The expansion to the LCV program in Ontario is good news for Bison Transport and the entire transportation industry.
At the end of January, the Province of Ontario announced that they were clearing the way for more Long Combination Vehicles (LCVs), eliminating the cap of 16 permits per carrier and only allowing 100 carriers in the program. New vehicle configurations and more highways on which the vehicles can travel have also been introduced.
From Bison’s perspective, the LCV expansion in Ontario is positive for Drivers, shippers, and the general motoring public.
Bison began running LCVs in 2004 because innovation and finding new ways to provide transportation solutions for customers is a key component to the success of our company. Since then, Bison has experienced a lot of growth, and we have acquired a total of 14 permits in Ontario, almost reaching the previous cap, while maintaining the ideology of safety being priority number one. Bison has more than 800 trucks running LCVs in Western Canada. With the removal of the cap, it opens the door to allowing our Eastern Canada fleet to grow as well.
The elimination of the permit cap and expanded highway network also has many benefits for Drivers, and the everyday motorists who travel these highways often. This opens up opportunities for more experienced safe Drivers to participate in the LCV program, which offers a higher pay per mile. It also opens up more lanes with the ability to run closer up to Northern Ontario rather than just east/west. Furthermore, it will ease congestion on major highways by reducing the space tractors pulling a trailer takes up, ie: one tractor pulling two trailers together (while being quite long) actually takes up less space than two tractors pulling a single trailer each.
Shippers, receivers and the entire transportation industry can reap the benefits of this as well. For example, the expanded highway network will allow for shippers who have not been accessible to the LCV program in Ontario in the past to be reached by LCV’s with the use of highway 400 and 403. This allows companies like Bison to provide more competitive pricing and rates by discussing innovative ways to move a customer’s freight such as through the use of LCV’s for dedicated freight and lanes.
Bison has always been a strong supporter of the LCV program in Ontario due to the benefits to all parties involved, and the entire transportation industry; therefore, we welcome these positive changes to a program that will continue to grow for the future of transportation.
Please let us know your thoughts about expanding LCVs in Ontario below!
