OTTAWA — The Canadian Trucking Alliance says some provinces are considering changes to the weight threshold for vehicles covered by the National Safety Code.

According to the country’s largest carrier group, under review is an increase in the trigger point from 4,500 kg (10,000 lb) to 11,794 kg (26,000 lb), which would effectively exempt thousands of smaller trucks under that latter weight threshold from most NSC regulations. The initiative is being led primarily by Alberta, Saskatchewan, and B.C.

CTA and the provincial carrier associations are urging the transport ministers to base any decision to change the NSC truck weight threshold solely on questions of safety, not administrative simplicity for governments.

“This is not the first time the NSC weight threshold has been subject to examination,” points out CTA CEO David Bradley. “Indeed, when the issue was last reviewed in 2001, several regulators from both eastern and western Canada determined that the safety record of the smaller vehicle population was not good enough to justify a wholesale exemption from NSC-based safety regulations.”

In fact, statistics show an over-representation of smaller vehicles in serious collisions, as compared to tractor-trailers.

As a result of its own analysis of the safety record of smaller trucks compared to tractor-trailers, CTA has real concerns about the effects of an increase in the NSC weight threshold.

As Bradley told the transport ministers in recent communiqué: “Any change must be justified on the basis of safety. If it can be demonstrated that smaller vehicles do not represent an unacceptable safety risk, so be it. However, administrative expediency for governments is an inadequate reason to exempt smaller commercial vehicles from NSC-based regulations.”