OTA calls for more targeted enforcement

by Truck News

TORONTO, Ont. – The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) is urging enforcement agencies to target carriers and drivers that don’t comply with regulations and elevate their safety performance.

The call for targeted enforcement is in response to new Ontario Province Police crash statistics, that showed an increase in truck-involved fatalities in the province.

“It is important to remember that in 70% of collisions involving commercial trucks, the truck driver is found to not be at fault and even more rarely are collisions the result of the truck’s mechanical fitness,” said OTA president Stephen Laskowski. “Regardless, OTA believes we need to modernize enforcement and regulatory approaches to better identify the minority of carriers and drivers who do not operate in safe and compliant manner.”

The OTA plans to bring into the province a 10-point plan recently tabled by the Canadian Trucking Alliance, which will help enforcement target non-compliant carriers.

“We need to apply limited enforcement resources on those who require the most attention from the OPP and MTO,” says Laskowski. “It’s OTA’s focus to implement this enforcement strategy for the advancement of highway safety in Ontario while compelling fairness for the vast majority of professional Ontario fleets and drivers who invest and are dedicated to highway safety.”


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  • If only all the 4 wheelers faced as much scrutiny on the highways as truckers. More enforcement is needed but in the right areas. Need to teach people the rules of the road. Keep right except to pass, signal lane changes, give trucks space. The left laneS are for passing. Ticket all the speeders and distracted drivers you want…you ain’t fixing jack on the highways. Almost 10 years ago they put speed limiters on trucks to combat roll overs..cause the genius politics thought that was the fix. How is working?? You can’t fix stupid. Why don’t they legislate speed limiters on cars if its about safety? How many people have to die in car accidents if its about safety on the roads. Stupidity is the reason for accidents. You cut yourself with a knife do you blame the knife…stop blaming the truck. Get the stupid off the roads . Only then will accidents decrease. The government should retest all drivers that got a license before gradutating licenses. Clearly there is room for improvement. Myself included. I would welcome it.

  • The system is broken referring to hammering the bottom feeder trucking companies. Instead of enforcement being worried about their number of tickets written or as we call it Job Performance Expectations they need to focus on these carriers. The courts need to be tougher forget pleading to a joke charge your going down on this serious one. Some of these carriers aren’t in Ontario MTO needs to Hammer them. Courts need to back it up till this is done by all levels nothing will change. We all know who they are not hard to find them how come they are still operating?

  • Part of the problem is truck driving faster to beat the clook. pullling. 2 53 foot trailers in rush hour and bad road conitions. Also drivers texting while driving.

  • I think personal vehicles need to be targeted as well . LEAVE ROOM if they are cutting into the personal space of a transport , they need to be fined as well .

  • Stephen , I can totally see you dont know much about trucking “LCV”. Lcv’ s have curfews, what that means it that in certain hours of the day, which are ” rush hour time in morning and nights” that cannot drive in all gta. When it comes to bad weather, again they are not allowed to drive them in that kind of weather. Please before writing remarks, do some research and know the facts. When it comes to texting while driving , well I think this is a society problem now. Some truck drivers are maybe doing it just like some car drivers are doing it. Put I know that the majority of professional drivers dont do it because we are well aware of the dangers of doing this.

    • It seams to be happening in the G.T.A. That doesn’t mean that it should be happening any more than card should pulling out in front of trucks or truck drivers should drive too fast around curves. Most truck drivers are doing a good job but bad weather sometimes comes up .

  • Stephen , I can totally see you dont know much about trucking “LCV”. Lcv’ s have curfews, what that means it that in certain hours of the day, which are ” rush hour time in morning and nights” that cannot drive in all gta. When it comes to bad weather, again they are not allowed to drive them in that kind of weather. Please before writing remarks, do some research and know the facts. When it comes to texting while driving , well I think this is a society problem now. Some truck drivers are maybe doing it just like some car drivers are doing it. But I know that the majority of professional drivers dont do it because we are well aware of the dangers of doing this.

    • I own 5 trucks of my own i drive a truck go to New York city at least once evey month my self with L.T.L. i have seen many car drivers make so we have to hit the brakes to allow trucks to come onto to freeways or toll roads. I have seen the wages paid to drivers drop since 1980 very much. i have at 3 large recrutement events with the company that work with. I have seen the best out here and the worst i have trained over 30 truck drivers in 10 years. I did construction after a large company did not stand up for me when my truck was hit bya ryder tractor trailer at over 60 mph. This happened jan 1 2015 . I was 18 months and over $30,000 getting my own truck back. I ended in a homeless shelter as i was un able to work. I seen many truck drivers there stephen 226 889 9299

  • THESE EAST INDIANS ARE BUYING OLDER TRUCKS BECAUSE THEY DONT HAVE GOVERNERS IN THEM AND MTO AND OPP DONT CHECK TO SEE IF THEY HAVE THEM
    TRUCKING HAS GOTTEN WORST ABD THERE IS STILL COMPANYS WITH BAD TRUCKS OUT THERE THAT THEY DONT CARE IF THE TRUCKS ARE IN THAT SHAPE THEY JUST WANT THE MONEY I BEEN IN THE TRUCKING FOR 49 YEARS AND HAULED ALL OVER NORTH AMERICA AND MTO AND OPP NEED TO LAY BIGGER FINES AGAINST DRIVERS AND COMPANYS THANKS MTO AND OPP FOR CRACKING DOWN