TORONTO — After years of planning and debate, 2009 will be known as the year of the truck speed limiter in Canada. Todaystrucking.com has learned that the province of Quebec has finalized its speed limiter rule and is on pace to have it take effect on New Year’s Day.

A Quebec Transport spokesman tells us that rulemakers will undergo 45 days of consultations and it will take about 15 days beyond that to formally sanction the rule. Barring any last minute setbacks, that puts the regulation on schedule for a Jan. 1 implementation date.

We’re told that the fine in La Belle Province for not having a speed limiter set will be $350

Ontario, which was the first province to draft legislation for mandatory speed limiters on trucks, has still not formally approved its own rule (it received Royal Assent in June), but a Ministry of Transportation official confirmed that is expected to happen shortly and the province also hopes to mirror implementation with Quebec on Jan. 1, 2009.

MTO spokesman Bob Nichols said there will be an educational enforcement period of six months in Ontario after the rule takes effect. During that time, truckers who do not have the engine ECM set at a maximum speed of 105 km/h would not receive monetary fines, but will be warned of the rules.

Marc Cadieux of the Quebec Trucking Association says he’s not sure if the length of the soft enforcement period has yet been determined in his province, but it’ll more than likely be the same as its neighbor.

Nichols couldn’t provide an exact timeline of when Ontario’s regulation would be rubberstamped, but assuming the province is determined to match the implementation date of Quebec, it should be formally approved in the next several weeks.

Speed No More: Starting New Year’s, trucks will not
be able to go faster than 105 km/h in Que and likely Ont too.

David Bradley, whose Ontario Trucking Association began lobbying Queen’s Park for mandatory speed limiters in 2005, welcomed the news.

"Quebec and Ontario coordinating the introduction of their speed limiter rules makes sense," he said in an email.

While OTA and QTA member carriers strongly support the mandate, the sentiment from other truckers and industry insiders has been mixed. Many smaller fleets and owner-operators have been vocally against the idea.

The Owner-Operators Business Association of Canada (OBAC), along with the U.S. based Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), have led the drive to have the rule shelved — with little effect. OOIDA, however, has threatened to sue the Ontario government on the grounds that speed limiters violate NAFTA — a claim that OTA says has no merit.

The MTO closed its public comment period on the legislation in early September. Asked if any of the comments convinced officials to revise anything in the controversial rule, Nichols said: "the general information and guts of the bill remain as far as I’m aware."

Most fleets will already have the codes to set speed limiters themselves. Those that don’t, will have to bring their trucks into a dealer or coordinate with another maintenance provider for a cost of about $100. 

It remains unclear whether the MTO has ironed out what seems to be several remaining ambiguous enforcement and privacy issues. As we uncover in this week’s online special feature, ‘Pandora’s ECM,’ the rule currently allows inspectors unfettered access to hundreds of vehicle parameters and setting in the ECM beyond just vehicle speed. Click here for more.