Provincial Plow Tracker

Technical Disclaimer:
The Provincial Plowtracker application is presented via a Google Maps interface. Google may use cookies to track user information. You may be prompted to accept cookies. While the application does work on most web browsers optimal viewing is via Google Chrome.

Plowtracker helps show the winter maintenance activities taking place on provincially owned and maintained roadways. Users of Plowtracker should be aware that municipalities have separate winter maintenance programs, not reflected in this application.

Plowtracker offers simple, web browsing functions such as zoom and pan. In addition to showing you where our plows are operating during the winter season, Plowtracker also allows the user the ability turn on other information such as the Province’s Winter Maintenance Service Levels; access our Provincial Highway Cameras (coming soon); and this new year we are also providing the user with the ability to see where winter maintenance activities have taken place within the last 30, 60, or 90 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions:

When I start the website all I see are arrows, why?
The arrows are a symbolic representation of the winter maintenance vehicles. As the user zooms in on the map (using either the scroll button on your mouse or the + in the lower right of the screen) the arrows will change to symbolized versions of the winter maintenance vehicles.

Why aren't the vehicles moving?
The web application provides a delayed report on vehicle movement, updating locations at set intervals. A user can select "refresh" on their browser just to make sure there is not a problem with their internet connection.

Why is it there are some equipment out on the roads but they do not show up on Plowtracker?
While the majority of our equipment has GPS, there are some units that have yet to have them installed. It may also be caused by areas where signal strength to the GSP is low or an issue with the gps itself.

Why can't I see my plow?
As you zoom in on the map, winter maintenance vehicles will change from arrow icons to vehicle symbols. If a plow is in your area, you should see it on the map.

Why do vehicles appear one minute and disappear the next?
Vehicles only register if they're moving more than 3 km/hour. They will not show up if they are stopped.

Why do the vehicle icons look so big on some displays?
This is in fact an optical illusion when using Plowtracker. The vehicle icon is the same size in all scales of the map. It is the map details that makes it look like the icon is changing size.

Why can’t I see any roads or surrounding map information when I do a civic address search?
We have set Plowtracker to zoom to a specific scale when a civic search is carried out. Please simply zoom out using your computer mouse wheel or the + sign in the bottom right hand corner of the application. More map content should then be provided.

I want to see the Levels of Service for Winter Maintenance and I want to see it in relation to vehicle activities. How do I do that?
You can access the roadway information related to Winter Service Levels on Provincially maintained roadways by selecting the “Levels of Service” box in the Legend in the top right hand corner of Plowtracker. {Note: You may need to wait a moment for the map to generate the Levels of Service information.}.

I want to know if a winter maintenance vehicle has been in my area recently. Can I see recent vehicle information on Plowtracker?
You can see winter maintenance activities that have been reported by TIR vehicles for the past 30, 60 or 90 minutes. Please note because of the volume of information being streamed to the web site we have constrained the winter maintenance activities to specific viewing scales on the application. As a result you may need to zoom into an area in order to see winter maintenance activity.

Why can’t I see the winter maintenance activities for the time period I selects in the legend?
Winter maintenance activities are reported only at certain mapping scales. The user may need to zoom in or out on the map in order to see recent winter maintenance activity being reported by TIR vehicles.

Why do I see information about Winter Activities but no associated vehicle?
This is a result of settings applied in the Plowtracker application. Vehicles can be operational, or not, at any given time. The track that shows winter activities may be reporting on a vehicle that has stopped.