What will Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) think of next? This month, many provinces in Canada, including Ontario, are expected to roll out new trip-inspection regulations (NSC Standard 13). Among other things, they’re supposed to clarify driver and carrier obligations, define defects in terms of “major and minor,” and provide guidelines to help drivers differentiate between the two.

The new regs do that, but MTO offers no guidance for drivers upon discovering a minor defect. Section 8, article (3) of Ontario Regulation 199/07 says, A driver may continue to drive a commercial motor vehicle… if it has a minor defect, if he or she has entered the defect on the daily inspection report…

But MTO seems to be of the opinion that a driver should have minor defects repaired before leaving the yard. That same driver would probably be excused if a defect were found later in the day at a remote location. To charge or not to charge will be up to the inspector.

This issue arose at a recent meeting of the Transportation Health and Safety Association of Ontario, Council of Driver Trainers, Kitchener chapter, when Dawn Stevely of MTO’s policy department apparently informed the group that inspectors may still lay charges against drivers operating with a noted minor defect.

And in case you haven’t heard, Ontario has developed a couple of unique interpretations of the new HOS rules that will likely get a driver from outside the province into trouble, just for following the rules that exist in another province.

Can you spell target? Any American driver or a driver from somewhere else in Canada who may not be up to speed on Ontario’s interpretations of the rules had better be — in the words of the late, great, Al Palladini — afraid. Very Afraid.

Rick Morgan, a Certified Safety Director with a small southwestern Ontario carrier says he’s seen warnings and charges against drivers who indicate “Cycle 1” or “Cycle 2” on their log sheets. Apparently MTO wants to see “70 hours in 7 days” and “120 hours in 14 days.”

And don’t forget to remind your drivers that in Ontario, they must indicate the vehicle licence numbers on the log sheets, not the unit numbers. Three CVOR points and a $390-plus ticket hang in the balance.

The period of “educational enforcement” has come and gone in Ontario, and we’re now seeing drivers put out-of-service for 72 hours for failing to maintain their logs to the last change of duty status, or for any sign of falsification.

And while we’re on the topic of safety and compliance and some of the steps we take to protect our reputations in the event of an accident, let me tell you, the mainstream media have discovered the U.S. DOT’s SAFERSYS database, and they’ve figured out how to use it.

You’ll recall a spectacular wreck that occurred in Oakland, Calif. in late April. A gasoline tanker crashed and burned, destroying a section of the Arthur Maze Freeway. The flames had barely been extinguished when the local CBS TV affiliate, KPIX Channel 5, ran a story outlining the checkered mechanical history of the truck.

It was reported that the truck had a history of failed inspections stemming from brake problems — 13 tickets had been issued stemming from 14 inspections conducted over the previous 30 months. “One day in January of 2006, officers wrote 4 tickets on the truck — including two for brake violations. The following month, another brake violation, this time taking the truck out of service,” she said in glorious color on the evening news.

All she needed to find the truck’s history was the name of the carrier and the plate numbers. The rest of the information is in the SAFERSYS database.

Whether or not that wreck had anything to do with brake problems, or the driver’s criminal record — which includes a 1996 heroin possession conviction that earned him a 32-month prison sentence; also reported by the same intrepid reporter — remains to be seen. But it’s worth considering what those records are saying to the folks in Oakland — considerably inconvenienced by the destructions of the overpass.

Ever checked out your own SAFERSYS record? Try www.safersys.org.