Ontario Orders Speed Limiters on All Trucks Set at 65 mph

By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the June 23 print edition of Transport Topics.

Ontario approved legislation last week that will require every heavy-duty truck operating in the province to employ a device to govern its maximum speed at 105 kilometers per hour, or about 65.2 miles per hour.

The bill, which has been pushed by the Ontario Trucking Association for about three years, could become effective as early as this fall.

Ontario Ministry of Transportation “enforcement officers will be trained on devices capable of detecting speed limiter settings and tampering,” said agency spokeswoman Emna Dhahak. “This technology will be utilized at strategic roadside locations.”

The measure mandates that speed limiters on all trucks from 1995 and newer be set at 105 kilometers or face a fine of $250 to $20,000.

The legislation will allow officers to charge a vehicle operator for not having an activated speed limiter, even if the vehicle is given a speeding ticket.

The Canadian Trucking Al-liance said that Ontario’s speed limiter legislation has widespread national support. Quebec already had passed a  limiter mandate but said it would not begin enforcement until another province passed a similar measure.

In recent years, American Trucking Associations urged the federal government to require limiters on new trucks set at 68 mph. However, the federation said last week there are no plans to implement a similar law in the United States.

“The mandatory activation of speed limiters is an effective way for the trucking industry to further contribute to safer highways and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ontario Trucking Association President David Bradley. “The fuel savings from speed limiters will also help to moderate the increases in operating costs from escalating diesel fuel prices.”

Mandatory limiters in Ontario will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 280,000 tons and save about 2.6 million gallons of diesel fuel per year, the ministry estimates.

Although U.S. carriers crossing the border into Ontario must comply with the law, many fleets already govern their trucks at 68 miles per hour or slower, said Dave Osiecki, ATA’s vice president of safety, security and operations.

He called the bill a “good thing for safety” and said the new law likely would require little or no adjustments for U.S. carriers crossing into Ontario.

“Most fleets have dialed back their speed limiter settings,” Osiecki said. “So if they were in the high 60s [mph], they’re probably no longer in the high 60s. Most fleets are down to the mid- and low 60s now. It’s just a function of what’s going on with fuel prices.”

The Ontario legislation allows carriers to set the speed limiters. During its push for limiters on new trucks, ATA had sought for them to be set at the factory, making them more difficult to change, Osiecki said.

Jim Tipka, vice president of engineering for ATA, told Transport Topics setting a speed adjuster usually can be done quickly by plugging a laptop with the proper software into the engine’s computer data bus under the dashboard.

“It’s fairly easy to set and fairly easy to check if you’ve got the software,” Tipka said.

However, requiring a technician to certify the set point is accurate would likely take longer and be more expensive because the mechanic would have to make sure such perimeter settings as tire size, transmission type and rear-end ratios have not been changed since the vehicle left the factory, he added.

Walter Heinritzi, executive director of the Michigan Trucking Association, said the speed limit for trucks in his state, which borders Ontario, is 60 miles per hour.

“I would presume our carriers already have adapted to the Michigan speed limit and would be able to travel to Ontario without too much difficulty,” Heinritzi said. “I don’t see this as a big deal.”

But Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said there is no evidence that speed limiters lead to safer highways or reductions in greenhouse gases.

“We think the drawbacks of speed limiters are greater than any possible perceived or claimed benefits,” he said.

Spencer said his organization believes that one of the objectives of the new law is to keep U.S. carriers out of Canadian commerce.

“We think that’s very high on the list of those who are the proponents of this bill,” Spencer told TT.

Terry Button, the owner of Terry L. Button Farms, Rushville, N.Y., told the legislative committee he has concerns the new law could disrupt the flow of goods between Canada and the United States.

“Canada . . . is the largest foreign consumer of American goods and border states like New York and Michigan ship a combined $30 billion in goods annually into the province of Ontario alone,” Button testified. “The overwhelming majority of these goods are brought into the province by trucks owned by small businesses, as I have done in the past.”