Ontario Highway Traffic Act rules that apply to limousines and black cars

The Highway Traffic Act and limousines, in one paragraph

The Act is the province's road law — the licences, the vehicles, the rules of the road, the offences, the demerits — and it applies to a black car as to any vehicle with a handful of provisions that apply harder: the commercial driver's zero-alcohol rule, the hours-of-service, the daily inspection, the vehicle-for-hire's insurance, and the demerit thresholds the City ties its licence to. This guide explains the Act's part for the passenger: how it and the City's bylaw fit together, the licence classes, the commercial driver's rules, the equipment, the road rules with a limousine twist, the idling bylaw beside the Act, the offences and the demerits, the insurance, the passenger's obligations, and a worked drive with the Act's provisions marked.

How the Act and the City's bylaw fit together

The province's Highway Traffic Act (with the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act, the Consumer Protection Act, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Liquor Licence and Control Act) sets the rules for every vehicle and driver on an Ontario road — who may drive what, how the vehicle must be equipped, how it must be driven, and what happens when it is not; the City of Toronto's Vehicle-for-Hire bylaw (and the 905 municipalities' bylaws) licenses the business of carrying passengers for hire within the municipality — the vehicle's age and inspection, the driver's record and training, the brokerage's records, the fare's disclosure — and ties its licences to the Act's outcomes (a driver whose Act convictions or demerits cross the bylaw's thresholds loses the City's licence). The GTAA permit article's airport regulations are a third layer on federal land. A chauffeur holds the province's driver's licence, the City's limousine driver's licence and the airport's registration, and answers to all three.

The licence classes

The Act's Ontario driver's licence classes (the province's page): Class G — any car, van or small truck up to 11,000 kilograms, and the licence a chauffeur holds for a sedan, an SUV, a stretch sedan and a Sprinter configured under the Class F threshold (ten passengers or fewer including the driver); Class F — a regular bus (a vehicle designed for more than ten but not more than 24 passengers) and an ambulance, the licence for the 11- to 14-passenger Sprinter and the small shuttle; Class C — a regular bus of any size; Class B — a school-purposes bus; Class E and D for the school and the truck categories; the limo bus article's limo bus and mini-coach drivers hold the C or the B, with the medical, the written and the road tests each class requires and the renewal's medical for the bus classes. The City's limousine driver's licence sits on top of the Class G, and the vetting article's three-year history is the City's minimum on the province's licence.

The commercial driver's stricter rules

Zero blood-alcohol: since 2018 a driver of a vehicle-for-hire (a taxi, a limousine, a rideshare vehicle while in service), a bus, a commercial motor vehicle or any vehicle by a novice or young driver must have a blood-alcohol concentration of zero and no detectable cannabis — the roadside screening, the immediate licence suspension and the fine for a breach, and the passenger safety article's fleet policy that tests. Distracted driving: the hand-held device ban (a phone, a tablet, a GPS not mounted) with fines from $615 and three demerits for a first offence rising to $3,000 and six demerits with a 30-day suspension for a third, and the hands-free exception (the phone on a mount, the voice command, the vehicle's system) that the chauffeur's dispatch app uses — the defensive driving article's mount rule. Hours-of-service: the province's regulation for commercial motor vehicles (the buses and the vehicles over 4,500 kilograms — the limo bus and the mini-coach) limits the driving hours and the on-duty hours per day and per cycle and requires the log; the fleets apply their own limits to the sedan and the SUV chauffeurs (the a day in the life article's twelve and ten). The daily inspection: the commercial motor vehicle regulation's daily pre-trip inspection with the schedule and the report — mandatory for the buses, adopted by the fleets for every vehicle (the fleet maintenance article). The Commercial Vehicle Operator's Registration: the CVOR for the operator of the buses and the heavier vans, with its safety rating and its audits.

The equipment

Seat belts: every seating position must have a working belt (the stretch's bench and the Sprinter's rows included), the driver must ensure every passenger under sixteen wears one, and every passenger sixteen and over is responsible for their own (the fine is the passenger's); a professional chauffeur asks. Child seats: the child seats article's regulation (the rear-facing, forward-facing and booster stages), its exemption for taxis and limousines that a professional fleet does not use, and the National Safety Mark. Window tint: no tint on the windshield below the top 75 millimetres and no aftermarket tint on the front side windows that lets through less than 70 percent of light (the 2017 rule), any tint on the rear side and rear windows — the black car's tinted rear glass is legal and the front glass is clear. Tires: a minimum tread of 1.5 millimetres (2/32-inch) — the winter tires article's 6/32 fleet standard is four times the law — no studs south of the northern districts, no tire with a visible cord or a bulge. Lights: headlights on from half an hour before sunset to half an hour after sunrise and when visibility is under 150 metres (the daytime running lights do not light the rear — the chauffeur switches on), the licence plate light, no coloured lights forward except amber. Plates and registration: the vehicle registered and plated with the commercial validation where the weight requires. The horn, the mirrors, the wipers, the brakes — the Act's equipment sections and the annual Safety Standards Certificate the City's licence requires.

