There are a couple of things that I would like to change. If I could rewrite the regulations, I would rewrite a couple of portions of it.

Number one, if you go to application section 2, it says:

(1) These Regulations apply to all commercial vehicles other than the following:

(a) a two or three-axle commercial vehicle being used for

(i) transporting the primary products of a farm....

I would extend that definition to be “a two or three-axle commercial vehicle and tractor-trailer units”, and also have some inclusion for big vehicles that are pulling trailers.

The reality is that the days of farmers just using two-axle or three-axle trucks and not going beyond that are far beyond us. The reality of agriculture today is that we're using far bigger equipment.

The other one I would change is the definition of “adverse conditions” that's in the regulations. It says that it:

“means snow, sleet, fog or other adverse weather or road conditions that were not known to a driver or a motor carrier dispatching a driver...”

Adverse conditions can be that you have a fire along the road, and the smoke is so thick that you have to slow down. It can be a rock slide on the mountain that has blocked the road, or there was an accident.

There is no definition for an emergency in the definitions in the regulations. I'm not going to sit here and say how an emergency should be defined, but there should be some work put into what would constitute an emergency, and that definition should be in a guidance document for enforcement officers and for drivers so they have some clarity that they're not going to get hammered because they went over time because these conditions happened.

The other change would be to subsections 76(1) and 76(2) regarding the use of electronic logs, which say:

The requirements of these Regulations in respect of driving time, on-duty time and off-duty time do not apply to a driver who, in an emergency, requires more driving time to reach a destination that provides safety for the occupants of the commercial vehicle and for other users of the road...

I would extend that to be similar to what we have in the States, where, if you're within 150 miles of where you're going and you have live animals on board or you're carrying an agricultural product, you have the leeway to be able to make it to where you're going so that you're not stressing yourself out. Go that last little bit and finish the trip. It's in the best interest of the cargo and the driver. I would make accommodations for aligning our regulations with the States that way.

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