CELPIP Reading Part 4 Practice Test: Self-Driving Trucks On Canadian Highways

Last winter, a grocery-laden tractor-trailer completed the 300-kilometre run from Calgary to Edmonton without anyone touching the steering wheel. A safety driver occupied the cab throughout, as provincial regulations require, but the vehicle, operated by Alberta start-up Northline Autonomy, steered, braked and changed lanes independently. Northline intends to deploy 40 such trucks on Highway 2 by 2028 and treats the safety driver as a transitional expense, tolerated only until regulators relent.

Vice-president Dana Whitford considers the timing fortuitous. Canadian carriers report thousands of vacant driving positions, and the typical long-haul driver is now in his fifties. “Automation fills seats nobody wants,” she insists, “and machines don’t grow tired, distracted or impatient.” Under Northline’s model, trucks would cover the monotonous highway stretches, while human drivers took over at hubs on each city’s outskirts for local deliveries.

Gurpreet Sandhu, who has driven long-haul routes out of Abbotsford, B.C., for 22 years, finds that reassurance hollow. “They say the robots will only take the boring part of the job,” he remarks. “The boring part is the part that pays.” Most of his income comes from cross-country runs; local delivery work offers lower wages and fewer hours. He also invites sceptics to watch an autonomous truck tackle the Coquihalla in a whiteout.

Hélène Marchand, who studies transportation safety at Université Laval, believes both camps are outrunning the evidence. Most testing has occurred on straight, well-marked highways in dry weather, whereas snow and freezing rain can blind the cameras and sensors these vehicles require. “The trucks may eventually outperform a fatigued human,” she allows, “but only millions of kilometres in punishing conditions will prove it.” She also favours one national standard instead of a patchwork of provincial rules.

Alison Tremblay, of the Canadian Professional Drivers’ Association, frames the question differently: not whether the trucks arrive, but who bears the cost. Her association wants a retraining fund, financed partly by autonomous-trucking firms, to prepare drivers for remote fleet monitoring and vehicle maintenance, and legislation keeping a qualified driver in every cab for at least another decade.

Alberta’s transportation ministry reports no at-fault collisions so far.

After fifteen years behind the wheel and ten in dispatch, I found this piece frustrating. Ms. Whitford may be right that nobody queues up for night runs on Highway 2, but presenting automation as the answer to 6. Choose…the monotonous stretchessafety gapsa shortage of driversthe hubs on city outskirts ignores the people still doing the job. Mr. Sandhu has a point: once machines handle the highway, drivers inherit 7. Choose…the long highway stretcheswhatever pays leastbetter-paid monitoring jobssteadier, more predictable hours.

Still, Ms. Tremblay frames the question rightly, and I part company with colleagues who want to 8. Choose…keep a driver in every cabretrain for remote monitoringhold out for a national standardresist automation outright. I back her fund, and I like that the trucking companies would 9. Choose…foot part of the billrun the courseschoose the traineeshire the graduates. As for keeping a qualified person aboard, Dr. Marchand’s findings make that look like 10. Choose…a needless expensea step backwarda sensible precautionan overreaction.