Greater Sudbury uses training to improve safety record of its commercial drivers

After a warning from the province last spring, the City of Greater Sudbury is making some changes to improve the municipality’s driver violation rate.

After receiving a warning from the province, Greater Sudbury is working to improve the driving records of the 450 people who operate the city’s 320 commercial vehicles.

Last April, the municipality received a warning letter from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation that its Commercial Vehicle Operator Registration ( CVOR) rating had risen to 35 per cent.

A higher CVOR rating means more drivers are being fined for violations such as collisions and failing safety inspections.

“We want to make sure that that violation rate is reduced because it speaks to an overall safe fleet and really a safe service delivery,” said Brendan Adair, the city’s director of transit services.

Any operator or corporation with commercial motor vehicles must have a valid CVOR certificate. The provincial program monitors operators’ safety records based on factors like infractions, collisions, and inspections.

Adair said since receiving the warning, the city has worked to add more remedial and proactive training to bring the rating down to 30 per cent.

“We’ve seen improvement already this year and that’s evidence of our safety culture and the support through our driver training program and really those that do the job that are on the road daily providing services to the community,” he said.

“They take their job very seriously.”

Adair said the rating doesn’t pinpoint specific municipal vehicles that are more frequent violators.

“We don’t have information in terms of like a problem area. That’s not the case,” he said.

“Again, it was cumulative across the entire fleet.”

EMS vehicles not included

However, Adair said any infraction involving an activated emergency service vehicle is removed from the CVOR rating, such as an ambulance caught on camera going through a red light or a fire truck speeding through an automated speed enforcement zone as it headed to a fire call.

In an effort to improve Sudbury’s CVOR rating, $134,308 was approved for an additional driver certification instructor to be added in 2026.

“Providing proactive training or reactive training,” Adair said.

“So again, when we talk about if there’s any level of infraction or collision that we see the driver training division provides safe driving tips and training to ensure that what that service provided is safe for the community.”

He said the goal for 2026 is to reduce Sudbury’s CVOR rating even further.

According to the MTO, any carrier’s current safety rating can be viewed –for free – using its Carrier Safety Rating Enquiry tool.

A specific carrier can request a CVOR abstract for $5, which provides a two-year summary of the carrier’s safety record, including collisions, convictions and safety rating.