No more delays for Canada's enforcement of ELD mandate

Canada’s enforcement of its electronic logging device mandate will begin as planned on Jan. 1, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA).

The ELD mandate requires electronic data collection of truck drivers’ hours of service, similar to the regulation that went into effect in the United States in 2017.

“Based on updates from our government partners at the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) and provincial associations, it is our clear understanding that all jurisdictions will be ready to start enforcement on Jan. 1,” Geoff Wood, CTA’s senior vice president of policy, said in a statement.

CCMTA said that the provinces — Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland — and Northwest Territories are committed to enforcing the ELD mandate by January 2023, according to CTA.

Canada’s ELD mandate went into effect in June 2021, with a period of progressive enforcement set to begin on June 12 of this year. In March, Canada’s transportation regulators agreed to delay enforcement of the mandate until January 2023, but there have been doubts among transportation officials that the timetable would hold.

The CTA, which represents about 4,500 carriers in Canada, has voiced concerns that the enforcement of the mandate would be pushed back even further past January.

“If there’s unforeseen circumstances that lead to a jurisdiction not being ready to enforce, other jurisdictions that are ready and prepared will not be held back and will go forward,” Wood said. “The industry has been well prepared for this rule for a long time and has waited long enough for enforcement. It’s time enforcement begins.”

While the U.S. and Canadian ELD regulatory requirements are very similar, the biggest difference is the certification process. While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration allows ELD manufacturers to self-certify their devices to meet regulatory compliance, Canada is requiring third-party certification of devices.

For fleets that cross the border, that means their devices could meet all U.S. laws, but if the companies that produced the ELDs hadn’t sought Canadian third-party certification, they would not be legal in that country.

The lack of ELDs certified for use in Canada has been one of the biggest reasons for the delays. When the mandate took effect in 2021, no ELD had completed Canada’s third-party certification process. There are currently 52 ELDs that have been certified for use in Canada.