Canada’s new hours-of-service regulations take effect Jan. 1, but the nation will observe soft enforcement until July 1.
Alberta’s Infrastructure and Transportation department described the new federal regs as reducing the maximum driving time for truck drivers from 16 to 13 hours in a 24-hour period, decreasing the daily maximum on-duty time from 16 to 14 hours and increasing the minimum off-duty time from eight to 10 hours.
The right to split sleeper and on-duty/driving time for single and team drivers will stay. All provinces will have a six-month education enforcement period to provide time to learn the new rules and adjust operations, the department stated.
However, the American Trucking Associations has noted not every province plans to implement the regs simultaneously. Quebec may not adopt them until February and New Brunswick not until March. Alberta is not implementing the new regs for intra-provincial operations, but will implement the federal rule for extra-provincial truckers Jan. 1. Also, British Columbia may opt for an earlier hard enforcement date, ATA stated.
