Ontario caps speed limiters on large trucks
The Ontario speed limiter bill caps the speed limit for trucks five kilometers (three miles) above most Canadian highway speed limits to give truckers the opportunity to pass slower vehicles.
The Trucker Staff
6/18/2008
TORONTO — Ontario’s provincial government has passed a bill capping speed limiters on most large trucks to speeds at 105 kilometers (65 miles) per hour to reduce pollution and improve road safety.
A speed limiter is an electronic device that caps the top speed of a vehicle. The devices are mandatory for all trucks manufactured after 1995 that are driven in Ontario.
The bill, passed on Monday, caps the speed limit for trucks five kilometers (three miles) above most Canadian highway speed limits to give truckers the opportunity to pass slower vehicles, said Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield.
Speed limiters help lower maintenance costs and improve fuel economy, said Ontario Trucking Association president David Bradley.
“Speed limiters are an effective way for the trucking industry to further contribute to safer highways and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fuel savings from speed limiters will also help to moderate the increases in operating costs from escalating diesel fuel prices,” said Bradley.
The legislation, however, is not without opponents.
“The passage of Bill 41 is a sad commentary on Ontario’s commitment to road safety and the environment; this bill will do nothing to improve either,” said Joanne Ritchie, executive director of the Owner-Operator’s Business Association of Canada. “While it might curry favour with a public that’s demanding safer roads and clearer air, it will simply suck resources out of the system and turn a blind eye to the real problems — speeding, aggressive drivers, and gas-guzzling vehicles.”
Ritchie also was critical of inadequate law enforcement and the lack of study prior to the bill’s passage, calling the deliberations “a sham.”
“Rather than pay their drivers a decent rate and fuel bonuses, invest in training and anti-idle technology, and implement internal safety and compliance regimes, carriers have bamboozled the government into shifting those responsibilities from themselves onto the taxpayers of Ontario,” she said.
In Ontario, transportation accounts for more than 30 percent of the province’s total greenhouse gas emissions. According to an Ontario government statement issued Monday, mandatory speed limiters in Ontario will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 280,000 tons, which it says is like taking 2,700 tractor-trailers off the roads every year. It will also save about 100 million liters of diesel fuel per year, said the statement.
Associated Press sources contributed to this report.