MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – The president of PeopleNet Canada says his company is ready for a Canadian mandate of electronic logging devices (ELDs), even if a rollout is expedited.

Proposals to mandate the devices have been published in Canada Gazette: Part 1, as the first phase in a federal rulemaking process. While a mandate would have to take effect within two years of publication in Part 2, groups including Teamsters Canada, the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, and the Canadian Trucking Alliance are asking for ELDs to be mandated no later than December 2019.

The Canadian mandate would follow one established in the U.S. on Dec. 18. Full enforcement there began on April 1.

“We’re miles ahead of where we were,” said PeopleNet Canada president Bill Wright, during the Truck World trade show.

Those using PeopleNet devices in the U.S. were initially given a 90-day waiver from the regulations, until March 18, because of issues around integrating the company’s ELD software into fleet management systems used by companies including Old Dominion Freight Lines.

“We’ve been actually migrating some of our platforms – hardware platforms, as well as back-end software platforms,” Wright said. “We believe we’re going to be in a much stronger position with the Canadian ELD mandate … We’re confident we’re going to be ready.”

“If it’s accelerated, with what we’ve gone through, we’re ahead of the curve now.”

In handing out the waiver, the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said the ruling was in the public interest and would likely achieve the same level of safety that would exist without a waiver.

Old Dominion began using PeopleNet automatic on-board recording devices (AOBRDs) in 2010, and transferred data directly into its fleet management and safety systems, ensuring dispatchers knew where every driver was at a given time, and how many hours were available under hours of service rules.

The PeopleNet AOBRD software had to eliminate a skip feature, limit an auto-duty driving status change threshold to five miles, and limit geofencing of yards to within a half-mile radius, regulators noted.