| Spring Road Restrictions Well, it’s approaching that time of the year when the frost will come out of the ground and things start to get mushy for awhile. The joys of building roads and driving on a flood plain. While as of writing they are not yet in effect, all of us will be notified when the engineers decide on a start date. All the info you need to know can be found at https://www.gov.mb.ca/mti/srr/index.html, including info on which roads are affected and how to calculate allowable axle weights. Headingley HTIS Re-opening Well, after about a year we’ve just reopened the Headingley Traffic Inspection Station last Friday. Yes, we are aware of the irony of opening on Friday the 13th. LOL For anyone who ever had to come into the old building you can appreciate how badly it needed to be replaced. It was far beyond its service life and no longer reflected the needs of the industry. The new site has many improvements for both officers and drivers, with improved traffic flow, safer inspection areas, and the ability to better handle Long Combination Vehicles (LCVs) and longer exit lanes to better allow speed to be increased before merging with traffic flow. Officers who were assigned to other locations during the shut down will be returning to their base location, but don’t worry you’ll still see them and others still out and about on patrol, including on Hwy 2, to meet drivers that are actively trying to miss the opportunity to visit the new Headingley site. Question about Trailers not owned by Carriers I received a question from a HEAT member who brought forth the scenario of carriers doing work with leased trailers that are not their own, where the company they lease from are not honoring their responsibilities to fix the trailer when there are issues. They were wondering who would get the points and/or Out Of Service (OOS) against their profile, the carrier or the owner of the trailer? First point I’d like to make is that minor defect generally do not place a trailer out-of-service. Major defects and hazardous conditions listed in national safety code standard 11B are conditions that would give rise to an out-of-service order, as the conditions would make the vehicle not fit for the road, for the driver, and the public that shares the road with the commercial vehicle. The simplest answer is that all points are applied to the carrier operating the power unit, as they were the one in care and control of the trailer at the time the infraction was noted. Their driver should have noted the issue when they did their pre-trip and rectified it before proceeding (or decided not to proceed with it until it was fixed, if it was a Major Defect). So, the last opportunity to stop the infraction was in the hands of the carrier, not the trailer owner. If work can’t be performed safely, with safe and well-maintained equipment, then it shouldn’t be taken on. Ethically and financially the consequences are too great to roll the dice with safety. Stay safe out there! Paul  |
