Calculating Hours Of Service In Canada

Calculating hours of service (HOS) under the Canadian ruleset is fairly easy. There are some key principles that you need to take into account to make sure that your logs are compliant. 

Under Canadian federal rules, there are 4 cycles or rulesets that can be used. These are divided into two groups. South of the 60th parallel and north of the 60th parallel. The 60th parallel is a line that divides the Northern and Yukon territories, and Nunavut with the rest of the other provinces :

• South of 60
  • 70 hours (on duty), 7 days, reset after 36 hours off
  • 120 hours (on duty), 14 days, reset after 72 hours off. 
• North of 60
  •  80 hours, 7 days, Reset after 36 hours off
  • 120 hours (on duty), 14 days, reset after 72 hours off. 

We will focus our discussion on the 70 hours South of 60 ruleset.

Basic rules of the 70 hours ruleset:

• 24 hours starting from the start of the day
• 13 hr driving time
• 14 hr on duty
• 16 hr work window
• 10 hr off duty
  • Includes 2 hr off duty  that’s not part of the required 8 hr consecutive break to reset (Core reset time)
    • Break must be 30m at least
  • 8 hr consecutive break to reset (Core reset time)

Here are the key principles to keep in mind when calculating 

Make sure to set your start of the day:

When calculating the hours of service for Canada, it is important to make sure you set the start of the day. In the rulesets for America, the start of the day is always set to midnight. In Canadian rulesets, you can select any time for the start of the day but you need to make sure that your calculations are done based on the 24-hour window you select.

Look at the maximum amount of data possible:

During your calculations, it is important to look at the maximum amount of data possible.  Therefore, you need to look at your logs from the day before and after the date you are looking to calculate your hours.  Doing this will allow you to see when the ending of your previous work shifts we to make sure you have completed the 8 hour consecutive off duty hours for a core reset.  

Know your start of day and workshift limits:

It is important to know when your start of the day is set and what your 16-hour workshift limits are. Your workshift starts when the first time you go ON duty or start driving. This 16-hour window is very important to remember as it will affect all your other requirements. 

Follow the Checklist to make sure you are compliant:

As the hours of service rules can get somewhat complicated, we have created a checklist for you to make sure that you are compliant.  The checklist below shows that you need to do to make sure your hours of service logs are not in violation.

Know your violations:

It is important to keep in mind how violations are handled in Geotab Drive. There are 2 key violations to look for when calculating hours of service for Canadian Rulesets:

1. Minimum 10 hours off duty per day violation
2. Minimum 2-hour rest per day violation

These are the most egregious type of violations as they will affect all of your daily logs which will cause all your logs for the day to be in violation. 

The Geotab Drive and most ELD systems are designed to make your current logs as valid as possible. Therefore, it will take hours from off duty blocks to make sure your current daily log is valid.

For example, if a driver only takes 1.5 hours of a break during the day the system will “steal” 30 minutes from the off-duty block. This means the driver will be required to stay off duty for 8.5 hours instead of 8 hours. 

For more information on the Canadian ELD Mandate or any GPS tracking, please contact us