BCTA closely monitors issues related to Port Metro Vancouver (PMV). While we deal primarily with policy, we are often able to provide other forms of support.
Achievements
2011
Opposed PMV’s controversial Terminal Gate Compliance Initiative for a reservation fee system, which originally proposed a $1 payment per filled appointment and $25 for a cancellation. The terminals agreed to eliminate of the $1 fee, flexibility for cancellations due to uncontrollable circumstances, a voucher system for missed or cancelled reservations, to waive penalties for significant events (e.g., a bridge closure) and, at Deltaport, Vanterm and Centerm, to implement a 4 pm, prior-day cut-off time for cancellation without penalty. They will also establish service level standards with reciprocal penalties for terminals, although details are still to come. Negotiations delayed the original September 2011 start date three times to January 1, 2012.
Convinced PMV to lift the moratorium on fleet size increases and licences for new company applicants (i.e., companies operating company-owned equipment), which PMV originally imposed on December 18, 2009. PMV lifted the moratorium on January 4, 2011.
BCTA continues to oppose the regulation of compensation for non-unionized drayage owner-operators to the federal and provincial governments and PMV at every opportunity (see 2007 achievements, below). The regulation is virtually unenforceable and unfairly affects companies and workers that didn’t cause the problem the regulation is trying to solve (i.e., a dispute that disrupted port operations in 2005). Eliminating this regulation could lead to a significant reduction in PMV’s $300 per truck annual Truck Licensing System (TLS) fee (effective February 1, 2011).
2010
Convinced PMV to implement a pilot project in 2011 to test global positioning system (GPS) technology (supplied free to participants) instead of arbitrarily requiring all local drayage carriers in its TLS to purchase and use a specific, PMV-approved GPS (as it had originally announced).
Advocated that PMV support a “one-card” system by accepting security cards issued by other government agencies as and when Port Pass cards are replaced by newer card technologies.
2009
During the emergency closure of the Patullo Bridge in January 2009, BCTA requested and received assurance from officials at Port terminals that they would provide flexibility for carriers being held up by increased traffic congestion.
Provided comment and advice on the TLS environmental and truck age standard and implementation timeline to ensure adequate notice so that carriers and owner-operators could plan future equipment purchase decisions.
Informed PMV that annual opacity tests for trucks manufactured between 1994 and 1999 are unnecessary and wasteful because trucks would either not pass the test, even though they are in compliance with the manufacturer’s standard at the time, or will soon be taken out of commission by virtue of the Port’s truck age standard.
Responded to a Transport Canada review on federal regulations requiring non-unionized owner-operators to be paid union rates. BCTA and the Canadian Trucking Alliance opposed the regulations because they are unnecessary and unenforceable, set an undesirable precedent, and violate the principles of the Canada Transportation Act.
2007
Provided comment on a new federal regulation requiring union rates for local drayage owner-operators employed by non-unionized trucking companies. The regulation was introduced days prior to the expiry of a Memorandum of Agreement created to induce container owner-operators to end their labour disruption in the summer of 2005. While BCTA was ultimately unsuccessful in convincing the federal government not to introduce the regulation, we did influence the outcome in two ways: through the exemption of long-haul owner-operators and company trucks with employee drivers from the regulation and an official commitment, within the regulation, to a review in two years.
Worked to streamline the application process under new federal requirements for Marine Transportation Security Clearance for drivers who must enter restricted-clearance areas at PMV cruise ship terminals.
Ongoing advocacy for reasonable environmental and safety standards for vehicles entering the PMV that recognize the effectiveness of testing programs already in place, without further inconveniencing members who must do business at the Port.
Influenced two significant changes to the Truck Licensing Agreement to ensure that:
restrictions on transfers of ownership do not hamper a bona fide share transfer or sale of an existing company; and
comprehensive general liability and automobile liability insurance requirements were reduced from $5 million to $2 million.
In the first case, BCTA argued that revoking licences based on share transfers or the sale of a company would substantially devalue the good-will component of a company’s business, and in the second, that it is unusual for local drayage companies to carry $5 million general liability insurance, for which some may not qualify and when few insurers will even write policies that large for them.