As of December 18th, of this year, any one who operates Commercial buses or trucks south of the boarder will be required to have a compliant ELD installed on their vehicle, and ensure their drivers and staff are trained in it’s use. The rule applies to Canadian and Mexican domiciled drivers and carriers as well. There are a few exemptions in place, such as vehicles manufactured prior to model year 2000, those who use paper logs for no more than 8 days out of 30 and those involved in Driveway-towaway operations, but for the most part, if you are currently required to keep a paper log, you will be required to have an ELD installed in less than 9 months. (if you have existing technology installed prior to December 18th of this year that is not compliant, you will have until December 16th of 2019 to have it upgraded to meet the standards or replaced) Are you and your company ready for this mandate? Do you have the information you need to ensure you are fully compliant with the rule prior to the drop-dead date being in place? If you are waiting for the last minute in hopes that the Trump Administration will eliminate this rule with another stroke of the pen, that is a flawed strategy at best!! All indications are that the ELD mandate will be going forward, and if you are entering the US, you should be beginning to look into devices and start to plan your roll out immediately. It takes time to ensure you are sourcing a complain device, scheduling the installations, and training all your drivers and operations staff. The FMCSA is not certifying devices by the way, they are allowing manufacturers to self certify that they comply with the technical standard. So just because they are on the FMCSA’s list as being a certified device, does not necessarily mean it is so. If down the road the device is found to be non-compliant, the manufacturer of the device will have a very short time frame to bring it with in compliance, and if they can’t, you will be held responsible to have it replaced….in light of this, ensure you do your homework and do some fact checking on your own prior to purchasing a device. You can go to https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/hours-service/elds/eld-cchecklist-carriers for more information.

On March 27th the News Media reported that the liberal government will announce legislation the week of April 10th of this year, with the intention of having marijuana legalized by July 1st of 2018. The legislation is expected to broadly follow the recommendation of the federally appointed task force that was released in December of 2016. You can view the full report here..

http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/task-force-marijuana-groupe-etude/index-eng.php
Are you ready to deal with how this will affect your workplace? Do you have policies in place already to protect your workers and your workplace? Are they sufficient?

To get more information on these topics, plan to attend the PMTC’s Calgary seminar on May 17th that will cover these topics, as well as touching on sleep apnea. In addition to this, the PMTC will be speaking on the upcoming ELD mandate in the US and expected timelines for the Canadian mandate as part of a half day seminar in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary in early to Mid May. Details of these events will be forwarded shortly. We will also be covering the Polices and procedures for the legalization of Marijuana as part of our annual conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario in June. For more information on any of these events, or to contact the PMTC office with any questions, you can email info@pmtc.ca, trucks@pmtc.ca, or call 905-827-0587.

About the Author
“Mike has 25 years’ of wide ranging experience in the trucking industry, performing such duties as a livestock and grain hauler for 3 years, followed by 5 years of long haul across North America hauling refrigerated and general freight. Mike was also a full time certified driver trainer for 2 years, and then transitioned into Safety and Compliance for 2 years, and then spent over 12 years as a Fleet manager for a Private Fleet. Mike is now the President of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, Canada’s only National Association that represents the views and interest of today’s Private Fleets.” Mike can be reached at trucks@pmtc.ca