DIGGING IN

(Photo: John G. Smith)
Dispatches
Jagroop Singh Bangli conveys protest news during the blockade.
Digging In
Toronto-area gravel haulers have won
concessions on axle weights. For now.
By John G. Smith
Milton, Ontario seems to have become
ground zero in a prolonged battle around
provincial weights and dimensions.
Aggregate haulers occupied the locale’s
inspection stations as far back as 2012,
arguing against axle limits imposed
under what’s become known as Safe,
Productive and Infrastructure-Friendly
(SPIF) rules. For its part, the province
agreed to take a softer stance on enforcement
and everyone went back to work.
It was a truce that lasted several years.
If truck axles were too heavy during
a first pass over the scale, operators
were reportedly given the chance to
adjust equipment or call mechanics.
Information about how to meet the SPIF
rules was passed along through meetings
and printed material alike.
But the tickets returned this August;
the protesters were back in September.
Aggregate haulers who had organized
at a Sikh temple in nearby Brampton
began pulling into the Milton inspection
facility next to the eastbound lanes
of Highway 401 at 2 a.m. on Tuesday
September 20. For the remainder of
the week they occupied three ministry
scales, picketed nearby quarries, and even
slowed traffic in the western reaches of
the Greater Toronto Area before ending
the job action on Friday night.
“We just want a solution,” said Jagroop
Singh Bangli, a two-truck owner-operator
who was involved in organizing the fight.
“We don’t want to take any more tickets.”
Their wish has been granted. For now.
Enforcement teams have returned to the
focus on gross vehicle weights while the
search for a long-term solution continues.
“This includes enforcement of allowable
gross weight limits behind pre-set
tolerances and thresholds, and the detention
of vehicles found to be grossly overloaded,”
Ontario Transportation Minister
Steven Del Duca stressed in a statement.
“Vehicles will not be permitted to operate
above manufacturers’ Gross Axle Weight
Ratings (GAWR), Gross Vehicle Weight
Ratings (GVWR), or Tire Load Limits.”
The protesters found support from
the Greater Ottawa Truckers Association
and about 280 producers at the Ontario
Stone, Sand and Gravel Association. But
not everyone has problems with the rules
that allow for some of the heaviest gross
weights in North America.
“Most carriers are compliant members
of the business community, and most
shippers are committed to following the
rules,” said Stephen Laskowski, president
of the Ontario Trucking Association.
Even aggregates are being moved without
overloading axles. “The Ontario Trucking
Association wants the province to implement
an enforcement system that will
hold all members in the supply chain
accountable for the overloading of vehicles,
including those loading the vehicles
and those owning and operating them,”
he said.
Enforcing shipper liability laws and
requiring the holders of government contracts
to meet the axle-specific rules were
referenced as good places to start.
The challenges are not limited to the
way equipment is loaded, though. Many
tickets around Milton can be traced to
aging highway tractors that have been
repurposed for the job. The steer axles
can’t take enough weight, no matter
where a loader dumps the sand and
gravel. Mismatched fifth wheel heights
won’t allow the loads to equalize, and
self-steering axles are often undersized.
But Ron Barr, general manager of the
Greater Ottawa Truckers Association,
agrees with a suggestion by protesters
that quarries should, well, share the
load when it comes to any penalties.
“We’ve got to hold those that load us
accountable,” he said, echoing complaints
that truck operators pay weight
related fines while quarries profit. If a
quarry adds an extra four to five tons of
payload on each truck, every fifth load is
essentially free, he added.
Driver have two choices if they think
that’s happening, Barr said. Complain
and be sent home without work, or take a
load and risk being stopped at the scale.
Still, he doesn’t want to sacrifice
potential gross weights in the push to
meet axle-specific loads.
“If I’m going to spend a quarter of
a million dollars on a truck, I’m going
to get every ounce I can on that truck
because a lot of guys are running tonmile
rates. It’s incumbent upon them to
capitalize on the investment,” Barr said.
Bangli and his peers will escape some
of those challenges for awhile. “We really
want to be thankful to everyone that has
supported us,” he said, referring to the
September protests. “Let’s see what’s
going to happen now.” TT
12 TODAY’S TRUCKING