KITCHENER, Ont. — Be warned. Traffic heading eastbound on Highway 401 towards Toronto might slow down to a crawl this coming Friday afternoon.

Not only is Southern Ontario expected to get blanketed with a major snowstorm, but Dec. 19, 2009 is also the day a group of owner-operators chose to form a convoy to protest new legislation mandating speed limiters.

According to Canadian Press "hundreds" of truckers are planning to travel from the Kitchener-Waterloo area to Queen’s Park, via Highway 401.

Additional individual owner-ops and drivers may also be heading downtown from other parts of the Greater Toronto Area.

The rule, which kicks-in Jan. 1, with a six-month ‘educational’ period’, requires any truck operating in the province to set the speed setting on the engine’s to no more than 105 km/h.

There are a few last-ditch campaigns by owner-op groups to at least get the rule watered down before hard enforcement begins in June.

Some Ontario MPPs, urged on by the Owner-Operators Business Association of Canada (OBAC) and the U.S. Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), recently questioned the government’s motives for passing the regulation.

And OBAC has sent letters to rulemakers, demanding that they release a clear policy which seals privacy and liability loopholes that remain in he legislation. (click here for more).