As Canada preps for ELD mandate, Quebec plans to postpone

Canada is set to begin enforcement of its ELD mandate on Jan. 1, but the province of Quebec has decided to hold off.

Quebec announced recently that it is postponing enforcement until June 1, because of “administrative delays.”

In a statement to Land Line, Marc Cadieux, CEO of the Quebec Trucking Association, said the postponement is unacceptable.

Cadieux said the trucking industry has been ready for ELD regulations for years.

“The absurdity of this situation is that since regulations will be in effect in the other provinces as of January 2023, all carriers leaving Quebec must be equipped with an approved and functional ELD,” he said.

The province’s decision to wait another six months follows a series of postponements regarding enforcement of the ELD mandate.

The mandate took effect in June 2021, but jurisdictions planned no penalties or hard enforcement for the first year. Then in March, enforcement was postponed until Jan. 1, 2023.

Unlike in the U.S., Canada’s ELD hardware and software must be tested and certified by a third-party certification body accredited by the Minister of Transport. When the Canadian mandate went into effect in June 2021, there were no approved devices.

The Canadian government has sanctioned some 60 devices. Approved devices can be found here.

While U.S. and Canadian ELDs each record date, time, location and other data, U.S. devices may not comply with Canadian regulations. The Canadian standard requires that the devices comply with current hours-of-service regulations in Canada.

The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators has published a Canadian ELD Technical Standard FAQ.

Enforcement of Canada’s federal hours-of-service regulations and ELD mandate is a jurisdictional responsibility. Ontario’s fines can be found here.

U.S. ELD mandate

Full enforcement of the ELD mandate in the United States took effect in 2018. However, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and others question the purported safety benefits.

Since 2017, fatality crashes in the U.S. have risen by 14.5%.

“Our members have vigorously opposed the ELD mandate since its inception,” OOIDA wrote to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in November. “There was never sufficient research indicating the mandate would improve highway safety, and the agency still lacks data demonstrating any positive safety results since its full implementation.” LL