PIC News 

The Partners In Compliance (PIC) program in Alberta is a safety excellence program developed for the commercial truck and bus companies.  This program is dedicated to identifying, recognizing and rewarding those companies whose development of safety and compliance programs has exceeded prescribed benchmarks and protocol.  The requirements of membership were developed with input from Alberta Enforcement, Alberta Transportation, the Workers Compensation Board of Alberta, and most importantly, input from industry leaders.

In June of 2009, the Alberta Minister of Transportation, Mr. Luke Ouellette, signed off on specific tangible benefits available only to Partners In Compliance member companies.  These benefits were inclusive of:

1.  An Alberta Safety Fitness rating of "Excellent"                                                                                            2.  The ability to pull unlimited carrier profiles at no charge.                                                                               3.  A cost reduction of $15.00 per Alberta abstract (the government fee)                                                                 4.  The Alberta CVIP shop permit fee is waived

Currently there are 34 companies in the PIC program, inclusive of 2 bus companies, showing a growth of 20 companies in a 24 month time frame.  There are approximately 8000 vehicles represented with 1600 of these utilizing the transponder system,  The transponder equipped vehicles have by-pass privileges at the Alberta Inspections stations at a rate of 98%.  In British Columbia these same vehicles enjoy a 95% by-pass.  To date these vehicles have saved companies in excess of 1.4 million dollars.  This rate is calculated at a saving of $5.00 per by-pass.  Of course any driver will tell you the saving to him/her is much greater than that. 

Partners In Compliance has received some very positive coverage in the past recent months, representative of several articles in various publications, inclusive of Truck West, Pro-Trucker, the Edmonton Sun, AMTA News, and WestWorld.  Most notably was perhaps, an article which appeared in Pipeline News, denoting that if there were a vanity plate for commercial vehicles, it would most assuredly be the yellow PIC identity plate.  

Partners In Compliance continues to work with British Columbia in efforts to attain reciprocity for the Weight to Go and Premier Carrier Program (PCP) participants.  PIC Carriers currently enjoy 95% by-pass at the British Columbia Inspection stations.  Talks have also been started with the Northwest Territories in regards to the acceptance of the Partners program, possible by-pass privilege and other benefits for our members. 

The Partners In Compliance program is unique in regards to the fact that is recognizes carriers that are well run and who's primary concern is the safety of their staff, their customers and the general motoring public.  The PIC program and its member companies goal is that WE ALL GO HOME SAFE AT THE END OF EVERY DAY!!

PARTNERS IN COMPLIANCE VISION

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

1.  Achieve the highest overall level of safety performance

2.  Be open and enticing to all segments of the industry and all sizes of carrier firms

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

Partners In Compliance                                                                                                                                              Summer 2011 Report

  1.      As of July 1, 2011, Lorri Christensen took the helm as Director of the  Partners In Compliance Program.  With the assistance of Kim Hrushenski in Edmonton, and on-going support from Lane Kranenburg in Calgary; plans for further growth of the program are ongoing and positive. Our growth goal for the 2011 year was to increase our member numbers by 15 carriers, from 30 carriers to 45.  With the interest being shown in the program over the past few months, we are confident we can attain our original goal.  We have had some very pro-active meetings, with several solid companies, and are in the midst of site visits and setting up Entry Interviews and NSC audits. 

  2.       The second quarter Partners Safety Review’s are in and our reporting numbers are very positive.  All our members are within our benchmarks, and several have seen improvement with their R-Factor and overall safety programs.  Further, many of our carriers continue to comment on the change in their professional drivers’ attitudes, improvement in WCB loss time claims, and staff retention.  We have also had a couple of carriers make mention of the fact that they have hired professionals in the past few months, who commented that they were looking to work for a PIC carrier…great news!

  3.      Partners In Compliance staff are very excited, and honored to be a part of the National Professional Truck Driving Championships, being held in Calgary on September 10, 2011, start time 8:00 am.  The competition takes place at the fire training grounds just off 17th Avenue S.E. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all the competitors good luck and we hope to see you all there to cheer on the Alberta team!

  We are looking forward to the balance of the summer being very productive; and look to seeing you all at the AMTA Safety Council meetings beginning in September.

  For information please contact:

 Lane Kranenburg                   Lorri Christensen                            Kim Hrushenski                                                                     SR Coordinator                         PIC Director                                       SR Coordinator                                                               (403) 214-3431                          (403) 214-3430                                 (780) 448-7456                                      lane_pic@amta.ca                  partner1@amta.ca                         partner2@amta.ca

NOTICE TO PARTNERS MEMBERS:  DEH CHO BRIDGE, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2011 THE AMTA WILL BE PRESENTING REPRESENTATION FROM THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES IN REGARDS TO THE DEH CHO BRIDGE, ITS CONSTRUCTION, COMPLETION, IMPACT AND COSTS...IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING, PLEASE CONTACT ANY OF THE ABOVE STAFF.  THIS INFORMATION SESSION AND Q&A IS ESTIMATED TO TAKE APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS.