Cargo Business Newswire

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Trucking firms file suit over new Port Metro Vancouver container rates

Thirty-three trucking companies that employ truckers to haul cargo at Port Metro Vancouver have filed a lawsuit questioning the federal right to set container rates. The companies are challenging the provision of a recent labor deal that set per-container fee rates, asserting that the port had no jurisdiction to set the rates in the first place.

The suit is related to an agreement that ended a labor conflict that had closed down the port for 28 days, as more than 250 union truck drivers represented by Unifor went on strike and over 1,000 independent owner-operators also refused to work. The drivers were protesting long wait times at the port, and owner-operators were particularly concerned with undercutting of per-container rates that have remained frozen since 2006 in a schedule set by labor mediator Vince Ready in 2005.

Increasing the per-container rates of pay for truck owner-operators by 12 percent was key to resolving the dispute, but the companies are arguing that the federal government, through Port Metro Vancouver, has no authority to set rates because trucking is a province-regulated sector.

"If (the companies) are successful, this will put (the situation) worse than back to square one," said Gavin McGarrigle, area director for Unifor. "They're asking to reset the clock not just before 2014, but back before 2005."

The civil claim was filed in Vancouver Supreme Court last Friday, and seeks an order declaring that the port and federal government didn't have jurisdiction, an injunction overturning the increase, and financial damages with interest.

"The port increased (rates) as a condition of license, where the trucking companies had no involvement at all," said Israel Chafetz, one of the lawyers on the case, which involves 33 trucking firms led by Pro West Transport and Trend Transport.

Chafetz added that the raise "(constitutes) financial damage (to the companies) because they're paying more for trucking than they might have to pay."

For more of the Vancouver Sun story: vancouversun.com