Module 5: Carrier Safety Practices
Introduction
In this module, you’ll learn about how to develop a safety program and how to use your carrier profile to improve driver and vehicle safety.
Timeframe: 30 mins
In this section you will:- Learn how to develop a safety program.
- Learn how to access your own carrier profile online.
- Learn how to read the information on the carrier profile.
- Explain what happens when your profile shows you are having safety problems.
- Identify steps to take to improve your safety records.
For technical assistance please reference the Help and Troubleshooting Guide.
Developing a safety program
All National Safety Code (NSC) carriers must have a safety program. What you’ve studied so far in this course—keeping good records, meeting driver requirements, HOS rules and vehicle maintenance—that’s all part of your complete Safety program. You must have policies and procedures to make sure rules are being followed.
Who writes the safety program?
Anyone can write your safety program as long as it meets minimum requirements. A safety program in Alberta must include written policies for:
- The safe operation of commercial vehicles, including policies for speed limits, seat belt use, drug and alcohol use, defensive driving, load security and fueling.
- Proper records and recording of information (e.g. driver’s daily logs, bills of lading, and any other).
- Driver qualifications, training, conduct, discipline and evaluations.
- Proper use of safety equipment such as fire extinguishers and personal protective equipment.
All carriers must designate at least one person in the company as being responsible for keeping the safety program up to date and ensuring employees are following company policies.
Who has to follow your safety program?
You and all of your employees are required to follow your safety program. This may include drivers, dispatchers, supervisors, mechanics and other employees.
These sample programs contain the minimum transportation policies required by law and can be used as a guide for developing your own programs. When writing your safety program, you should also include policies for the specific vehicles and equipment your company uses.
What is my Carrier Profile?
Think of your Carrier Profile as your safety record. Just as your drivers have driving records, you have an on-road performance record as a carrier. Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors gathers enforcement information from across North America and puts that information on your Carrier Profile. For example: If your driver is involved in a collision or gets a ticket in another province it will appear on your profile.
Carrier Profile
How is my Safety Rated?
Your safety rating is shown on the front page of your Carrier Profile. It may be:
| Rating | Description |
| Satisfactory |
|
| Satisfactory-Unaudited |
|
| Conditional |
|
| Unsatisfactory |
|
- Achieve acceptable results on an audit.
- Consistently demonstrate superior safety performance.
- Become a member of a carrier excellence program, such as Partners in Compliance (PIC).
You will also have a risk factor score on your carrier profile. This score is calculated using your CVSA inspection results and the points that are assigned to convictions, administrative penalties and collisions your company has been involved in.
When you look at your carrier profile, you’re also seeing what Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors and roadside enforcement see when they look at your profile to monitor your safety. Customers and the general public can also request a Public Profile, which contains your carrier profile information but does not disclose personal information (for example, driver licensing).
- This is the name and mailing address of the company or individual to which your vehicles are registered.
- These are your NSC and MVID numbers. Your NSC number is also displayed on your safety fitness certificate. Your MVID number is shown on your vehicle registrations.
- This is your safety fitness rating and operating status at the time the profile was requested. In Alberta, there are 5 safety fitness ratings: Excellent, Satisfactory, Satisfactory Unaudited, Conditional and Unsatisfactory. If you have a provincial operating status you are only authorized to operate in Alberta. If you have a federal operating status you may also operate outside of Alberta.
- This is your risk factor score. This score is calculated using data on CVSA inspection results, convictions, administrative penalties for impaired driving, and collisions over a 12 month period. The lower the number, the better the score. Part 1 also shows a breakdown of what contributed to your risk factor most.
- This is the monitoring stage your company was at the time the profile was requested. If your risk factor score gets too high, you may show up on a monitoring stage and a number between 1 and 4 will be displayed here (with 4 representing the highest risk). If you have a low risk factor score and are not on monitoring, this section will be blank.
- This shows your average fleet size over a 24 month period before the profile was requested. It also shows your current fleet size as of the beginning of the week the profile was requested.
Part 2 shows a breakdown of conviction information. Points ranging from 0 to 5 are assigned to each conviction depending on the severity of the offence. These point values contribute to your risk factor score.
