TORONTO, ON — Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation says it is closer to solving challenges around vehicle loading and safety in the province’s aggregate and excavation sector – and plans to take a tougher line on weights and dimensions by the fall of 2018.

“Ministry staff have worked with organizations in the aggregate and excavation industries including shippers, carriers, and load brokers,” Transport Minister Steven Del Duca said in a release. “Because of their expertise and dedication in getting this issue resolved, we have jointly developed an agreed upon approach that will clarify requirements and outline the importance of compliance.”

Steps in the next year and a half will include reviewing the regulations for Safe, Productive and Infrastructure-Friendly (SPIF) weights and dimensions; introducing a new digital record to track maximum allowable weights; and piloting the new digital record on 225 trucks during the 2017 construction season. The ministry is also looking at updating selected highway construction contracts, adding axle or gross weight verifications requirements for trucks that haul related excavation materials.

The review emerged after Toronto-area aggregate haulers blockaded ministry scales near Milton, Ontario in September 2016, when enforcement teams began issuing tickets for overloaded axles. In a bid for peace, the province softened its position on axle weights for the gravel-hauling equipment, and instead returned to a focus on ticketing for gross weight violations.

While protesters blamed quarries for overloading axles, many tickets can be traced to aging highway tractors repurposed for the job. The steer axles can’t take enough of the weight, regardless of where a load is dumped, and mismatched fifth wheel heights don’t allow loads to equalize.

 “Considering all of the issues at play, which have gone unresolved for years, the ministry is taking the right approach and will allow everyone sufficient time to take a step back, look in the mirror and refocus,” said Geoff Wood, Ontario Trucking Association’s vice president – operations and safety. “Fairness and accountability are key so that everyone in the trucking industry, in all sectors, can be held to the same standards.”