What TRIF do clients actually require

Last updated: 3 August 2026 Written by Blake Cowan, NCSO

The platforms collect the number. The client sets the bar. Knowing which is which changes who you should be asking.

The short answer

There is no standard threshold. The number is set by the client, not by ISN, Avetta or ComplyWorks, who mostly grade and report rather than gate. In practice, general construction and industrial clients commonly look for a rolling three year rate below about 3.0, and higher hazard work such as oil and gas frequently sets it at 1.0 or lower. Being above the line is usually a conversation, not a rejection.

This is the question everybody asks once they have worked out their number, and the honest answer annoys people: it depends who is asking.

The platforms do not set the threshold

Worth clearing up first, because a lot of contractors believe otherwise.

ISN, Avetta, ComplyWorks and Veriforce are not standards bodies. They collect your data, verify it, score it and present it to their client, who is the operator or general contractor paying for the subscription. The threshold belongs to that client. Two operators on the same platform can set different bars for the same work, and both are legitimate.

So the useful question is never "what does ISN require". It is "what does this client require", and the answer is in the prequalification documents or a phone call away. The prequalification guide covers how the platforms themselves work.

What the bar tends to look like in practice

With the caveat above firmly in place, some patterns are consistent enough to plan against.

Comparison table.
Work type	Rate commonly looked for	What drives it
Oil and gas, heavy industrial	1.0 or lower	High consequence work, and a deep contractor pool to choose from
General construction	Around 3.0	Broadly tracks the published industry averages
Light commercial, service trades	More flexible	Rate is often one factor among many rather than a gate

Scroll the table sideways to see every column. The first column stays in place.

Treat that as orientation, not as a specification. The number in your contract documents beats anything on this page.

They want years, not a year

Almost every platform works on a rolling three year view, and some ask for five.

This is good news more often than people expect. One bad year inside an otherwise decent record is usually survivable, because the rolling average absorbs it and because a single event has an obvious explanation. The pattern reviewers act on is a rate drifting upward across three years, which no single explanation covers.

It also means you cannot fix this quickly. A company that decides in March to improve its prequalification standing is working on next year's submission at the earliest, which is an argument for getting the counting right long before anybody asks.

When you are above the line

This is the part worth reading before it happens to you.

Being above a threshold usually produces a request rather than a rejection. The client wants to know what happened and what changed. What you send back decides the outcome.

What works is specific. Name the events, without naming the workers. Say what the investigation found. Say what changed as a result, with dates, and show the document that changed. If the same failure produced two of the injuries, say so, because a reviewer who spots the pattern you did not mention will assume you missed it.

What does not work is a paragraph about being committed to safety. Every company above a threshold sends that paragraph. It is the reason a specific answer stands out so sharply.

If the underlying number is genuinely too high, how to actually lower it is the practitioner answer, and none of it is fast.

The EMR question, which has no Canadian answer

American forms ask for an EMR, or experience modification rate. It is an insurance factor comparing your claims history against the expected cost for your class, centred on 1.0, where below 1.0 is better than expected.

Canadian companies generally do not have one, because provincial workers compensation boards run their own experience rating programs instead. This is a real trap on a US prequalification form, because the field is often mandatory and there is nothing honest to type in it.

The workable answer is to state that you operate under a provincial workers compensation board, name the province, explain that no EMR is issued in that system, and offer your board's own experience rating or your industry rate in its place. Reviewers deal with this often. What they cannot deal with is a fabricated 1.0, which is what happens when the form will not submit without something in the box.

Safety metrics and injury rates is the hub.
The TRIF calculator works out the number they are asking for.
Canadian injury rate benchmarks has the published provincial figures, and why they are not your TRIF.
Contractor prequalification covers ISN, Avetta, ComplyWorks and Veriforce in full.
COR certification is the other thing most Canadian clients ask for alongside a rate.

Questions people actually ask

What is a good TRIR or TRIF?

There is no universal figure, because the threshold is set by the client rather than by any standard. In practice, general industrial and construction clients commonly look for a rolling three year rate below about 3.0, and higher hazard work such as oil and gas frequently sets the bar at 1.0 or lower. The only number that matters is the one in the contract documents in front of you.

How many years of injury data do clients ask for?

Commonly three years, and sometimes five. Prequalification platforms are built around a rolling multi year view rather than a single year, which is deliberate. It stops one clean year from covering a pattern, and it stops one bad year from ending a company that otherwise performs well. A single bad year inside a good three year record is usually survivable if you can explain it.

What happens if my TRIF is above the client's threshold?

Usually not automatic disqualification. Most platforms grade rather than gate, so you land in a lower band and the client decides. What normally follows is a request for explanation and a corrective action plan. A specific, credible account of what happened and what changed carries real weight. Silence or a generic answer does not.

Do ISN, Avetta and ComplyWorks all want the same numbers?

Broadly the same inputs, presented differently. All of them want your recordable rate, your DART, your hours worked and your fatality history, typically over three to five years. American clients also ask for an EMR, which is an insurance experience modifier that has no direct Canadian equivalent, and that specific question causes Canadian contractors more trouble than the rate itself.

What is an EMR and do Canadian companies have one?

An EMR, or experience modification rate, is a US workers compensation insurance factor comparing your claims history to the expected cost for your class. It centres on 1.0. Canadian companies generally do not have one, because provincial boards use their own experience rating instead. If a US form demands an EMR, say you operate under a provincial board, name your province, and offer your board's experience rating in its place.

Can I be prequalified with no injury history at all?

Usually yes, and a zero rate on low hours is treated with appropriate suspicion rather than admiration. A new company with 8,000 hours and no injuries has not proven anything yet, and reviewers know it. What carries weight at that stage is the program itself: written hazard assessments, orientation records, competency files and a working incident process.

Next step

Take the templates and use them, whether or not you ever talk to us. If you would rather not build the program yourself, we will build it inside the app and keep it current.

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