Northern Truckers Will Benefit From Harmonization
Wednesday, October 07, 2009 at 14:12
An official with Northern Resource Trucking says the company should benefit slightly from a harmonization of trucking regulations between Saskatchewan and Alberta.
The two provinces agreed yesterday to share rules and regulations in several areas of the industry, in a bid to improve efficiency.
The memorandum of understanding is intended to cut through red tape that currently exists between the two provinces when it comes to regulations and permits.
It also is designed to help the industry become more competitive in the two provinces.
Glen Ertell is the president of the Saskatchewan Trucking Association, and a branch manager with NRT.
He believes the move should eliminate a lot of headaches, especially since 15 to 20 per cent of NRT’s trucking work involves travelling across the border into and out of Alberta.
Since most of NRT’s work involves hauling freight in northern Saskatchewan, the deal won’t have a major impact on NRT, “but for overall trucking in our province, it is a big asset,” Ertell says.
“This is certainly a good initiative on both sides of the Alberta and Saskatchewan border, to get together and share some of this information, and that way you don’t have to go at it individually. There’s some common interests to make sure that trucking companies on both sides, which are domiciled in both provinces, get to share equal opportunity to haul freight back and forth,” he adds.
The government says specific items like vehicle weights, national safety code issues and special permits will all fall under the agreement.
For example, Saskatchewan will finally be allowed to increase the gross vehicle weight allowed on each rig to 63,500 kg.