Provincial weigh stations rarely open, truckers say
Long-haul truck drivers travelling through Saskatchewan say it is rare to be stopped at one of the province’s 10 weigh scale stations.
The provincial auditor said in a report released earlier this year that at least $10 million is being spent to repair highways damaged by overweight vehicles.
Charles Brooks travels through Saskatchewan about two times each month and says he has never had to stop at a Saskatchewan weigh station.
“Never. I’ve never seen it open all the years I’ve been coming through, and that’s 17 years,” he says.
Brooks says that is something he sees only in Saskatchewan.
“Periodically, you go into Alberta, (the weigh stations) are open quite a bit. British Columbia is open quite a bit,” he says.
Saskatchewan’s auditor, Judy Ferguson, found the scale stations weren’t open as often as expected and that the province doesn’t have any clear plans for enforcing weight regulations, particularly in high-risk areas.
“When you’re given a responsibility to regulate something, you have to actively do things,” she told reporters in June. “It’s not good enough to just put a set of rules out there.”
Brooks says there are truck drivers who break those rules, too.
“If (drivers) can get away with it, they’ll do it,” he says, adding that he would rather see weigh stations open for safety reasons. “I’m all for safety for the public. With weight, if you’re overweight, you don’t need to be out here on the road.”
The province responded to the auditor’s report by saying it had reached similar conclusions as Ferguson, and is now doing a better job of making plans for enforcement and reviewing the outcomes of that enforcement.
But long-haul drivers fuelling up on Sunday at an east-end Regina cardlock, like Brooks, see few signs of that enforcement.
Joe Flege travels all over North America and says he may get stopped in Canada “one time a month” at a weigh station.
He says he hopes long-haul truckers follow the rules, “but some drivers bring us bad names.”
Bill Evans comes through the province two or three times a month and claims to see a Saskatchewan weigh station open a “couple times a year, and that’s only when they’ve got harvest on.”
Yashjeet Singh had been stopped on the weekend as he made his way from Toronto to Edmonton, but had not yet been stopped in Saskatchewan.
Brooks says he notices the highway conditions get worse in Saskatchewan.
“You could say weight is a factor. If you don’t have a ton of weight you’re not going to have as much wear and tear,” he says. “You’ve got a lot of tons going up and down these roads.”
I’m all for safety for the public. With weight, if you’re overweight, you don’t need to be out here on the road.