With the declaration of the state of emergency in the Province of Ontario, an emergency amendment is automatically put into place regarding provincially regulated trucking companies and hours of service provisions. These temporary options to the hours of service are put in place to allow the province to respond to the specific emergency — in this case COVID-19.

The option for hours of service exemptions are designed to potentially assist provincially regulated motor carriers and their drivers engaged in the transport of essential supplies and equipment in the emergency relief efforts during the response to COVID-19 in Ontario. MTO’s expectations are that carriers who chose to pursue any of the options do so following the guidance contained in the federal exemptions issued last week.

For full and complete details of the MTO announcement that provides guidance for both provincially and federally regulated carriers, please click here: 200330-COVID-19 Stakeholders Update-Federal Hours of Service Exemption-Other Provincial Legislative Exemptions for COVID-19_public

A list of commodities applicable to this provision along with conditions are contained in the attached documents:

Signed – EN Essential Freight Transport Exemption_public

Signed – FR Essential Freight Transport Exemption_public

Carriers are strongly encouraged to carefully read the details of the MTO communications and the expectations the Government of Ontario has of carriers with respect to the exercising of the exemption options presented.

At this time, OTA expects its members will be using this measure only in very rare or limited circumstances.