TORONTO — Canadian Trucking Alliance chief executive officer David Bradley says government and industry leaders are “closing in on a solution” to liability concerns over doctors who conduct physical examinations for truck drivers in order to meet U.S. Dept. of Transportation licensing requirements.

Last month, the Canadian Medical Protective Association, which provides legal assistance and liability coverage for 56,000 medical professionals in this country, recommended that doctors no longer complete U.S. DOT documents related to medical exams because it could expose them to lawsuits in U.S. courts. As a result, many Canadian doctors have refused to perform DOT physicals.

Bradley says Transport Canada and the U.S. Federal Highway Administration plan to resurrect a reciprocity agreement on driver medical exams that was tabled in June 1995 but never enacted.

It would create medical standards for truck drivers that are accepted by either country.

“We’ve been able to get the two governments to fast-track their discussions,” he says. “We’re hopeful that by this week or next, the reciprocal agreement — which means the doctors will no longer need to sign the U.S. form — will be in place.”

The deal is by no means a sure thing.

The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators will convene an emergency meeting of its Board of Directors on Wednesday, Nov. 4, to decide whether to give the plan provincial approval, says Audrey Henderson, CCMTA director of programs.

“We’re hoping that the Board will go along with the newest requirements on reciprocity so we can move this process along,” Henderson says. These requirements include standardizing codes for licence restrictions between the two countries. Provinces would have to change their licencing documents, which Henderson says would be costly.

Once an agreement is reached, both Transport Canada and the FHWA require a 90-day period “for training field staff and enforcement, and to inform every driver who would be affected,” Henderson said. Government officials “have a solution” that would eliminate or reduce the 90-day interim period, she said, but Henderson would not elaborate on what that solution is.