B.C. asks for collaborative oversight of trucking from federal level

With more than 30 overpass crashes reported in a two-year span in B.C., the province is asking for federal help to make penalties against trucking companies stick.

This latest push comes after Chohan Freight Forwarders Ltd. — which was suspended in B.C. following an overpass crash involving one of its trucks — was seen using its Alberta-licensed vehicles in the province.

In a letter to his federal counterpart, B.C. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming says there needs to be some sort of national oversight of commercial trucking.

“The strongest things that we can do are within our own provincial jurisdiction and that’s the problem in Canada, unlike the United States, that there isn’t coordination between different jurisdictions around a common registry,” Fleming said in an interview with CityNews.

“When it comes to… conducting an investigation across provincial lines, that’s what we want to have in Canada.”

He says the current, decentralized safety certificate model allows a carrier to operate in one jurisdiction without penalty, even if it has been suspended in another. As it is now, he says companies are able to exploit the excuse that what happens in one province or territory essentially stays there.

However, Fleming says he wants to stress that the small number of offending companies provoking this issue do not represent the greater trucking industry in B.C.

“We’re talking about a very very small percentage of the industry,” Fleming said. “We have about one hundred thousand truck movements every day in B.C. and when we have a couple of dozen overpass collisions… that is very concerning, but it gives you an idea of how small the irresponsible sector of the industry is.”

While he says B.C. has taken action on the issue by raising fines “to the highest level in the country” and grounding an offending company’s fleets during an investigation, the province can’t make the change that needs to be seen on its own.

Fleming is pushing for the subject to be added to the agenda of the next Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers of Transportation meeting.

Industry says Fleming’s letter a ‘big conversation’

Dave Earle, president and CEO of the BC Trucking Association, tells CityNews he fully supports Fleming’s ask. However, he admits it’s a long, complicated road ahead to make this change.

“Are we talking about coordinating efforts to make sure that assets aren’t moved from one province to another? Or are we talking about national suspensions, based on different types of issues? Those are the conversations that need to happen and they’re not easy ones,” Earle said.

“Because it’s not just the federal government — it’s all other provinces as well. This is a piece of federal legislation and what we’re asking for, and what the minister is asking for, is to make the system better.”

While those larger, regulatory changes will take years, he says the industry is working on improvements and coordination that can happen sooner.

“This is a big conversation, while we really applaud Minister Fleming’s letter to get the ball rolling, what we’re really focusing on now within the industry is what we can do now to make it better — not perfect — let’s not let perfect get in the way of better,” Earle said.

“Let’s figure out what we can do given the current structure to make this system more efficient, more transparent and more effective. Then, as we go, we can find different levers to pull and make the changes that we need to.”