Canada announced that it has moved the date for full enforcement of its electronic logging device mandate to Jan. 1, 2023.
The ELD mandate, which also affects U.S. carriers operating across the border, was originally scheduled to go into effect in June 12 of 2021. However, the Canadian government announced just months before that date that it would phase in full enforcement over 12 months, given the lack of ELDs that had been certified to Canada’s ELD standards at the time. Full enforcement was scheduled to start June 12 of this year.
Now the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, representing regulators in every Canadian province and territory, has extended the full-enforcement deadline again. The latest extension will ensure that affected carriers have enough time to purchase and install ELDs, CCMTA said in a press release.
All ELDs used to meet the Canadian mandate must be certified by one of three recognized testing bodies, which ensure devices meet a variety of underlying technical standards. So far, 22 devices from 15 individual ELD vendors have been approved.
CTA: 'No Reasons... Not to be Ready'
The Canadian Trucking Alliance is now raising doubts that the new January date is certain, reports Canadian trucking publication Today’s Trucking. Four provinces — British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland — have yet to introduce the regulations or legislation to require ELDs.
The alliance has been one of the leading proponents of the ELD mandate and said governments should have stuck to the June 2022 deadline. Waiting for everyone to be ready may not be in the best interest of public safety or the trucking industry, it said.
“ELDs improve safety, fleet and driver performance and are a cost-effective alternative compared to the current paper logbook regime, which is cumbersome, archaic and can be easily falsified,” CTA President Stephen Laskowski said in a press release. “There’s simply no reasons pertaining to operations, cost, or safety for trucking fleets and drivers not to be ready for escalated enforcement by June 2022.”
If the four provinces can’t immediately commit to hard enforcement by the new deadline, then other jurisdictions must commit to proceeding on their own, CTA added.
“Without one or both of these commitments, the validity of CCMTA’s January 2023 is in question,” says Laskowski. “There should be no more moving the goalposts on dates and no more delays. The time to finally start this important safety regime is past due.”
Private Truck Group Approves of Delay
The Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, however, is in favor of the delay.
“While we have always been in full support of the ELD regulation, the continued issues with a lack of approved devices have continued to plague the mandate,” PMTC President Mike Millian said in a press release. “And although we now have 22 approved, industry has not been provided enough of a runway to select a device of their choice and implement it into their fleet in time for the June 12 deadline.”
Millian also said the industry is still waiting for Transport Canada (the federal agency in charge of trucking) to announce a vendor and system that allows ELD data to be transferred securely from the device to enforcement personnel, as well as enforcement protocols, training, and how the regulation will be enforced uniformly between jurisdictions.
“This final delay provides enough time for industry to select a new approved device, or transition from their current device, in time to comply with the mandate, as well as provide enough time for regulators to address some of the issues mentioned,” he said.
Millian added, “I suspect this will be the last delay in full enforcement we can expect to see, and carriers should ensure they are fully prepared to comply by January of 2023.”
