New federal fines for Hours of Service, ELDs, range from $300 to $2,000
Truck drivers and carriers face 60 new federal fines for Hours-of-Service violations – including those specific to mandated electronic logging devices (ELDs).
Coming in three tiers, the fines range from $300 to $1,000 for drivers, and $600 to $2,000 for motor carriers.
The lowest tier includes administrative and minor recordkeeping contraventions. A second tier includes on-duty/drive limitations; off-duty requirements; more serious recordkeeping contraventions that increase risk; and contraventions that make it difficult to enforce carrier compliance.
Topping the scales are fines for tampering, falsifying or obstructing records, and the most serious on-duty/driving limitations and rest requirements.
Now included in Contraventions Regulations, the infractions can be addressed through tickets and voluntary payments of prescribed fines, rather than court appearances.
Higher than initially proposed
Transport Canada initially proposed fines of up to $300, $500 and $1,000 over the three tiers, but jurisdictions wanted higher fines in each tier, and stiffer fines for motor carriers than drivers, the regulations note.
“Driver fatigue is recognized in Canada and internationally as a critical risk factor associated with motor vehicle crashes. Fatigue in commercial drivers is especially important given that crashes involving large trucks and buses can cause more severe injuries and more frequent fatalities than private passenger vehicle crashes,” says a regulatory impact analysis published on July 5 in Canada Gazette Part II.
“Commercial motor vehicle drivers are particularly at risk because of the monotonous nature of their work, extended workdays, irregular schedules, and poor sleep hygiene.”
Examples of ELD fines
Some of the steepest ELD-related fines include:
- Failing to ensure a commercial vehicle is equipped with a required ELD — $1,000
- Using more than one ELD at the same time — $1,000
- Requesting, requiring or allowing drivers to use more than one ELD at the same time — $2,000
- Failing to ensure an ELD is calibrated, maintained and working — $1,000
- Failing to repair or replace an ELD within a required time period — $1,000
- Failing to create and maintain a system of accounts for ELDs — $1,000
- Tampering with an ELD — $1,000
- Requesting, requiring or allowing someone to tamper with an ELD — $2,000
A full list of the fines is available here.
- This story has been updated to describe the way Contravention Regulations are addressed.
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I think it’s an odd fair for the truckers and trucking companies. Because no, not even a one ship or nose about ELD Rules The way the shippers are loading. Track drivers or make them wait sometime 2 days. The it’s not fair for trucking companies and the truck drivers and Losing revenue, it’s very hard in this time in the world. To survive and the FMCS a has to.
Education, shipper receiver and the customers before they apply any rule to tracking companies on the trucks.
I would like to know what kind of country we live in I’ve been driving 52 years and in 52 years I have never seen anything like this from the government now the accident rate up 45% for trucks due to the eld and the government just doesn’t want to see it go back to paper logs let the people sleep when they want to sleep you want to force drivers to drive even though they’re tired and it doesn’t make any sense look at this statistics they don’t lie there’s been more truck accidents since this ELD went in then the river was and to top that all the company’s these big companies that the federal government is supporting for eld they don’t care because they’re getting paid the government pays the money their government backed warners Schneider JB Hunt all of them they’re all getting government backing and that’s ridiculous cuz the poor guy like me who runs a nanny log truck and I will never run elog can’t hardly make a living so you tell me what this government’s doing to this trucking industry except causing more deaths cuz that’s the only thing they’re doing with an ELD is causing more truck accidents and this just isn’t working it doesn’t work it’s proved it doesn’t work I don’t know what the government thinks they’re doing except trying to run the little guy out of business but once you run us out of business you will then not have truck drivers because that 23-year-old you got driving a truck right now wouldn’t know the first thing about being a truck driver ear pods in his ears feet up on the dash come on guys we’re truck drivers not cowboys not steering wheel holders the guy like me that’s been doing it 52 years should be grandfather then we shouldn’t have to run any log because we know and I’ve never had a log book ticket in my life never so what’s the government going to do you know if all these trucks shut right down and they just quit hauling all that produce all that cattle what they going to do then I guarantee you that those big companies can’t get it done no matter what you say so they want to push the owner operator out of business that’s all this is about and I hope the government gets to read this cuz I’m definitely leaving my name I am not ashamed to put my name down for something that is definitely 100% right you guys got to get rid of the elog this thing is dangerous
Sure, fine, no problem, fine fine with me.
How about senior rebates deductible.
