Minister Raitt announces support for mandating ELDs and ESC in Canada
TORONTO, Ont. – After a roundtable meeting with the Canadian Trucking Alliance carrier members earlier today, Federal Transport Minister, Lisa Raitt announced she was personally supporting both electronic logging devices (ELDs) and electronic stability control systems (ESC) in order to improve safety for everyone on the road.
“What I told everyone (in the roundtable) is that you have my personal support to ensure that we have something like this in the legislation in Canada and we want to mimic what’s going on in the US but we also want to be mindful of the fact that sometimes we can move the United States in a direction and I think when it comes to safety, this is incredibly important,” she said.
The Minister said she believes the US will be coming out with the rule on mandatory ELDs and ESC in the fall, and that she has Transport Canada geared up as a result, to get Canada in a position where ELDs and ESC can be mandated in the country.
“We believe that for safety reasons electronic logs is the way to go and we are going to be discussing this again,” she added. “I’ve already talked to Minister Del Duca on this topic as well…and now that means we just need that one last push to make sure it’s mandatory in Canada. I’m taking it seriously and I’m going to keep working to get it done.”
She claimed that accidents on Canadian highways are sometimes the result of human factors, like fatigue.
“If you can eliminate or mitigate the human factors associated with fatigue as much as possible…then it makes good sense and it blends in with everything we’ve trying to do in our government,” she said. “So I’m going to continue to ensure that (mandating ELDs and ESC) is top in mind and top priority in Transport Canada and bring it to a close in the coming months.”
As far as stability control goes, the Minister said implementing that is not just about safety, but about the traffic rollovers cause in busy areas like downtown Toronto.
“There’s lots of work between ourselves and the United States on it (stability),” she said. “We also have to work provincially on those matters so that’s another which just makes a lot of sense with safety and preventing accidents that can really jam up a place like downtown Toronto.”
The Minister agreed that working with the US to harmonize the coming regulation is best, though she believes Canada took a big leap forward in saying that they believe mandating these technologies is the way to go.
The Minister couldn’t say for sure when Canada would be mandating both technologies though she said today that her announcement was to reassasure the industry that “This will be mandatory in Canada in some point in time. The timing it takes to get to that point is a function of Ottawa and I can’t put a time on it.”
The provincial associations, as well as Ontario’s transportation minister, were pleased with the roundtable discussion today, as well as the Minister’s support.
“We’re very pleased with Transport Canada’s support for ELDs,” said Louise Yako, BCTA’s president and CEO in a press release. “BCTA also supports an ELD mandate as the single most important opportunity to transform the trucking industry to ensure companies and drivers are paid for all their work, including waiting time. ELDs replace paper logbooks, so truck drivers using the technology will no longer need to fill these in manually. ELDs also provide convenient, reliable records to support compliance with rest breaks and on-duty driving time. And that means enhanced road safety – always a top priority for BCTA.”
Steven Del Duca, Ontario’s minister of transportation said: “I am pleased that federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt will be supporting the use of Electronic Logging Devices and electronic stability systems for Canada’s trucking industry. Ontario supports using Electronic Logging Devices as an effective tool for monitoring hours of service compliance by commercial motor vehicle drivers. Thank you to the Canadian Trucking Alliance and their partners for helping draft a proposed ELD standard for Canada. We will continue working with Transport Canada to support increased safety for road users and the trucking industry through the use of these devices.”
Minister Raitt concluded her announcement stating the Canadian trucking industry is one that truly cares about road safety.
“Canadians care about safety – if it’s in air, if it’ s in road, if it’s in rail. That’s what they care about and I know that’s what they care about. And this is the only time I’ve ever seen an industry asking government for regulation so we know that the industry cares about safety very much too.”
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.
with getting all trucks under the elb’s , you have to get all and i mean all shippers and recievers to step up and get us unloaded or loaded in resectful time , do to being elb , i have sat at places for over 3 hrs and they still want the product there on time , get them on the same page as the drivers that a bringing your stuff to the stores
Rait most times does not know what she is talking about, she gets bounced from one portfolio to another so how does she know what the average truck driver has to go through in an average day.
The industry is going to lose a lot of good drivers over this.
Never mind that the country doesn’t have the infrastructure to accommodate ELD.
But leave it to the morons who have never driven a truck to determine what they know nothing about to tell us what we need.
Has Lisa Rait or any of these other policy makers ever even seen the interior of a truck? The INDUSTRY doesn’t want elb’s, they do because the revenues they generate from non compliance and taxation will be huge! All on the backs of the average truck driver spending his or her life in a 4’x8′ box on the back of a truck cause some rule maker in Ottawa says they can’t put in an few extra hours to get home to their families. Lisa Rait also needs to understand that there is more to Canada than Toronto.
I am not sure how elogs will make it any safer the computer is only as good as the imputer of information I have been in the industry for almost 30 years and seen many changes some better some worse!
No more rules for truck drivers until all SHIPPER’S AND RECEIVERS are mandated to 14 hour days 7 days a week.
As a trucking company owner who is soon retiring
after over 40 years in the business all I can say is good luck in filling the drivers seat if this plan goes ahead. Home time is very important to drivers today, as much if not more than the pay they get. With Eld’s there is no way to squeeze your day to get home. I am glad I will not have to tell a driver you have to shut down when you are less than an hour from home when you have been gone for 2 or 3 days
I witnessed an aqccident with one of our trucks two years ago,the company still won’t accept my assessment that the stability control caused wholly or partly the accident.I used to investigate truck accidents for Reimer Express.Electronic logging will become a very bad joke.When these MORONS can’t get food,diapers,and gas,etc. then their hearts and minds will figure it out!
After reading all of the comments I agree with a lot of these comments ELB will only impose the driver to shut down and have his rest but a good question for Canada rest area?????? say Calgary to Toronto run via either highway 17 or 11.
Does that minister even know how to get there?? probably not.
So it will take four days to get to Toronto if all goes good even in winter by the Great lakes in a blowing snow storm so now there is a situation coming up speed average 25 to 35 mph for 13 hours figure it out and will have to stop because ELB telling me I am running into an infraction ? So what will happen you think?
The computer technician will fix it so you are not making an infraction.
If they care so much, why are there not more parking/rest areas across Ontario and Canada? The ebr’s are just there to keep the honest man honest. That it. Does very little for safety. Talk to us when your really concerned about public safety.