Toronto District School Board drivers have compiled such a bad driving record in the last two years that staff are worried the board's entire commercial fleet could be grounded, according to a report delivered to trustees Wednesday.

"When I first read this report I was completely shocked," Trustee Pamela Gough told the board. "I could not believe my eyes."

Gough was especially incensed by the rate of violations: by January 2018, TDSB drivers had exceeded the Ministry of Transportation's threshold for road violations by 168 per cent. Those numbers include 31 collisions over two years.

"How could our standards have become so lax?" Gough asked.



The board's commercial vehicle licence was downgraded from satisfactory to conditional last summer, according to the MTO, as its safety violations piled up.

Any more problems, and the province could drop the TDSB to an "unsatisfactory" rating, which, according to Wednesday's staff report, would mean "all cube vans, dump trucks, heavy vehicles and board owned school buses would have to be taken off the road."

The TDSB operates a commercial fleet of 183 vehicles, which includes 19 school buses, according to the report. About 250 drivers are involved, according to the report's author, TDSB executive officer Steve Shaw. He said those 19 school buses ferry "thousands" of students to class and home, as well as on field trips, every year.

TDSB executive officer Steve Shaw wrote the report that highlights flaws in the board's driving record and what's being done to rectify the problems. (CBC News)

Collisions with other vehicles, shoddy pre-trip inspections, load safety issues and weight restriction violations were some of the problems that irked the MTO, his report states.

Shaw later told Trustee Chris Tonks he didn't have reliable figures on the number of injuries caused by the drivers' behaviour. But he said the majority of the collisions would be classified as "fender benders."

The MTO sets a maximum threshold of violations that each commercial vehicle operator in the province is allowed, within a two-year span. In the TDSB's case, that period expired in January 2018.

But by last August, TDSB drivers were already 70 per cent of the way toward that threshold, prompting the MTO to downgrade its operator's licence to conditional from satisfactory.

168 per cent over provincial limit

By January of this year, that rate had soared to 168 per cent of the provincial threshold.

The TDSB will be re-evaluated by the MTO next month, Shaw said. If the situation has improved, the board could win back its "satisfactory" status.

Shaw admitted his report presents "the unvarnished truth." But he told CBC Toronto the board is well on its way to reforming its shoddy driving record.

'More diligent'

"We're much more diligent in doing the things we're supposed to be doing," he told CBC Toronto, "and correcting those errors that were happening in the first place."

Governance and Policy Committee Chair Alexander Brown said he wants to know how the board's collective driving record sank so low. (CBC News)

But Trustee Alexander Brown, who chaired Wednesday's meeting, said he still wants to know how the situation deteriorated.

"What is going wrong with our driving fleet that we've been reviewed and possibly put into a suspension?" he asked.

Staff say in the report that all TDSB drivers are being put through a defensive driving course at a cost to the board of about $60,000. The report predicts drivers will have completed the course by the end of the school year.