December 2009 Volume 20, Issue 12 Delivering daily news to Canada’s trucking industry at www.trucknews.com
Alberta, Saskatchewan ink historic pact By Jim Bray CALGARY, Alta. – A Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of Saskatchewan and Alberta has the potential to bring about smoother sailing on the two provinces’ highways, adding efficiency and perhaps even leading to lower consumer prices. The agreement, though more a letter of intent than a legally-binding document, points toward such improvements as harmonizing special permit conditions for turnpike doubles, oversize and overweight indivisible loads, and maximum gross vehicle weights for B-trains. It also sets out special permit conditions for moving manufactured homes, establishes the concept of an inter-provincial heavy haul/high clearance corridor and a joint research and pilot project “to address common concerns with wide-base super single tires.” “We’ve been discussing the issues for quite a while,” says Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure Minister Jim Reiter, crediting his predecessor for much of the work. “It’s one of those things where, over a period of years, individual changes by governments to regulations sort of just got built up and up and up until it got to the point where there was such a deterrent to the cross-border movements of goods that the time had come to do something about it.” Reiter says both provincial Continued on page 6
SMOOTHER SAILING: Trucking between the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan will only get easier thanks to an agreement between the two provinces to reduce red tape and streamline regulations.
Look, no hands!
Non-RTAC backtrack CALGARY, Alta. – Truck West has learned the province of Alberta has promised the trucking industry it will “defer weight restrictions” on non-RTAC trailers “indefinitely.” The promise, made in a letter to the Alberta Construction Trucking Association (ACTA) and other trailer operators, comes as welcomed news to the Alberta trucking industry, which was faced with prohibitive weight penalties if using trailers that pre-dated the RTAC standard as of the end of 2010. Many of the trailers that would be affected are used seasonally and are still in good condition.The proposed weight penalties of 1,000 kg per year would also place Alberta-based operators at a disadvantage when hauling into neighbouring provinces, since Saskatchewan and B.C. both grandfathered existing equipment that was not RTAC-compliant. The September issue of Truck West brought light to the issue, which was particularly worrisome to construction truckers. ACTA president Ron Singer said in the article that the anticipated 2011 deadline requiring trailers to comply with RTAC standards was one of the most important issues on his desk. “This is really going to hurt the users of these trailers because after 2010 they’ll not only be unable to use them, but they won’t be able to sell them either since they’ll be virtually useless,” he said. Fortunately, Alberta Transport Minister Luke Ouellette has since agreed imposing further hardship on an already struggling construction trucking industry is not a good idea. ■
Mark Dalton O/O
Inside This Issue... • A new standard:
We test several hands-free cell phone devices
Northwest Tank Lines is one of the first Canadian chemical haulers to voluntarily comply with a Page 8 rigorous code of conduct.
• Beyond ABCs: Literacy and essential skills are crucial to the success of the Canadian trucking industry and the economy in general. Page 10
• Convoy for a Cure: Alberta joins the Convoy for a Cure with a successful inaugural event.
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• Ultra-heavy loads: We test the new Eaton UltraShift Plus
See page 12
under heavy load with Paul’s Hauling.
Reach us at our Western Canada news bureau
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To view list of advertisers see pg. 29
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