Transport Canada has unveiled their new electronic logging devices rules. These rules are meant to order the ELDs as they are coming in place of the paper logbooks that have been used for a long time. To avoid speculation, there are 10 important things you need to know about the ELD mandate and the new rules coming into effect. 

As of June 2021, the ELDs will be compulsory:

The rules that were initially drafted stated that there will be a four-year rollout plan. However, the regulators have now dismissed a grandfather policy for the electronic recording devices. With the help of suppliers, Transport Canada decided that the older machinery doesn’t have to rely on a software upgrade when updating.

ELDs in Canada need third-party certification: 

There is not much information about the testing rule. However, you can note the difference between the U.S rules. In the U.S, the manufacturers do their own certification on the equipment. These devices are susceptible to altering which give drivers the freedom to change how long they need to spend when driving. This will be different for Canadian ELDs.

There is no change in the hours of service rules that were set in place in 2005: 

Here, the existing hours will remain as they are since their establishment. However, the hours will be monitored through electronic methods. According to a few numbers of drivers and fleets, the paper logbooks have room to make few changes. However, it is not official that the logs can change.

Canada reported that between 2010 and 2015, the hours of service convictions per year were 9,400:

25% of the convictions were recorded for exceeding hours whereas 11% were either for working the logs simultaneously or giving out false information. According to Canada Transport, about 48% of convictions failed to maintain their logs as well as not giving out a daily log as they should. After a truck crashed into a team bus with members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team, attention was brought to the hours of service violations. The driver of Adesh Deol trucking, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, did not have all the logs for most days in the previous 14 days. There was no record of times and locations when duty status changed. Therefore, there were lots of fabricated entries in the log. This led to the fleet owner, Sukhmander Singh being charged with lack of driver’s log maintenance and numerous log entries for one period.

The new rules are for the Federally regulated carriers:

Federally regulated commercial drivers are the ones who will be affected by the new rules. They are about 157,426 and are required to uphold a paper logbook. This is due to the fact that they work past the 160-km radial distance of their home terminal. Regulators in the provincial areas and their territories will comply with the rules of the provincial and interprovincial operation.

Exemption of short-term rentals as well as older equipment:

The rules will not apply to rental equipment with less than 30 days. Also, the ELDs will not work on trucks with an older model like that which was manufactured before the year 2000. In the case of ELD malfunction, drivers will note down the daily log on paper. The papers will thus be valid up to 14 days or when returned to the home terminal.

The ELDs will save a fortune for the trucking industry – about $81 million. 

ELDs are hoped to lead to reduced crashes, detention time for hours of service violations and administrative time. The industry’s savings is estimated at $380.33 million. This is unlike the $299 million with major factors like buying and installing devices and training cost as well as monthly tracking services.

The U.S confirmed its rules in December 2017 and since then, cross-border truckers have been using ELDs:

About 47% of federally regulated commercial vehicles have ELDs.

Most of the ELD data will be recorded automatically with a few details filled in by drivers manually:

Automatic records will be driving time, engine power-up, and odometer readings. Manual entries are things like fueling time on duty, loading, and unloading.

ELD records will be emailed to a provided address of roadside inspectors upon request.

But with local data, you have an option to transfer via USB 2.0 or Bluetooth.

We hope this list contained at least some of the information you needed to help you prepare for the time when the ELD mandate comes into full effect.