Two Year ELD Mandate Rollout Plan

Thursday, June 13, the Canadian government officially unveiled plans to implement the Canada ELD Mandate.  Canadian officials plan to set this mandate into full effect on June 12, 2021.  The Canadian government hopes to reduce fatigue related crashes in the country by 10% with the new mandate.  In the period between 2010 and 2015 Canadian officials cited over 55,000 HOS violations.  Nearly 50% of these violations were for failing to maintain or even produce an HOS log.  Additionally, 25% of the violations were for exceeding maximum hours of service, and 11% for operating 2 logs at once and falsifying information.

Furthermore, Canadian officials announced that the 2005 paper log rules will remain unchanged… only now hours of service and other key safety metrics will be logged electronically.  The initial implementation of the ELDs in Canada will only apply to federally regulated carriers.  Additionally, the new mandate does not apply for trucks rented less than 30 days and vehicles with model year less than the year 2000.  The new mandate also allows a 14-day period to use paper logs in the even that a logging device malfunctions.

Canadian officials also included in the announcement that the Canadian logging devices will be compatible in both the United States and Canada to ensure optimized cross-border trade.  Currently almost 50% of all federally regulated Canadian carriers already use the U.S. mandated ELDs for cross-border lanes into the U.S.

Differences Between the Canada and U.S. ELD Mandates

While both the Canadian ELD mandate and U.S. ELD mandate were implemented for the same reasons there are some differences between the two that should be noted.  The Canadian ELD mandate requires carriers to transfer/share 14-day log data, whereas the U.S. ELD mandate states that carriers must send detailed reports to enforcement every 8 days.

Furthermore, the U.S. ELD mandate requires the ELD manufacturers to use the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to map all locations and identities in the United States.  On the other hand, the Canada ELD mandate states the government should supply ELD manufacturers and vendors with the location and identity file for Canada.

Personal conveyance specifications are also different in the U.S. and Canada.  For the Canada ELD mandate, drivers are allowed 75 kilometers of personal conveyance every 24 hours before the system automatically switches from ‘personal conveyance’ to ‘driving’.  For the U.S. ELD mandate, however, there are no time or distance restrictions on personal conveyance.

BM2 Freight Services, Inc.

Phone: (859) 308-5100

Email: Sales@BM2Freight.com