For the newbies, in case, nobody has been paying attention, fatalities, and safety, have decreased under the implementation of the FMCSA and you might wonder why it’s simple. The government doesn’t know how to run anything correctly that has always been our problem. It’s never been about safety. It’s always been about money.
This is one of the reasons I’m getting out of trucking in 3 years at the age of 65. Can’t what.
This is a bunch of bull with these fines its unconstitutional and if it isn’t it should be.
Truckers are felting screwed for every red penny the governments can get for there retarded mandates why don’t they put ELDs in there own cars and keep records on there driving time and every other thing imposed on truckers and make them pay these stupid fines and see how they like it.
They need to get off our backs and F Off entirely.
ELD mandates coming into effect was my primary reason for quitting long haul. Anytime the government gets involved something always gets SCREWED UP! I personally know well over 1000 other drivers that have quit the industry due to the government constantly making it harder to make a living wage.
I THINK IT IS FAIR TO SAY THAT THE ATA HAVE THE LARGE CARRIERS BACKS COVERED.FINES ARE NOT IN LINE WITH PROBLEMS THAT DRIVERS FACE DAILY DOING AN INCREDIBLELY HARD JOB ,FACING MANY OBSTACLES AND THEN ARE FINED HALF AS MUCH AS THE CO VERY SAD.
Eld it’s killing machines. Driver’s not robots. Robots can make mistakes to! I’m ready dying 3 times. Decided buying Glyder new 2016 and no more problems drive safe , no more racing. I’m 100% safe mode.
ELD’s are a joke. A computer does not know when I am tired or not. In my opinion the whole idea of the ELD is for all these new Canadian drivers that the government keeps bringing into the country and automatically giving them a truck license. Maybe these new drivers need more training also the company needs to be held more responsible as they push and push the drivers even more so since the ELD’S came into effect.
As of the time this was written the US taxpayers have spent over 200 billion dollars on the Ukraine war and I know of no federal funding for additional commercial vehicle parking spaces for compliance with the mandated HOS. Drivers are parking in no parking areas because they have no other options. Yet every day several drivers are being ticketed for illegal parking. How can this issue continue to be ignored ?
There was over 9,000 truck accidents in Ontario in 2022 . My guess is the majority of them had elogs in them. Tell me again how elogs are supposed to make our industry safer?
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It’s like the carbon tax is supposed to take away or make less pollution!! It’s the government they constantly make new rules and tax is more and make things worse.
Maybe if the truckers had more rest stops and decent places to eat that were quick to get in and out of it would make their lives easier.
If you want to attract young people to the industry then you need to make it safe and attractive. Lots of rest areas with good healthy food and maybe a place to exercise while they take their 8 hours off.
Get rid of the ELDs they are a joke and costing everyone more and making the companies lose precious money and time.Drivers don’t feel relaxed they feel like they have to rush constantly to make their drops. Not everyone needs the same amount of sleep. They just lump everyone into the same category. The ELDs have made it so the driver gets less time with his/her family.
If I could relive my life,I wouldn’t be a truck driver ever again.
It’s a cash grab. They do post audits already which tell them who are the worst offenders. Go after those carriers and get out of our pockets who do the job properly!!! ELDs and the rules in HOS does not make things safer. If they worked, accidents wouldn’t keep going up. These rules make people drive when they wouldn’t in the past. Humans are not machines…all these folks that sit behind desks, working days and telling us what’s what, need to pick a week and stay up all night for a week and then see how they feel the following week when they flip schedule back….try it and tell me how you think your rules work. Get a grip.
Hi good day. Our government to date is so to blame on so much of our unsafe conditions. Bottom line is drivers that are not qualified to operate tractor trailers are being given A licensing let loose on the highways people die weekly or more here in Canada. I have 43 yrs in nobody question my knowledge on this. Only they can fix this a ELD has nothing to do with this area of safety . Question is what are they doing to rectify this on our highways.
I’m still learning the Titan eld . Hope department of transportation cuts us some slack if make mistakes in it. I can’t change driving time if I accidentally leave it on.
Makes me glad that I’m not driving a big truck anymore!
If they made it possible to use 11 hours of driving in 24 hours instead of 14 hours, then there would be much less fraud. And with such a logbook as it is now, it is difficult, because sometimes in 14 hours, even half of the driving is not used as intended, and he has to rest. Here, even the split sleeper does not work to help the driver, on the contrary, it makes it even more confusing.
