Canada is working on its own ELD rule, like the recent mandate in the U.S., and for the most part is looking to mirror the legislation of the southern neighbours.
Geoffrey Wood, senior vice-president of policy for the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), provided an update on the Canadian proposed ELD mandate during an Omnitracs Outlook 2018 session recently in Nashville, Tennessee
“The goal of this effort in Canada is to mirror the effort here in the U.S.,” Wood said, adding that the CTA, which has had a position on ELDs for about a decade, did not want to see conflict between the countries over e-logs.
And for the time being, Wood said there was little carriers should be concerned about.
“We don’t see a lot of issues with what’s been put forward,” he said of the proposed Canadian ELD mandate.
There were, however, 10 specific issues the CTA identified in the proposed Canadian rule that was put forward to Transport Canada to address, none of which, Wood said, were critical.
Some of the issues highlighted by the CTA included the handling or rented and leased vehicles, the model year of a tractor the ELD would apply to, out-of-service orders for failure to have an ELD, ELD certification, and appropriate transition timeframes for ELD regulation in Canada.
The CTA’s position on timeframes for ELD regulation was amended in December 2017 and requested that compliance be fully enforced by the fourth quarter of 2019.
“Talking to number of folks both in industry and in government, this is a realistic timeframe,” said Wood.
The CTA differed from Transport Canada and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) over which model year ELDs would be regulated to. The CTA was looking for model trucks 1995 and newer to be mandated to use ELDs, but Transport Canada has indicated it will harmonize with the U.S. and propose model year 2000 and newer.
Wood said the CTA would not advocate for model year 1995 or newer if it caused synchronization issues with the U.S.
Currently, the Canadian ELD proposal is in the Gazette 1 phase, and Wood said the CTA would like to see it reach Gazette 2 (final decision) by June of this year.
Commercial Vehicle Enforcement officers in Canada are being trained on proper management of ELDs during inspections and will continue to be until a mandate is rolled out.
“Goal is to have consistency across all the Canadian jurisdictions,” said Wood, “and should something pop up, we have processes to deal with it.”
The CTA worked with Omnitracs to ensure harmonization from a technical standpoint with the Canadian and U.S. mandates. The two have been working collaboratively since 2011.
