TORONTO — Ontario is adopting the new National Safety Code standards for daily vehicle inspections, the Ontario Trucking Association confirms.

Starting July 1, carriers operating in Ontario will have to begin the transition to the requirements. The Ontario Ministry of Transport will provide educational enforcement for several months to allow carriers to make the switch.

The new regulations do not mean major changes for drivers in terms of how they conduct their inspections, says OTA, but they will also be required to monitor the vehicle they operate on an on-going basis. Drivers will now refer to a schedule that has a list of both minor and major defects on it.

Under new vehicle inspection rules, drivers will be able to
operate a truck with a minor defect if fixed immediately

“Under the old regulation, drivers were given no real direction as to what to look for when conducting a vehicle inspection,” says OTA President David Bradley. “Basically they were told to check wheels, check brakes and that sort of thing; it was all very vague and few drivers are certified mechanics.”

In addition, drivers will be able to report a minor defect but still operate the vehicle with an undertaking to get the defect fixed. Major defects on the other hand are essentially out-of-service defects and therefore — as is presently the case — the vehicle will have to be repaired before it can be operated.

The need to update the trip inspection criteria was one of the recommendations of Target ’97 — the joint MTO-industry committee that conducted a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of a broad range of truck safety regulations in the late 1990’s.

The new regulations are based on the model that was piloted by the MTO and the OTA in 2001 and was ultimately adopted as a national standard.

To help prepare the industry for the new regulation, OTA is offering members seminars and a webinar. To register go to: www.ontruck.org/education/seminar/

OTA announced it is also publishing a driver handbook on the new regulations, which includes details of the new requirements and new forms, an explanation of every defect, and step-by-step inspection procedures involving 10 locations around the vehicle. A full training package is also being offered to assist carriers in training their drivers.

Carriers will have time to use up old reports during the educational enforcement period and OTA has begun production of the new report forms. OTA will also guarantee the compliance of its forms. For more information on this service contact OTA Esperanza Tome at esperanza.tome@ontruck.org.
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