On June 13, 2019, Anthony Mainville, President of AttriX Technologies, was in Toronto for the official announcement of the new Canadian ELD regulations (Electronic Logging Device). A news expected for some time, following the implementation of the American ELD, The Gazette 1 was published in December 2017 in parallel with the entry into force of its American equivalent.
Implemented in the United States and now announced for Canada, the Electronic Logging Device initiative was designed to ensure compliance with existing rules on commercial vehicle driving hours for the purpose of improve road safety, reduce accidents and deaths due to fatigue, and harmonize carriers with operational capabilities.
To the benefit of Canadian carriers, the past two years have allowed industry and responsible authorities to observe the deployment of the ELD to our southern neighbours, to note the successes and, above all, to note the challenges involved in circumventing them. Canadian implementation.
Highlights of the Canadian version
When will ELDs be mandatory in Canada?
ELDs will be mandatory as of June 21, 2021. The new regulations announced amend the Commercial Vehicle Drivers’ Hours of Service Regulations. It applies directly to federally-controlled businesses only, for drivers who are currently required to maintain a paper logbook. Each province will now have to pass its own regulations that will apply to provincially regulated businesses. In any event, the timelines should be in line with the federal regulations, as the controllers and inspectors in each province will be responsible for enforcing the regulation, so the provinces will have an obligation to put in place control and audit, and train stakeholders.
Timeline of Canadian ELD
December 16, 2017: The Government of Canada Publishes Gazette Part 1 Vol. 151, No. 50 “Proposed Regulations Amending the Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations”.
June 13, 2019: Transport Canada formalizes, in the Gazette Part 2, the details of the CeD regulations in Canada and the expected reinforcement date of June 12, 2021.
June 12, 2021: Application time. Carriers must switch from daily paper logs to CEDs before that date.
January 1, 2023: To give the industry, provinces and territories time to prepare, federal regulations on using ELDs were extended and applied from January 1, 2023.
Are there any changes to Service Hours?
The Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations (2005) act remains in effect without changes to hours. Cycles 1 and 2 remain unchanged. Only the method of recording hours changes, from paper to electronics. From 2010 to 2015, of the approximately 47,000 hours-of-service violations recorded, only 25% were service hours violations. 48% were due to the inability to maintain or produce the daily records, and 11% to the keeping of 2 newspapers or falsification of newspapers. The ELD aims to reduce these last two proportions, while helping drivers and operators meet service hours.
What are the confirmed exemptions?
As in the United States, vehicles built before the 2000 model year and vehicles leased for 30 days or less will be exempt from the ELD requirement. Canada also provides for a 14-day grace period if the ELD fails. The driver is responsible for reporting a failure to the carrier and recording the date and time of the failure and the date and time of its reporting. He can keep a paper logbook for 14 days or until he returns to the terminal if he is on a trip of more than 14 days. The ELD will need to be repaired or replaced before the driver’s next departure.
What are the economic benefits of ELDs?
With experience with Canadian carriers regulated by the U.S. EL, it is now easier to confirm the many financial and operational benefits of ELDs and the potential challenges associated with their adoption.
Transport Canada estimates that LEDs will save the industry $81M. The government estimates the cost of LEDs to the industry at around $299M to purchase and install equipment, train staff and pay for ELD service. In return, he estimates savings of $380M attributed to efficiency and productivity gains, reduced fatigue and fatal accidents, and reduced detention time during roadside checks. A net benefit to the industry and an improvement in Canada’s road safety record.
Will an AOBRD clause be applicable in Canada as it has been in the United States?
No, the published regulations state that Transport Canada has eliminated the two-year period for ELDs. Currently, there will be no grandfather period for the Canadian mandate. This means that fleets that already use electronic logs under AOBRD regulations will not have any additional time allocated and will have to ensure that their devices are ELD compliant by 2021 like everyone else.
The reason given is that the update process is not as cumbersome as originally assumed. The regulation states that carriers may be able to upgrade their existing devices through live software updates, instead of needing to replace the entire unit.
For AttriX and Geotab customers, all users already use compliant Electronic Logging Device, adjusted to Canadian cycles.
Use under the CED Regulations in Canada will not have a significant impact on the use of the system.
What are the similarities between the U.S. ELD mandate and the Canadian mandate?
