Transport Canada has made a few minor changes to the proposed new rules to make them more closely reflect the new American rules. They will be similar, but not identical.

The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) met the week of May 17 and unvieled a draft of the new Canadian Hours of Service (HOS) Regulation.

Two issues were clarified in the meetings: the reset period has been changed from 36 hours to 34 hours to minimize enforcement problems with carriers crossing the US border, and the split sleeper berth option will be based on 10 hours instead of 8.

The latter remains a concern because it removes the two hours of discretionary break time, and will require drivers to use some of their 13 hours of potential driving time if they wish to take any additional break time during the day.

The revised proposal was published in June, and the comment period is expected to last one month. CCMTA still hopes to have the revised rules in place by January 2005.
Jim Park