The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) is announcing a delay in enforcement of the ELD mandate from June 2022 to January 2023.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) is very disappointed by this announcement and has reasonable doubts that the new January date is certain, from a national perspective, based on the lack of legislative preparedness of four jurisdictions.
To enforce the federal mandate, each jurisdiction needs to have its own law on the books. Currently, four provinces are still without the required legislation or regulations in place to successfully transition their industries to ELDs – British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
CTA believes that governments which are ready with their regulations and legislation should have maintained its position of escalating enforcement starting in June 2022. Waiting for all jurisdictions to be ready, whenever that may be, in the name of ‘national unity’ is not in best interest of public safety or the trucking industry, which has already made the proper investments to comply with the ELD mandate. The vast majority of federally regulated fleets already have ELD technology in their fleets and the three certification bodies approved by Transport Canada and the Standards Council of Canada have qualified multiple ELD offerings, totaling 22 devices from 15 individual ELD vendors.
CTA is adamant Canadians have waited long enough for ELDs, which pave the way for improved highway safety and would also address concerns associated with hours-of-service violations linked to the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus collision, as noted in 2019 by the Saskatchewan Coroners Service.
“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,” says CTA president Stephen Laskowski. “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.”
With the announced delay, those provinces that are not yet ready need to prioritize the ELD mandate within their legislative/regulatory process and immediately commit to the industry and the public to begin hard enforcement by January 1, 2023, says CTA. If those four provinces cannot make this guarantee, then the other jurisdictions which are ready by that date must commit to proceeding regardless.
“Without one or both of these commitments, the validity of CCMTA’s January 2023 is in question,” says Laskowski. It’s time for our industry and those provinces ready to enforce the federal ELD mandate to adjust their sails. The regulation is one of the most important road safety measures in the history of the Canadian trucking industry and, by extension, for the motoring public we share our workplace with.
“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.”