Canada’s ELD regulations are similar in many respects to the current U.S. ELD regulation, which came into effect in December 2017. In the United States, ELD compliance has been phased in and full compliance will be mandatory by December 16, 2019.
Canadian ELD regulations will mimic U.S. regulations in that the ELD will be required to:
• Sync directly with the engine
• Provide GPS tracking
• Automatically capture driving time
• Use a display screen to allow inspectors to be displayed during a road inspection
• The ELD allows drivers to use appropriate driving statuses; Court Movement (Yard Move – YM) and Personal Use (Personal Conveyance – PC)
• The ELD has a mechanism to verify logs and accept changes
• Pre-2000 vehicles are exempt from warrants
What are the differences between the U.S. ELD mandate and the Canadian mandate?
There are slight differences between Canadian and U.S. ELD regulations.
One of the main differences is that Canadian ELDs must be certified by third parties and not self-certified. In the United States, ELD devices are self-certified by the manufacturer that meets the requirements and then registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The Canadian Trucking Alliance strongly supported this measure, saying it will help strengthen overall compliance and discourage falsification of aircraft.
A minimum of 12 months was announced before Transport Canada established an accredited certification body to certify ELD manufacturers.
In addition, Canadian drivers will not transfer newspapers electronically to a federal system such as eRODS in the United States. Drivers will be required to email a specially created transfer file to agents, and agents may have software to convert the file into a readable format. The industry is waiting for more details on this process.
Canadian ELDs must also meet the technical standard for electronic consignment devices published by the Canadian Council of Directors of Automobile Transportation (CCMTA), which sets out the minimum requirements.
What lessons have we learned from U.S. regulation?
Training
The “permissiveness” of the paper logs has long been used by truck drivers to write their Logs in a way that accommodates the rules in force by rounding up their operations in general. Over time, we found that even if the rules remain the same, such practices led to the oblivion of specific elements of the regulations designed to optimize an operator’s driving hours such as the postponement of hours (2 hours) and 4 p.m. window.
When the U.S. ELD mandate came to an end, the AttriX team quickly saw the benefits of investing in driver training. With labour shortages and high demand for transport, many will be resistant to immobilized driver and equipment for half a day, however the benefits of providing ELD training for drivers are numerous:
• Recall on laws and regulations
• Better HOS-related route management
• Reducing operator stress during a traffic stop
• Significant impact on offences
• Impact on driver support post implementation
Also, it should be noted that just like U.S. regulations, driver training on ELD will be mandatory. Although validation of this is difficult for an agent during a traffic stop, it is easy for the agent to validate the level of training by the level of nervousness of the driver and his comfort in handling the ELD.
The AttriX training team specializes in transportation and compliance and has provided business training to tens of thousands of drivers across the province.
How can We help the adoption of ELD with drivers after implementation?
Following the deployment of the ELD solution, the implementation of a reward program ensures rapid and above all engaging adoption of the ELD. An initiative such as AttriX’s Driver Challenge allows the manager to set team goals on the regulatory use of ELDs by putting drivers in competition under the principle of gamification and allowing these to compete for the driver with the best habits of use.
ELD-related gamification can be implemented permanently in the Driver Challenge or simply during the first quarter following the deployment accompanied by a reward program and above all motivating recognition.
How do we find the right ELD solution and what about AttriX’s current solution?
Canada’s ELD mandate will require the system to actively notify drivers when they are running near the hours of service limits. Canada’s hours-of-service rules are very different from those in the U.S., so carriers should consider choosing an ELD provider that fully supports Canadian hours of service rules, including time postponement in OFF Duty
Commits to achieving third-party certification when it becomes available.
Have a proven track record and an existing U.S. ELD-regulated customer base that validates product quality, support and customer training.
Has an experienced training department that can train users, but more importantly, drivers.
Geotab, in collaboration with AttriX, has made numerous additions to the profits of its Canadian customers since the implementation of the U.S. ELD and in preparation for the Canadian mandate, and already supports cycles 1 and 2 in the ELD solution with more than 12,000 operators in Quebec.
Thanks to the expertise of the AttriX team and Geotab’s considerable resources, the group is committed to meeting the requirements in accordance with the new Canadian ELD regulations and to ensuring their certification with designated third parties. as soon as they are announced.
Alexandre Cayer-Desforges
