by Heather Ness

The transportation editorial team at J. J. Keller often jokes that we’re a bunch of regulation nerds, or “reg nerds” for short. Need to know where to find a regulation? Just ask one of us reg nerds and we’ll quote it for you line and verse, as if we’re quoting some of our favorite movie lines. All joking aside, however, regulations are a very serious matter. Regulations are always changing and always evolving, and it can be difficult to keep track of what’s coming up or even what’s current. The good news for you is that this reg nerd has been keeping up on all of it. And lately there’s been a flurry of activity in Canada and the United States, so let’s get started.

Across Canada

Changes to National Safety Code Standard 10, Cargo Securement, became effective in June. The standard now requires friction mats to be marked by the manufacturer with the maximum usable friction resistance, if the mat is to be considered part of a cargo-securement system. Other changes included the reimplementation of securement for transverse rows of metal coils loaded side-by-side and intermodal container-securement requirements.

In the majority of the Canadian jurisdictions, because they’ve adopted the most current version of the standard by reference, the standard is effective and in force. Regardless, most jurisdictions are observing educational enforcement periods until Jan 1, 2014. Only in Quebec are rules being enforced. Alberta, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland/Labrador need to make a regulatory change to adopt the new standard and are expected to do so by Jan. 1, 2014.

Ontario

As of Oct. 1, 2013, new Ontario-based commercial vehicle operator registration (CVOR) applicants have an extra step to complete in the CVOR application process. New CVOR applicants must now pass a 30-question multiple-choice exam proving their awareness of Ontario’s commercial vehicle safety requirements. The MTO

has developed a great resource to help applicants learn the requirements, the Commercial Vehicle Operators’ Safety manual, and has posted it on their website. New applicants can review the manual and even complete a practice test on the website. 

The examination requirement must be completed within six months after the new CVOR applicant submits the CVOR application to the MTO. Once the applicant passes the test, the CVOR certificate will be issued and then the carrier may operate on Ontario roads.

Quebec

In January, Quebec proposed significant updates to the Regulation respecting safety standards for road vehicles and asked for stakeholder feedback on the proposal. Part of this proposal included new pre-departure (pre-trip) inspection regulations, among many other changes. However, Quebec’s Societe de l’assurance automobile du Quebec (SAAQ) has delayed the adoption of the regulation, ­citing the need for further analysis of the proposed changes and potential follow-up on comments received. The SAAQ has indicated that the regulations will not be adopted in 2013 and will not be in force before fall 2014. There will be a bit of a wait ahead on this one.

Saskatchewan

Speaking of pre-trip inspection regulations, Saskatchewan recently repealed The Security of Loads and Trip Inspection Regulations and replaced it with two separate regulations, The Security of Loads Regulations, 2013, and The Trip Inspection Regulations. Both regulations underwent updates to make them more consistent with the respective National Safety Code standards that cover both topics. Perhaps the most notable part of the trip inspection regulations is the change in applicability of the requirement to carry inspection schedules and complete a pre-trip inspection report. In the previous regulations, the definition of a “commercial vehicle” included vehicles or combinations with a registered gross weight that exceeded 5,000 kilograms, including buses. All commercial vehicles as defined in the regulation required inspection and drivers were expected to carry inspection schedules and complete a pre-trip inspection report.

In the new regulation, in the definition of a “commercial vehicle,” the weight threshold was increased to include only vehicles exceeding a gross vehicle or registered gross vehicle weight of 11,794 kilograms, and buses. Trucks, truck tractors, and trailers still require inspection; however, the requirement to carry inspection schedules and complete a pre-trip inspection report only applies to commercial vehicles as defined in the new regulation.

There’s a caveat, though. Carriers with vehicles plated in Saskatchewan and operating into other provinces must still ensure compliance with other Canadian jurisdictions’ pre-trip inspection regulations and/or National Safety Code Standard 13, Trip Inspections, which may be more stringent than Saskatchewan’s regulations. Case in point: Ontario.

Saskatchewan’s rules do make them more in line with Alberta, where drivers of vehicles at 11,794 kilograms registered gross weight or less are exempt from the requirement to carry and produce an inspection schedule and prepare, carry, and produce a pre-trip inspection report.

British Columbia

British Columbia’s Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) Branch has recently adopted a formalized dispute-resolution process. The dispute resolution process enables motor carriers to challenge out-of -service (OOS) declarations and Notice and Orders (N&O) issued in the province. If a dispute is ultimately decided in a carrier’s favor, the CVSE will remove carrier profile points that were associated with the OOS (N&Os do not carry points). As far as we can tell, British Columbia is the only province to formalize this process for carriers.

U.S. Updates

And finally, a few notes about a recent rulemaking in the United States for those of you that operate cross-border. The long-awaited Unified Registration System (URS) final rule was finally published by the FMCSA in August 2013. The URS will make significant changes to the method by which motor carriers obtain federal operating authority and USDOT numbers, but since these changes are a couple years off, you won’t notice much of a change to your immediate operations.

What is more immediate is that starting Nov.1, 2013, the FMCSA will start enforcing the requirement that all motor carriers complete a biennial update of their MCS-150. The biennial update had been required all along, but the requirement had no teeth. The FMCSA is drastically changing that and starting Nov.1, 2013, if a carrier has not completed an update of its MCS-150 within the past two years, the FMCSA will send a notification to the carrier requesting that the carrier update the information. If the carrier ignores the request, the FMCSA will proceed with deactivating the carrier’s USDOT number and potentially imposing civil penalties. Without an active USDOT number, a carrier can’t operate. If you’re not sure if you’ve updated your MCS-150 within the past two years, now’s a great time to check it out. Visit http://safersys.org for details.

Heather Ness is Editor—Transport Operations, at J.J. Keller & Associates. Contact her at transporteditors@ jjkeller.com.