PETERBOROUGH, Ont. — Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro seems determined to remain a speed bump in Ontario’s road to LCV progress.

After todaystrucking.com reported on some of Del Mastro’s public anti-LCV comments last week, he responded by telling us that he wasn’t "anti-truck" at all (the story didn’t say that) but added that the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) might be shooting itself in the foot by promoting the LCVs because the OTA should curry public favor.

And announcing the LCV program without what Del Mastro says was sufficient public consultation, the OTA might be attracting public scorn.

Del Mastro, who has roots in the rail industry and publicly is very much in favor of boosting that mode, says “public opinion” doesn’t favor LCVs.

“People are uncomfortable navigating their vehicles besides these very long vehicles,” he said. “Lots of people were absolutely stunned by the announcement,” he said, adding, “I don’t think my constituents want to share the road with 130-ft long trucks.

“It’s important that we manage positive stakeholder relationships right across the board.”

However, it’s worth noting that his constituents and millions of other Canadians have been sharing the road with slightly shorter combination trains for decades.

Incidentally, we were hard pressed to find many examples of "public scorn" or protests by citizens railing against LCVs when they were introduced to Ontario highways over a year ago.

In fact, todaystrucking.com observed at the time how little attention LCVs attracted.

Conservatives throwing their lot in with unions isn’t very common, but Del Mastro is rallying behind the Teamsters on this issue, noting they too are opposed to the LCVs.

Del Mastro didn’t have much to say about the proven benefits of LCVs often cited by proponents. A few, as pointed out in a recent letter sent to him by the Canadian Trucking Alliance, included details about safety, productivity and environmental gains.

As well, the CTA notes, LCVs hardly compete with rail and there is very little common freight between the two modes.

Despite all that, Del Mastro continued to make erroneous statements to local media this week that LCVs are not more environmental than rail because they take freight away from "greener" trains; are potentially dangerous; and they damage roads (athough strict weight limits on LCVs demand most loads ‘cube out’ before they ‘weight out’).

Del Mastro said that the Liberal Member of the Ontario Legislature for the Peterborough area, Jeff Leal, talked to the media in his region last week and said that the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) will be studying the LCV program during the winter hiatus.

During the winter, the LCVs are barred from using the highway.

"Safety," a spokesman for the MPP told todaystrucking.com, "is a concern for Jeff."

As it is for LCV carriers, the Canadian Trucking Alliance counters, since the combos are, for a variety of reasons, statistically the least crash-prone vehicles on the road.