It does not take a real rocket scientist to figure out you will be seeing a little more traffic in upcoming weeks with the harvest season fast approaching.
With the Highway 36 corridor very much a part of the agriculture heartland here in southern Alberta, the roads will be bustling, carrying the area’s nourishment to various locales.
To help ensure those voyages are safer ones, Alberta Transportation has helped facilitate the voluntary Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance program and should be applauded for it along with all the farmers across southern Alberta who agree to enter the program.
The 18-item inspection involving a wide variety of variables for trucking on the road can serve as a wake-up call to all farmers that their vessels may not be as seaworthy on the river of pavement infrastructure that is the lifeline of agriculture in our province.
Even if huge problems are found with a farmer’s truck, no fine is issued to ease the burden of the voluntary program, but the problem must be fixed on the spot.
But be it a major or minor concern that is unveiled with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance program, it is one step further for farmers taking a proactive approach to ensuring not only their own drivers, but those out on the road can feel a little safer with their trucks brought up to acceptable road-worthy standards.
Whether there is a voluntary program out there or not, there will also be those who are not only farmers, but other vehicle owners as well that will let the conditions of their vehicle slide to save a buck, even if it means there very well could be the real cost of a human life down the road of, say, failed or shoddy brakes.  
Farmers should be encouraged to enroll in the voluntary program because if there is a problem that needs to be cited now in their trucks, it will certainly still exist further down the road. And down that road will be an Alberta Transportation official who will not be so understanding next time around with a fine in hand in which the problem will have to be fixed anyway.