The Saskatchewan government is still looking for input on regulations that would make farmers responsible for overloaded commercial grain trucks.
But the province is also pushing the law forward, and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities intends to keep fighting it.
“It should be the trucker and the trucking industry that should be responsible for the weight loads they’re carrying,” said SARM president Sinclair Harrison. “I think we’re getting into dangerous grounds in this legislation.”
Right now, only truckers are responsible for what they carry. They are the ones who are fined for overweight loads.
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But revisions to the Highways and Transportation Act, which have been passed but not proclaimed, would make shippers, such as farmers, equally responsible.
The provincial highways department has mailed out a questionnaire and the unproclaimed regulations to more than 600 shippers and truckers. It wants responses by Feb. 1.
Brian Johnson, of the highways department, said the mailout is intended to inform shippers and carriers about the legislation and provide one last chance for people to voice any objections.
“We’re not going to assume we’ve thought of everything,” said Johnson.
The Saskatchewan government has moved slowly on this issue. Making shippers jointly liable for overloaded trucks was first proposed in April 1997. A few weeks later the Saskatchewan legislature passed the legislation, but did not proclaim it. Until legislation is proclaimed, it does not become law.
However, the government intends to pass it soon.
Johnson said the department wants farmers to know they won’t be indiscriminately charged if a commercial truckload of their grain is found to be overweight.
The law says that a shipper is jointly liable for overloading “unless the consignor or the carrier, as the case may be, demonstrates to the court that the contravention occurred without his or her express and implied consent.”
Johnson said all incidents will be investigated to make sure the shipper really is responsible for the overloading.
“We don’t have any intention of going after someone who had no way of knowing of the offence. We’re looking for shippers who knew the vehicle was going to be overweight.”
That doesn’t satisfy Harrison. He said only the trucker knows how much is in his truck.
If the trucker feels a farmer is trying to force him to overload his truck, he should get the farmer to sign a form stating what he is asking the trucker to do.
And if truckers want to make sure their trucks aren’t overloaded, they should carry density metres or mobile weighing systems.
“The ultimate solution is to have a weighing system on every truck,” said Harrison, who admitted that might be a few years away.
Harrison said SARM will go over the new information package from the highways department, but doubts the organization will drop its objections.
“At this time, we don’t see anything different than what we took to our delegates a year and a half ago.”
