Time to limit top speeds of trucks

By PAUL BERTON

Limiting transport truck speeds to 105 km/h is an idea whose time has come.

Never mind the increased traffic. Never mind the price of gasoline. Never mind the carnage on the roads.

The fact is all provincial trucking associations across Canada support the idea that government should force large trucks to activate speed-limiting devices.

Ontario has announced it will do just that this fall. It is time other provinces followed suit.

It is not such a big deal.

The rest is here

And my response to the editor:

As an eighteen year veteran truck driver I would like to comment on Paul
Bentons' column posted July 5/2007.

Mr.Benton seems to have incorrect information on a number of points in his
statement and therefore as a service to Mr.Benton and the public who have read
his statement, I would like to correct some things.

Firstly, most large and medium sized fleets of trucks have had there speeds
limited for at least the past ten years. I can think of several large carriers
who's trucks have been limited to 100 kph for years. The company I am working
for presently has it's trucks limited to 110 kph, and I would say that that is
fairly typical of many medium sized carriers.

Mr.Benton also states that almost three thousand people were killed on Canadian
roadways in 2005, with no mention that those were general statistics and
overwhelmingly did not involve commercial vehicles.

Mr.Benton simply makes a good case, as he states that car traffic is averaging
20 kph over the legal speed limit, for limiting the speeds of cars, not
trucks.

No there will not be "chaos" on the roads if trucks were limited to 105 kph, as
Mr.Benton has claimed some truckers have said. But it will be one more reason,
in a long list of reasons, to not choose trucking as a career choice.

Let us not forget, this is just a job. Like barber or store clerk. Yet it is
one of few occupations where one is subject to police scrutiny on a daily
basis. The only other occupation I can think of that results in so much contact
with police might be that of career criminal. Those scales everyone sees trucks
go into everyday are manned by police or people with police powers.

As an eighteen year veteran who is "getting out", I will not recommend this
profession to any young person I meet who might show an interest. People like
Mr.Benton have and will continue to make unreasonable demands upon ordinary
Canadian citizens...truckers...and it is simply enough.