The Nova Scotia Trucking Safety Association is member funded and directed to save lives and reduce the toll of workplace injuries.

We coordinate and provide quality health and safety programs to our members through training, certification and partnerships with industry, clients and government.

NSTSA’s 2011 Board of Directors

NSTSA Office Staff

The Chronicle Herald - 06-02-2010

The Road is their Workplace

Truckers committed to making safety No. 1 priority, but it’s a two-way street

By Linda Corkum

The Nova Scotia Trucking Safety Association (NSTSA) promotes safe workplaces for all trucking companies and their employees in our province.

A growing number of our members have taken their safety responsibilities to new heights by signing on to our association’s challenging "Certificate of Recognition" safety program. Compliance with this program demands high standards of safety performance and a commitment to health and safety by everyone within a safety certified company. It also serves as a double check for these companies.

In March, our association recognized champions in our industry who have gone beyond what is required to make their trucking operations safe. These are solid citizens, employed in businesses that have shrinking margins these days. However, they find the time and resources to focus on safety as their No. 1 priority. We believe their stories need to be told and we intend to do so in the months ahead.

Too many motorists in Nova Scotia consider trucks on highways, city or town streets nothing more than large obstacles to be avoided. From my experience in working with the trucking industry, truck drivers often view motorists in much the same way.

Our vision is one in which motorists and truckers respect each other and find better ways to share our roads in a safe and courteous manner. Step 1 is to improve awareness of who "truckers" are, what they mean to our province and the significant steps they are taking to improve workplace safety for their industry and the general public.

Sitting behind the wheel in the cab of every dump truck, tractor trailer or delivery truck you encounter, is an individual, someone who is working hard to make a living and, by virtue of the job, has a great deal of responsibility to handle his or her rig safely. They have families they want to go home to at the end of their run.

I wonder if most people realize what they mean to all of us. Our Nova Scotia lifestyle would come to a screeching halt if there were no truckers operating trucks. Virtually everything we need and use ultimately arrives or leaves by truck — our food, building supplies, manufactured products, even our garbage.

The trucking industry is key to our economy. Ninety per cent of goods entering and leaving Nova Scotia are transported by truck. The other 10 per cent are transported by cargo or rail. Statistics gathered in 2008 showed Nova Scotia employed 7,300 truckers that year.

The truck drivers themselves are the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds work behind the scenes — the mechanics, dispatchers, office staff, dockworkers and warehouse persons — making the industry work. In Canada, from the husband-and-wife operations to the large fleets, the value of the industry is estimated to be $48 billion.

Last week, many communities in Nova Scotia recognized National Road Safety Week (May 21- 27), a time for all of us to reflect on transportation safety. I believe the trucking industry throughout our province is making significant efforts to improve safety on the job. After all, the road is their workplace. The real challenge will be to find ways to make the safe use of our roads a shared responsibility between truckers and motorists, where the safe way is the only way.

It is a worthwhile goal for all of us.

Linda Corkum is executive director of the Nova Scotia Trucking Safety Association.