Canadian truckers claim U.S. HOS mistakes: OTA

TORONTO, (Jan. 23, 2004) — The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is looking into claims by Canadian truckers that U.S. enforcement officers are giving warnings and citations to cross-border drivers for clocking hours driven while in Canada.

Acting on concerns expressed by the Ontario Trucking Association, the CVSA has contacted the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to look into the issue, which may be a result of misinterpretations between new hours of work rules introduced in the U.S. on Jan. 4, and how they differ from Canadian rules. CVSA — a group made up of Canadian and U.S. safety officials and transport regulators — also acknowledged they anticipated such problems.

The OTA is asking carriers to report situations where Canadian drivers have been slapped with warnings or citations because of a enforcement official who misinterpreted the U.S. rules as they apply to Canadian operations. The OTA wants the problem resolved before enforcement officials begin issuing tickets or detaining drivers.

Some situations recently reported to OTA involve these scenarios:

Since a driver is allowed to drive 13 hours while in Canada, it should not be an offence that can be cited by a U.S. official provided the last two hours of that driving cycle occur in Canada. However, some drivers have been warned that this is an offence, even though the 13 hour driving cycle took place two or three days earlier.

Moreover a driver is not required to stop driving after the 14th hour after coming on duty while in Canada, and this should not be an offence that can be cited by a U.S. official if all the driving occurs in Canada. The Canadian hours of service rules allow a driver to drive for 13 hours or be on duty 15 hours regardless of how many hours have elapsed since coming on duty following the required off duty period. However, the OTA says carriers are reporting some officials have gone back two or three days and warned the Canadian driver about driving after the 14th hour.

It is assumed that in these two situations the driver is in compliance while in the U.S. meaning he has not exceeded the 60 hours on duty in seven days or the 70 hours on duty in eight days, and the driver has had 10 hours off duty before starting the driving cycle that includes entering the U.S.

FMCSA has asked for specific examples of misinterpretation — inspection reports, violation notices, and written warnings (verbal warnings will not be sufficient) — before they will consider taking any action.