Power-Tripping Police

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Dear Editor:

Regarding your latest editorial, my compliments to you on an article that could have been written a while back. I am the owner of a small Ontario-based fleet and you are correct in your perspective of needless enforcement of silly rules while real crime goes unattended.

We recently had a vehicle placed OOS by an OPP officer who was being trained in CVSA inspections and happened to come across one of our trucks and an air line problem. While we weren’t charged, we did have to repair the air line at the inspection station and were of course placed OOS.

We investigate any occurrence very thoroughly here and I was convinced the air line was not unserviceable, based on the hard copy of CVSA standards I keep close by in my office and the opinion of both our mechanic and my safety and compliance manger. I left two phone messages for the officer to return my call and he never did so.

Finally I wrote a very strong letter asking him to reverse his OOS report and that if need be, we would settle for a noted defect.

He finally did call and after a very vigorous discussion on the phone, he absolutely would not amend his report.

Let me assure you that no truck in North America would pass his inspection based on his interpretation of a faulty air line. I still have the air line in my possession as proof of how silly things are now. Thanks for an excellent article and keep up the good work.

Rick Way Via e-mail

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