The 105 km/h setting, the three conditions that decide whether a truck is covered, the exempt classes, and why the consequence lands on your CVOR record.
Key takeaways
Ontario’s rule is a setting, not a driving habit. The Ministry of Transportation states in the Official MTO Truck Handbook that the requirement applies to vehicles manufactured in 1995 or newer with a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating of 11,794 kilograms (26,000 lb) or more, that only commercial motor vehicles with an electronically controlled engine are subject to it, and that “the speed-limiting system of these commercial motor vehicles shall be properly set to no more than 105 km/h (65 mph)”.
The province’s commercial vehicle safety page puts the same rule the other way round: most large trucks are required to use electronic speed limiters capping speed at 105 km/h, applying to commercial motor vehicles built after 31 December 1994 that are equipped with an electronic control module and have a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating of 11,794 kg or more.
Read those two together and the test is three conditions, all of which must be true: build date, an electronically controlled engine, and the weight rating. A 1993 tractor is outside it. A mechanically governed engine is outside it. A vehicle rated below 11,794 kg is outside it. Everything else that hauls freight in Ontario is inside it.
The Truck Handbook lists the exempt classes: buses, mobile cranes, motor homes, ambulances, cardiac-arrest emergency vehicles and fire apparatus. Ontario’s safety page summarises the same point as a limited number of vehicles such as ambulances and fire trucks. Two implications for a mixed fleet. First, being exempt from the speed limiter rule does not remove any other obligation — a mobile crane is still inside Ontario’s annual inspection and CVOR regimes. Second, an exemption belongs to a vehicle class, not to a trip or a customer.
The obligation attaches to the vehicle’s configuration, which means the operator controls it and the driver carries it. That distinction matters for how you manage it: a driver cannot comply by driving slowly if the engine is configured above the limit, and an operator cannot comply by writing a policy if nobody has checked the setting.
The consequence runs through the operator’s record. Ontario’s CVOR programme monitors and evaluates safety records using, among other things, overall violation rate, convictions, reportable collisions, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspections and ministry interventions including letters, interviews, audits and sanctions. A conviction is not an isolated ticket; it is an entry in the file that determines whether you get a letter, an interview or an audit.
The rule carries its own penalty too, separate from any CVOR effect: under s.68.1(8) of the Highway Traffic Act, failing to have the speed-limiting system activated and functioning, or deactivating or modifying it, is an offence carrying a fine of not less than $250 and not more than $20,000 on conviction. The same section gives an officer the power to require access to the vehicle’s computer system to retrieve and read the information relevant to the setting, and to require surrender of any device or equipment carried in the vehicle that operates as part of its speed-limiting system — so a roadside stop can confirm the configuration directly, not just the reading on a dashboard.
Where speed-limiter problems actually come from
Used equipment. A tractor bought at auction out of a jurisdiction with no limiter requirement arrives configured however its last owner left it. The check belongs in the pre-purchase or commissioning routine, next to the safety standards certificate.
Engine work. An engine control module reflash or replacement can restore a default configuration. If your shop or a dealer touches the ECM, the setting is verified afterwards.
Rentals and owner-operators. Equipment you did not commission still runs under your operating authority. The setting is a condition of dispatch, not a housekeeping preference.
Assuming telematics equals compliance. A dashboard showing that nobody exceeded 105 km/h last week tells you about driving. The requirement is about how the speed-limiting system is set.
The same page of the Truck Handbook carries a spacing rule that pairs naturally with speed management: commercial motor vehicles must maintain a minimum distance of at least 60 metres (200 ft) between themselves and other vehicles when on a highway at a speed exceeding 60 km/h, except when overtaking and passing. It also warns against using left-turn signals to wave following motorists past, which is against the law and confuses other drivers.
Both rules point the same direction. Once a fleet is limited to 105 km/h, passing manoeuvres between similarly limited trucks take longer and obstruct traffic behind — which is precisely the driver-conduct complaint the Handbook raises. Fleets that brief drivers on the spacing and passing expectations get fewer public complaints, and public complaints are one of the things that draws attention to a CVOR record.
Worked example: two tractors, one auction
A Hamilton carrier buys two 2019 tractors at auction in the spring, both rated well above 11,794 kg with electronically controlled engines. They are safety-certified, plated and dispatched inside a week.
In July one of them is inspected at a scale. The safety standards certificate is fine, the annual inspection is current, the driver’s logs are clean. The speed-limiting system is set at 110 km/h, because that is how the previous owner ran it in another jurisdiction.
The mechanical condition of the truck was never in question. What was missing was one line on a commissioning checklist: confirm and record the speed-limiter setting before the unit is dispatched, and again after any ECM work. The record is what turns a repeated problem into a one-time one.
No more than 105 km/h, which the Truck Handbook gives as 65 mph.
Commercial motor vehicles manufactured in 1995 or newer — built after 31 December 1994 — with an electronic control module and a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating of 11,794 kg or more.
No. The Truck Handbook lists buses, mobile cranes, motor homes, ambulances, cardiac-arrest emergency vehicles and fire apparatus as exempt from the regulation.
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