Alternative assessment procedure (AAP)
The alternative assessment procedure (AAP) is an optional way for us to assess premiums for interjurisdictional trucking and transport firms.
When you choose to sign up for AAP:
- you register for workers’ compensation coverage in each province or territory in which your firm operates or has workers;
- you only pay premiums for eligible workers in the jurisdiction or jurisdictions where your workers live and typically work.
(An eligible worker is one who works in more than one jurisdiction and has workers’ compensation coverage from one board for work performed anywhere in Canada.)
AAP is a simplified assessment process that is consistent with workers’ compensation board requirements across Canada.
Employers and workers in each province or territory using AAP receive the same rights, benefits and protection as those who don’t travel between jurisdictions.
AAP is optional, but it is the simplest way for you to report earnings and pay premiums. If you choose not to sign up, you must prorate the earnings of your workers based on the distance they’ve travelled and pay premiums to each province or territory in which your workers travel.
Eligibility for AAP
You can sign up for AAP if you have a truck or transport firm that is
- located in Yukon and your workers travel to other provinces; or
- located outside Yukon but your workers travel within the territory.
AAP is available to the following interjurisdictional trucking and transport industries.
- Bulk liquids trucking
- Couriers, messengers, and delivery
- Dry bulk materials trucking
- Forest products trucking
- General freight trucking
- Specialized freight trucking
- Used household and office goods moving
- Pilot cars
- Charter bus industry
- Interurban and rural bus transportation
- Land, scenic, and sightseeing transportation
Sign up for AAP
You can sign up for AAP when you register with us, or when you begin operating in a qualifying interjurisdictional trucking or transport industry.
You can switch to AAP at the beginning of each calendar year. You must submit your application before February 28.
To sign up or switch to AAP, take the following steps.
- Complete the Application for the Alternative Assessment Procedure.
- Send it to the workers’ compensation authority in your home province or territory. (Your home province or territory is where your firm’s head office is located, provided you have drivers living and ordinarily working in that province or territory.)
- Once your application is accepted, the workers’ compensation authority in your home province or territory will decide which other workers’ compensation authorities should be advised of your interjurisdictional trucking activities. It will contact other Canadian workers’ compensation authorities as required to advise them of your operations.
- Assessing boards:
- The workers’ compensation authority in your home province or territory will be an assessing board for the AAP.
- If you have workers who live and usually work in a province or territory outside your home province or territory, the workers’ compensation authority in that province or territory will also be an assessing board.
- You have to report payroll and remit assessments to all assessing boards.
- Registering boards:
- The workers’ compensation boards in the provinces or territories where your workers drive, or work temporarily, will be the registering boards for the AAP.
- You will not be required to pay premiums to the registering boards.
Common questions
How will the registering boards know you are paying premiums to us?
If Workers’ Safety and Compensation Board is the assessing board, we will contact the registering boards on your behalf to let them know you have signed up for the alternative assessment procedure.
What if you hire new workers?
If you hire someone new, who lives in another province or territory, you must inform the registering and assessing boards. You should also tell them if you no longer have workers living in an assessing province. Please keep your account information up to date.
What happens if one of your workers is injured?
If your worker is entitled to compensation coverage in more than one jurisdiction, they may apply for compensation benefits in either their home province or the province where the injury took place.
Examples of how AAP works
Example 1: All workers live in Yukon
ABC Trucking Ltd. is located in Yukon and hauls freight from Yukon to Ontario. The firm’s drivers and other workers live in Yukon. ABC’s trucks drive 60 per cent of their kilometres in Yukon and 10 per cent in each of the other five provinces.
The firm is required to register in Yukon (the assessing board), as well as in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario (the registering boards). ABC Trucking selects AAP and reports all of its drivers’ earnings to us. As the assessing board, we inform the other workers’ compensation boards that ABC Trucking has signed up for AAP. The firm is registered with each of the five registering boards, but only pays premiums to us.
Example 2: Workers live in more than one jurisdiction
ABC Trucking Ltd. is located in Yukon and hauls freight from Yukon to Ontario. Ten of the firm’s drivers and other workers live in Yukon; two workers live in Alberta.
The firm selects AAP and reports all earnings for Yukon residents to us. The firm also registers with the Workers’ Compensation Board of Alberta, and reports earnings for eligible workers who live in Alberta.
Yukon and Alberta (the assessing boards) advise BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario (the registering boards) that ABC Trucking has signed up for AAP. The firm is registered with each of the four registering boards, but only pays premiums to Yukon and Alberta.
Further information
If you have questions about AAP, contact us.
You can download a copy of the alternative assessment procedure brochure.