As previous reported, The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has advised OTA that it has amended regulations under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) related to vehicle inspections to allow the Ontario Industry to transition to the recently updated National Safety Code Standard for annual inspections (Standard 11B).
MTO has been planning for several years to bring their annual inspection program into line with the national standard. As requested by OTA, MTO will be taking a practical approach to the introduction of these changes by providing an educational period until December 31, 2015 to provide time for commercial vehicle operators and drivers to update their annual inspection programs. A request has also been made the by the Canadian Trucking Alliance that all jurisdictions in Canada move forward with the adoption of the national standard for annual inspections at the same time to ensure consistency from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Specifically, the regulations outlined below have been updated to allow this transition (details provided specific to large trucks).
Regulation 611, “Safety Inspections” has been amended to adopt the 2014 version of the National Safety Code Standard 11 Part B also known as “Periodic Commercial Motor Vehicle Inspections” (NSC 11B).
This standard outlines the annual inspection criteria for large trucks. Adoption of this standard modernizes the annual and safety standards certificate (SSC) inspections for trucks, trailers and converter dollies alone or in combination with a total gross weight, registered gross weight or manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating exceeding 4,500 kilograms (kg).
Regulation 601, “Motor Vehicle Inspection Stations” has also been amended to update references that reflect the changes made to Regulation 611.
The amendments to Regulations 611 and 601 were required to remove references to the older national safety code standard (2006 version) and add the appropriate references to the 2014 version. Regulation 611 outlines Ontario’s modifications to the standard in Schedule 3:
- The limitations on window tinting will only apply to vehicles manufactured after July 1, 2011 whereas the national standard has them applying retroactively (e.g. no tint on windshield and tint on windows to drivers left and right cannot exceed 30%);
- The limitations on the size of an external sun visor will not apply to any vehicles in Ontario;
- Functioning Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) will not be required on vehicles with a gross vehicle weight greater than 4,536 kg manufactured before April 1, 2000.
It is important to note that all the current standards under the HTA that apply to commercial vehicles operating on a highway, including on-road inspections, will remain as they are in Regulation 611 Schedules 1 and 2. The changes outlined above only apply to the annual and SSC inspections.
OTA has several compliance related products to assist carriers and their vehicle technicians in the transition to the national standard that are available from the OTA Store (http://ontruck.org/ota-store/). A full copy of the 2014 national standard is available on the CCMTA website (starting on page 46)
MTO will be providing an educational period until December 31, 2015 to provide time for commercial vehicle operators to update their annual inspection programs. MTO has also confirmed that inspecting officers attending MTO certified Motor Vehicle Inspections Stations (MVIS) during the transition period will only issue verbal guidance to assist MVIS locations in coming into compliance with the new standard.