TORONTO — Last year, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) introduced a new impoundment policy, which said if a driver was found to have a suspended license, the vehicle will automatically be towed away.

Not so fast, said the Ontario Trucking Association.

Many commercial vehicles don’t belong to the drivers, they belong to carriers and the drivers are just employees. Ergo, the OTA argued, commercial vehicles should be handled differently than private ones.

The MTO agreed. The bureacrats went back to the drawing board and changed the impoundment rules to reflect their change of heart.

Last week, the MTO released a draft of the new regs, and it’s proposing the following:

If a driver of a commercial vehicle is found to have a suspended license:

a) The commercial vehicle would be allowed to complete the trip with a properly licensed driver;

b) Carriers would have 48 hours to produce evidence of a quarterly license record check to law enforcement in order to avoid any impoundment;

c) If, after 48 hours, the carrier fails to provide evidence of a “due diligence” defence based on quarterly checks, the carrier would be required to “self-impound” the commercial vehicle at their facility for seven days. MTO would enforce this self-impoundment by suspending the plate and vehicle identification number for the seven days.

If you’d like to learn more about the proposal, and maybe react to it before it becomes law, click here.