Union calls for more truck safety inspectors
TORONTO, Ont. – The union representing commercial vehicle safety inspectors is urging the provincial government to hire more enforcement officers in the wake of a scathing report from Ontario’s auditor general.
In her annual report, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk said the Ministry of Transportation had missed the opportunity to remove thousands of unsafe commercial vehicles from Ontario’s roads because there were not enough staff to inspect them.
Her audit found that between 2014 and 2018, the number of inspections the ministry conducted decreased by 22%, from over 113,000 in 2014 to fewer than 89,000 in 2018, because the ministry was unable to fill officer vacancies.
On Sunday, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union called for urgent action.
OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas said that the auditor general had failed to point out that the quality of inspections had also nose-dived.
“It’s easy to stop trucks that are a simple and clean inspection to meet ministry quantitative targets. But easy inspections don’t take bad trucks and bad operators off the road,” he said.
OPSEU first vice-president Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida said the ministry needs to hire enough inspectors so they have the time to check the bad trucks and the bad operators.
The union said one chronic problem the ministry has not yet addressed is hiring and retention.
Being an enforcement officer and auditor comes with threats, violence and exposure to extreme weather, as well as coming into contact with chemicals and biohazards, it said.
“The Ministry of Transportation continues to see hiring pools shrink substantially because of the very difficult, even hazardous, working conditions,” said Thomas.
“If this government is serious about making our roads safe, they’ll have to make the job more desirable so we can attract the quality and quantity of officers that Ontario’s drivers need and expect.”
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Or better yet , I have witnessed a truck with a visible defect allowed to proceed because of his ethnicity. When I questioned them about it I was told they scream discrimination.discrimination, and drag it through court until it is dismissed. The gourt system needs to get a back bone.
I would love to get off the highway and be a Mto officer how do you get in I’m tired of them picking on the visible minority (white English speaking person) and the rest of them get to breeze thru I been about 31 years of safe driving and ready to change
An MTO Truck Inspector should have an Ontario truck 310T Licence to inspect over the road Equipment. Truck safety is the responsibility of everyone involved in trucking.
It’s the riff raff behind the wheel not so much the equipment they’re running.
What a crock of union BS.. If these ‘inspectors’ knew a bit more about trucks and not ‘what it says in the book’s we’d have a lot less problems. Giving a guy a hundred dollar ticket because a lift axle tire is a little slack..come on..I personally thumped that tire less than 24 hours earlier and next day another guy used my truck..I know he thumped that tire and it was fine..MTO said tires don’t lose air that quick..tire guy couldn’t find problem so most likely a very fine rim crack..copper still wrote ticket..my personal hero..nominated for ‘Heros in Trucking’
Maybe you should have someone that knows what they are doing before you give them a weekend course and set them loose on the trucking public . I’ve had an inspector at the scale house tell me he bends dust covers on trucks and trailers to measure brake linings. Or an OPP officer that had taken the course but had no knowledge of how the air brake system worked. If these are the types of inspections officers you are hiring we are all doomed