Ontario Provincial Police say a transport was timed travelling 115 km/h in a 90 km/h zone Sunday morning along Highway 17 east of Mattawa. OPP Media officer Kyler Brouwer said that after the transport failed an inspection, a 44-year-old driver from Edmonton and his Edmonton-based carrier were charged with three offences. The vehicle was also taken out of service for 72 hours. “It’s not paperwork for paperwork’s sake. It is public safety, of course,” Brouwer said. “That applies to every road user, but a commercial vehicle can have a bigger impact if they get into collisions. And it’s an increased chance of fatality just due to the size of the impact.” Inspections of commercial motor vehicles by police or Ministry of Transportation check for issues such as mechanical defects, cargo securement, driver documentation and a driver’s overall well-being. During an enforcement blitz last week, Greater Sudbury police checked 17 vehicles and laid 26 charges – with 35 per cent of those vehicles taken out of service. Industry experts like the Ontario Trucking Association want to see more oversight for both drivers and their carriers. Geoff Wood, the association’s vice-president of policy, said oversight starts “at the corporate level.” “Hiring qualified individuals, making sure that they’re getting trained properly for the on-the-job pieces, but then ongoing monitoring,” Wood said. “So, the on-road piece does two things: one, it interacts with the drivers, but it also sends a message back to the companies that this is what’s happening here -- how you’re performing on the road.” He called the inspections “part of doing business,” adding both drivers and carriers should expect to undergo frequent checks and be held accountable to provincial requirements. “By having those on-site verifications, there should be a reasonable expectation for anybody, whether it’s a truck driver or a trucking company, that at some point they will be inspected and held accountable to what is required,” Wood said. He said the association welcomes news that the province is planning to transition its Thunder Bay East inspection scales to operate 24 hours a day. Plans are also underway to build a new commercial truck inspection station in Hearst. “The work that’s happening in northern Ontario is a blueprint that can happen in the rest of the province,” Wood said. Brouwer said that most transport and other commercial truck police inspect are complying with the rules. “There’s a lot of good drivers out there,” he said. “There are a lot of drivers that follow the hours-of-service regulations as well as all the physical daily inspections, making sure that their vehicles are good to go ... It’s just that we happen to spend more time on the ones that are in violation of the law.” Anyone who witnesses a transport truck being driven in an unsafe manner or with an unsafe unload can call 911 In an email to CTV News, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation said the government has “zero tolerance for bad actors in the trucking industry who put public safety at risk.” “We are continuing to take action to protect Ontario’s roads, strengthen the trucking sector and hold unsafe and non-compliant operators accountable through tougher training standards for commercial drivers, increased enforcement, electronic log monitoring, and historic investments in truck parking and rest areas,” the statement said. “Last month we announced stronger training and eligibility requirements for commercial vehicle drivers across the province, helping our roads remain among the safest in North America. “As part of these changes, we are developing a new standardized entry-level truck driver training curriculum to ensure commercial drivers receive consistent, high-quality training across Ontario and have the skills they need to operate safely on the province’s roads. “As a next step, the province will work with industry leaders, training providers and other subject matter experts in the coming months to develop the curriculum.”
