MTO cracks down on road hogs. And cows. And horses

TORONTO — If the chickens don’t come to the coop, you gotta take the coop to the chickens.

That’s exactly what happened in a recent Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) enforcement blitz, aimed specifically at livestock haulers.

MTO inspectors took to the back roads of southwestern Ontario and Halton Region and pulled over 80 livestock haulers, resulting in six charges and six OOS violations.

The crackdown on animal haulers wasn’t random.

Earlier this year, the Ontario Trucking Association’s (OTA) Livestock Transporters’ Division (LTD) issued a discussion paper regarding the future of livestock transportation in the province.

One of the recommendations was to "ensure that safety standards related to the drivers and equipment utilized in the hauling of livestock was upheld on all roads and by all carriers doing business in the province."

As a result, the OTA is praising the MTO’s efforts in keeping unsafe animal-haulers off the roads.

"A significant percentage of kilometers traveled in Ontario by livestock haulers do not involve travel along provincial highway monitored by stationary enforcement stations; this effort on the part of MTO will help make sure vehicles and drivers moving live animals on all Ontario roads are held to the legal safety standards," said Randy Scott, Chair, OTA Livestock Transporters’ Division.

The OTA was also quick to point out that the disproportionately high number of OOS violations shouldn’t be interpreted as statistical gospel.

"Numbers generated in targeted safety blitzes should not be taken as an indication of overall safety standards and practices by the industry; but should be seen as exercises in removing the gross violators from the road," said OTA VP of Operations, Geoff Wood.