Ontario has taken a stand on the issue of washroom availability to delivery drivers, couriers, and truck drivers. The Province is planning to introduce legislation requiring shippers and receivers to provide bathrooms to drivers visiting their locations. This rule will apply to large facilities handling heavy truck traffic and to small businesses that use courier/delivery services.
Professional drivers routinely face a lack of adequate washroom facilities during their routine work activities. Highway facilities are frequently lacking or in poor condition, and rules that some businesses implement banning drivers from washrooms severely limit these drivers’ access to basic hygiene services.
Segments of Canada’s trucking industry suffer from reputation problems. The move by Ontario’s government is being applauded by trucking associations such as the Ontario Trucking Association and undoubtedly by professional drivers, too, who have provided high levels of service to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic on top of their already heavy workloads.
It is not uncommon for large shippers and receivers to detain trucks for long periods of time while they load and unload other vehicles. Given these long wait times, bathroom access has been an issue in the past that some businesses have failed to address. With the incoming legislation, businesses will be forced to comply, although specific dates, deadlines, and methods of enforcement are not yet known.
Other provinces will be watching as this rule rolls out in Canada’s most populated province. Regardless of a legal mandate, businesses should be taking note and addressing driver concerns at their facilities since their reputations are at risk.