Some of us have to make multiple delivery’s in one day and we are not aloted enough hours to drive more safely and still make all our delivery’s cause the receivers hold us up counting their products.
We need more hours of service and to be able to split our breaks any way necessary to meet our 10 hours down.
I vote for delivery drivers for groceries not hauling to a warehouse to be aloted 17 hrs on duty of which 14 hrs can be drive time and to be able to split our 10 hour break any which way so we can be able to do our job better and safer and still get home to our families with out having to rush so much !
All these fines are senseless unless there’s more real enforcement. I’ve been in the industry for 42 yrs this month. I see very little mobile or scale house enforcement going on, compared to what there used to be. The scales that are open, have regular business hours and people know they can time they’re passing through to when the scales are closed. The death and carnage out here is insane. If they want real progress in compliance, the enforcement has to be out there.
Eld is the same as talking on cell phone very distractedof
Well on my 40 years of trucking the same old problem, government is to involved and the big trucking are trying to dominate the system, chances of a larger company like TFI getting caught is like nill they will pay someone off or the cta will cry wolf, then we have the truck driver shortage lie so they run to the feds and cry say we need more drivers, nobody tell the feds the truth why they have no drivers , I can tell you abuse the company doesn’t want to pay proper wage the trucks you are driving are new but they are junk the company leaves drivers stranded in place where there are no shower and they cost extra and no food.
In my career as a driver I’ve seen more problems in this industry, bringing in foreign drivers is not the fix all , the fix all is proper training, tickets don’t fix nothing haw about if you get in an at fault accident you have to pay $1000 take a driving course and can’t be insured till the course is complete, cars and trucks you will watch habits change fast on the road, maybe someday the government of crooks will actually treat the whole system equally instead of treat one side like they are the problem, when most accidents and fatigue are cause by four wheeled vehicles and laws that put drivers pay at risk one less dollar in a driver’s pocket might not be able to by for food or their bills.
I could go on forever tell people the truth about the problems in government and what it has done to the trucking industry an how they are still waiting in northern Ontario for proper facilities to park and have the amenities that everyone has at their homes at night, that will never happen do to greed in government and filling their own pockets just like training people that have no clue about trucks and are only in it to get a pay cheque when in fact this more than a cheque , this is for people that dedicate their live to feed and give the people the necessities of life
Maybe one should think of that before make new fines and chasing rainbow out of drivers pay.
It a shame that truck drivers always pay the price 4 company’s.Thank God I retired I worked 4 unions in N.Y. people don’t understand nothing moves with out trucks. Thank u
Wow
From John Gordon Thomas Jones Maybe government that can’t manage more than taking from the pockets of the working man should reevaluate how they take our money by over regulating drivers and start going up the chain .Like expecting 9 hrs from drivers before overtime pay . Try regulating the percentage a load broker may steal . Eliminate double brokering of loads. If these simple things can’t be done than go back to regulation of industry. Don t have an insane number of 1 man companies that go broke hauling dirt cheap skirts the laws. If you can’t manage this than don’t try to break the working man . I’ve been doing this job for over 40 years and have never seen the Canadian government do anything they could to benefit the driver and improve the industry .
The 14-hour daily rule on elds is the main cause of accidents due to fatigue drivers where you are unable to start and stop and restart the clock you cannot stop and take a nap and then restart your clock you lose your drive time so drivers push through trying to keep the clock going causes fatigue and accidents this rule needs to be changed
Agree rules should in place to make everyone safe. The thing that’s not correct or right is the people making the rules have No idea nor every been or done the job in which they are making rules on. One trip or one day doing a jod will not give that person a complete process of what driver’s are asked to perform. Nor take in what he or she request of people to perform in the duty of driving or unloading or loading or checking the equipment.
Why not impose Hours of Service regulations for other occupations like, police officers, firemen, doctors, nurses, maintenance, restaurant workers, etc. Mistakes they make cause serious injuries and death.
They are looking at it the wrong way.
They think these rules will help, they won’t.
There are allot of companies out there that doesn’t care, they only care about profits etc. They push drivers to the limits and for drivers that stand up, usually end up with a recourse action like bad runs etc.
Those drivers that are new, or under sponsorship are afraid to stand up against the company and will do allot of things because they know what will happen to them, it’s no secret out in the industry.
The main drivers that run under this pressure are mainly immigrants for certain reasons.
These new rules will not help for the most part.
If you want the full story as some of this probably won’t won’t be published. Truck news should publish most even if it prompts questions but they don’t, it’s the truth.
