OTTAWA — If electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) are mandated in Canada, some carriers will be forced to start dealing with driver issues, the Canadian Trucking Alliance’s (CTA) Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) said in a statement today.

“An EOBR mandate, if enforced, would not only enhance highway safety through improved compliance with the hours of service regulations, it would also force more carriers to deal with driver issues,” said the BRTF.

“In the current environment, where compliance with the hours of service rules is dependent upon the easily-manipulated paper log system, the fallout from inefficiencies caused by delays, paperwork errors and other issues have too often been pushed down to the driver.”

The task force said that by putting drivers into a position of not being able to earn income from all the time they spend on the job, “some drivers feel pressured to take action to try and make up for it in other ways rather than the carrier intervening on their behalf.

“When everyone is required to use an EOBR, all carriers will have to deal with their customers and will have the data to show where drivers are being delayed and for how long. The onus will be on all carriers to manage their businesses. In particular, those that overlook or depend on drivers to manipulate their logbooks to make their deliveries or to get their miles in will have to change their business practices. It is hoped that in the future all carriers will compete more on the basis of efficiency and value added service, as opposed to service levels artificially created by drivers over-extending themselves with regard to hours of service.”