© AgMedia Inc.
by SUSAN MANN
Ministry of Transportation rules prohibiting farmers with farm-plated vehicles from hauling other growers’ commodities for commission except for three months in the fall don’t make sense, says David Rhyner.
The northwestern Ontario farmer says there are lots of small farmers in his area who can’t afford their own truck and trailer to haul cattle to the Winnipeg market, the only market for the area and a four-hour dive away, once a year.
“We’re in such a small agricultural area here,” he says. His farm is located in Dryden, half way between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay.
Rhyner has a truck and trailer to do the job. On the return trip, he’d like to be able to bring back products, such as supplements, feed, salt, and other farm supplies, for others and get paid to reduce his costs. But ministry rules, in place since 1982, stipulate he can’t do that for commission except in September, October and November. Farmers can still truck commodities for other farmers outside of those months but they can’t get compensation.
“I have to pay for this rig that I have somehow,” he says.
Rhyner and other farmers in the area calve their cows in June, July and August with animals ready for market in spring. Under the rules it’s illegal for him to charge to take other farmers’ cattle to market along with his own in the spring. It’s also illegal for him to charge for hauling a cow to a local butcher or community pasture except during the fall months.
Emna Dhahak, spokesperson for the Transportation Ministry, says in an email that farm plates are available to farmers at a reduced fee because of use restrictions. The ministry allowed farmers to charge other growers for trucking during the fall to assist the farming industry during peak harvest.
The ministry charges an annual commercial plate fee of $109 for 3,001 kgs to $2,722 for 63,500 kgs. For farm-plated vehicles the fees range from $81 for 3,001 kgs to $641 for 63,500 kgs.
Peter Jeffery, Ontario Federation of Agriculture researcher, says it’s really hard for ministry officials to prove that a farmer is getting paid to transport another farmer’s commodities, making the requirement “really impossible to enforce.”
Jeffery says so far the Federation hasn’t had any success convincing the ministry to broaden the three month limit “even though it doesn’t fit with a lot of harvesting issues.” The Federation offers a fact sheet on trucking rules.
Grant Robertson, Ontario coordinator for the National Farmers Union, says his organization plans to look into the matter. He says he’s never heard of this rule: “I know all kinds of people who do this.”
Henry Stevens, president of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, hasn’t heard of the regulation: “Nobody has ever contacted our office to see if we have a position on it. But we are going to look into it.”
Once a truck and trailer’s combined gross weight exceeds 4,500 kg it’s automatically designated commercial, even if it has farm plates, and is therefore required to obtain annual safety inspections. Correction: According to the ministry, farm-plated trucks more than 4,500 kg, or farm-plated trucks and trailers with a combined gross weight of more than 4,500 kg, are not designated commercial but are required to undergo an annual safety inspection.
Rhyner says his farm pick up and 24-foot stock trailer are not commercial because he has farm plates and should therefore be exempt from the mandatory inspection. He says he’s been avoiding these for more than two years “trying to get a ticket so this (situation) can be hashed out.”
He finally obtained one in September 2009 while driving 20 of his neighbour’s feeder calves to Stratton outside of Fort Frances. He received the $240-ticket under the Commercial Vehicles Act at a Transportation Ministry check stop outside of Fort Frances.
He plans to plead not guilty when the matter comes up in court Feb. 12 in Fort Frances. “Since I can’t haul for a commission, I do not think of myself as being commercial and this is a commercial traffic act ticket.” BF
Comments
This guy deserves to go to jail for deliberately avoiding the annual safety check required for his truck and trailer - and he probably would go to jail if he was in a fatal collision while driving a truck with an expired safety sticker. I, and many other farmers who never haul for anyone else, dutifully get annual safety checks on grain trailers that don't go more than 1,000 miles in an entire year - it doesn't seem fair to have to spend money to do an annual check on a trailer that doesn't go as far in a year, as many trailers go in two daye, but we do it because it's the law. Therefore, I have absolutely no sympathy for this farmer at all, simply because he's deliberately flouting a law put in place to make our roads safer for everybody, and endangering the lives of everyone on the road with his "I don't care" attitude.
This is not about farm plates or commercial plates, it's about safety of people while on the roads. It's time we farmers put aside this outdated notion we should be exempted from laws meant to keep everyone safe, and that includes vehicles of husbandry. No more old B trains that are unsafe behind a highway tractor, but considered OK if behind a tractor with 60km/hr transmission, no more unstrapped trailer loads of big bales, no more farm equipment without lights at night. If it's on the road it must be safe. They should be inspected, and if shown to be unsafe, get them off the road.
The OFA have been working on finding a workable solution for this that doesn't cut corners on safety for some time. How useless can CFFO and NFU be that they aren't even aware of the issue? Do those two groups even do anything other than collect their cheques?
Annual safety checks are a bit much for someone who uses his trailer 3 or four times a year. As such I ignore them.
In Ontario,trailers rust whether you use them or not - esepcially the cross-members, and even more-so the cross-members under the fifth wheel.
Secondly, I hope that if you ever have a mishap involving a trailer without a valid inspection sticker, that your insurance company refuses to pay anything.
If you can afford to have a trailer, you can afford to keep it safe, period - if not, get your junky vehicles off the road and let somebody who cares about other people on the road, do the job you obviously refuse to do.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
I have seen several instances where guys leave 16, 20 and 40 ft. headers on combines while going several miles down concession roads. Is that O.K.??
It's a dog's breakfast - many of us have cultivators and planters which, even when folded, are dangerous on the highway. For example, one of my planters, when folded, is still 16'7" wide, and it was, therefore, quite a challenge to even get it home from the dealer's yard, a four-hour drive, by tractor, away from my farm.
I'd be foolish to try to take this outfit through any town or built-up area, and don't, even in daylight, and even when all of the lights are working.
Headers are no different - most people trail any head over 20', in part because it's safer, and in part because a lot of gates are too narrow to get through.
Nonetheless, it's dumb to move anything at night - we've had too many fatalities, even locally, when motorists ran into oncoming over-width, and un-marked, corn planters at night.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
this is about market share, for trucking companies and exclusionary restrictions for all others. i know trucking companies get away with murder and are jealous anyone can do their own work. how about stepping up ministry inspection of fleets? no, well i guess sh** flows downhill doesnt it. we are going the way of europe or communism, crying for more regulation and enforcement.
why not ban all private vehicles and make people take a cab to the supermarket?
why not ban the sale of tools so no-one can change their own spark plugs?
why not ban paint so a carpenter has to paint your front door at $50 hr?
why not ban stoves and candles in a power outage?
we can all hope the gov keeps us safe.
be carefull what you wish for, you just might get it.
to start with road safety, you must get people to stop driving like idiots, inattentive and on cell phones, driving too fast. how about paying attention.
i live in a very active farming area, and yes big equipment is often on the road, we all need to make a living, farms are no longer small operations, many farms need to play a game of 'risk' (and i refer to the game of conquest). rented properties are here and there, up and down the road, to make operations 'barely' break-even. they need to pay operating loans for seed/fertilizer/live-stock or go under, or go broke. i grew up on a farm and have always missed that life.
the problem is bussiness for bussiness sake. this is a way of life we are talking about, a proud tradition. maybe we can ask the government to give us everything from cradle to grave, but some-one has to work, and where do you think that money or food comes from? it is easier to have a 9-5 job.
and just recently my neighbour had a 21 yr old driver smash his car into his tractor. immortal young person? apparently not.
i see people drive by my house so fast you dont even see them, you just hear and feel the shockwave hit the house. the road is not straight, hilly, bad visiblity, an s bend at every intersection. SLOW DOWN.
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