Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations (SOR/2005-313)

64.1 The director may, at any time after the application has been made, require an applicant to provide additional information in order for the director to evaluate whether the granting of a permit would be likely to jeopardize the safety or health of the public, the driver or the employees of the motor carrier.

Approval of Other Directors

• 65 (1) Before issuing a permit, a director shall obtain the written approval of the provincial directors of the provinces in which the commercial vehicle will be driven under the permit.

• (2) A provincial director from whom approval is sought shall

  • (a) respond to the request for approval within 30 days after receiving it; and

  • (b) give their approval if they have no reason to believe that the safety or health of the public, the driver or the employees of the motor carrier would be likely to be jeopardized by the granting of the permit.

Issuance of Permits

66 A director who issues a permit shall specify in the permit

• (a) the reasons for issuing it;

• (b) its duration, which shall not exceed one year;

• (c) any terms or conditions required for the protection of the safety or health of the public, the driver or the employees of the motor carrier; and

• (d) the provinces in respect of which the permit is to apply.

Obligations of Permit Holders

• 67 (1) A motor carrier to whom a permit is issued shall

  • (a) provide the director with a list of the commercial vehicles that will be operated under the permit before undertaking any activity under the permit;

  • (a.1) ensure that a copy of the permit is placed in each commercial vehicle in respect of which it applies;

  • (b) keep the director informed of any changes to the list of the commercial vehicles that will be operated under the permit;

  • (c) make available for inspection by the director, on request, the records of duty status and the supporting documents of the drivers of the commercial vehicles in respect of which the permit applies; and

  • (d) notify the director without delay of any accident involving any of the commercial vehicles to which the permit applies if it is required by the laws of the province, state or country in which the accident occurred to be reported to the police.

• (2) [Repealed, SOR/2019-165, s. 21]

Amendment, Cancellation and Suspension of Permits

• 68 (1) A director who issues a permit may amend, cancel or suspend it, and a director who approves a permit issued by another director may withdraw the approval, on written notification to the motor carrier, if

  • (a) the motor carrier or the driver contravenes these Regulations or any term or condition of the permit; or

  • (b) the director determines that the safety and health of the public, the driver or the employees of the motor carrier are likely to be jeopardized.

• (2) [Repealed, SOR/2019-165, s. 22]

• (3) When a director withdraws approval for a permit issued by another director, the director who issued the permit shall amend it to remove the authority for a commercial vehicle to be operated under the permit in the province in respect of which approval is withdrawn.

[69 to 75 reserved]

Emergencies and Adverse Driving Conditions

• 76 (1) The requirements of these Regulations in respect of driving time, on-duty time and off-duty time do not apply to a driver who, in an emergency, requires more driving time to reach a destination that provides safety for the occupants of the commercial vehicle and for other users of the road or the security of the commercial vehicle and its load.

• (2) A driver who encounters adverse driving conditions while driving the vehicle during a trip south of latitude 60°N may extend the permitted 13 hours of driving time specified in sections 12 and 13 and reduce the 2 hours of daily off-duty time required by subsection 14(3) by the amount of time needed to complete the trip if

  • (a) the driving, on-duty and elapsed time in the cycle the driver followed is not extended more than 2 hours;

  • (b) the driver still takes the required 8 consecutive hours of off-duty time; and

  • (c) the trip could have been completed under normal driving conditions without the reduction.

• (3) A driver who encounters adverse driving conditions while driving the vehicle during a trip north of latitude 60°N may extend the permitted 15 hours of driving time specified in section 39 by the amount of time needed to complete the trip if

  • (a) the extension of the driving time is no more than 2 hours;

  • (b) the driver still takes the required 8 consecutive hours of off-duty time; and

  • (c) the trip could have been completed under normal driving conditions without the extension.

• (4) A driver who extends their driving, on-duty or elapsed time because of an emergency or adverse driving conditions shall record the reason for doing so in the record of duty status.

ELD Records of Duty Status

Electronic Logging Device

• 77 (1) A motor carrier shall ensure that each commercial vehicle that it operates is equipped with an ELD that meets the requirements of the Technical Standard, and shall ensure that it is mounted in a fixed position during the operation of the commercial vehicle and is visible to the driver when the driver is in the normal driving position, with the exception of commercial vehicles that are

  • (a) operated by a motor carrier under a permit;

  • (b) operated by a motor carrier to which an exemption has been issued under the Act;

  • (c) the subject of a rental agreement of no longer than 30 days that is not an extended or renewed rental of the same vehicle; or

  • (d) manufactured before model year 2000.

• (2) The motor carrier shall require the driver to record, and the driver shall record for each day, in accordance with these Regulations and the Technical Standard, all the information associated with their record of duty status as their duty status changes.

