The conduct review policies that apply to heavy vehicle owners and operators and to heavy vehicle drivers were developed in order to meet the requirements of the Act respecting owners, operators and drivers of heavy vehiclesThis link will open in a new window. These policies govern the creation of heavy vehicle owner, operator and driver records. They also define the conduct review process and the procedures used by the SAAQ when intervening with heavy vehicle drivers, owners or operators (heavy vehicle users) that present a risk to road safety or to the integrity of the road network.
Given that these policies had not been revised for several years, the SAAQ undertook to revise them in their entirety in order to take into account both the evolving socioeconomic and regulatory context of the freight and passenger transportation industry, and the government’s goals regarding road safety and the integrity of the road network. The revision process was carried out in collaboration with government partners and industry representatives between 2015 and 2019. Before the new policies could be implemented, important changes also needed to be made to the existing computer programs and systems in order to accommodate the requirements of the new policies.
Consult the new policies before they take effect: https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/transportation-goods/conduct-review-policies
PRINCIPAL CHANGES
- New conduct areas (separation of the “Operational Safety” conduct area into two new conduct areas)
- New event-weighting scale
- Different driver and HVOO weightings for some offences
- New offences taken into consideration
- New conduct review measures (additional points for repeat offences of the same nature and decreased weighting based on the age of an event)
- Notices of non-compliance introduced as a means to raise awareness
- New approach to assessing critical events and vehicle safety
- New threshold values (number of points that must not be reached)
- New HVOO Good Conduct Recognition Program
The policies were revised with a view to :
- making the policies more effective at allowing the SAAQ to identify and intervene with heavy vehicle users that present a real risk to road safety or to the integrity of the road network
- introducing new awareness-raising measures while continuing to intervene with heavy vehicle users through a series of gradually escalating steps, with the aim of encouraging heavy vehicle users to correct their conduct and there by avoid having their records referred to the Commission des transports du Québec
- recognizing good conduct
