OTA says it’s working with MTO to tackle truck safety
TORONTO, Ont. – The Ontario Trucking Association says the Ministry of Transportation has a holistic plan to tackle truck safety that will effectively address the concerns outlined last week by the auditor general.
In a scathing report released Wednesday, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk said not enough was being done to ensure road safety, and the ministry had missed the opportunity to remove thousands of unsafe commercial vehicles and drivers from Ontario’s roads.
The report called for increased oversight and effective enforcement of regulations on non-compliant operators.
The association said the findings echo its sentiments on the need to modernize truck safety and enforcement in the province.
It also noted that the MTO has initiated a consultative process that it believes will conclude in the creation of a truck safety plan.
“OTA looks forward to continuing to work with MTO on developing and executing this plan as quickly as possible over the next several months,” said OTA president Stephen Laskowski.
“Ontario’s commercial trucks are the safest vehicles in North America, but in order to continue to progress further, we must focus enforcement resources on the underbelly of our industry, which has little regard for compliance.”
The OTA’s recommendations include:
- Increasing On-Road Enforcement: An increase in the number of officers with more focused enforcement being done to target non-compliant carriers. This may include more truck inspection stations, the use of mobile inspections, the expansion of the use of pre-clearance and scale technology targeted at trucking companies that exhibit a poor track record related to safety.
- Commercial Vehicle Operators Registration (CVOR) Review: Developing a method to identify fleets that misrepresent their number of kilometers traveled within the province used to calculate safety ratings. OTA has expressed concerns to MTO about this issue, and MTO has committed to reviewing this process over the course of the next 24 months.
- Improving Motor Vehicle Inspection Station Programs (MVIS): Both the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) and MTO announced a joint partnership in the recently-announced Red Tape Reduction bill, as well as a program that supports completing both annual emission and safety tests at one time. Further program updates will introduce changes for MVIS stations to produce one digital record. This move will also address high-risk MVIS garages which issue safety certificates for commercial vehicles.
- Facility Audits: The report reaffirms OTA’s stance that more needs to be done regarding facility audits, specifically, having more audits done on carriers that exhibit clear signs of non-compliant behavior with truck safety, labor and other related areas of their business. OTA continues to work in partnership with MTO on developing a plan which will be complete in the next several months.
- Mandatory Entry-Level Training (MELT): The report highlights the need to continue to improve MELT standards, specifically the notion of Advanced Standing. OTA supports the idea of Advanced Standing and will continue to work with members of industry, training schools and the government to ensure that the system is being used properly moving forward.
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Many owner/operators spend the time and money to keep their older trucks in better condition than the new ones
Why would the OTA take this stance?
It is inevitable that MTO will target compliant carriers with new trucks everywhere except Toronto. They will take tack for a variety of reasons but the most glaring are 1) MTO Inspectors are inherently lazy. It’s much easier to inspect a new tractor and trailer and find chaffing airlines than it is to crawl under a nasty old wreck of a truck running around the GTA, and 2) MTO is terrified of being accused of profiling, racial or otherwise. Look how easily they caved into the dump truck operators in Milton.
“It is inevitable that MTO will target compliant carriers with new trucks everywhere except Toronto.”
Should read “It is inevitable that MTO will target compliant carriers with new trucks everywhere except Toronto, where they won’t target any carriers at all.”
If the MTO and OTA want to do something tangible for safety, how about making it mandatory for all trucks, better still all vehicles, to have all lights on at all times. That way we don’t have so many idiots who don’t know where the light switch is, in the rain, snow, fog, dawn, dusk or even the middle of the night.. and it costs nothing.. the vehicles alternator is producing the power anyway!!
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Ya cause thats the major issue Wreaking havoc in the industry. Shut your fog lights off son what u looking for your dignity
The OTA knows this action plan is crap 2 formal MTO auditors available right now in Toronto MTO have not replaced those retired? As for target lousy carriers they know who they are but fear of profiling not being done? Bad carriers still find ways to operate MTO have the abilities to run these carriers out of Ontario. Do to politics refuse to use their power. OTA know all this all this action plan stuff just an OTA smoke screen. When you have a bad CVOR the Intervention must be serious not a meeting and we’re watching you as a carrier. Don’t even get me started on SPIF this regulation has been so miss handled MTO needs to have the Kahoonas and don’t back off? Instead of writing tickets for lights out let run the bad carriers out of Ontario
The OTA is useless and by no means represents the Ontario truck drivers. They have showed time and time they do not care about truck drivers, just big corp. MTO and OPP will keep doing exactly what they do, let most things slide turn their heads and let these companies and drivers from the GTA continue to in danger all of us on the highway. Ontario is not the safest drivers nor the trucks for that matter in North America. We are the laughing stock of the interstate in the US. OTA needs to pound salt.
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You are so right when I told the O T A about injuries of truck drivers that forced then into the homeless shelters they did nothing.
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I really think the OTA has had it’s head in the sand for decades.
Bring the radiator guns out one the 400 series hwys and see how many Brampton trucks going faster then 105 I drive to sarnia to Milton every day and there passing me like I’m sitting still my truck is governed at 105km
Unless enforcement is brought back out on The Highway, you’ll see more and more of these Foreign carriers laughing at our laws and crashing like it’s a honour for them! They know they will never be shut down, they scream discrimination as soon as they are pulled over!
They won’t do crap. They can’t even enforce their regs that are in place now. Look at SPIF for the straight trucks. January first is supposed to be the deadline to comply after years of being grandfathered.
Now they are already back-tracking on that again.
So all that bought 200-plus-thousand dollar SPIF trucks to comply still have to compete with scabs and their old junk that work for nothing and hide from the MTO.