Transport Canada Minister Omar Alghabra issued a public statement last week on electronic logging devices (ELD) for commercial vehicles in Canada.
Essentially, the statement covers how all Provincial and Territorial jurisdictions are responsible for the enforcement of the Federal hours of service regulations for extra-provincial motor carriers that travel outside their home province to another province or to the U.S.
The strategy outlined in the announcement will be for Provincial and Territorial jurisdictions to have the overall authority and responsibility to enforce trucking regulation, including hours of service.
This strategy calls for progressive educational enforcement starting on June 12, 2021, which will sunset with the full enforcement of Canada’s ELD requirements by June 12, 2022.
The next step is for the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) to form a committee to develop the progressive enforcement strategy.
This committee will be working with the provinces, territories, and Federal Government in the coming months to develop a comprehensive and fair transition to ensure that the ELD mandate progresses to full enforcement within the 12-month period.
Provincial and Territorial jurisdictions also currently have their own hours of service regulations for motor carriers that only travel within their home province.
With the exception of Ontario’s introduction of Bill 23 – Electronic Logging Device (ELD) Use in Ontario 2020, no other Provincial and Territorial jurisdictions have moved forward with a specific bill in their legislatures. That is not to say that these Provincial and Territorial jurisdictions are opposed to intra-provincial ELD hours of service regulations, but a specific bill has yet to be formalized.
Finally, you may have also heard in a news release that the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) announced that the use of ELDs in Quebec will not be mandatory as of June 12, 2021.
This strategy essentially mirrors what was said in the Transport Canada Minister’s recent announcement regarding the progressive educational enforcement starting in June.
For Fleet Complete/BigRoad, this announcement means that it’s all systems go for our company to continue with the third-party ELD Certification process to be fully compliant with the CC MTA technical requirements by the June 12, 2021 deadline.
To the motor carrier industry in Canada, this announcement means that if you are operating a commercial vehicle that is not otherwise exempt from ELD, you and/or the driver will not be cited at the roadside by a safety official during this educational period.
However, all trucking companies that operate commercial vehicles in Canada that are not otherwise exempt from the hours of service regulation must continue to comply with this regulation. The only exception is the ELD component that is governed under an educational phase.
Suppose a driver is stopped at the roadside in Canada during the educational phase with an ELD that has malfunctioned for whatever reason. In that case, that driver must revert to either an electronic log or a paper log that complies with the hours of service regulation for the day in question and the previous 14 days. Failure to do this will result in enforcement action taken at the roadside, as is today’s status quo.
Stay tuned, as Fleet Complete will be providing further insights on the Canada ELD mandate as they become known.
If you have any questions regarding a driver or a commercial vehicle, do not hesitate to reach out at Ask the Expert.
