Quebec won’t enforce ELD mandate in June
On Feb. 25, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec informed the Quebec transportation industry, through its newsletter Le Relayeur, that the use of electronic logging devices (ELDs) in Quebec will not be mandatory as of June 12.
However, Le Relayeur reports that work to harmonize provincial regulations with those of the federal government is still in progress, and that to make the use of the ELDs mandatory in Quebec, amendments are required to the province’s Highway Safety Code and the regulation respecting the hours of driving and rest of heavy vehicle drivers.
“The hours-of-service regulations are defined by Standard 9 of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA), a federal organization. But the regulations enforced by the police and road inspectors are provincial,” explains Normand Bourque, coordinator, technical and operational files at the Association du camionnage du Québec (ACQ).
“Although these regulations are based on [the] CCMTA standard, they are developed – and enforced – by each province. And the provinces have fallen behind in developing these new regulations.”
Since each province has its own hours-of-service regulation, it is possible the ELD mandate will be postponed by provinces, even if the federal enforcement date will not change.
“The new [federal] regulation on ELDs will therefore come into force on June 12, 2021, as planned, but there will be no one to enforce it [in Quebec],” Bourque continued.
Pending the update of provincial regulations, law enforcement will continue to enforce the current regulation authorizing the use of paper daily logs.
The announcement did not please the ACQ and its members.
“During the Board of Directors meeting on Feb. 25, the issue of ELDs was raised and several of the administrators reacted strongly and said they were disappointed that the provincial administrations are not yet ready for the enforcement of the Canadian ELD regulation on June 12,” said Marc Cadieux, CEO of the ACQ. “This issue is of a security and competitive nature. They are disappointed with this announcement as [member carriers] have invested heavily over the years in order to be ready to comply.”
Work to harmonize Quebec’s regulations with those of the federal government should be completed in 2022, said the SAAQ.
Have your say
This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.
If it’s a provincial law the personal convenience law needs to be changed I hope some provinces do change it drivers need to have trailer with them on personal conveyance not just bobtail there is no reasoning behind this that it cannot be changed we are only allowed 4.6 miles of personal conveyance give that to us at least we are so micromanaged it’s starting to hurt we cannot drop our trailer at customers but we need to go use the washroom because customers will not let us use washroom we could come back in a trailer. It could be stolen so if we unload at a customer and go drive 10 minutes to a truckstop and take the rest of our hours off there what is the big deal I think some of these government people that come up with these rules need to go out there with a truck driver for a week or two and find out what life is really like on a road in the trucking industry Just wondering if these people that come up with these rules can eat balonie sandwiches 24 seven out of the truck thank you
well leave it to Quebec to throw a wrench into a bull shit idea from the fed’s we run our own show we are not sheep, taber..ac
Yes it should be postpone till their is a certified canadian program to look into ,first off all do i need this since 98%of my trucking is not more 150 klm. and how do we program when we truck from the combine to the yard to me this is okay for large operation ,as i am serving the local community only.
And let the whining begin when Quebec carriers are targeted for inspections when they enter Ontario or NB.
Why cant this province get their affairs in order?
Who could we call about the hos rules in canada
My anger and total disappointment is that these Eobr are not really assisting safety in my opinion. I’ve been trucking over 25 years. Yes I come from the phone booth pen and paper pre GPS generation of truckers. That said it used to be if something came up and you needed say an “afternoon nap” you could stop and adjust things. These EOBR’s won’t let you without financial and time penalties. I think it leads directly to the “race that EOBR” flat out truckers we see on the road in every road condition… I’d say that if you haven’t caught or had problems with a driver after say 10 years the elog should be relinquished. If and until the driver shows a reason to be put back on logs he or she should be exempt! After all 10 years of over the road should be a reasonably long enough time to learn where the machine ends and the driver’s limitations are. Another method may be to mandate some hourly pay schedule. They have the elog to prove where you are and that you were or weren’t doing anything else 24/7/365. So there’s no excuse for driving like crazy in the snow you’re paid hourly to get the job done as safely and publicly considerately as possible should solve some serious problems! There needs to be a apprenticeship style graduation process to get an industry standard set of skill sets before turning drivers out on the over the road… The airline industries have training and evaluation levels for each level of their respective types of aircraft and flight conditions likewise so should the trucking industry. These are my thoughts on the matter.
Just because Quebec isn’t enforcing it doesn’t mean that you will be legal if you travel outside of the providence. So change over, and be done with it.
Who in the provincial govt is being paid off not to implement the safety equipment? Every other trucker across Canada has planned and implemented.
Corruption…
Here we are ay 2021 and there is yet one ELD listed on the federal website or on the FBInovation website of approved ELD units.
How are we suppossed to make a call on where to spend our time AND money and then train and be ready.
And where is the CCMTA in this fiasco?