Canada's truck drivers will spend less time on the road under new federal regulations to be adopted early next year.

Trucking-industry groups say the reduction in working hours will improve safety, but force companies to change their operations at a time when companies are dealing with a nation-wide driver shortage, rising fuel costs and many other challenges that make it difficult to compete.

"They're going to have to adjust their schedules," says Mayne Root, executive director of the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA), which represents 12,000 members in the province's trucking industry. "It's going to affect rates. It's going to affect all kinds of issues because they're just not going to be able to do it the way they used to."

Starting Jan. 1, truckers will haul goods for a maximum of 13 hours per day and spend one more hour in service to deal with repairs and other needs. Under the current rules, drivers haul goods for 13 hours and spend two extra hours in service.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
B.C. Trucking Association executive director Paul Landry says Western Canadian firms will bear the brunt of new rules.

Drivers will work a maximum of 70 hours per week and must receive 36 consecutive hours of rest in each seven-day period.

"It's going to increase the amount of manpower (required)," Root adds. They're not going to be able to do it with the same amount of people."

The revised regulations are designed to reduce driver fatigue and improve road safety. They mark the first major changes to Canadian rules that were based on federal regulations established in the 1930s.

David Bradley, president and CEO of the Ottawa-based Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), the governing body for provincial and territorial trucking-industry associations, says the new rules put a premium on driving time.

He adds drivers are not going to take kindly to delays in traffic, at the border, and especially at the loading and unloading bays. As a result, carriers and shippers will have to co-operate more than they have in the past, when drivers have arrived on schedule only to wait four hours to have their trucks unloaded.

Provinces are revising their trucking rules this summer to bring them in line with new federal guidelines, which have been in the works for more than a decade. However, all provinces, particularly B.C., Alberta and Ontario, are expected to introduce exemptions that will permit drivers in specific sectors to adjust their hours. Logging, farming and oil and gas are among the sectors seeking exemptions.

"We don't like (exemptions)," says Bradley, who is also president of the Toronto-based Ontario Trucking Association (OTA). "We oppose them from a safety point of view. If safety is the intent, we don't see how you can make a case for exemptions."

The AMTA's Root says companies in logging, farming, energy and other sectors have legitimate reasons for seeking exemptions, because driving times are limited by short operating seasons. For example, an oil-rig hauler is often required to sit for several hours until equipment is ready for loading. (Most oil and gas activity occurs in winter months because, in many areas, trucks are prohibited from operating on soft ground in summer.)

However, Root agrees exemptions go against efforts to develop one set of rules for all sectors. Exemptions only apply in the provinces in which they are granted.

To comply with the new federal rules, provinces will have to change their highway traffic and safety laws. The CTA's Bradley says he hopes provinces will adopt their new rules early, so that all jurisdictions can "flick the switch" on changes at the same time, but suspects some provincial legislation won't be ready in time.

To aid enforcement, the CTA, Ottawa and provincial deputy ministers are discussing ways that onboard electrical components can be used to help governments monitor driving times, instead of the currently used paper logbooks. Bradley says truckers don't want Ottawa to dictate that one specific type of technology - "a so-called black box" - should be used. Privacy, both from a company's competitive point of view and a driver's personal perspective, also has to be considered.

"We also need to look at what's going on in the U.S., so we do everything in lock-step if at all possible," says Bradley.

According to a 2004 report by the Ottawa-based group Canadians for Responsible and Safe Highways (CRASH), the fatality rate for tractor-trailer drivers jumped 30 per cent between 2000-2002, while the heavy truck-driver fatalities climbed 25 per cent. In 2002, 49 truck drivers died from single-vehicle crashes.

CRASH contends sleep-deprived drivers are just as incapable of recognizing their impairment as drunk drivers.

According to WorkSafeBC, the workers' compensation board in British Columbia, B.C. truck drivers made 21,700 time-loss claims between 2000-2004, and there were 116 fatalities and 533 serious injuries that cost the industry $101 million in workers' compensation costs alone.

The British Columbia Trucking Association (BCTA) says the top driver conditions behind heavy commercial- vehicle injuries and fatal crashes are alcohol involvement (1.9 per cent) and falling asleep (1.6 per cent).

The CTA set the new schedules based on fatigue-management and sleep-deprivation research conducted by the U.S. military. Paul Landry, executive director of the Langley-based BCTA, says the U.S. research shows drivers can work longer hours if they manage their rest properly.

"Many operations will not be affected significantly because the distances between the customers that are served, that sort of thing, can probably be handled within the context of a 13-hour working period," says Landry. "But the fact there will be fewer hours of work during the week, and there will be more rest required, there's no doubt in my mind that productivity within the industry is going to be negatively affected across the peaks."

He predicts companies in Western Canada will bear the brunt of the impact simply because their trucks must travel longer distances to get goods to their destinations. Large companies will also have an advantage, he says, because they'll have the critical mass needed to adjust.

Bob Dolyniuk, general manager of the Manitoba Trucking Association (MTA), says trucking groups, the provinces and Ottawa have waged a long, difficult struggle in devising the new rules. He says he's not aware of any sectors within Manitoba that are looking for any exemptions, and the MTA is not seeking any. But Manitoba already does have some exemptions.

"Operationally, (the reduction in driver hours) obviously has its negative impact on productivity," says Dolyniuk. "On the safety side, presuming the statistics are correct, it should create safer roadways between the industry and the general public."

But Troy, a Vancouver-area driver who declines to have his last name published for fear of reprisal from trucking firms, says the new regulations won't make a difference. "I don't think it's going to affect anything," he says while refuelling his tractor-trailer at a truckstop in Langley. "There's no way you can regulate it. It's a matter of drivers just doing whatever they want."

Most local drivers can complete their runs in 13 hours, he says, and must abide by rules, because there is less paperwork in which to hide violations. But, he adds, long-haul drivers routinely doctor their logbooks to indicate they worked fewer hours.

"Everybody fakes that," says Troy. "Everyone puts in (their logbooks) they only unload in 15 minutes. It's the way the industry works."

But an Etobicoke, Ont.-based driver, who was also interviewed in Langley but declined to give his name, says he is able to complete his runs, which are mostly to the U.S., while driving for 11 hours and taking 10 hours off.

"I find I hardly ever get tired," he says.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)