TORONTO – – There are going to be a lot fewer jerry-rigged trailers and vocational trucks running around Canada’s highways, thanks to a change in the way the Ontario MTO runs their safety inspections.

     That’s the word from the Canadian Transportation Equipment Association (CTEA), the professional group for the country’s trailer builders and truck upfitters.

     CTEA Don Moore told members earlier this month that manufacturing is actually governed by the National Safety Code, and upfitted trucks and modified trailers in Ontario will now have to meet national safety code standards in order to pass annual inspections.

      And the CTEA expects other provinces to follow suit.

     In his letter, Moore said “The Ministry of Transportation [MTO] is adopting National Safety Code 11B (NSC 11B).

     “This part of the NSC outlines the requirements for commercial vehicle safety inspections and the MTO intends to implement it on July 1, 2011 with ‘soft’ enforcement and optional use of the current inspection criteria until July 1, 2013, for all annual inspections. After that date it will be mandatory to use NCS11B for all annual safety inspection.”

     In English, according to the CTEA’s Director of Technical Programs, Eddy Tschirhart, this means “not just anybody and everybody can slap an axle on a truck anymore.”

     To earn a green light from the MTO, the equipment must pass NSC standards

     And, Tschirhart says, there have been quite a few people out there modifying trailers and upfitting trucks who haven’t been meeting national safety code standards.

     “I won’t name names but those are the characters who are going to get caught in the mesh on this one.”

     He says this comes as good news to compliant members of the industry but added “if you owned one of those trucks that’s not up to standard, you wouldn’t be all that happy.”

     It’s only Ontario at the moment but Alberta’s on target for mimicking the change next year.

     Tschirhart says he predicts other provinces will follow suit. Added Moore in his memo to members: “We hope all of the other provinces will be updating their inspection criteria shortly to NSC 11B in order to provide the same level of safety across Canada. Kudos to the MTO and the Province of Alberta.”