British Columbia's Provincial ELD Mandate Takes Effect

In August 2023, British Columbia's own electronic logging device (ELD) mandate took effect, extending the requirement to many trucks that operate only inside the province. From August 1, 2023, a rewritten Division 37 of the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations required drivers of B.C.-plated commercial vehicles who kept daily logs to use a certified ELD unless an exemption applied.

Why a provincial rule was needed

The federal ELD mandate, enforced across Canada from January 1, 2023, covered only drivers who crossed provincial or territorial borders. According to the province's National Safety Code bulletin on ELDs, until August 1, 2023, vehicles operating solely within B.C. did not need an ELD. The new Division 37 implemented a provincial mandate that effectively mirrored the federal one.

The B.C. government approved the orders for the change on February 9, 2023, and they were deposited on February 13. One of them, an amendment to the distracted driving rules, took effect right away so that drivers already using ELDs under the federal mandate would not be penalized under B.C.'s electronic device law. The rest took effect on August 1.

On that date, the province's Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement branch (CVSE) issued Notice 02-2023, reminding carriers and drivers that the amended Division 37 and the provincial mandate were in effect.

Same hours, new devices

The bulletin stressed that the underlying hours of service rules had not changed. ELDs did not alter the maximum on-duty or driving hours or the minimum off-duty time, and they did not change record retention: drivers still had to account for the current day and the previous 14 days, and carriers still had to keep records for at least six months.

As under the federal rules, a device had to be certified by an accredited certification body and appear on Transport Canada's list. The bulletin warned that a device accepted as an ELD in the United States was not an ELD in Canada unless it had gone through Canada's third-party certification.

Fines

The fine changes added 35 new fines for ELD-related offences and increased 31 existing fines. They followed B.C.'s existing three-level structure for these regulations:

• $120 for administrative or procedural failures that do not compromise safety;
• $270 for failures that can compromise safety, such as recording hours driven or rest taken incorrectly;
• $520 for deliberate attempts to avoid the hours rules, actions posing the most serious fatigue risk, and ELD tampering.

Exemptions

Notice 02-2023 said the CVSE director had issued Compliance Circular 03-2023 to implement a limited number of ELD exemptions for specific classes of vehicles. Earlier, the bulletin had listed the exemptions the director intended to issue, noting they were subject to change. Some matched the federal exemptions, such as short-term rentals of 30 days or less, vehicles built before model year 2000, and local drivers within 160 km of their home terminal. Others were specific to B.C., including:

• B.C.-plated non-passenger vehicles with a licensed gross vehicle weight under 11,795 kg;
• local drivers making only occasional trips beyond 160 km, within set limits;
• motion picture industry drivers, driveaway operations, public transit, and school and special activity buses.

The bulletin noted that an ELD exemption did not remove the duty to keep a record of duty status or, where it applied, a local time record. Vehicles crossing provincial borders could rely only on the exemptions in the federal regulations.

Archive: this article describes rules and events as of August 2023. Regulations may have changed since, so check the current rule before relying on it.