Thursday, March 28, 2024

Road Safety Discussion

NewsRoad Safety DiscussionTrucking

MTO has been “asleep at the wheel” says McDougall

“MTO was asleep at the wheel,” says Travis McDougall of Truckers for Safer Highways.

McDougall, commenting on the May 18th arrests by Ontario and Quebec police forces of persons providing fraudulent documents and fake commercial truck driver training, congratulates the police forces but wonders why Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) overlooked the scam for so long.

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NewsRoad Safety DiscussionTrucking

OPP, Sûreté du Québec arrest gang providing false documents, fake truck driver training and licensing

 Several individuals have been charged with fraud after a two-year investigation into allegations related to commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver training.

On May 18th, Quebec’s Economic Crimes Investigation Service, in collaboration with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), arrested 6 individuals from Montreal, Laval and Brampton, Ontario in connection with the production and the use of false documents. The documents allowed foreign clients to obtain driver’s licenses, including licenses to drive heavy goods vehicles.

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NewsRoad Safety DiscussionTrucking

Drivers’ petition call on governments to investigate Truck driving schools

Truckers for Safer Highways is asking for your support to call on both the Federal and Provincial governments to begin an inquiry into the training of new drivers across Canada. Many new drivers are taught to ‘pass the test’ and not necessarily to become the safest and most professional drivers possible.  There is no real standard for who is allowed to train new drivers within each training school, nor are these schools checked on a regular basis to ensure they are teaching to the standards laid out by the jurisdictions they are based in,” the petition on Change.org reads.

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NewsRoad Safety DiscussionTrucking

Speeds to be increased to 110 on select Ontario highways, governors remain at 105

The Ontario government is raising the speed limit permanently from 100 km/h to 110 km/h on six sections of provincial highways in southern Ontario.

“With road safety top of mind, these sections have been carefully selected based on their ability to accommodate higher speed limits,” said Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Transportation.

Whether the change will increase highway safety or efficiency is “a tough one to call,” says Travis McDougall of Truckers for Safer Highways.

“So long as our trucks are still governed at 105 kilometres per hour, it won’t really make any difference except that now we will be driving slower than the traffic around us,” he says. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation has not yet indicated whether the governor set point will be raised along with highway speed limits.

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The first time some new drivers drive in snow, they are driving a truck through Northern Ontario. Photo: "Somewhere Out There," Mike Murchison
Feature/ProfileRoad Safety DiscussionTrucking

Confessions of a small-town Driver Examiner: “GTA students are flooding our offices for tests”

e frames are more than lengthy enough that a guy who is licensed to drive at home can who has a G license in April or May can finish training for an A license during the summer; and receive it by September or October. Some of them have never even driven a CAR in the snow. Their first experience of snow and icy roads is as a brand-new driver of a transport truck,” Grey points out, highlighting a reality described to RWN other industry professionals.

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