The Office of the British Columbia Container Trucking Commissioner (OBTCTC) has completed its recommendation report on off-dock drayage in the Lower Mainland and has published the report on its website.
The six recommendations focus on regulatory scope, rates and enforcement.
The first recommendation is to require unlicensed affiliate companies and those companies that contract with licensed drayage companies to pay the posted wages to drivers. “Truck drivers are entitled to fair remuneration and any situation where driver remuneration is undercut only gives rise to greater instability in the industry,” the recommendation says.
The second recommendation would assign truck tags only for the purpose of identifying trucks that require access to a marine container terminal. It suggests that although using untagged trucks for off-dock work makes enforcement a challenge, tagging all the trucks performing container trucking services would dilute the available amount of on-dock work for existing drivers of tagged trucks at licensed companies, and “could increase congestion/wait times at the terminals.”
Third, the report recommends that license holders provide a security based on the number of trucks they are running.
The fourth recommendation would tie funding from OBTCTC to the number of trucks moving containers. The OBCCTC is funded by a portion of the Truck Licensing System (TLS) fees collected by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) and is allocated money on a “per truck tag” basis. Rather than tie the amount of OBCCTC funding to the number of truck tags, it is recommended that the funding, like the security, be tied to the number of trucks identified under licence that perform container trucking services.
Fifth, it is recommended that the Rate Order be amended to eliminate trip rates and the Positioning Movement Rate (PMR) and introduce comparable minimum hourly rates for all employees and Independent Operators. “while compliance issues would not be completely resolved by the introduction of an industry-wide hourly pay model, I believe compliance would be greatly increased if driver pay structures were simplified, which would, in turn, result in greater fairness in driver remuneration,” said Michael Crawford, the container trucking commissioner, in the report.
The final recommendation is to require all licensees to install an electronic logging devices on all trucks and made the data available to the OBCCTC.
Targeted adjustments
The off-dock drayage recommendation report was completed in response to a request from the minister of transportation and infrastructure to examine opportunities to make targeted adjustments to the rates and policy related to off-dock drayage activity in the Lower Mainland.
“This is another important step toward finding fair and equitable solutions that work better for everyone who has a stake in this industry,” said Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.
“The container trucking industry is a vital part of B.C.’s economy and I look forward to the commissioner’s continued work on this file.”
The commissioner will engage industry and key stakeholders on consultation for implementation of the recommendations.
In 2020, the Province and the commissioner requested a study to better understand off-dock truck trips that support containerized shipping throughout the Lower Mainland. The study was published in September 2020.
The commissioner has since conducted ongoing consultation to find industry solutions that support a stable, efficient and competitive container-trucking sector.
The full Off-Dock Drayage in the Lower Mainland Recommendation Report be found here.
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