Canadian Company occasionally travelling to US, is ELD needed?

Go ahead and try explaining that to a DOT officer. You'll have plenty of time to post about it while you're sitting there OOS. Don't take my word for it. Go to the FMCSA site and read it for yourself! Canadian trucks WILL have to have ELDs installed unless they meet one of the exemptions. In order to claim 8 in 30 local truck exemption, you have to be exempt from logging requirements. If you have to log in Canada, you do not meet that requisite. If you are exempt from logging in Canada, you might be OK...providing you remain at 8 days or fewer having to keep a RODS.

 

Hate to break the news to you all, Canadian drivers are covered under treaties which has to do with harmonizing the regulations and allow trade to happen.

ELDs have not been discussed in the state department, the FMCSA has no right to negotiate any chages to trade agreements. AND because we recognize Canada's logging regulations and agreed to accept them when Canadian drivers are on our soil, ELDs are not required to operate here.

This means that they are exempt from ELDs because they already met the requirement to operate in the US.

IF you want to come up with where these have changed, please show me, it would be interesting to hear the Canadian Government get pissy about trying to shove something onto their trucks outside the agreements we already made.

 

Similar to certain provinces requiring US trucks to be speed limited? I don't recall any treaty negotiations and such discussing that matter, either.

If a Canadian truck is caught operating in the US without an ELD, they will be fined and potentially placed OOS just as an American truck that is caught operating without a speed limiter in Ontario. Go to the FMCSA site and read the FAQ. They state clear as day that Canadian trucks WILL be subject to the ELD mandate while operating on US soil. Don't like it? Stay in Canada...just like US-based companies were told in regards to the Canadian speed limiter rules.

 

There is no ELD regulation in Canada and there is very limited AOBR regulation (Section 83). Also, electronic logs that are not connected to the ECM are technically illegal, but most enforcement officers either seem to not understand that nuance, or more likely, accept them because they tend to make drivers more compliant and they don't look like a dog's breakfast as many driver's paper logs do.

So, to answer your question; in an ELD equipped truck you can have it turned off in Canada and use paper if you wish. That would include switching it off as you enter Canada, but just ensure you have printed out the previous 14 days. Likewise, when entering the US, if the truck is required to use an ELD at that point then turn it on and have the previous seven days on paper, or as noted in the previously posted FAQ, the drive can annotate the ELD record for time spent in Canada.

 

That's kinda what l thought too. I can actually see my ex safety and compliance manager's blood pressure rising as someone throws that theory at him lol

 

Tell him he brought it upon himself.

Of course any company driver or leassd operator would have to follow the carrier's policies, but an O/O could do as they wish.

 

No a bit different.

speed limiters come from a different level of government, the trade agreements and other regulations for trade come from the federal level, as in NAFTA and other agreements/treaties.

I am thinking that because we already agreed to recognized the means of recording HOS on the other side of the border, that is this issue ever went to court, it would be found that the FMCSA can't impose this onto a foreign carrier because it hasn't been addressed.

 

So by your logic, the state of Michigan could impose a law that says all trucks operating in the state have to have a transmogrified wobbelometer installed in order to legally operate on Michigan roadways, and that wouldn't violate any treaties because the mandate isn't coming from the feds?

The change to the HOS that occurred in '04, along with every subsequent tweak haven't been an issue with NAFTA or any other treaty. Neither will this.

The FMCSA site is very clear in that unless you are exempt under 1 or more of the listed exemptions, you must have an ELD to record your HOS while operating in the US. If you don't like it, find a way to utilize one of the exemptions (buy an older truck, for example) or simply do not operate within the US. That was the same option given to US based carriers when Ontario and Quebec issued their speed limiter mandates, except those mandates affect trucks wherever they operate as opposed to solely within the boundaries of the enforcing entity. That makes those limiter mandates worse...because the ELD mandate only requires the ELD be operational while inside the US. Those Canadian provinces demand "tamper-proof" speed limiters, and as such those who have driver rewards or other work-arounds programmed in so they can run the speed limit in the US are actually in violation of the speed limiter mandate. Even the driver having a laptop, cables, and software to alter the speed limiter himself could be construed to be a violation of the "tamper-proof" requirement.

There is nothing prohibiting the driver from unplugging the ELD upon entering into Canada and plugging it in when crossing back into the US...in fact the FMCSA even outlines that as a possibility as they recognize they have no jurisdiction over what happens in Canada. However, when you are in the US, you are subject to the US HOS which now includes the requirement to have an ELD recording them.