OTTAWA — Two months into the new rule requiring speed limiters on trucks in Ontario and Quebec, The Teamsters has entered the fray by declaring its opposition.

Agreeing with the positions of the Owner-Operators Business Association of Canada (OBAC), the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada and countless independent drivers and small fleets, Teamsters Canada suggests that Bill 41 will "not prevent accidents as the government suggests, but will only burden drivers with additional costly adjustments to their trucks, expenses that an industry already reeling from recessionary layoffs and lack of work cannot afford."

The rules in Ontario and Quebec, which took effect on an educational basis on Jan. 1 (hard enforcement, including fines, begins July 1), requires all heavy trucks manufactured since 1996 to have engine speed limiters set at a maximum of 105 km/h. If caught with unregulated engines, drivers will be fined $250 in Ontario and $350 in Quebec.

Drivers must have the regulator set at a cost, if done at a dealership or garage, of between $75 and $150.

And even though hard enforcement is only a few months away, there continues to be some debate over who is ultimately responsible for programming the speed limiter on newly delivered equipment — the dealer or the fleet operator. The provincial legislation in both provinces remains unclear.

The greater gap in road speed between cars
and trucks could be dangerous, the Teamsters say

Also uncertain, as Today’s Trucking first reported last fall, continues to be the issue of privacy. The law apparently does not protect other information stored in the ECM from Ministry of Transportation (MTO) or police inspectors each time it undergoes a speed limiter check.

In an exclusive interview just weeks before the law took effect, CVSA President Darren Christle admitted that questions of who actually owns engine data, how it can be controlled, and whether enforcement needs permission from motor carriers or truck owners to access it, had still not been answered by lawmakers.

The Teamsters are siding with owner-operators who insist the law limits competition and is a potential violation of provincial and cross-border trade laws.

Robert (Bud) McAulay, National Freight and Tank Haul Director for Teamsters Canada and a former transport driver stated that this new has less to do with safety than it is about legislating competitive advantages for the trucking industry.

Like OBAC, McAulay points out that a two-tired speed system for cars and trucks will lead to more accidents.

"How do you expect to have a safe highway when the Ministry of Transportation is allowing two different speed limits? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the result of trucks being regulated at 105 km/h and cars traveling at 120 km/h and higher will create; a lot of angry tailgating motorists waiting for their chance to pass, which will result in aggressive driving not to mention the increase in lane changes…

"And if a tractor trailer is faced with a critical situation and needs to straighten the rig out to prevent a jack-knife by accelerating, it will be very difficult to do this safely at a maximum speed of 105 km/h,” he said

McAulay claims that Ontario Transport Minister Jim Bradley heeded the calls by the Ontario Trucking Association to pass the law, but "chose not to hear what the truckers, represented by Teamsters Canada, had to say."