Convictions are shown in order of offence date, with the most recent conviction identified first. Convictions are shown as traffic violation tickets (TVT), out of province tickets (OPC) or long form information (NLF). The conviction section of the profile report also shows the vehicle and driver involved for each conviction.
More information about each conviction can be found in the “Conviction Detail” section of the carrier profile report.
Part 3 – Administrative Penalty Information
Part 3 shows administrative penalties, as issued under Alberta’s Provincial Administrative Penalties Act.
An “administrative penalty” includes a fine and any other administrative consequence, including, without limitation, a sanction, restriction, prohibition, requirement, condition, suspension, disqualification or cancellation imposed on a person for contravention of a prescribed enactment, but does not include imprisonment.
As of December 1, 2020, Alberta’s impaired driving laws were strengthened with the introduction of the Immediate Roadside Sanctions (IRS) program that includes serious, immediate and escalating consequences for impaired drivers.
- As part of the Immediate Roadside Sanction (IRS) program, Alberta has strengthened its impaired driving laws. A new administrative penalty for commercial drivers has been introduced, IRS Zero Commercial, which takes a zero tolerance approach to drugs and alcohol for drivers who are operating a commercial vehicle.
- For purposes of section 88.02(1) of the Traffic Safety Act and issuance of the IRS Zero Commercial Penalty, “operating a commercial vehicle” means operating a:
- Commercial vehicle or combination of commercial vehicles that is registered for a gross weight of more that 11,794 kilograms, or
- Commercial vehicle that has a manufacturer’s seating capacity originally designed for 11 or more passengers, including the driver.
- Conviction points, Administrative Penalty points, CVSA Failure Rate, Collision points over a 12 month period, and the carrier's average fleet size over a 24 month period are used to establish the carrier's Risk Factor score (R-Factor).
- Alberta Transportation will intervene with those carriers with an unacceptable R-Factor score. Events will stay on the carrier profile report for 12 months from the issuance date, not the event date.
Part 4 shows inspections conducted on your vehicles under the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) inspection program. CVSA inspection results from Levels 1 to 5 are used to determine your Out of Service rate.
Each CVSA inspection will result in one of the following results:
- Pass – No defect(s) found.
- Requires Attention – Defect(s) found, none were “Out of Service” defects.
- Out of Service – One or more “out of service” defects identified.
Inspections in part 4 are shown in order of date completed, with the most recent inspection identified first. More information about each inspection can be found in the “CVSA Inspection Detail” section of the carrier profile report.
Part 5 - Collisions
Part 5 of the Carrier Profile shows any collisions, reported to the police, that your vehicles and drivers were involved in. Reportable collisions in Alberta are collisions which result in fatality, injury or property damage of $2000 or more. Each collision is assigned points based on severity. These point values contribute to your risk factor score.
Part 5 also includes information about whether you've had a collision reviewed. You can submit a collision review application within 12 months of the incident to determine whether the reviewer supports the removal of the points or not. Points removed from your carrier profile will not contribute to your risk factor score. For more information on the collision review process go to: https://www.alberta.ca/collision-evaluations.aspx
Part 6 – Violations
Part 6 of the Carrier Profile shows a summary of violations that were recorded by enforcement agencies as warnings. No points are assigned to violations under this part. This information is not used to calculate your risk factor score.
However, violations show that your drivers and vehicles were not in full compliance when stopped at roadside. You should review this information to improve safety and prevent violations from happening again in the future.
Part 7 – Monitoring Information
Part 7 of the Carrier Profile is helpful if you want to see a summary of your overall safety performance over an extended period of time. This part provides a history of changes in your:
- Monitoring stage
- Fleet size
- Risk factor score
- Industry averages
In this part, a carrier’s monthly monitoring history can be reviewed and compared to other carriers in the same fleet range. The column headings in Part 7 of the Carrier Profile displays the following information:
- AVG FLEET SIZE – Average fleet size of NSC vehicles over a 24 month period.
- CONVICTIONS PTS/VEH – Conviction points per NSC vehicle using the 24 month average. This will be blank if there are no points.
- ADMIN PENALTY PTS/VEH- Administrative penalty points for impaired driving charges per NSC vehicle using 24 month average. This will be blank if there are no points.
- CVSA INSPECTIONS.
- TOTAL INSP - Number of CVSA inspections in the last 12 months. This will be blank if there are no inspections.
