MTO Proposal for Plating and Registering Road Building Equipment - Seeking Input

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Published on: 12/09/2014

The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is launching a review of the definition and exemptions presently applied to road-building machines (RBM) under the Highway Traffic Act, and is looking for your feedback. A short survey from the MTO is attached below for your consideration.

The intent of this review is develop a new definition that clearly distinguishes between traditional types of RBMs built to operate only on construction sites, and those that are built on truck chassis and able to operate at highway speeds, meet federal manufacturing safety standards for vehicles, and are for multi-purpose use (i.e. mobile cranes, concrete pumpers, hydrovacs).

Presently, a RBM is defined as “a self-propelled vehicle of a design commonly used in the construction or maintenance of highways, including but not limited to,

• asphalt spreaders, concrete paving or finishing machines, motor graders, rollers, tractor-dozers and motor scrapers;

• tracked and wheeled tractors of all kinds while equipped with mowers, post-hole diggers, compactors, weed spraying equipment, snow blowers and snow plows, front-end loaders, back-hoes or rock drills; and,

• power shovels on tracks and drag lines on tracks, but not including a commercial motor vehicle.â€Â￾

Under the current definition, a RBM is exempt from number of items under the Highway Traffic Act, including: vehicle permits (licence plates and registration); Drive Clean; commercial vehicle operators registration (CVOR); seat belt requirements; and fuel tax (they are permitted to use "purple" fuel), among others.

As per the direction in Ontario’s 2014 Budget, the MTO is looking to eliminate exemptions for a number of these RBMs. OSWCA would like to encourage all those affected to complete the attached survey by no later than October 20 and forward it to the Carrier Safety Policy Office at the MTO at cspo@ontario.ca.

Attention road-building machine owners and operators:

Since RBMs are not required to be registered it is difficult to determine the number of RBMs in Ontario and the impact of a change to the definition. Please complete the following survey as part of our preliminary research on RBMs.

a) How many vehicles in your fleet do you feel meet the current definition of a RBM?

i. Of these vehicles how many are registered and plated?

ii. Do these vehicles have Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN)?

b) If the definition of a RBM is changed to exclude vehicles built on truck chassis that are able to operate at highways speeds, meet federal manufacturing requirements and are for multi-purpose use; how many vehicles in your fleet would no longer meet the definition of a RBM and now require registration?

c) What are the different vehicle types in your fleet that could be considered a RBM based on the current definition?

Please provide any additional comments regarding the review of RBMs.

Please send completed surveys to cspo@ontario.ca


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