EDUCAT I O N
AMTA’s New Aggregate Hauling
Skills Development Course
Moving forward from tragedy
By Deb Draper
For more than 80 years, the Alberta Motor Transport
Association (AMTA) has been working to advance the
commercial transportation industry, advocating for
progressive policy and partnerships and offering broad sector
training and education geared specifically for the industry.
This commitment to industry is evident through the offering
of the newly developed aggregate hauling equipment specific
skills development training.
In 2015, a young Alberta man, Stephen Penny, was work-ing,
hauling street sweeping material. When the end gate of
his dump truck didn’t open, he stepped around back to see
what was wrong. The gate suddenly opened, burying him
under the load.
As a result of this tragic accident, a creative sentence was
directed in March 2018, diverting penalty funds to the cre-ation
of an equipment specific skills development course
targeting new and existing employees in Alberta’s aggregate
hauling business.
Erik Sherman, the director of injury reduction, training and
COR at AMTA, has been directly involved with bringing this
important safety training course to the transportation industry.
“We engaged with industry experts and manufacturers
right away, drawing significant support from the City of
Edmonton, Border Paving, Ron Singer Trucking and other
health and safety associations,” said Sherman.
After almost 19 months of research, course design and
development, the team was ready to place the course online.
The course is available through the AMTA website at no cost.
It will remain a free course offering until Dec. 31, 2020, after
which the cost will be set low enough to ensure industry can
always access it and AMTA can continue to host, update and
promote it.
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