MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) says the Ontario Minister of Transportation needs to open more offices for issuing International Registration Plan (IRP) plates.

“A number of members of the OTA have been calling me to express their concerns about the lack of convenient access to MTO offices,” to get the plates,” says
association president David Bradley.

“We’d appreciate it if the minister would look into this matter at his earliest convenience in order to find a way to increase the number of locations where IRP plates can be obtained.”

The ministry is currently issuing plates through a total of 12 facilities, but the OTA believes that these still don’t meet the industry’s needs.

“Now that Ontario’s membership in IRP has been implemented, the number and tone of the calls our office has been receiving from frustrated carriers has made it clear that indeed this level of service is woefully inadequate,” Bradley continues.

“The calls have been coming from every corner of the province and from every size of trucking firm,” he says. The major complaint is the need to drive “extraordinary distances” to reach the IRP offices, says the OTA.

Opening more locations in more communities would address the problem, as would electronic access, the association recommends.