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Post by plastictrucker on May 3, 2008 8:19:03 GMT -5
My good ol' Ontario government has just passed a law that all class 8 trucks from the mid 90's up must have mechanical speed limiters installed.105 kph,about 60 mph.It's supposed to help the environment and rid the roads of dangerous drivers.The Toronto area highway is the busiest in North America-you can't speed,it's stop and go,24 hour rush hour.I can see a line of trucks miles long.You will have a truck cresting a hill at 100 and another one in the passing lane maxed out at doing 105.It might not be that bad in the area I'm from.I live in gravel "country"and the roads are 80kph,but probably 50% of the tippers drive like a!@ holes trying to make up time to maybe get an extra load a day.My dad is a trucker and has said for years Ontario is anti truck,maybe this is another example.I think this is a huge waist of cash because when I'm out on the big hi ways I don't see a lot of highway trucks going that fast,because they can't afford the extra fuel it takes. we'll have to see what happens.
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Post by kiwitruckeruk on May 8, 2008 4:02:02 GMT -5
We've had speed limiters in the United Kingdom for over 12 years, they were set at 60mph when they first came out, thats our national speed limit here for trucks on Motorways, then we were told they had to be set at 56mph, now all new trucks have to be set at 52mph, and this all happened after United Kingdom joined the European Union, only thing is..... our truck speed limit hasn't changed by law and it's still legal to drive at 60mph. When european trucks come over there always passing us, it's only the UK that seems to be enforcing the EU laws, there own drivers tell them were they can stick it and go on strike and blockade the ports and roads and they get away with it and don't get arrested for doing it, if we did that here the police would arrest us and tow the trucks away. Think i'll be heading back to New Zealand soon, it used to be a good place to drive, but now, i'm not so sure.
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78KW
Regional OTR Driver
Hard Time don't last...Trucker's do!
Posts: 2,467
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Post by 78KW on May 9, 2008 16:05:16 GMT -5
When I first heard mention of Ontario considering this, it was about 2 years ago or so. From my understanding, some larger Ontario carriers were really pushing for it for competitive reasons. The large American carriers were all over it, wanting it here too, so that they could "level the playing field" here in the states. They know that the smaller carriers are at an advantage speed wise. If nothing else, certain carriers have made it well known that they're not happy with the fact that drivers will choose to work for other carriers whose trucks aren't quite as slow. I thought this Ontario law was shot down, though. What happened?
I'm not a speeder, but speed limiting should be owner's choice. I'm all for safety, but let's be real here. When the big trucking companies support measures like this, safety is the furthest thing from their minds. It's about competition, and their bottom line, to give themselves an edge.
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