Canadians Voice Concerns About Tractor Trailer Trucks

Toronto, ON - According to a new Ipsos-Reid survey conducted on behalf of Canadians for Responsible and Safe Highways (CRASH), half of Canadians (54%) think that Canada's roads and highways are becoming less safe and many Canadians (68%) point to the number of tractor-trailer trucks on Canada's roads and highways as a problem.

In fact, wide majorities of Canadians agree with the two statements that "the number of tractor-trailers on the road today increases the level of stress felt by drivers of passenger vehicles" (75%) and that "drivers of passenger vehicles drive more erratically when they feel stressed or threatened by tractor-trailers on the road" (80%).

There is no consensus over which issues the government should focus it's attention towards to increase the safety of Canada's roads and highways when it comes to tractor trailer trucks - but many want the government to focus on the "maintenance and safety record of trucking firms" (34%) and the "hours that truck drivers are allowed to drive"(30%).

However, the overwhelming majority of Canadians voice concerns about the long hours truck drivers spend driving on the road: Nine in ten Canadians (92%) agree with the statement that "the long hours that truck drivers can be required to work place too much stress on them", and 85% disagree with the statement that "longer driving hours for truckers do not put other drivers on the road at risk".

On average, Canadians estimate that truck drivers spend 16 hours too many on the road on a weekly basis. This is measured in the difference between the hours that Canadians believe truckers currently drive (61 hours on average) and the hours that Canadians say it is appropriate for truckers to drive on a weekly basis (45 hours on average). Three in ten Canadians (28%) do not think there is a legal limit to the number of hours that truck drivers can drive in a week (a further 7% "don't know" if there is a legal limit).

Eight in ten Canadians (82%) say they would be in favour of a rule requiring that all trucks be equipped with electronic devices to record actual driving hours. And three in five (60%) agree with the statement that "the introduction of training programs and on-board monitoring devices are measures which will assist truckers working a longer work week".

Considering issues of cost and efficiency, two-thirds of Canadians (65%) disagree with the statement that "increasing the legal work limit will bring freight transportation costs down and will cut prices for consumers", and wide majorities of Canadians would oppose allowing single tractors to pull a second trailer (85% oppose) or double trailers to pull a third (93% oppose).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/ Canadians for Responsible and Safe Highways (CRASH) poll conducted from August 27th to August 30th, 2004. Additional polling conducted among 247 Quebec residents September 7-9, 2004, on one question. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians were interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

Please open the attached PDF files to view the entire factum and detailed tables.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Alexandra Evershed
Vice President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(613) 214-5802