Q&A - Written Pre-Trip & Log Book

Your truck is a commercial vehicle by definition:

"commercial motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle, used in the course of business for the transportation of persons or freight, that is

(a) a truck or truck tractor with a licensed gross vehicle weight exceeding 5 000 kg and includes an attached trailer,

(b) a bus,

(c) a motor vehicle the operator of which is required to hold a licence under the Motor Carrier Act or a licence or temporary operating permit under the Passenger Transportation Act, or

(d) a business vehicle, as defined in section 237 of the Act, that has a gross vehicular weight in excess of 5 000 kilograms;

You will need to do a written trip inspection report:

Trip inspection report

37.23  (1) This section applies to a commercial motor vehicle to which Part 1 of Division 25 of this regulation applies under section 25.01 (2), but does not apply to

(a) commercial motor vehicles rented for a single trip,

(b) an emergency vehicle,

(c) a 2 axle vehicle with a licensed gross vehicle weight not exceeding 14 600 kg, excluding a bus, school bus, special activity bus or special vehicle, or

(d) a taxi where the carrier requires the driver of the taxi to immediately notify the carrier of defects found in the inspections under section 37.22 and defects that come to the driver's attention while operating the taxi.

Interpretation and application

25.01 (2) This Part applies to

(a) a taxi,

(b) a bus, including a school bus in respect of which a permit has been issued under Division 11,

(c) a commercial vehicle having a licensed gross vehicle weight of more than 8 200 kg,

(d) a vehicle, other than a motorcycle, the operator of which is required to hold a licence under the Motor Carrier Act or a licence or temporary operating permit under the Passenger Transportation Act,

(e) a vehicle, other than a motorcycle, owned or leased by a driver training school, and

(f) a trailer and semi-trailer as defined under the Commercial Transport Act,

but does not include a vehicle

(g) that is an industrial machine or road building machine, other than a vehicle described by body style in Schedule 1 to this Division that has a licensed gross vehicle weight greater than 17 300 kg,

(h) licensed under section 8, 9, 38, 41, 42 or 44 of the Act,

(i) owned by the Queen in Right of Canada,

(j) driven under a permit issued under section 6 (7) of the Commercial Transport Act or under Division 14 of this regulation,

(k) to which section 21 of the Act applies, or

(l) that is a commercial motor vehicle, other than a bus, having a licensed gross vehicle weight of 17 300 kg or less and that is licensed and insured as a farm vehicle.

You will not be required to complete a log book:

Requirement to fill out a daily log

37.18.01  (1) A carrier must require every driver to fill out and every driver must fill out a daily log each day that accounts for all of the driver's on-duty time and off-duty time for that day.

(2) This section does not apply if

(a) the driver operates or is instructed by the carrier to operate a commercial motor vehicle within a radius of 160 km of the home terminal,

(b) the driver returns to the home terminal each day to begin a minimum of 8 consecutive hours of off-duty time, and

(c) the carrier maintains accurate and legible records showing, for each day, the driver's duty status and elected cycle, the hour at which each duty status begins and ends and the total number of hours spent in each status and keeps those records for a minimum period of 6 months after the day on which they were recorded.

(3) Despite subsection (2), this section applies to an oil well service vehicle whether or not paragraphs (a) to (c) are met by the driver of and carrier for the oil well service vehicle.

While the Carrier Safety Guide is aimed at your employer, it will give you some understanding of what they have to expect you as an employee to do.