TORONTO — If you notice a long lineup of trucks at your neighborhood Ontario or Quebec dealer over the next couple of days, relax, it doesn’t mean that the economy has done a 180 and there’s a patriotic boost to buy diesel tractors on Canada Day.

No, more likely is that fleets and owner-ops are making last-minute appointments to get their engine ecm programmed to lock speed at 105 km/h in compliance with speed limiter legislation in both provinces.

The educational period of the law has been in effect since New Year’s Day, but so-called hard enforcement begins tomorrow, on July 1. Roadside truck inspectors and police will begin issuing fines of $390 to drivers whose trucks’ engine speed is not set to 105 km/hr or less. The incident will not register on CVOR records, however. 

Compliance was virtually non-existent at the beginning of the year among drivers not hauling for fleets that were already voluntarily governed, but that has changed in the last couple of months, Ontario Ministry of Transport authorities say.

MTO staff at will have electronic readers that they plug into a truck’s engine. The device can tell them what the speed limit setting is, or not, in a matter of seconds. The process is so quick that it’s expected that any weigh scale that has a reader on site will likely check every incoming truck for speed limiter compliance.

OPP can give you a ticket under the
speed limiter rule even without checking
the ecm. If you’re doing 115 km/h, you’re guilty.

Although the technology exists to download additional data from the ecm, these specific readers are read-only devices and cannot alter the truck’s engine settings, or download other information.

Meanwhile, the Ontario Provincial Police will also be able to ticket truckers without the readers using a provision in the Act that allows them to fine drivers for not having a speed limiter set if they are caught traveling at more than 115 km/hr. This "deeming provision" allows police to legally assume that a vehicle moving at that speed is not in compliance with the rule.

As has been said before, a large portion of the small fleet and owner-op community opposes the rule. Their hope to have the legislation shelved, however, probably died this weekend when Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful Frank Klees lost to Tim Hudak. 

Klees — a former transport minister and vocal critic of the speed limiter policy — told todaystrucking.com that if he were to become Premier he would have launched a comprehensive review of the rule, and repeal it if he thought highway safety and the economic stability of truckers were at risk. 

While there’s no disputing the general wisdom of slowing down, some truckers will find that being capped at 105 km/h won’t be that fuel-efficient after all, depending on their engine setting and other calibrations.

As Today’s Trucking has reported repeatedly, today’s emissions-restricted engines are far more sensitive to rpm than ever before, and they just won’t deliver optimum performance or fuel economy if you stray a couple of hundred rpm above or below the so-called ‘sweet spot’. 

In fact, there are fleets that spec’d what turned out to be the wrong rear-axle ratio — 3.25 instead of 3.55, for example — with ’07 engines and have actually had to raise road speed to keep the engine at that place on the tach where it’s most efficient.

Even without the speed limiter issue, more and more drivers are routinely cruising one gear down from top, likely because they don’t like the feel of 1,400 or fewer rpm or perhaps because they simply don’t realize that current engines need such low revs to be anything like efficient.

Spec’ing for a cruise with higher 1,600 rpm has become the norm for heavier vehicles. And fuel economy is thus compromised.

The speed limiter law demands a similar compromise in many existing trucks. Many truckers and fleets will have to grin and bear it until their next truck can be specifically spec’ed for 105 or pay significantly now to change their drive-axle ratio.

Happy slower driving.