Metro Port VancouverOwner-operators serving the Port Metro Vancouver in Canada halted work Wednesday, Feb. 26, and many formed a blockade by parking their trucks, according to a report from Canada’s Truck News, who reports that between 1,200 and 1,400 drivers took part in the strike.
The United Truckers Association scheduled the work stoppage in an attempt to solve problems with excessive wait times and in protest of the port’s requirements that owner-operators install the port’s Diesel Oxidation Catalyst, which the UTA says has been tough financially for its members.
In an email to the port earlier this week, UTA gave a 48-hour “notice of service disruption as truckers cannot afford to operate anymore.”
A representative of West Fraser Timber, a shipper, reported the drivers also are requesting better rates.
Inchcape Shipping Services said the protest likely would “severely impact” operations at the port, but because not all the drivers that serve the port are members of the newly formed UTA, the strike didn’t result in a complete disruption of its drayage operations.
