Ontario inches closer to speed limiter rule: Report
TORONTO — Last month Quebec stepped off to the side to let Ontario take the lead in legislating speed limiters on trucks. And reportedly, that’s exactly what Queen’s Park is prepared to do.
The Missouri-based Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) reports on its official publication’s website, www.ooida.com, that it recently dispatched one of its officials to Toronto to discuss the controversial measure with staff from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
Rod Nofziger, OOIDA’s director of government affairs, reported that Liberal Party officials told him they have every intention of making good on a pledge to mandate speed limiters, set at 105 km/h, on all Ontario base-plated trucks weighing over 26,000 lbs.
Quebec came close to passing similar legislation just before Christmas. The Legislature approved a related road safety bill in January, but after opposition from OOIDA and its Canadian affiliate, the Owner-Operator’s Business Association of Canada (OBAC), officials promised to hold off on the speed limiter portion of the bill until after a neighboring province agreed to enact the devices as well.
The Ontario Liberals, which last fall promised the Ontario Trucking Association they would greenlight a speed limiter rule if re-elected, are on the cusp of making such an announcement, says OOIDA.
Nofziger said the situation “is nearing a point of no return in Ontario” and urged American and Canadian OOIDA members and other independent truckers “to speak up now” and call their local MPP if they don’t like the plan.
“Ontario is the most influential province in Canada,” Nofziger said. “If a speed limiter mandate takes place in Ontario, it’s easy to see it spread quickly to other provinces and to the U.S.”
The OTA has been lobbying for mandatory speed limiters in Ontario and across Canada for over two years. The association says the devices would increase safety on the highway and save fuel, which in turn, improves the environment.
Critics like OOIDA and OBAC counter that large OTA carriers already govern fleet speed voluntarily, and now want the government to weed out their competition for recruiting and retaining drivers.
To those accusations, OTA says it simply wants to level the playing field between carriers who follow speed laws and those that routinely break them.
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