The new chain-up regulations and fine structure for offences doesn’t seem to be having much of an impact for truck drivers driving through BC.

BC Trucking Association President Dave Earle says he hasn’t heard of any big disruptions that it saw two or three winters ago. “The ministry brought in new regulations, very prescriptive regulations, [in 2018]. They didn’t have the fine structure to go with it, but they brought it in about December [2018] and really worked with industry and drivers on the mountain passes, doing a lot of outreach education and explaining exactly what they had to do to be able to operate safely.”

Earle says that education period helped drivers be aware of the rules are and now that’s time for enforcement and although it shouldn’t be a surprise, there’s always somebody. “I did hear one individual last year who was up from the southern united states, this is his first run through the mountains, and he was convinced it wouldn’t be a problem until it was a problem for him. There’s always one or two and those are the ones that you look at and you worry about, but honestly we can deal with one or two, it’s 10 or 20 that gets to be a problem.”

Earle says there’s a sophisticated system to make those around the continent aware of changes. “So that took a period of time and they were very good about working with the industry over the last year and now frankly it’s time for enforcement. And we haven’t seen data yet, but I don’t have any anecdotal stories that there are any significant problems.”