Licence Appeal Tribunal
FILE: 7881/CVOR
CASE NAME: 7881 v. Registrar of Motor Vehicles
Appeal under Section 50(1) of the Highway Traffic Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, from an Order of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles Pursuant to Section 47(1) to Suspend the Commercial Vehicle Carriers’ Registration Certificate and to Seize the Plate Portion of all Permits Issued
2078020 Ontario Inc., o/a Hind Transport Applicant
-and-
Registrar of Motor Vehicles Respondent
REASONS FOR DECISION AND ORDER
ADJUDICATOR: D. Gregory Flude, Vice-Chair
APPEARANCES:
For the Applicant: Mark Reynolds, Paralegal
For the Respondent: Patrick Moore, Counsel
Heard in Toronto: April 25 & 26, 2013
DECISION AND ORDER
1The Applicant appeals to this Tribunal under section 50(1) of the Highway Traffic Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8 (the “Act”), from an order of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles (the “Registrar”) issued on January 29, 2013 pursuant to section 47(1) to suspend a Commercial Vehicle Operators Registration (“CVOR”) certificate for a period of 30 days and to seize the plate portion of any permits issued during the suspension.
2The Tribunal heard evidence from Daniel Ramer, a Carrier Safety Rating Administrator at the office of the Registrar, Imran Khan, a driver for the Applicant and Tarvinder Toor, a director and co-owner of the Applicant. The narrative below is a review of their evidence without identifying the specific witness who made each statement.
3The focal point of the Registrar’s decision in this matter is a Show Cause meeting that was held in St. Catherines on December 21, 2011. That meeting was called because the Registrar had issued a Notice of Cancellation and Seizure dated December 12, 2011 proposing to cancel the Applicant’s CVOR certificate because of an unsatisfactory safety rating. Following the meeting, the Registrar set aside the cancellation proposal and, instead, placed conditions on the Applicant for a period of one year. The Applicant failed to achieve the safety level the Registrar proposed so the Registrar again issued a Notice of Cancellation and Seizure on October 16, 2012.
4The CVOR system in Ontario is aimed at ensuring that unsafe carriers are identified and dealt with using a range of sanctions including suspensions and cancellations. It has been developed in concert with provincial and state governments throughout North America. It attempts to identify trends that indicate unsafe operations before the carrier’s lack of focus on safety leads to danger on the highway. At the heart of the system is the kilometres travelled by a carrier and the number of trucks the carrier has on the road. A statistical model is applied to the carrier’s figures and it is given a Violation Rating (VR). The VR is similar to the demerit point system such that, as a carrier accumulates violations they are applied against the maximum permissible VR. A given carrier’s score is expressed as a percentage of its maximum permissible score and a high score indicates unsafe operation. Violations stay on a carrier’s record to be counted against the VR for a period of two years, again similar to demerit points on a private driver’s licence.
5Violations are tracked and weighted in three categories: Collisions, Convictions and Inspections. Collisions and Convictions contribute 40% each to the overall VR and inspections resulting in an out of service defect contribute 20%. Some events may contribute