MILTON, Ont. – The Private Motor Truck Council of Canada (PMTC) announced today that it is endorsing the Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) standard for class A drivers that has been put forward by the province of Ontario.

The PMTC together with its president, Mike Millian have been involved in the shaping of the standard since it was first introduced. Millian has personally attended more than 20 stakeholder meetings regarding MELT.

“The MTO and its team are to be applauded for the stakeholder engagement that they encouraged, and for taking our concerns and message to heart,” said Millian. “The openness and frankness of a large array of invested stakeholders was great to see, and was professionally ran by the MTO and its staff.

“While the PMTC still has some areas of concern that they would like to see addressed, such as instructor qualifications, vehicle configurations, advanced standing for experienced drivers, and the issue of training not being required on a standard transmission in the original draft, we have been happy with the response the MTO has given to these concerns, and are confident that these issues will continue to be discussed, with a resolution being reached prior to full implementation in July of 2017.

“Overall the MELT standard is a great win for the industry, should help raise the profile of the job of the Professional Driver in our industry, and will go a long way in removing the unqualified Licensing mill training schools from our industry. The standard being proposed out of Ontario has a real chance of being a trend-setter that we hope to see repeated across Canada.”