VANCOUVER, B.C. — Talks have broken off between truck drivers serving the Port of Vancouver and their employers.

In a release, the Vancouver Container Truck Association announced “The brokers failed to step up to the plate…they refused to move beyond the existing inadequate rates. The reality is that the brokers are focused on competing amongst themselves at our expense.”

Last week a mediator was appointed by the province in hopes of bringing a quick resolution to the dispute which has now dragged on for well over a week. Each day, $30 million of containerized freight is being stacked aside at the port while the 1,000 truckers who normally haul the loads continue to wait for a better deal. They say they’re not being compensated for rising fuel costs.

Containerized loads continue to move through the port by rail, but Vancouver Port Authority spokeswoman Anne McMullin told local media there’s an increasing backlog of containers that were to be hauled by truck.

“We have shippers complaining. We have people wondering where their goods are,” she told local media yesterday.

B.C. Labour Minister Mike de Jong also voiced his frustration that there appeared to be little progress despite the appointment of a mediator.

“Depending on where the parties are at, these exercises tend to work when there is some prospect for success and right now the indication we’re getting is that the parties are still pretty far apart,” de Jong told reporters in Vancouver.