• (3) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply if

  • (a) the driver drives or is instructed by the motor carrier to drive a commercial vehicle within a radius of 160 km of the home terminal;

  • (b) the driver returns to the home terminal each day to begin a minimum of 8 consecutive hours of off-duty time; and

  • (c) the motor carrier maintains accurate and legible records showing, for each day, the cycle the driver followed and on-duty times and keeps those records and the supporting documents relating to those records for a minimum period of 6 months after the day on which each record was recorded.

• (4) If a motor carrier authorizes a driver to operate a commercial vehicle for yard moves within a terminal, depot or port and that is not on a public road, the motor carrier shall ensure that the driver’s ELD has been configured so that the driver can indicate those moves.

• (5) A driver shall manually input or verify the following information in the ELD:

  • (a) the date and the start time, if different from midnight, and their driver identification number;

  • (b) the cycle that the driver is following;

  • (c) the commercial vehicle licence plates as well as the unit number or trailer number, if applicable;

  • (d) the names and the addresses of the home terminal and the principal place of business of the motor carrier by which the driver was employed or otherwise engaged during that day;

  • (e) the commercial vehicle’s location description, if it is not automatically drawn from the ELD’s geo-location database;

  • (f) if the driver was not required to keep a record of duty status immediately before the beginning of the day, the number of hours of off-duty time and on-duty time that were accumulated by the driver each day during the 14 days immediately before the beginning of the day;

  • (g) any deferral of off-duty time under section 16;

  • (h) if the driver was working for more than one motor carrier during the current day or the previous 14 days

    • (i) for each day during the 14 days immediately before the current day, the total number of hours for each duty status that were accumulated by the driver, and the beginning and end time of each 16-hour period referred to in subsection 13(3), and

    • (ii) the start and end times of each duty status in the current day, before the use of the ELD; and

  • (i) any annotation necessary to complete the record of duty status.

• (6) No motor carrier shall request, require or allow a driver to use, and no driver shall use, more than one ELD at the same time for the same period.

• (7) The motor carrier shall ensure that each commercial vehicle that it operates carries an ELD information packet containing a current version of the following documents:

  • (a) a user’s manual;

  • (b) an instruction sheet for the driver describing the data transfer mechanisms supported by the ELD and the steps required to generate and transfer the data with respect to the driver’s hours of service to an inspector;

  • (c) an instruction sheet for the driver describing the measures to take in the event that the ELD malfunctions; and

  • (d) a sufficient number of records of duty status to allow the driver to record the information required under section 82 for at least 15 days.

• (8) The motor carrier shall ensure that the driver records the information related to their record of duty status and the driver is required to record that information in a complete and accurate manner.

Malfunction

• 78 (1) A motor carrier shall ensure that any ELD that is installed or used in a commercial vehicle that it operates is in good working order and is calibrated and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s or seller’s specifications.

• (2) If a driver of a commercial vehicle becomes aware of the fact that the ELD is displaying a malfunction or data diagnostic code set out in Table 4 of Schedule 2 of the Technical Standard, the driver shall notify the motor carrier that is operating the commercial vehicle as soon as the vehicle is parked.

• (3) The driver shall record, in the record of duty status on the day on which he or she noticed the malfunction or data diagnostic code, the following information:

  • (a) the malfunction or data diagnostic code as set out in Table 4 of Schedule 2 of the Technical Standard;

  • (b) the date and time when the malfunction or data diagnostic code was noticed; and

  • (c) the time when notification of the malfunction or data diagnostic code was transmitted to the motor carrier.

• (4) The driver shall record the code referred to in paragraph (3)(a) in each record of duty status following the day on which the code was noticed, until the ELD is repaired or replaced.

• (5) A motor carrier shall, within 14 days after the day on which it was notified of an ELD malfunction or data diagnostic code by the driver or otherwise became aware of it, or at the latest, upon return of the driver to the home terminal from a planned trip if that return exceeds the 14-day period, repair or replace the ELD.

• (6) The motor carrier shall maintain a register of ELD malfunction or data diagnostic codes for ELDs installed or used in commercial vehicles that it operates for which a malfunction was noticed, and that register shall contain the following information:

  • (a) the name of the driver who noticed the malfunction or data diagnostic code;

  • (b) the name of each driver that used the commercial vehicle following the discovery of the malfunction or data diagnostic code until the ELD was repaired or replaced;

  • (c) the make, model and serial number of the ELD;

  • (d) the licence plate of the commercial vehicle in which the ELD is installed or used, or the Vehicle Identification Number;

  • (e) the date when the malfunction or data diagnostic code was noticed and the location of the commercial vehicle on that date, as well as the date when the motor carrier was notified or otherwise became aware of the code;

  • (f) the date the ELD was replaced or repaired; and

  • (g) a concise description of the actions taken by the motor carrier to repair or replace the ELD.

• (7) The motor carrier shall retain the information set out in subsection (6) for each ELD for which a malfunction was noticed for a period of 6 months from the day on which the ELD is replaced or repaired.