- OOS DEFECTS/INSP - The number of Out of Service defects identified over a 12 month period. This will be blank if there are no defects.
- TOTAL DEFECTS/INSP - The total number of defects found per vehicle (includes out of service and requires attention defects). This will be blank if there are no inspections.
- OOS% - Out-of-Service inspection rate for level 1-5 inspections (based on 12 month period).
- OOS/VEH - Number of Out of service inspections per NSC vehicle based on average NSC fleet size.
- FAILURE RATE - [Number of Out of Service inspections + (0.25 x the number of Required Attention inspections) + (0.0 x the number of passed inspections)] divided by total number of all inspections. The failure rate will be 0 if the carrier has not had the minimum number of inspections, based on their average fleet size.
- COLLISIONS PTS/VEH - Number of points (2, 4 or 6) per NSC vehicle. Based on carrier’s average NSC fleet size.
Parts 8 – 12 of the Carrier Profile Report
Parts 8 to 12 of the Carrier Profile report are only included at the request of the carrier. A summary of each part is included below:
Part 8 – Facility Audit Information
- This part includes information on facility audits that are complete and accepted by Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors.
- In accordance with National Safety Code Standard 15, a facility audit is designed to review a carrier's on-highway and safety management activities in considerable detail.
Part 9 – Facility Licence Information
- This part includes information about a carrier’s vehicle inspection facility licence, if applicable.
- Only carriers that are registered and approved under Alberta’s approved commercial vehicle inspection program (CVIP) will have data in this part.
Part 10 – Safety Fitness Information
- This part includes information related to a carrier's Safety Fitness Certificate, such as the Safety Fitness Rating and Operating Status, any suspensions issued, and certain carrier conditions issued.
- This part may be helpful to determine whether a carrier has had a different Safety Fitness Rating or Operating Status in the past.
- This part may also be helpful to determine if a carrier holds an active/valid certificate, and/or if a carrier holds a renewal certificate.
Part 11 – Profile Events
- This part is used by the Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors for internal purposes only and is not available to the carrier or to the public.
Part 12 – Historical Summary
- This part includes a summary of all on-road events, facility audits, monitoring action, facility licensing, Operating Status, and Safety Fitness Rating, and actions such as certain conditions issued, and current or past suspensions. Historical data and changes are listed in chronological order, with the most recent events displayed first.
What if there is incorrect information on my Carrier Profile?
If you find a significant error on your Carrier Profile report, you can contact Carrier & Vehicle Safety at 403-755-6111(toll free in Alberta dial 310-0000) or e-mail: compliance.info@gov.ab.ca. Alberta Transportation will investigate and where applicable make the necessary changes. For example, if you notice there is a conviction on your Carrier Profile for a vehicle or driver that is not employed by your company, you can request to have it removed.
How can I access my Carrier Profile?
The Government of Alberta has an online system which allows carriers to quickly and easily apply for carrier profiles and permits. To access this system, you need to register an account.
How to Register for Online Services
- Go to https://www.trans.gov.ab.ca/TravisWebLogin/redirect.htm
- Click the “Register” link under the “Need a User ID?” text.
- Register by entering all required information, including your NSC and MVID numbers.
Once you are registered, you can start requesting carrier profile reports. You can specify which sections of the profile report you want and for what timeframe.
What are the benefits of reviewing my carrier profile?
Reviewing carrier profile information may help you to:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of your safety and maintenance programs.
- Reduce the likelihood of collisions if you take action to address safety issues right away.
- Reduce the likelihood of traffic fines, maintenance and insurance costs.
- Maintain an acceptable safety fitness rating and help you develop a reputation for being a safe and responsible carrier.
Completing the Safety Program
Sample safety and maintenance programs are available online at https://www.alberta.ca/safety-and-maintenance-programs-commercial-carriers.aspx to help you complete your safety program. Please review these and check your program. Is there anything you are missing?
Summary
Your safety program should include all the safety practices you use in your business. A good program will help you run a safe business and meet your legal obligations. Be sure to share your plan with your drivers. This will help both you and them meet the safety standards you put in place.
In this module, you learned that you can monitor your own safety practices by looking at your carrier profile. You now know that if you don’t improve a poor safety record, there are consequences for your business. But you have the power to carry out your own compliance review and make changes that will improve your safety record.