Quebec Makes Electronic Logging Devices Mandatory

In April 2023, Quebec made electronic logging devices (ELDs) mandatory for most heavy vehicles on its roads. Amendments to the province's Regulation respecting the hours of driving and rest of heavy vehicle drivers took effect on April 30, 2023, bringing Quebec into line with the federal ELD mandate that the other provinces had begun enforcing at the start of the year.

The announcement

Quebec's transport minister, Geneviève Guilbault, announced the date with the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) on January 23, 2023, in a government news release. Operators of heavy vehicles would have to equip them with a device, known in French as a dispositif de consignation électronique (DCE), to record hours of work and rest.

The government said the change was meant to improve compliance with the hours rules and prevent fatigue at the wheel. It also said the devices would save drivers time because they would no longer have to enter their hours by hand, and that the rule would help level competition among North American transport companies.

Who had to comply

The SAAQ's ELD page said the requirement applied to all heavy vehicles travelling on Quebec roads, whether or not they were registered in Quebec. That included vehicles used in extra-provincial transportation. Devices had to be certified to Canada's technical standard and appear on the list of certified ELDs.

According to the SAAQ, the main exceptions were:

• vehicles leased under a rental agreement of no more than 30 days that had not been extended or renewed;
• vehicles manufactured before model year 2000;
• certain delivery moves of vehicles that were neither hitched nor loaded (saddle-mount deliveries excepted), such as delivery to a new owner's home terminal, to a lessee, or to a rental branch for an inventory adjustment, and unloaded vehicles driven within five days of delivery after a transfer of ownership;
• new vehicles driven to or from a company that would complete their manufacture or adapt them for their intended use;
• vehicles driven within a 160 km radius of the driver's home terminal, where the driver returned to the terminal each day to begin at least 8 consecutive hours of rest.

The SAAQ also listed as an exception the case of a local driver, working within that 160 km radius, who could not get back to the home terminal the same day because of adverse driving conditions.

What stayed the same

The SAAQ said the retention rules did not change. Drivers who had to keep a record of duty status still had to carry the previous 14 days' records in the vehicle, and operators still had to keep the records in the driver's file for at least six months. Drivers of vehicles that did not need an ELD could keep using paper or another device that produced a valid record.

Quebec had not been part of the January 1, 2023 start of ELD enforcement elsewhere in Canada. With the April 30 date, carriers running into the province faced the same basic expectation as in the rest of the country.

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