Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Some personal questions about personal conveyance

Recently, the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued revised guidance on the use of a commercial vehicle as a personal conveyance. While it’s always great to have further clarification of the rules, especially surrounding hours of service, sometimes these clarifications can generate more questions than answers. Such as is the case with FMCSA’s guidance. There are two situations that haven’t yet been addressed, not because administration doesn’t care, but because they’re slightly outside of its purview. One situation involves cross-border carriers that may have drivers using personal conveyance on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, and another issue that surprisingly has very little to do with hours of service.

Don’t Waste Time: Let’s learn the lessons of a different ELD mandate

At first glance, the Canadian Trucking Alliance seems to be getting ahead of itself in the call for a “graduated education” period before electronic logging devices (ELDs) are mandated. The federal government has yet to finalize such rules, or even decide if it will embrace an accelerated December 2019 deadline the alliance is championing. Other than Ontario, most provinces have been silent on the idea, too.