Canada HOS rule published

Canada’s new truck driver hours-of-service (HOS) rule, effective on Jan. 1, 2007, has been officially published in the Canada Gazette. According to the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), the core of the rule is that the daily off-duty time for drivers is no less than 10 hours.

The rule is consistent with the expectations of CTA, Canada’s trucking lobbying group, which had worked closely with Transport Canada, the agency that issued the rules.

Highlights of the new rule include:

• when splitting off-duty time, solo drivers without sleeper berths must have an off-duty period of at least 8 consecutive hours off-duty time, with the remaining two hours allowed to be split into no less than half-hour increments
• when splitting off-duty time, team drivers with sleeper berths may split their off-duty time into two 4-hour periods, with the remaining two hours allowed to be split into no less than half-hour increments
• when splitting off-duty time, solo drivers with sleeper berths may split their off-duty time into two periods, with no single period being less than 2 hours
• maximum of 13 hours/day driving time, 14 hours/day on-duty time
• no more than 16 hours may elapse between 8 consecutive hours of off-duty times
• no less than 10 hours/day off-duty time
• in a 14-day cycle, a driver may accumulate no more than 120 hours on-duty time, or 70 hours on-duty time without taking at least 24 consecutive hours of off-duty time
• in a 7-day cycle, a driver may be on-duty no more than 70 hours
• a 7-day cycle may be reset after at least 36 consecutive hours of off-duty time, while a 14-cycle may be reset after at least 72 hours.

  To view the rule in its entirety, go to http://canadagazette.gc.ca/partII/2005/20051116/html/sor313-e.html#avis