FPInnovations Becomes Canada's First Accredited ELD Certification Body
Transport Canada announced on October 26, 2020, that FPInnovations could certify electronic logging devices, a key step before the June 12, 2021 ELD mandate.
In October 2020, Canada's electronic logging device (ELD) mandate cleared a key hurdle. On October 26, 2020, Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced that FPInnovations had been accredited as the first third-party body allowed to certify ELDs for use in Canada.
Why certification mattered
Transport Canada announced in 2019 that federally regulated commercial trucks and buses would need certified ELDs to record drivers' hours of driving, on-duty time and rest. Under Canada's rules, devices had to be tested and certified by an accredited third party.
Transport Canada said only certified ELDs would meet the federal requirements. Until a certification body was accredited, no device could be certified, which made the October 2020 accreditation the first step toward approved devices reaching the market.
The department said provinces, territories and many industry groups had backed third-party certification so carriers and roadside enforcement could trust that a device met the technical standard and that drivers' records of duty status were reliable.
How the accreditation worked
Transport Canada worked with the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the national accreditation body, on the third-party testing and certification system. As Transport Canada describes the process, a certification body first needs SCC accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065, the standard for bodies that certify products, processes and services, and then accreditation from the Minister of Transport under section 79 of the Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations. FPInnovations said it had completed a rigorous process and shown compliance with ISO/IEC 17065.
FPInnovations said it would soon publish guidelines explaining how ELD providers could apply for certification.
The deadline
Transport Canada said it remained committed to the coming-into-force date for the ELD requirement: June 12, 2021. The minister said he expected more certification bodies to be accredited.
The department also said:
- the ELD rules lined up with the United States, which would support cross-border trade;
- mandatory ELDs were expected to cut the risk of fatigue-related collisions by about 10%;
- ELDs would reduce paperwork by replacing paper daily logs and shorten the time officers spent checking compliance.
The mandate also responded to a recommendation from the Saskatchewan Coroners Service after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.
What carriers needed to know
For federally regulated carriers, the October announcement meant the certification process had started, but the first certified devices still had to go through testing. Carriers planning for the June 12, 2021 date needed to check with their ELD vendor about plans for Canadian third-party certification, since only certified devices would satisfy the federal rule.
Archive: this article describes rules and events as of October 2020. Regulations may have changed since, so check the current rule before relying on it.