OTA asks newly elected Ontario mayors to sit down on truck parking, zoning and freight planning
The Ontario Trucking Association has written to incoming and returning mayors after the municipal elections and wants members to flag local problems for its board.
The Ontario Trucking Association has opened talks with Ontario's newly elected and returning mayors, and it wants carriers to tell it which local problems to raise first.
In a Nov. 5 release, OTA said it has contacted mayors and their leadership teams following the municipal elections. The association described the letters as the start of a series of meetings that will expand to other municipalities across the province.
Five priorities
OTA said the talks will focus on five areas:
- Commercial zoning and land use: the shortage of designated truck parking and the need for properly zoned, compliant freight facilities.
- Illegal truck parking and enforcement: municipal enforcement against unauthorized parking, alongside work on safe, authorized rest areas for drivers.
- Freight transportation planning: building logistics corridors into municipal master plans.
- Urban congestion: curb-lane management, delivery window flexibility and road designs that cut delays for commuters and trucks.
- Truck safety: scaling up municipal enforcement so it complements provincial efforts.
"Municipalities are the front lines of the supply chain, where the final mile of delivery interacts directly with local communities," OTA president Stephen Laskowski said in the release.
Members asked to weigh in
OTA is asking its members to send the policy team specific trucking, infrastructure or regulatory problems in their own municipalities. The association said submissions will be reviewed and compiled by its board of directors for its municipal advocacy strategy.
Geoff Wood, OTA's senior vice-president of policy, said member input on issues such as restrictive zoning bylaws or chronic congestion points gives the board data it can take to local councils.
OTA says members can send local issues, case studies or infrastructure concerns to its operations and safety team at operations_safety@ontruck.org.
The campaign follows OTA's relaunched Stop Illegal Trucking push earlier this month, which focused on provincial enforcement. The municipal letters bring the same parking and compliance concerns to city halls.
Details are in OTA's release.