As the dust settles after yet another province-wide truck safety blitz in Ontario, I’m left wondering what it’s all in aid of. I was surprised when OPP Sergeant Cam Woolley passed along the results of ‘Operation Corridor,’ which took place a few weeks ago.

For all the effort and the media hype, the combined efforts of MTO and the OPP, and presumably many local police forces, they managed to nab 188 speeders, 25 tailgaters, 62 trucks with vehicle related defects, 78 seatbelt infractions, and six drivers who failed to move to the left lane while passing a stopped police cruiser.

I see that everyday on the way to work. According to reports in papers, the OOS rate for mechanical defects caught during Operation Corridor was 30 percent. It should have been 100 percent — if the blitz was, as we were told, a targeted blitz.

Shouldn’t that be what all inspections are about? Why are MTO and OPP officers wasting their time — and our tax dollars — chasing arguably safe trucks around the province? Both enforcement agencies have enough data on all the carriers operating in the province to separate the good ones from the bad, yet how often do I drive past an open scale and see a 2007-model truck and good looking trailer in the inspection lane?

During the recent blitz, some video footage appeared on TV of an MTO officer directing a MacKinnon Transport B-train into an inspection area. I’d say that officer could probably have made better use of his time watching for a more likely candidate for inspection. This couldn’t have been a targeted blitz, but it should have been.

That would actually produce some results, and it might even restore some faith in the inspection process. Drivers I know have been written up for some pretty insignificant defects while they watch some real fender-flapper drive out of the scale compound un-accosted.

Part of the problem is MTO’s quota system for inspectors. They’re expected to do so many inspections over a given period, and if they don’t deliver, they’re in hot water with middle management in St. Catharines. I’ve got a letter here on my desk from an MTO officer I know that says, “… Any officer not meeting the expected level needs to come up with reasons for not meeting them.”

So if you’re an MTO inspector, and you’ve got a quota, are you going to spend a ton of time going over a bunch of real scabby trucks, or are you going to grab the easy ones to keep up your throughput? This kind of thing doesn’t serve anyone well.

And of course these blitzes do little to reassure the public that trucking is really a safe industry with a respectable safety record. The public doesn’t know a burnt out light from a cracked brake drum when the stats are reported. All they hear or read is 62 trucks were taken out of service for various safety-related defects. I’d rather hear that 62 trucks had their plate removed and were towed from the scene because they were in no condition to drive.

Then we’d know MTO/OPP were doing their jobs and going after the real bad apples, and we’d know that the owners of those trucks had been sent a real message. This pussyfooting around that masquerades as a blitz is little more than a publicity stunt.

Then we have the issue of crackdowns on aggressive drivers. A full day’s blitz all across a province as big as Ontario nets only 25 tailgaters? As a former driver who now spends much more time in a Taurus than anything else, I’d welcome stricter enforcement on poor driving behavior like tailgating. It’s one of the public’s more persistent complaints about trucks, and frankly, I know now where they’re coming from.

Many American jurisdictions are on a big tear now to bust aggressive drivers, so why aren’t we doing it here too? Consistently. Blitzes only create cynicism and mistrust. If it’s to have any lasting impact, enforcement needs to be constant and consistent. It’s neither at the moment.

In recent years, a police presence on our roads has been conspicuously absent — and that’s why the de facto speed limit has crept up to 120 or better on the major highways in this province. Drivers know what they can get away with, and they’re always pushing that envelope.

At the end of the day, though, it comes down to the drivers themselves. What’s being done to curb bad behavior — or to promote and encourage good behavior? I’ve heard more than one fleet owner say they’re hiring drivers today they wouldn’t have even interviewed a decade ago. We’re hiring some of our own problems.