The Ontario Ministry of Transportation told members of the Ontario Trucking Association at its board meeting in Toronto last week the Government of Ontario will begin transitioning some key truck inspection stations to 24/7 operations.
This is welcomed news, as currently three out of 34 locations are operating around the clock.
While the OTA views this as an important first step in restoring law and order to Ontario’s highways, the association cautions that a limited rollout is only the minimum of what is required to improve public safety and ensure a fair playing field for compliant carriers. An additional nine inspection stations would need to move to 24/7 in the short-term to have the minimum necessary coverage on key interprovincial/international corridors and northern Ontario routes; followed by a need to ramp up 24/7 operations in other areas with high-truck traffic volumes and non-compliance concerns.
The update shared with the Board signals a shift toward the accountability the industry has long demanded, highlighting plans to increase staffing and oversight at strategic locations across the province.
“We tip our hat to Minister Sarkaria and the Ministry of Transportation for recognizing that safety doesn’t have a closing time,” said Mark Bylsma, chair of the OTA. “Opening these scales 24/7 is a win for every law-abiding carrier and every motorist sharing the road. It sends a clear message: the days of dodging safety and tax compliance are coming to an end.”
However, the OTA stresses the province still has a long road ahead. To fully stabilize the sector and eliminate the illegal Driver Inc. model and other non-compliant practices, Bylsma and the OTA Board continue to call for:
- Permanent 24/7 Staffing at All Strategic Inspection Station Locations: Ensuring that stations on primary arteries and interprovincial | international trade corridors are open, particularly in Northern Ontario, where 100% oversight is a must.
- Aggressive Recruitment: Addressing current inspector shortages to ensure these facilities are not just open, but fully operational.
- Integrated Enforcement: Utilizing these sites for multi-agency inspections, including federal and provincial authorities like the WSIB, ESDC, and CRA, to tackle labour misclassification, forced labour, and tax evasion alongside mechanical safety.
“This is a good start, but we aren’t at the finish line yet,” added Bylsma. “To truly protect our infrastructure and our people, we need a consistent, province-wide standard of enforcement that operates every hour of every day. This includes the immediate elimination of the ‘Satisfactory-Unaudited’ safety rating category in the CVOR system. We cannot allow 80 to 90 percent of fleets to continue operating on an honour system without ever undergoing a formal, on-site compliance review.”
Inspection stations must be transformed into comprehensive enforcement hubs where multiple agencies work together to end the lawlessness currently poisoning the trucking sector.
Recent data from Operation Deterrence and multi-agency blitzes show why these agencies must remain at the scales regularly. Data shows that nearly 50 percent of inspections uncover non-compliance, and specialized audits have already led to over $10 million in corrective adjustments by the WSIB. Furthermore, ESDC and WSIB findings show that over 60 percent of employers were in contravention of labour laws.
“This data proves that periodic enforcement is not enough; only a permanent, multi-agency presence can deter those who treat the law as optional,” said Bylsma.
The OTA remains committed to working with the provincial government to expand these and other measures to ensure Ontario returns to being a leader in commercial vehicle safety. The province has recently committed to a meeting with OTA and industry stakeholders to review the issues, put solutions on the table and set timelines to address the lawlessness in trucking.
If you want to get involved in pressing the province to move faster on restoring law and order in trucking, click here.