Hamilton City truck safety rating among worst in Ontario

The city’s truck safety violation rate is more than bad – it’s worse than 99 per cent of all commercial operators in the province.

All operators of big commercial vehicles, including cities, must have a provincial registration that depends on a safety rating based on a weighted formula of collisions, convictions and inspections.

The Spectator revealed this week that city garbage trucks and plows are struggling with a spike in collisions which have spurred the province to downgrade Hamilton’s safety rating. The city acknowledged its 89 per cent violation rate is too high and is beefing up driver training to cut down on the 120 collisions and 29 convictions registered over two years.

The Spectator has since learned, however, that 95 per cent of the 55,000 commercial truck operators in Ontario maintain violation rates considered “satisfactory” by the province – and fewer than one per cent have numbers like Hamilton’s.

The city must do “everything humanly possible” to improve that record, said Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who added he was unaware of how the city’s record stacked up against other commercial operators.

“There is concern and we can do better. It’s unacceptable to have that kind of high rate.”

More to come.