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rules? Of course not. No matter what regulations are put in place, someone will always try to circumvent the rules and find some sort of perceived advan- tage. But no one can argue that it will greatly reduce the amount of rule-bend- ing that takes place and will make it much more difficult to get away with. While I fully believe the vast majority of companies and operators in our indus- try are following the rules – even in to- day’s paper environment – the introduc- tion of ELDs will increase oversight and encourage even greater compliance.
We all know that rules and regula- tions are made for the few that do not follow them, not the majority that do. The increased oversight will help to level the playing field and will help to remove unscrupulous operators from our industry, those whose business plans include “fracturing” the laws.
These types of operators contrib- ute to keeping rates low on the backs of their employees to the detriment of the industry by undercutting rates. Com- panies who operate legally are put at a disadvantage in these cases and that is something that we as an industry must do everything we can to combat.
The benefits of these devices have been proven over time to fleet opera- tors and drivers who have instituted these on their own. In my previous job, I introduced and rolled out electron-
ic logs for the fleet I managed. At the beginning of the process, our drivers were equally split on their preference towards e-logs versus paper, but with- in six months of introduction, this was easily converted to a 90/10 split in fa- vour of electronic logs.
It even got to the point where if a unit went down in a driver’s truck, I had
him or her in my office asking when the system was going to get repaired, as they were tired of returning to paper logs after only a day or two.
The majority of drivers soon get used to the systems and embrace e-logs. From a management standpoint, the amount of time that was saved in veri- fying and checking log compliance was reduced by more than 50% and a lot of verification that was not being done prior, was now being done.
Verification can be done in real-time and trip planning for fleet managers and drivers becomes much easier and more transparent.
There is simply no good argument against the introduction of these sys- tems. With the US announcing its man- date, which is to come into force in late 2017, it made sense that Canada should follow suit. Transport Canada has yet to announce an implementation date for this mandate, but has indicated it is likely to closely follow the timelines in the US. While we view this announce- ment as a positive step, much work is yet to be done.
In order for the standard to have any teeth, Transport Canada must work with the provinces towards provin-
cial and territorial mandates as well, as Transport Canada has jurisdiction over fleets that cross provincial and territo- rial boundaries only. Transport Canada also has to rely on the provinces to en- force federal rules at roadside.
Mike Millian is president of the Private Mo- tor Truck Council of Canada, the only national association that represents the views and in- terests of the private fleet industry. He can be reached at trucks@pmtc.ca.
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