Canadian ELD mandate to harmonize with U.S.

by Truck West

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Like the recent mandate in the U.S., Canada is working on its own ELD rule, and for the most part is looking to mirror the legislation of their southern neighbors.

Geoffrey Wood, senior vice-president of policy for the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), provided an update on the Canadian proposed ELD mandate during an Omnitracs Outlook 2018 session today in Nashville, Tenn.

“The goal of this effort in Canada is to mirror the effort here in the U.S.,” Wood said, adding that the CTA, which has had a position on ELDs for about a decade, did not want to see conflict between the countries over e-logs.

And for the time being, Wood said there was little carriers should be concerned about.

“We don’t see a lot of issues with what’s been put forward,” he said of the proposed Canadian ELD mandate.

There were, however, 10 specific issues the CTA identified in the proposed Canadian rule that was put forward to Transport Canada to address, none of which, Wood said, were critical.

Some of the issues highlighted by the CTA included the handling or rented and leased vehicles, the model year of a tractor the ELD would apply to, out-of-service orders for failure to have an ELD, ELD certification, and appropriate transition timeframes for ELD regulation in Canada.

The CTA’s position on timeframes for ELD regulation was amended in December 2017 and requested that compliance be fully enforced by the fourth quarter of 2019.

“Talking to number of folks both in industry and in government, this is a realistic timeframe,” said Wood.

The CTA differed from Transport Canada and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) over which model year ELDs would be regulated to. The CTA was looking for model trucks 1995 and newer to be mandated to use ELDs, but Transport Canada has indicated it will harmonize with the U.S. and propose model year 2000 and newer.

Wood said the CTA would not advocate for model year 1995 or newer if it caused synchronization issues with the U.S.

Currently, the Canadian ELD proposal is in the Gazette 1 phase, and Wood said the CTA would like to see it reach Gazette 2 (final decision) by June of this year.

Commercial Vehicle Enforcement officers in Canada are being trained on proper management of ELDs during inspections and will continue to be until a mandate is rolled out.

“Goal is to have consistency across all the Canadian jurisdictions,” said Wood, “and should something pop up, we have processes to deal with it.”

The CTA worked with Omnitracs to ensure harmonization from a technical standpoint with the Canadian and U.S. mandates. The two have been working collaboratively since 2011.

Geoffrey Wood.


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  • The eld mandate isnt about safety.It s about control and putting the small carriers out of business.Canada is a monkey imitating the US.Good luck in the winter months with eld forcing a driver to stop on an off ramp in the middle of a snow storm.All these people making the laws should be charged with manslaughter for making trucking less safe and taking control out of drivers hands and putting it on an elog! May the blood of the injured and killed be on your hands..murderers!

  • Mr. Kalogeropoulos is right. The OTA drove a lot of competition out of Ontario by convincing the gov’t to enact the speed limiter law, and now the CTA is using the eld to do it nationwide. I, for one, have seen my mileage drop (about 10%) since using an eld. The US eld’s have no flexibility. As well as harmonizing our eld’s with the US, we should be pressuring the US to harmonize their HoS rules with ours. Every time the damned eld loses engine connection, and every time it tells me I have to stop 10 miles from safe parking, I get a step closer to moving to a career where the hardest thing I have to do is ask if they “want fries that?” Then again, how long will it be until the socialists over regulate that as well?

  • I’m wondering if you rocket scientists in the cta have ever been in a truck!! You should try it!! The United States has a plan that doesn’t work and you puppets jump on the band wagon. For another example the def system oh for you rocket scientists diesel exhaust system another government brain fart. The cta execs should get out their ivory tower and try driving if you know the the difference from a fifth wheel and steering wheel.

  • We put ELD’s in our 350 unit fleet 20 years ago and it wasn’t a big deal. Jump into to the 21 Century it is not that bad.