The dyed diesel that runs tractors, excavators, grain dryers, generators, and any unlicensed engine. Standing route, named rep, paired with clear diesel and DEF on one conversation.
Coloured diesel is ordinary diesel, dyed red, exempt from the 9.0 ¢/L Ontario fuel tax. The bright line is short — and it doesn’t care which industry you’re in. If a piece of equipment carries a plate, it can’t burn coloured.
SOURCE · FUEL TAX ACT S. 2(7.1) · R.R.O. 1990 REG. 464 · MIN. OF FINANCE “COLOURED FUEL” BULLETIN · MTO FARM GUIDE
The product is the same middle-distillate diesel as the clear at the pump. The Ministry-registered dyer adds a red marker upstream, and that marker is what the Ministry’s inspectors check for in a roadside sample. The dye is the eligibility flag, not a different fuel.
SOURCE · FUEL TAX ACT R.S.O. 1990 C. F.35 · R.R.O. 1990 REG. 464 · MIN. OF FINANCE “COLOURED FUEL” BULLETIN
Most accounts run coloured alongside clear diesel and (on newer equipment) DEF. One rep on the account, one number for after-hours, paperwork on the same invoice if you want it.
TANK INSTALL · LIQUID FUELS HANDLING CODE
DEF · ISO 22241 · PETRO-CANADA AIR1
The product and the rules are constant. What changes is the tank, the cycle, and the calendar. The three pictures below are the recognition surface; the deeper vertical pages carry the application-specific detail.
Tractors, combines, sprayers, and on-farm dryers run coloured year-round. The standing route flexes around planting, spray weeks, and the September–November dryer peak. Tank sizing usually anchors on harvest-week burn plus dryer draw.
Excavators, dozers, loaders, light towers, and site generators all run coloured. Sites without permanent storage take coloured straight into the equipment by on-site refuelling. Multi-site GCs run one account across every job.
Yard forklifts, back-up generators, and reefer auxiliary units (fed from tanks separate from the drive engine) all qualify. The HTA-plated trucks themselves run clear off our cardlock side; coloured handles the off-road support equipment.
Ontario’s coloured-fuel rules read short and punish long. The full reference covers what coloured diesel is, where it can and can’t go, what the Ministry actually enforces, and what an on-site tank has to be — every fact source-attributed.
Every equipment category, the licensed-vehicle rule in full, and the reefer carve-out (separate fuel tank only).
POA set fine, the 3× / 10× / 13× tax back-charge ladder, and the $1M / 2-year ceiling — what each one actually applies to.
The seven-year retention rule, what bulk-purchase receipts must show, and where the burden of proof sits.
Ontario Fire Code setbacks, secondary containment thresholds, labels and tags, and the spill-response trigger.
Prohibited. A farm-plated truck is a licensed motor vehicle under Fuel Tax Act s. 2(7.1), and it may not carry or run coloured (dyed) diesel under any operating condition, including on-farm-only operation, movement between contiguous farm parcels, or movement on a public highway.
Coloured fuel is diesel dyed red at 170–190 ppm by a registered dyer. Per the Ministry of Finance, it may be used for any reason other than to generate power in a licensed motor vehicle, or in a motor vehicle or vessel operated principally for pleasure or recreation.
Ontario's Fuel Tax Act and Regulation 464 set the fuel-tax rate on clear diesel (9 ¢/L, permanently set effective July 1, 2025) and the coloured-fuel regime. Coloured diesel is prohibited in any motor vehicle licensed under the Highway Traffic Act, and records must be kept 7 years.
Tell us what the equipment is, where the work is, and what your draw looks like. We’ll size the program around it and sort coloured, clear, propane, lubricants, and DEF on the same conversation.
Delivery across four counties, with our own cardlocks in Waterloo, Guelph and Stratford. After hours, calls go to an answering service that passes emergencies to on-call staff.
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