The process to mirror the impending Canadian ELD mandate with the U.S. rule is going smoothly, says Geoffrey Wood, senior vice-president of policy for the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA).
“The goal of this effort in Canada is to mirror the effort here in the U.S.,” said Wood, who provided an update on the Canadian proposed ELD mandate during an Omnitracs Outlook 2018 session today in Nashville, Tenn.
As reported by Truck News, Wood added CTA, which has had a position on ELDs for about a decade, did not want to see conflict between the countries over e-logs.
“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.
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.
“The goal is to have consistency across all the Canadian jurisdictions,” said Wood, “and should something pop up, we have processes to deal with it.”