Hours of service - Northwest Territories

Application

Under the Hours of Service Regulations of the Motor Vehicle Act, drivers in the Northwest Territories are restricted as to the number of hours they may drive or be on-duty. A “driver” is a person who drives a National Safety Code (NSC) vehicle on a highway or seasonal highway or, where the vehicle is not in motion, the person who is in physical control of such vehicle. The regulations do not, however, apply when operating the following vehicles:

• Two- or three-axle NSC vehicles carrying primary products of a farm, forest, sea, or lake produced by the driver or the driver’s employer, or a return trip after transporting the primary products in an emergency, if the vehicle is empty or is transporting materials to be used to acquire the primary products;
• Emergency vehicles;
• Recreational vehicles;
• Enforcement vehicles;
• Urban transit service buses;
• NSC vehicles under contract with a municipal corporation or the Government of the Territories to remove snow or control ice on highways;
• NSC vehicles under contract with a municipal corporation to remove sewage or deliver water;
• Vehicles used for the restoration of any public utility;
• Vehicles transporting goods or passengers to provide relief during a natural disaster;
• NSC vehicles leased for 30 days or less by an individual to transport the individual’s personal goods or for the gratuitous carriage of passengers; or
• NSC vehicles when driven for personal use if the vehicle has been unloaded, trailers have been unhitched, the distance travelled does not exceed 75 kilometres in a day, the driver is not subject to an out-of-service order, and the driver is not using the NSC vehicle in the course of business as a carrier.

Northwest Territories follows the hours of service provisions for drivers north of the 60th parallel.

Driver Cycles

Because the intent of the regulations is to limit the driving and on-duty time in a day, and to ensure drivers obtain enough rest, the regulations establish two cycles that drivers must follow. If a driver is following Cycle 1, then he/she cannot drive after accumulating 80 hours of on-duty time in seven days. If a driver is following Cycle 2, then he/she cannot drive after accumulating 120 hours of on-duty time in 14 days, or 80 hours of on-duty time without having taken at least 24 consecutive hours of off-duty time. If a driver reaches the 80-hour or 120-hour limits, then he/she can reset the cycles by taking 36 hours or 72 hours of off-duty time, respectively. Drivers may also switch from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2 by taking 36 hours of off-duty time, or switch from Cycle 2 to Cycle 1 by taking 72 hours of off-duty time.

All drivers, regardless of cycle, must have taken at least 24 consecutive hours off-duty time in the preceding 14 days.

Limitations

A driver may not drive after:

• Accumulating 15 hours of driving time within a day or within a workshift;
• Accumulating 18 hours of on-duty time within a day or within a workshift; or
• Twenty hours have elapsed from the start of his/her workshift (the 20-hour period, also called the workshift, is determined by the conclusion of the most recent period of eight or more hours off duty to the start of the next period of eight or more hours off duty).

After reaching any of the above limits, a driver must obtain eight consecutive hours of off-duty time before driving again.

Drivers are required to take at least eight hours of off-duty time in a day. The total amount of off-duty time taken in a day must include at least two hours of off-duty time that does not form part of a period of eight consecutive hours of off-duty time.

Single drivers and team drivers driving commercial vehicles equipped with sleeper berths are allowed to split the daily off-duty time into two periods, instead of taking one long period of off-duty time. Single drivers who wish to split time must ensure that:

• Neither period of off-duty time is shorter than two hours;
• The total of the two periods is at least eight hours;
• The off-duty time is spent in the sleeper berth; and
• In the time before and after each sleeper period:
  • The driving time does not exceed 15 hours; and
  • The on-duty time does not include any driving time after the 20th hour after the driver comes on duty.

The rules are slightly different for drivers in a team situation. Team drivers who split their daily off-duty time must meet the same requirements as a single driver, except that the periods of off-duty time must be at least four hours.

Driving extensions

The hours of service regulations regarding 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 NSC vehicle and for other users of the road or the security of the NSC vehicle and its load. In an emergency, a driver may extend the 15 hours of driving time by the amount of time needed to complete the trip. The extension cannot exceed two hours, the driver must take the required eight consecutive hours of off-duty time, and the driver must have been able to complete the trip under normal driving conditions (without the extension).

Winter road resupply vehicles

Drivers operating winter road resupply vehicles are subject to less restrictive hours of service limits. Winter road resupply vehicles are NSC vehicles operated on a seasonal highway greater than 20 kilometres in length, where the destination or termination of the trip is in the Northwest Territories.

Winter road resupply vehicle drivers may not accumulate more than 105 hours of on-duty time over a seven-day period. Drivers must take at least eight consecutive hours of off-duty time every 24 hours beginning at midnight on the day the drivers will drive.

