CSA - Does It Apply to Canadian Truck Drivers?

It applies to CANADIAN COMPANIES & DRIVERS operating in the USA.

 

NO, it does not go on your Canadian license.

Every driver gets a PSP and that is where the information is stored. The info comes from documented inspections only.

http://www.slideshare.net/ComplyStar/csa-2010-cmv-drivers

 

Any interstate carrier with a US DOT number will be involved in the CSA 2010 program, no matter where they are domiciled. However, only accidents and violations that occur in the US will be counted in the data collection and evaluation system. The same is true of US carriers operating in Canada or Mexico

 

It's very similar to our CVOR here in Ontario. Any violations, be it log book or safety related, while operating a commercial vehicle, (large truck) will show on your record.

To date, this has only happened in Canada. If it hasn't taken place in the States, then it really hasn't happened and doesn't matter. That's why there is so much confusion about it.

 

And yet the scales on the 17 at the Elliot Lake turn off have no problems giving out fines and 72 hour OOS orders for things done in the US. It seems no one can figure out what the rules really are.

 

My understanding is that any violations that occur in either country by a driver that is on a current cycle (meaning they haven't had a reset) can be written up by enforcement officers in either country. That understanding is based on my encounter at a B.C.-border scale (southbound)... the scale officer said I was lucky I had a reset or he would have written me several violations for a Calgary to Salinas trip from the previous week (it may have shown a little, okay, a lot, less time than it should ). I haven't bothered to investigate whether he would have the jurisdictional right to do so. He may have also only been referring to the Canadian portion of the trip, but I am sure it was all good and didn't ask him to clarify.

I don't necessarily agree with that if, in fact, that is the case. There is also the issue of joint-enforcement scales, such as the one in Coutts, AB... which I also don't like and have posted about.

A driver cannot be written for doing something in one country that is legal, but would produce a violation in the country of inspection, eg., driving 13 hours in Canada or having a 34-hour reset in the U.S.

All of this was the case before CSA, so nothing has changed in that regard.

Funny part about the rest of the B.C. scale encounter; he was yelling at me about how could I possibly make it from Calgary to Salinas in XX hours?

Officer: "I have a sister that lives in Calif., I know how long it takes to drive there."
Me: "I have a secret short-cut."
Officer: "What secret short-cut?"
Me: "If I told you that, it wouldn't be a secret anymore, would it?"​

Yeah, I got inspected every time I subsequently went through that scale and he was on duty.

 

The 2 drivers that I talked to that had this happen to them, both had something that would have been a violation from weeks before. In one instance, the driver had left a scale ticket from in the US, from 2 weeks prior in his logbook by accident. Since the scale ticket never matched his logs(from the US, 2 weeks prior), he was given the better part of a $500 fine, and put OOS for 72 hours. There was little he could do about the OOS, but the company is fighting the ticket.

 

Was he on Cycle 2? Seventy-two hours seems extreme, but I haven't really paid attention to various punishments... I just try to avoid them.