and improve highway safety;
   
• facilitate each member company’s internal continuous improvement initiatives;
   
•  permit each member to measure their safety performance relative to other PIC members, to the industry in general and, where it is appropriate to do so, to specific segments of the industry; and
   
• minimize the cost of data collection to PIC members.

In general, PIC members will demonstrate superior safety performance through selected measures, all of which must be recognized as valid Alberta, Canadian and/or U.S.A. industry or government safety measures. The PIC benchmark for each of the selected measures will distinguish excellence, as compared to a lesser commitment to safety practices and outcomes. The measures will be drawn from existing sources, such as the Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation’s Carrier Profile database and other established data sources.

At this time, the proposed measures are:

• R-Factor (Risk Factor)

• Lost Time Claim Rate

• Preventable Collisions per Million Miles

• CVSA Out-of-Service Rate

• Drivers’ Hours of Service Violations

PIC and COR Audit results are also proposed as part of the measurement system.
 

 
Standards Committee:

The Advisory Council will establish a sub-committee, known as the Standards Committee, which will be responsible for establishing, assessing and, where data so indicates, proposing revisions to the PIC Measurement and Benchmark system.

The Standards Committee will be comprised of at least five persons, as follows:

• at least one member of the PIC Advisory Council
   
• at least two representatives from member operators (who may/ may not be members of the PIC Advisory Council)
   
• at least one representative from Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation (who may/may not be a member of the PIC Advisory Council)
   
• the PIC Director

Standards Committee members will be appointed for a term of one year, except for the PIC Director who will continuously serve on the Committee. Other members are permitted to serve more than one term. One member, other than the PIC Director, shall be appointed to serve as Chair of the Committee. The Chair is permitted to serve more than one term.

Other than the PIC Director, all Committee members will serve as volunteer members of the Committee.

After due deliberation, the Standards Committee may propose amendments of the Measures and/or Benchmarks to the PIC Advisory Council, which will deliberate and vote on such proposals. If approved by the PIC Advisory Council, the proposal(s) shall be presented to the General Membership for consideration. A proposal will be adopted if carried by a simple majority in a vote of the PIC General Membership.

At any point, the PIC Advisory Council or the General Membership may direct the Standards Committee to reconsider the proposal and re-present it to the Advisory Council and then to the General Membership.

. Membership