ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — One of B.C.’s most respected and identifiable trucking carriers has left its provincial association and announced it will launch its own campaign to "raise the bar" in promoting transportation safety and tougher enforcement on the highway.

Fred Zweep, president of 300-truck liquid and dry bulk tank carrier Vedder Transportation and Can-Am West of Abbotsford, contacted todaystrucking.com to reveal that he has quit the BC Trucking Association and the Canadian Trucking Alliance over what he says is a philosophical shift on how to advance safety issues and deal with less scrupulous carriers within the associations and the industry at large.

In an exclusive interview, Zweep clarifies that he has no ill feelings toward the associations or their senior management, but he alleges that they have limited ability to screen and qualify sub-par carriers within their own ranks, placing him at a competitive disadvantage with companies he’s supposed to share a lobbying and PR affiliation with.

Fred Zweep has decided he can be effective
calling for stricter truck enforcement on his own

"Although (the BCTA-CTA) have taken the steps to bring safety and awareness, they have no ability to enforce the rules," he says. "And they have some members who are not quality carriers. We no longer want to be associated with those carriers — whether it’s just one or 25 – that are utilizing the nameplates and logos of BCTA and CTA to enhance the credibility of their business because there’s little criteria (for membership)."

Zweep says the majority of the industry is made up of safe, compliant carriers, but the "bad apples" aren’t dealt with harshly enough by enforcement officials and often skirt the rules by, among other tactics, operating under different nameplates.

"We have transport companies here in B.C. that run transborder that are operating multiple, different trucking operations," he says. "And they just shift equipment from one fleet to another to prevent being caught.

"I’m expected to compete against that? I can’t."

He tells us he’s planning "a campaign to gather facts and data" about the truck enforcement standards in the industry and then "pose the question to regulatory people: ‘what are you going to do about it?’"

"We’ve chosen to continue this campaign privately … because of our high profile in the industry and hopefully that will make enforcement take notice," he says. "This is very different for us — to step out."

He says he has no beef with the "top-tier" transporters operating in the same segments (here, he rattles off a list of nameplates he’s respectful of). "They’re not the one we’re bothered about."

Lamenting the changes specifically in dry van and drayage (the latter is a sector Vedder withdrew from years ago because of a flood of "unsophisticated" truckers), Zweep says: "These used to be offered as a sophisticated solution to the customer. There was top-tier pricing where you could afford to keep good people and operate a clean, safe fleet of equipment."

He stresses, however, that addressing the shipping community’s role in safety is arguably the biggest part of his agenda.  

STEADY VEDDER: BCTA hopes it can
entice Vedder Transport to return

"The shipping community is what allows these uneducated transporters to survive. You have top tier shippers who have the processes in place to evaluate the selection of their carriers, but the vast majority doesn’t have that process."

Paul Landry, the outgoing president of the BCTA, says he was surprised at Vedder’s withdrawal at first, and is sorry to see the carrier separate.

In a letter to Zweep, Landry acknowledges there may be a handful of fleets that don’t share the same regard for safety and regulations, adding that the BCTA board continues to search for a process that ‘"would allow us to objectively and fairly assess new applicants as well as monitor the affairs of our existing membership." Further, it is the association’s hope that "under-performing carriers will eventually subscribe to BCTA’s values and policy positions."

However, Landry says in a follow-up interview, that those carriers are a "tiny minority" and without access to National Safety Code (NSC) records, it is nearly impossible for the BCTA to scrutinize them objectively.

He says that the BCTA has led a number of initiatives that have forced the worst carriers off the road and punish their accomplices at "lick and stick" inspection facilities that falsely certify equipment as roadworthy.

As far as the shortcomings of the National Safety Code go, Landry points out there has been no bigger critic of the standards than the BCTA.

"We are the only organization (in BC) aggressively leading the charge for improvements in safety; that is consistent and persistent in our criticism of the NSC in that it’s failing to do the job it was designed to do," Landry tells todaystrucking.com. "Frankly, how does withdrawing one’s support from our association advance the case for safety in the industry? If you stop supporting the very organization that is trying to get the job done? No carrier on its own could do that."

Landry points out that in a recent meeting with the BC  Ministry of Transport, BCTA emphasized the expedited review of the NSC standards by no later than the end of the year.

"Anybody who supports us and pays their dues is really paying for our effort to improve the situation for all carriers and the industry. And to the extent that we are successful, our efforts will cause harm to (underperforming) carriers."

To Zweep’s point about careless shippers, Landry says the associations constantly stress to the public and shippers that they make the "connection between cheap rates and unsafe carriers – and their own culpability in hiring them."

Landry hopes that the communication line between BCTA and Zweep remains open and "eventually, we can get them back."

"They’re a very good company and the kind of company we want to represent."