Alberta Carriers Must Give Class 1 Drivers an Experience Record
By June 2026, Alberta carriers were expected to give departing Class 1 drivers a standardized record of their driving experience.
In June 2026, Alberta's new Class 1 driver experience record reached the end of its phase-in. The province said carriers were expected to be in full compliance by June 2026, after a phase-in period for compliance and enforcement that ran from December 2025 to May 2026, according to its program page.
Why Alberta created it
Alberta said the record was a response to industry concerns that high commercial insurance costs were making it hard to hire and insure experienced Class 1 truck drivers.
Existing documents did not fill the gap. A driver abstract lists traffic convictions, licence suspensions and commercial safety violations, but the province said it does not show a driver's good experience with the types of vehicles and cargo that matter most to employers and insurers. The new standardized record was designed to show the types of vehicle a driver had operated and the jurisdictions they had driven in.
The province said it hoped the record would help insurers assess experience and risk more accurately, so experienced drivers were recognized in pricing. It said this might help carriers find more competitively priced insurance through standard providers and reduce barriers for drivers entering or advancing in the industry.
The legal requirement
The requirement sat in a new Part 3.1 of the Commercial Vehicle Certificate and Insurance Regulation, added by Alberta Regulation 103/2025. It applied when a registered owner employed or engaged a driver who held a Class 1 licence and operated a vehicle with:
- a gross weight of 11,794 kilograms or more; and
- a trailer equipped with air brakes.
In practice, Alberta said, these were usually tractor and semi-trailer combinations. The rules did not apply to drivers who operated only Class 2 or Class 3 commercial vehicles or buses.
Under the regulation, a registered owner had to keep a record of commercial driving experience for each such driver. At the end of the driver's employment or engagement, the carrier had to prepare a commercial driving experience certificate based on an up-to-date record and give the driver a copy. The driver could then show it to future employers or insurers to confirm their experience. The regulation let the Registrar prescribe the content and form of both the record and the certificate.
How it rolled out
Alberta set out the steps on its program page:
- Spring 2025: the regulation was amended to add the record of experience.
- Fall 2025: the standardized record was developed with the commercial sector and the insurance industry.
- December 2025 to May 2026: a phase-in period let carriers get used to the requirement while the form and supporting resources were developed.
- June 2026: carriers were expected to comply fully.
The province published the Commercial Driver Experience Certificate as a fillable PDF form. Questions went to Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors' Traffic Safety Services.
The measure focused on what the province called the Class 1 driving situations with the highest risk and costs of severe collisions.
Archive: this article describes rules and events as of June 2026. Regulations may have changed since, so check the current rule before relying on it.