Canada’s transportation ministers met in Toronto this week to discuss a broad array of initiatives including mandating Electronic Logging Devices as well as harmonizing transportation rules across the country.
A government press release and a Today’s Trucking report quoted Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau as saying the ministers will create a task force to harmonize truck-related regulations “wherever possible” and pursue unspecified changes to the Memorandum of Understanding that governs weights and dimensions.
Garneau said Transport Canada is moving towards an ELD mandate and plans to “put something forward in 2017 on that subject.”
CTA’s has been successfully advancing its message with Ottawa and provincial governments in regard to ELDs, regulatory and weights and dimensions harmonization, innovation in safety technology and autonomous vehicles.
Following a call from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to look at the sideguard issue once again, Garneau also announced that Transport Canada is establishing a committee to study measures such as side guards, cameras and other devices as a way to reduce fatalities and injuries in collisions involving trucks, cyclist and pedestrians.
“Some municipalities have on their own implemented side guards, but we want to look at possibly other technologies that would help, and to make a decision about where it’s appropriate,” Garneau told Today’s Trucking.
The government’s signal to review side guards does not mean they will be required. The committee is also focusing on other technologies, such as mounted cameras and collision avoidance technology.