The road rules with a limousine twist

The move-over law: a vehicle approaching a stopped emergency vehicle or a tow truck with its lights flashing must slow and, on a multi-lane road, move into the next lane if safe — the defensive driving article's Gardiner shoulder. The streetcar door rule: a vehicle overtaking a streetcar that has stopped to load or unload must stop at least two metres behind the rear door and not pass until the doors close and the passengers have cleared — the King Street corridor's and every downtown east–west street's rule, with the fine and the demerits. The school bus rule: stop for a school bus with its red lights flashing in either direction (unless a median divides the road) — $400 to $2,000 and six demerits, and the unaccompanied minors article's school-run chauffeur knows every bus stop. The one-metre passing law: a vehicle passing a cyclist must leave at least one metre — the Bloor and Richmond lanes. The HOV lanes: the 403's, the 404's, the QEW's and the DVP's high-occupancy lanes require the posted number of occupants (a chauffeur and one passenger count as two), and a green plate EV may use them with one; the 407's are open. The speed: the posted limit, the "speed for the conditions" duty, the stunt-driving threshold (40 km/h over on a road under 80, 50 over on a road over 80 — an immediate suspension and impoundment), and the 407's 100. The U-turn: prohibited on a curve, near a hill's crest, at a railway crossing, within 150 metres of a bridge or a tunnel where the view is obstructed, and where a sign forbids — the chauffeur circles the block. Stopping and standing: the Act's prohibitions (on a bridge, in a tunnel, within an intersection, on a crosswalk, within nine metres of a hydrant, in a bike lane) and the City's own no-stopping and no-standing signs (the King Street corridor, the Financial District hotels guide's lay-bys) that the chauffeur knows street by street. The horn: only as a warning. The pedestrian crossover: stop and yield until the pedestrian has cleared the entire roadway.

The idling bylaw beside the Act

Toronto's Idling Control bylaw (Municipal Code Chapter 517), not the Act: a vehicle may not idle for more than one minute in a sixty-minute period, with exceptions for the temperature outside 5 to 27 degrees (the heating and the cooling for the passenger's comfort), the emergency vehicles, the vehicles whose engine powers equipment, and the traffic; the fleet's practice (the environment article) is the engine off at every wait within the exceptions, the hybrid and electric article's EVs heating on the battery, and the bylaw officers' fines for the chauffeur who idles at a hotel's door in May. Mississauga, Vaughan and the other 905 municipalities have their own.

The offences and the demerits that end a chauffeur's licence

The Act's demerit system (the points stay on the record for two years from the offence): three points for most moving violations (speeding 16 to 29 over, failing to yield, an improper turn, the distracted driving's first offence), four for speeding 30 to 49 over and following too closely, six for careless driving, speeding 50 or more over, failing to stop for a school bus and the third distracted driving; the suspensions at fifteen points for a full-licence holder; and the City's bylaw thresholds (the Toronto limousine licensing article — the demerit count and the convictions that revoke the limousine driver's licence) are lower than the province's suspension, so a chauffeur loses the City's licence before the province's; the fleet's own limit (the vetting article's three active demerits) is lower still. The offences that end the career outright: impaired or over-80 driving (a Criminal Code offence with a licence suspension), a refusal to provide a sample, careless driving causing bodily harm, stunt driving, dangerous driving, failing to remain at a collision, and driving while suspended; the limo accident article's protocol keeps the chauffeur on the right side of the last two.

The insurance requirement

The Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act requires every vehicle on an Ontario road to carry third-party liability insurance (the minimum $200,000 for a private vehicle), and the City's bylaw requires a limousine to carry at least $2 million with the City named for cancellation notice; the fleet's commercial policy at $5 million is the limo insurance article's norm, the statutory accident benefits are the limo accident article's no-fault layer, and a vehicle-for-hire insured on a personal policy (the cheap limo service article's tell) is uninsured for the purpose.

The passenger's own obligations

The seat belt: every passenger sixteen and over must wear one where a belt is provided, and the fine (from $240) is the passenger's, not the chauffeur's — the passenger safety article and the what to expect on a first ride article say the chauffeur asks. Alcohol: the Liquor Licence and Control Act forbids open liquor in a vehicle for everyone in it (the driver and the passengers are each liable), with the licensed stretch's bar as the exception under its licence and only for passengers of age — the stag and bachelorette article and the in-car amenities article say so. Cannabis: the same — no consumption in the vehicle, and no open package accessible to the driver. Conduct: the Act's provision against interfering with the driver (a passenger who grabs the wheel, obstructs the view or assaults the driver commits an offence), the Criminal Code beyond it, and the chauffeur's right to end the trip at the next safe place (the passenger safety article's refusal). Children: a parent who asks the chauffeur to carry a child unrestrained is asking for an offence under the regulation's exemption's spirit if not its letter, and the child seats article's fleet declines. The route and the speed: a passenger may ask for a route and not for a speed over the limit or a manoeuvre the Act forbids.

A worked drive, with the Act marked

A Sunday 5 p.m. run from a Leslieville home to the Four Seasons in an S-Class: the headlights on at 4:55 (half an hour before the 5:20 sunset — the lights rule); the passenger's belt clicked at the door (the passenger's duty, the chauffeur's ask); Queen Street west — a streetcar stopped at Broadview with its doors open, the S-Class stopped two metres behind the rear door until the doors closed (the streetcar rule); Richmond Street — a cyclist in the lane, the pass at 1.2 metres (the one-metre law); a fire truck with its lights on at Richmond and Spadina, the S-Class slowed and moved to the right lane (the move-over law); University Avenue north at 48 in a 50 (the speed); Bloor Street's no-stopping at Avenue Road, the S-Class into the Four Seasons' porte-cochère (the City's sign and the hotel's lane); the engine off at the door in 3-degree weather with the heat on for the passenger's four-minute wait for the doorman (the idling bylaw's temperature exception); the chauffeur's phone on the mount and untouched throughout (the distracted driving rule); the chauffeur's blood-alcohol zero (the vehicle-for-hire rule, and the fleet's Sunday breathalyser at the depot). Twenty-two minutes, seven provisions, zero demerits.

HTA for limousines quick reference

Booking a chauffeur who knows the Act

Every chauffeur on the fleet page's vehicles passed the defensive driving article's classroom day on the Act this year and holds a City licence the Act's abstract supports; the engine books them. Wear the belt; the rest is the chauffeur's.

Book a black car