TORONTO- Ontario Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca said he supports ELDs and roll-stability technology for trucks at the Ontario Trucking Association’s (OTA) annual convention.

Del Duca also announced 12-month Longer Combination Vehicle (LCV) operations starting this year.

“We’ve given consideration to extending the operating season for Long Combination Vehicles to year-round operations,” he said.

Del Duca said the ministry is moving forward with 12-month operations for LCVs for the upcoming 2014/15 winter season.

“Ontario also supports the concept of using Electronic Logging Devices as an effective tool for monitoring hours of service compliance by commercial motor vehicle drivers,” Del Duca said. “Ontario believes an effective ELD mandate is one that is adopted nationally, and supports the work already underway by Transport Canada to determine if ELDs should be mandated on extra provincial carriers. MTO will continue to work with Transport Canada, and our provincial-territorial colleagues to create a national solution – if a national solution is not reached, Ontario will look at other options.”

Plus, he said “stability control systems, such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Roll Stability Control (RSC), are an effective tool that can help prevent rollovers and loss of control in certain types of crashes.”

“We strongly encourage Transport Canada to develop a national standard that would require these systems on all newly manufactured large trucks and buses by a specified date,” he said.

Del Duca had also recently endorsed mandatory entry-level training and introduced of legislation that allows for an extension to the maximum overall B-Train combination length.