You can ask for whole truth anytime especially live where editing can’t be done.
Leave us alone! You are destroying the industry. Teach new drivers how to drive trucks before putting them on the road! Problem solved. I have been driving for 35 years. Owner Op for most of them. I have watched this industry take a nose dive since 1991 when CLD was implemented. Those making the rules, laws and regulations have never drivin a truck, and haven’t the slightest clue what they have done to hurt America. Or maybe they do.
I’m not an OTR DRIVER. I BELIEVE THE TIME OFF FOR DRIVERS IS IN EXCESS WHEN SLEEEPING IN A TRUCK. SHOULD 8 OFF. NOW IF YOU GET IN YOUR CAR AND DRIVE JOME, THEN 10 OFF US APPROPRIATE.
This has nothing to do with safety it’s all bout the money they can make off of drivers,it just causes more drivers)company’s to find there way around the eld,face it no matter what the dot or govt can come up with there is always people that are gonna find there way around the system,and the Eld isn’t reliable,and it’s just causes more accidents on the highway,I could keep going, but I’m not and trucking just isn’t worth it anymore!
And…. the drivers pay goes up to$1000 an hour too! Right!?!
The best way to keep the road safe is up to management and drivers to Keep communicating. At all times have safety meetings and have all of your drivers understanding what are the laws…and keep updating what going on at all times…keep up with company equipment and making sure that your drivers are up-to-date on medical card and drivers license…it takes the hold team to work together to make sure they come home and keep everyone safety on the roads team member and everyone else that on the public roads…
If you don’t have freedom of speech it’s not use saying anything
Funny how accidents and fatalities are up, since this ELD mess was required. We are not robots, that’s why I drive local now. The highway isn’t what it use to be.
Wish there was a better way. Seems like the driver is getting the short end of the stick. Seems like the trucking company needs to make sure you got a good rig to get on the road.
The roads are getting to crowded and accidents are going happen.
Driver fines, Driver Fatique and accidents. Still the same old conversation!!!!! Lets start with ELD fines! This is all stemed from the OTA , ATA all wanting a level playing field and the only issue here is they cant fine drivers for making mistakes on paper logs and doing their CSI on finding how they are cheating by checking fuel receipts and GPS. So they are losing money.
Driver Fatique and accidents: So I have to sit in some truck stop in the middle of no where and I am not tired and I am making no money and I will now be home 2 days later! I better drive like hell so I can get home! I think the word Fatique should be replaced with Driver Pissed Off and Accidents. There is more political BS going on here with Big Companies, The Goverment on both sides of the border and our so called trucking advocates then we all see. Just my 2 cents as being like most of us who have been doing this to long!!!!!!
WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO CATCH ON THEY ARE MAKING US DRIVE WHEN A NAP WOULD MAKE MAKE US ALL SAFER !!!!
Just another statement that so clearly says its all about the money and nothing to do with safety
Could our loyal employee sensitive government find a more sure way of getting senior experienced drivers to take early retirement in an industry that is already understaffed by some half a million drivers.
If you think the price of groceries is high now imagine what it will be like when the industry loses another two to three million drivers.
Im not just talking about the long haulers that bring your fresh carrots from Yuma. These new log requirements also include the drivers of the two and three ton trucks that carry the pickles from the warehouse to the retail outlet.
Don’t be surprised when you go shopping and the shelves are bare.
Oh, need your stove fixed to prepare dinner, or your roof patched because it is starting to rain? Don’t be surprised if the repair company can’t send you a service tech because his service vehicle weighs over 5,000 kg and has to be equipped with an ELD and he none of his service techs know how to run the program.
ELD Laws has ruined my honest earnings and family living..i can not provide for my family anymore…i am 59yo and i am forced to take early retirement ..to retire,let the goverment to pay my pension..
How will these ‘events’ be enforced? Road-side inspections? Maybe while being inspected at a Federal inspection/scale station? How many Canadian Federal inspection stations are in existence? Are there any Canadian Federal enforcement officers tasked with ‘searching’ for these potential law-breakers? Will the charges be laid remotely/electronically, for example, from an office in Ottawa to a driver in Alberta? Will these events be in conflict with Provincial or State laws/jurisdictions? Has reciprocity in these new events been agreed to? Can an alleged contravention in, for example, Alabama, be adjudicated in Canada? Against a Canadian or U.S. driver? Inquiring minds need to know, JG!
I have many more questions, but I’m tired of typing…
Cheers!
George