By the Manitoba Trucking Association

With our wide-open spaces, big skies, and relatively flat landscape, road safety on the prairies shouldn’t be much of an issue; however, just like every geographic region, we have our own challenges to contend with when it comes to safety.

A major challenge is driver fatigue. Hour after hour of the same or similar geography does not make for alert drivers, no matter what size or type of vehicle they’re driving; however, when it comes to commercial drivers, the consequences of driver fatigue can be devastating.

That’s where the ELD mandate comes into play. This mandate is likely to be one of the greatest steps that our industry has taken to address road safety. It is an industry-led initiative that will have a major impact on those drivers with “the sharpest pencil” for their logbooks. While the mandate’s effective date is June 12, 2021, carriers have one year of progressive enforcement, according to Transport Canada.

The roll-out of this mandate has not been without its issues: the biggest one being the approvals process. With just over a month to go before the mandate is implemented (when this article was written), the federal government has yet to officially approve any ELD suppliers in Canada. The upside of this delay is it gives carriers plenty of time to research their options, as many ELD suppliers have indicated a readiness with product. The downside is that there will be a time crunch for carriers to make these investments, once approvals are finalized, before the hard enforcement date.

At the provincial level, the ELD mandate will also impact intra-provincial carriers the same way as federally-regulated carriers. For carriers who operate within Manitoba’s boundaries, the ELD rules will be similar to what they are for logbooks: if carriers are not currently required to keep a daily logbook (operate within     160 km of the home terminal, operators of registered farm trucks or school buses), they are not required to have an ELD on board; however – and this is a bit of a sticky wicket – the Manitoba government has indicated that enforcement of the ELD mandate will begin as soon as December 12, 2021. How this enforcement date will be managed – as compared to the federal “hard enforcement” date of June 12, 2022 is still being resolved; MTA members, please watch upcoming communications as we work to clarify this issue.

The other major safety initiative for our industry is the COVID-19 vaccination program. Whether it is drivers traveling to North Dakota for their vaccines, or waiting their turn in Manitoba, the reality is that COVID-19 continues to be a major health and safety issue for our industry. Vaccinations will help us emerge on the other side of this pandemic, but we need to have enough people vaccinated before that happens. We have heard from people with a wide range of opinions on this issue, and we appreciate the diversity of opinions, but the reality is that we cannot fully re-open our economies and social lives if COVID-19 can run rampant. Further to that, most drivers we hear from are happy to be prioritized for vaccination, and we are happy to have been able to help with this.

Road safety is everyone’s concern; at the MTA, we are proud to represent the interests of our members as we work to ensure industry voices are heard on regulatory issues. At the Manitoba Trucking Association, we serve the industry that drives the nation.