UDMUNDSETH

MICKELS()N,.,

2525 - 1075 W Georgia St.

Vancouver BC tanada V6E 3C9

804 685 8272

www.lawgm.com

LISA MARTZ
lm@lawgm .com
Direct Line: 604 484 3739

January 30,2015

Via Email (robin.silvester@portmetrovancouver.com) and Courier

Attention:

Robin Silvester, President and CEO

Vancouver Fraser Port Authority

dba Port Metro Vancouver
100 The Pointe, 999 Canada Place
Vancouver, B.C. V6C 3T4

Re:

New Truck Licensing System for Local Drayage

We are counsel to a group of container trucking companies who are long-standing licensees
the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority dba Porl Metro Vancouver ("Port Metro Vancouver").

of

Our clients were notified this week that their applications for licensing under the new truck
licensing system ("TLS") launched by Port Metro Vancouver in December 2014 have been
denied.

We understand that Port Metro Vancouver therefore takes the position that after many years of
providing container trucking services to the port, our clients will summarily be denied further
access to the port as ofFebruary I,20I5.

As a result, our clients now face the prospect of the sudden and total destruction of their
businesses which are wholly dependent on access to the porl, including the loss of their
investment in specialized container truck equipment suitable only for use at the port and the
layoff of large numbers of employees.

In our view, the new TLS has clearly been implemented in a manner which violates our clients'
rights and further, is paft of a statutory framework which is constitutionally unsound.
The facts which demonstrate the grossly unfair nature of the process overseen by Port Metro
Vancouver include the following:

1.

While structural changes at the port have been under discussion since the work stoppage
by container truck drivers last spring, our clients were only advised of what the new TLS

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2'7

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would consist of when the Local Drayage TLS Handbook (the "TLS Handbook") was
released on December 9,2014.

2.

In previous years, the license renewal process consisted of an online application which
required applicants only to confirm their basic information, provide proof of valid
insurance and proof of ownership of any new trucks added to the company fleet, and pay
a $300 per truck fee in order to obtain their new license.

3.

The TLS Handbook imposed an entirely new set of requirements on license applicants,
many of which are onerous.

4.

On January 16, 2015, Port Metro Vancouver announced that

it

would no longer

be

accepting new applications. As a result, our clients had a matter of less than 5 weeks over
to familiarize themselves with the new
application process and submit their applications.

the Christmas vacation period in which

5.

On or about January 26,2015, only 5 days prior to the expiry of their current licenses, our
clients were notified that their applications had been denied and that their access to the
port, and therefore their businesses, were at an end.

6.

In voluntary 'de-briefing' meetings offered by Port Metro Vancouver, our clients learned
for the first time how the criteria set out in the TLS Handbook had been applied,
including the use of a points system in respect of the "Additional Entry Criteria", which
was not referenced in the TLS Handbook, to make the final determination of who among
the applicants who had met the "Mandatory Entry Criteria" would be granted a license.

7.

As a result of these meetings, our clients became aware of ways in which they could have
submitted applications that would apparently have been accepted. However, because this
information was only provided to them after the fact, they did not have the opportunity to
pursue them.

8. Despite the extraordinary

consequences of a denial of their applications, no appeal or

reconsideration process has been offered to our clients.

9.

Despite the creation of a compensation and assistance program for owner operators (i.e.
drivers) whose licensing status has been the subject of separate changes, no compensation
or assistance has been offered to container trucking companies.

Our clients now face the imminent loss of their businesses as well as irreparable harm to their
reputations as a result of their sudden rejection by Port Metro Vancouver, which gives rise to the
inference that Port Metro Vancouver has some legitimate reason for no longer wishing to do
business with them.
Given the stakes for our clients, we expect to receive instructions to commence legal proceedings
seeking intervention by the Courts in respect of the deeply flawed TLS process.

Should Port Metro Vancouver wish to explore alternative ways

resolved, we invite you to contact us immediately.

004988-0001/000727 50 2

in which this crisis might

be

Page

Although at present this is a matter relating primarily to the conduct of Port Metro Vancouver,
given the pending transition to a provincial TLS framework and the constitutional issues that we
see arising as a result, we are copying the B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.
ETH

ON

llp

Lisa
L}L4lzjh
cc:

Greg Rogge, Director,Land Operations, Port Metro Vancouver

Peter Xotta, Vice President, Planning and Operations, Pofi Metro Vancouver

The Honourable Lisa Raitt, Federal Minister of Transport

via email (lisa.raitt@frarl. gc.ca)
The Honourable Todd Stone, B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure
via email (Minister.Transportation@ gov.bc. ca)

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