All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Traffic control and flagging safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for traffic control companies whose crews set up and run temporary traffic control for road construction, utilities, events and emergencies in every province and territory. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: traffic control plans and the provincial manual, struck-by hazards and escape routes, flagging, automated flagger devices, setting up and taking down signs, lane and road closures, mobile operations, truck-mounted attenuators and pilot vehicles, night work, high-visibility apparel and aggressive drivers. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s traffic control manual, flagger rules and apparel. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: eighteen safe work practices written for traffic control crews, flagging shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's traffic control manual, flagger rules and high-visibility apparel

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready plans and forms: the traffic control plan record and set-up checklist shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, supervisors, crew leads, traffic control persons, set-up crews, attenuator operators and pilot drivers, and how we work with the client and the road authority.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by type of work zone, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the work zone hazard assessment done at every set-up.

3. Safe work practices

Eighteen practices for traffic control crews: plans and the provincial manual, struck-by hazards, flagging, automated devices, set-up and take-down, closures and detours, mobile operations, attenuators and pilots, equipment in the zone, night work, apparel, aggressive drivers, incident scenes, weather, driving, fatigue and manual handling.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for a two-lane closure, flagging alternating traffic, taking down a zone, a mobile operation with an attenuator, night flagging, piloting traffic, responding to a vehicle intrusion, and setting up an automated flagger device.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for traffic control (face traffic, no work before the zone is set, talk before you release, stay clear of the attenuator), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

High-visibility apparel by class and colour as each jurisdiction requires, high-visibility hard hats and the rest of the basic PPE.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Attenuators, automated flagger devices, portable signals, arrow boards, signs and their retroreflectivity, and vehicles.

8. Training and communication

Flagger certification where the law requires it, attenuator and pilot driving, and supervised shifts before a new flagger works alone.

9. Inspections

Drive-through checks of every work zone, devices and vehicles before use, and sign logs.

10. Investigations and reporting

Vehicle intrusions, paddle violations, workers struck or nearly struck, and attenuator impacts reported and investigated.

11. Emergency preparedness

Intrusions, a worker struck, queue collisions, attenuator hits, aggressive drivers, air horn warnings and first aid that reaches the farthest station.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Plans, permits, sign logs, flagger break logs, intrusion reports and certificates, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law, the road authority and its permit, each province’s work zone manual, the CSA apparel standards, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Working for contractors, utilities and municipalities, other traffic control companies, attenuator operators and plan designers, and buying signs and devices.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, each jurisdiction’s traffic control manual, flagger rules and apparel, serious incidents to report and how fast, and the other rules that change at the border.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

37 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the work zone hazard assessment, traffic control plan checklist, work zone inspection and sign log, flagger station and break log, attenuator inspection and vehicle intrusion report.

Written for the work, not just the province

A traffic control crew’s risk comes down the road at highway speed: a distracted driver, a queue that stops short, a truck that ignores the paddle, fog that hides the taper. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

You work under the road authority’s permit, the provincial manual and the contractor’s plan. The manual says how they fit together, and the stricter rule always wins.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the road is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Traffic control companies and the flaggers, set-up crews, attenuator operators and pilot drivers who work for contractors, utilities, municipalities and highway departments.

A template is a starting point, not legal or engineering advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your work and the manuals where you work before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 16, 2026
- First edition, written for traffic control and flagging crews and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law, the traffic control manual, flagger rules and apparel of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 16 October 2026.