If the winter road resupply vehicle is equipped with a sleeper berth, single and team drivers may split the off-duty time into two periods. Single drivers may split the sleeper time if neither period of off-duty time is shorter than two hours and the total of the two periods in the sleeper is at least eight hours. Team drivers are subject to the same conditions except that each period in the sleeper must be at least four hours.

Permits

The Northwest Territories may issue a permit for a carrier to exceed hours of service. Permits may be issued for oil well service vehicles, pilot projects, and intra-territorial vehicles. Refer to Northwest Territories Hours of Service Regulation, R-099-2008, for more details.

Recordkeeping

Drivers are required to maintain daily logs to document their duty status for each 24-hour period. Daily logs must be legible and include the following information:

• Date;
• Beginning time (the time at which the driver begins his/her first moment of on-duty time in a day);
• Printed name of the driver and the co-driver’s name(s), if applicable;
• Driver’s cycle;
• NSC vehicle licence plate or unit numbers (unit number refers to the identification number assigned by the carrier);
• Beginning and ending odometer reading of every NSC vehicle the driver drives during the day;
• Name and address of the carrier’s home terminal and principal place of business (drivers must include the names and addresses of every carrier for which they worked during the day);
• In the “Remarks” section, if the driver was not required to keep a daily log immediately before the beginning of the day, the number of hours of off-duty time and on-duty time that were accumulated by the driver each day during the previous 14 days;
• On the graph grid, the total time spent in each duty status and the location of each duty status change, as that information becomes known;
• Duty status totals entered to the right of the graph grid (must total 24 hours);
• Total distance driven, minus personal use; and
• Driver’s signature attesting to the accuracy of the information.

While on the road, the driver is required to have in his/her possession the current log (completed to the time shown for the last change of duty status), as well as logs for the preceding 14 consecutive days. The driver is also required to have for inspection purposes any supporting documents to verify the information in his logs.

Drivers may only keep one daily log per day.

Automatic recorders

Drivers may use an electronic recording device to record their hours of service if:

• The information contained in the device records the same information as required by the handwritten daily log;
• When requested by an inspector, the driver can provide information on the previous 14 days (on the display screen, on a printout, and/or other legible output);
• The device displays the driving time and on-duty time for each day, the total on-duty time remaining and accumulated in the cycle, and sequential changes in duty status and the time at which each change occurred;
• The driver is able to recreate a handwritten log from the information in the device;
• The device records the date and time when it is has been disconnected and reconnected; and
• The device records the time in each duty status.

Drivers using an electronic recording device must also sign any hard copies printed from the device. Carrier are required to provide blank daily log forms in the NSC vehicle for the driver’s use.

Recordkeeping exemptions

Although the hours of service limits still apply, a driver is exempt from the daily log requirements if he/she operates within a 160 kilometre radius of the home terminal and returns there each day to begin a minimum of eight consecutive hours of off-duty time. The carrier is required to maintain a records showing the driver’s total hours of driving and on-duty each day.

If these conditions are no longer met, the driver becomes subject to the daily log requirements.

Record distribution

Within 20 calendar days, the driver must submit the original of each log and all supporting documents to the carrier. Where the driver works for more than one carrier in any given day, the driver must submit the original daily log to the first carrier for which the driver worked and provide copies to the other carriers for which the driver worked. The original supporting documents must be provided to the respective carrier.

The carrier must retain all daily logs and supporting documents in chronological order for each driver for a period of at least six months from the date they were prepared.

Compliance monitoring

Carriers must monitor each driver’s hours of service compliance. Carriers may use electronic log auditing tools or services to check and verify hours of service; however, operators are also encouraged to monitor drivers actual on-the-road hours and compare hours of service reported on the daily log to supporting documents.

If it is determined that a driver has failed to comply with the hours of service regulations, the carrier must record the date(s) of the non-compliance, the date(s) on which the carrier issued the remedial action, and details regarding the remedial action.

Enforcement

A driver may be put out-of-service for violating various hours of service provisions, such as exceeding the driving time, failing to comply with the minimum off-duty requirements, failing to provide a daily log, creating more than one daily log, or daily log falsification.

An out-of-service order applies for:

• Eight hours if the driver:
  • Is impaired to the point of being unsafe or to the point of jeopardizing the safety/health of the public;
  • Drives after accumulating 15 hours driving time, 18 hours on-duty time, or 20 hours elapsed time; or
  • Fails to obtain eight consecutive hours of off-duty time before driving;
• The number of hours to correct the failure if the driver fails to comply with the off-duty time requirements; and
• Seventy-two consecutive hours if the driver falsifies the log or fails to provide supporting documentation to an inspector (the out-of-service declaration continues until the driver corrects the daily log and can prove compliance).

Law

Motor Vehicles Act, Section 349

Regulation

Hours of Service Regulations, R-099-2008