Manitoba legislation targets ‘chameleon carriers’
Manitoba is looking to target “chameleon carriers” — businesses that close and re-open under a different name rather than addressing safety issues — by assigning “conditional” safety ratings to operations thought to be doing that very thing.
Current rules don’t allow the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to refuse to issue a safety certificate under such circumstances.
New carriers must identify a certified compliance officer and submit a safety plan before being issued a safety fitness certificate. Existing carriers with a “conditional” safety rating must certify a compliance officer within 180 days.
The government has proposed related changes to the Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Heavy Vehicle Safety) to ensure a level playing field for ethical operators with a strong safety culture, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said in a press release.
“The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure’s highest priority is safety on Manitoba’s roadways,” he said. “We are continuing to take concrete actions to address the recommendations of the Office of the Auditor General’s 2019 report into the oversight of commercial vehicle safety. Ensuring the safety of Manitoba’s commercial motor carriers improves safety for all Manitobans.”
Piwniuk added that, to ensure fairness for operators, changes also include provisions for appealing decisions to the Licence Suspension Appeal Board.
MTA support
The Manitoba Trucking Association (MTA) applauded the government move.
“Carriers with compliance issues should not simply be able to close their doors and re-open under a new name with a new safety fitness certificate,” MTA executive director Aaron Dolyniuk told TruckNews.com. “That history should follow them when trying to start up a new trucking company.”
The amendments specifically target unsafe carriers and will have minimal impact on carriers that comply with safety regulations and have satisfactory on-road performance, the government said.
In 2022, Manitoba updated its motor carrier safety rating framework to align with National Safety Code Standard 14 and introduced stronger provisions for safety fitness certificate renewals. Further updates to the Safety Fitness Criteria and Certificates Regulation have strengthened safety requirements for Manitoba-based motor carriers, it added.
Have your say
This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.
The next step will be to move on those carriers that relocate from province to province when their safety rating in one province drops, they close the doors and move to another province.
Is about time province is taking action against unsafe carriers using loophole to continually operate as commercial carrier. Hopefully other provinces would follow suit. Too many unsafe and unqualified drivers are operating commercial vehicle on a daily base throughout Canada and sadly nothing is being done by the government. The law have to reform to reflect the seriousness of the accident if found guilty with the carriers and drivers. Ontario province is known as lawless province when it comes to highway traffic acts. I sincerely hope this would be the beginning of better Road safety in the future.
All provinces should use the cvor ( commercial vehicle operators registration) rather than each province adopting their own and share bad actors.
Running rights are handed out to freely. Some of the equipment and unseasoned drivers I come across in my travels have me scratching my head how did this happen. Use to be a good profession to get into now it’s just a joke who can. E on the road today . Let’s hope this doesn’t stop and cleans up the industry so some of us can take pride once again .
I drive the number 1 hwy east every weekend and i see a lot of unsafe practices by transport rigs.i applaud this move.