Date Posted

June 28, 2022

Submitted by CVSA Programs Coordinator, Sheriff Highway Patrol, Sgt. Brian Davyduke

The 28th annual Alberta Inspectors Championship was held at the Alberta Motor Transport Associations training centre at the Edmonton International Airport on Saturday June 25th.  There were five CVSA North American Standard (NAS) inspectors competing for top prize in the competition.

Sheriff Mohsen Eftekhari – High River

Sgt. Travis House – Atmore Vehicle Inspection Station (VIS)

Sheriff Tyler Lamb – Atmore VIS

Sheriff Alexander Ludwig – Atmore VIS

Sgt. Darren Thompson – High River

The Alberta Inspectors Championship is an opportunity for top CVSA NAS inspectors to compete against each other in various commercial motor vehicle inspection events.  The competition starts with a written exam where the inspectors are tested on their knowledge of Dangerous Goods, CVSA inspection procedure, policy and their ability to apply the CVSA North American Out-of-Service criteria.  Inspectors that obtain the highest scores on the exam continue on to the second phase of the competition.

The second phase of the competition includes a personal interview where inspectors are asked a series of CVSA related questions from a panel of judges.  The contestants are judged on their communication skills, knowledge, professionalism, judgement and analytics.  This is a timed event where the inspectors are under the gun to come up with a quick well thought out response.

Once the personal interview is complete the contestants go on to the practical inspections where they are judged on inspection procedure and their ability to correctly identify violations.  There are four inspection events:

-Level I CVSA NAS Inspection (truck tractor – semitrailer)

-Motorcoach

-Dangerous Goods Highway Tank

-Dangerous Goods small means of containment.

Once the practical inspections are completed the scores from all events including the written exam are tallied, and the inspector with the highest score is crowned grand champion.  The following is the result of the 2022 Alberta Inspectors Championship:

High Point Vehicle Inspection  – Sgt. Darren Thompson

High Point Motorcoach Inspection – Sgt. Travis House

High Point Driver Inspection – Sgt. Thompson

Runner Up – Sgt. Travis House

Grand Champion – Sgt. Darren Thompson

In addition to awards being presented for inspection superiority, there is also an Award of Excellence.  The  Award of Excellence if voted on by all contestants and judges and is presented to the contestant who best exemplifies the spirit of co-operation, leadership, professional image, positive attitude and organizational ability.  This year the Award of Excellence was presented to Sgt. Darren Thompson.

The grand champion of the Alberta Inspectors Championship may have the opportunity to represent Alberta and the Sheriff Highway Patrol at the North American Inspectors Championship (NAIC) in Indianapolis, Indiana in August.  NAIC is a competition where the top inspectors from each jurisdiction in North America gather to compete against one another and receive training on the latest commercial motor vehicle safety technologies and techniques.

Congratulations to all AIC competitors.  It takes a lot of confidence to enter a competition where you are submitted to tight timelines, difficult inspection scenarios and peers judging you at each event.  My hat goes off to each and every contestant that took part in the competition this year.

Best of luck to Sgt. Thompson on his NAIC journey.