AB bends rules for grain transport on provincial highways
Posted Mar 28, 2014 3:24 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Alberta is bending some road rules to help transport grain on provincial highways.
Starting April 1, vehicles carrying grain from storage to elevators will be exempt from vehicle weight restrictions.
Farmers will be able to get free permits to travel at 100 per cent axle weight, as long as they don’t damage the roadways.
The announcement comes as Gerry Ritz is in Calgary to discuss fair regulations for transporting grain by rail.
With all of the other problems that grain farmers have faced this year, including rail capacity issues, and a strike at the Port of Vancouver, this is a small step to getting back on track.
Lynn Jacobson, the president of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture tells 660News, while certain counties have issued special permits before, this is a bit of an anomaly.
“Anything like this helps move the volume of grain. If you don’t have to do partial trucks going down the road,” he said. “What the road ban would do is effectively shut some producers off. It also would force them to haul in smaller loads.”
The grain crop this year has been bountiful, so much so that it is 40 per cent more than the five year average, and farmers are having problems getting it all to market.
The special rules will be in effect until June 30th.
