Ready to make the round?

by Steve Bouchard

Three years after the first pre-publication, the regulation amending the Quebec safety standards for road vehicles have been adopted. Now the new regulation is aligned with the National Safety Code standards.

In addition, the regulations have the effect of replacing the pre-trip inspection by a safety round.

Gaétan Bergeron, manager of the expertise and vehicle safety direction of the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec, told Transport Routier (Truck News’ sister publication) why this process took three years.

“At the first prepublication, we had to rework some details in the light of comments from industry,” he said. “There is also that this regulation affects many people: roadside inspectors, driving schools etc. We had to go back to work with those groups.”

Also, during this period, several transport ministers have succeeded in Quebec, each having different priorities.

The regulations were pre-published again in September.

“Because we had made some changes, and as there was a significant delay from the first pre-publication, we decided to pre-publish again to ensure that all those who wanted to comment have the opportunity to do so,” Bergeron added. “We made some minor changes following the comments and the regulation was adopted last month in the Official Gazette and shall come into force on November 20.”

“We give six months for the industry to be aware of new developments and adjust operations accordingly.”

The six-month transition period began on May 20, 2016.

The new regulation contains new rules on summary verification of the mechanical condition of a heavy vehicle by the driver or the person designated by the operator to align this standard. This inspection, conducted until then before every departure of the vehicle, will now be done on a daily basis. It also harmonizes the mechanical inspection, preventive maintenance and safety check with the standards of the Canada Safety Council.

“The mechanical inspection and safety round are two different things across Canada. We have built on the safety standards of the Canadian Council for consistency and fairness across the country. We tried to harmonize 100 percent of it, but it is not a copy because some details are still different,” Bergeron added. “We realized that the same defect could, for example, be minor in the Canadian safety round , but major in mechanical inspection. We had to detect all these differences and decide what was to be major or minor. ”

For more information on regulatory changes, go to saaq.gouv.qc.ca.


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