Ontario Construction News staff writer
Regulations requiring “all mobile cranes, concrete pumps and all terrain cranes” to meet annual inspection and certification requirements as Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMV) came into effect today (July 2), but it is unclear how the new requirements will affect the industry.
The Crane Rental Association of Ontario (CRAO) had earlier said the reclassification of mobile cranes and related equipment from road-building machines to CMVs would mire the industry with costly and unnecessary regulation and could result in severe shortages, with possible project delays.
However, the association has been silent in recent weeks, indicating that possibly its members have been able to meet the regulatory requirements in time for the impending deadline.
The association won a deferral of the introduction of the new rules from Jan. 1 to July 1 but said in a “2020 Year in Review” website statement earlier this year that this delay is not enough.
“The association is still diligently working with lawyers and lobbyists to still prove to the MTO that what they are asking of our industry is next-to-impossible to achieve and not required,” the statement says. “The cost impact to each company will be huge year after year for a vehicles that averages 20,000 kms annually.
The Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) says the new rules trace back to legislative changes introduced in 2017, requiring the equipment to meet the requirements of Regulation 611 (Safety Inspections) under the Highway Traffic Act.
“OGCA was recently consulted by MTO on a statement that CRAO made, noting that if their members are forced to comply with the legislated requirement, the construction industry would be greatly affected with delays and there was a distinct possibility of shutting down construction.”
The OGCA wrote to the CRAO in February 2021 “to advance the matter to a beneficial conclusion,” but “CRAO has yet to actively respond to any of the OGCA’s communications to date,” the OGCA statement said.
In a follow-up email, OGCA executive director Giovanni Cautillo said last Thursday that there are no updates from CRAO and “I have spoken with MTO and they haven’t heard back either.”
Accordingly, the OGCA says it “strongly recommends that members insist that all mobile cranes, concrete pumps and any like vehicles entering their construction sites” hold the valid annual inspection, saying:
- Contractors should ensure that they perform all of their due diligence and obtain the necessary Commercial Vehicle Operators Registration (CVOR) from vehicles prior to entering their sites for construction activities.
- Contractors are recommended to contact their insurance providers to ensure they have the proper coverage in their current policies that this change creates.
- For further due diligence, OGCA members may want to include a clause in contracts noting that mobile crane, concrete pumps and all other such vehicles must have an up-to-date annual inspection decal/sticker prior to arriving on site.
- The position of the OGCA is that this inspection requirement is directly linked to the overall health and safety of the general public as well as the safety of workers on site.
“Based on the issue highlighted above, the OGCA strongly recommends that all members should only be using rental mobile cranes, concrete pumps and all other such vehicles that can satisfy the new government regulation by sending the contractor the vehicle inspection clearance and CVOR prior to being allowed access to any construction site.
“Members have a contractual responsibility for those they hire and should ensure that any contractor providing such equipment is cleared for such operation,” the OGCA says.