OTA to review out-of-service disputes

TORONTO (Aug. 20, 2002) — The Ontario Trucking Association is asking carriers to report whenever a dispute over the out-of-service condition of a vehicle arises with an Ontario Ministry of Transportation officer.

OTA continues to receive occasional complaints from members about the enforcement activities at various inspection stations in the province. In particular, there are often disputes about the mechanical condition of the vehicle, where the MTO officer states that there is a CVSA out-of-service condition, but the carrier disagrees. The result of the disputed inspection appears on the carrier’s CVOR and can affect a carrier’s safety rating or have a negative effect on the perception of a carrier’s safety performance. It is almost impossible to have any of this information removed from the CVOR record or contest the events, the OTA says.

The OTA has been asked in the past to register the concern of a carrier with MTO, but without a catalogue of complaints it is difficult for the OTA to bring this issue forward. The association would therefore like to build a history of the disputed inspections to determine if these disputes are in fact isolated incidents or not, as well as gain a clear understanding if in fact there is a real problem.

The report should contain the following information, together with a copy of the CVIR, if possible: the carrier name unit #s; inspection station; MTO inspector; out-of-service violation (with CVSA code # as shown on the CVIR); and a brief description of the inspection and the reason for the disagreement with the MTO inspector.

Part of the problem is the discrepancy between operators and inspectors over what constitutes an out-of-service-violation, and that most drivers, who are not required to take any formal training nor to have any formal knowledge of matters mechanical, are required by law to pass judgment on the condition of a vehicle.

The OTA is now also part of a group of stakeholders (including the MTO) that is drafting a new set of trip inspection procedures and vehicle defect identification criteria. The OTA hopes the proposal, which is not law, will add some reasonability to the regulations, and remove some of the inconsistencies in interpretation and enforcement of the rules. The proposal also removes some of the guesswork for the driver and creates clearer definitions of what’s required by the driver by defining how the vehicle system or component is to be inspected, and what constitutes a minor or critical defect.