British Columbia trucking company grounded after tunnel strike

Another trucking company has been grounded by the government of British Columbia following an infrastructure crash.

On Wednesday, Jan. 10, British Columbia’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure announced the immediate suspension of TSD Holdings’ safety certificate. The suspension comes in the wake of one of the company’s drivers allegedly striking the roof of the Massey Tunnel in Vancouver.

The ministry said TSD Holdings’ safety certificate would remain suspended – and its fleet of 20 trucks would be grounded – until an investigation from Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement was complete.

“This sends a strong message to drivers and carriers that there is no excuse for these crashes, and we are taking every incident seriously,” the ministry said in an email to Land Line. “It has never been easier to follow a route to guide the load to travel safely through our highway system and avoid the potential for impact with infrastructure.”

According to a report from the Richmond Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a witness was driving behind the company’s truck when it struck the tunnel roof. The witness said the driver initially stopped upon impact but then continued driving through.

The Richmond RCMP said its investigation determined the trailer was owned by TSD Holdings, but as of Friday, Jan. 12, it hadn’t identified the driver.

TSD Holdings did not respond to Land Line’s request for comment.

This is now the second trucking company to have its safety certificate suspended by the British Columbia government. In December, the ministry grounded the 65-truck-fleet of Chohan Freight Forwarders Ltd. following the company’s sixth infrastructure crash in two years.

According to the province’s Commercial Vehicle Bridge/Overpass Crash Report, there have been two infrastructure crashes in the first two weeks of 2024, with 19 such wrecks occurring over the previous 12 months.

“This needs to stop,” Rob Fleming, minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, said in a statement. “We know that the vast majority of commercial drivers in B.C. operate safely and responsibly. However, some operators are not getting the message.”

Earlier in the month, the ministry announced increased fines for carriers involved in bridge or overpass strikes, including the “suspension and possible cancellation” of safety certificates of repeat offenders. The ministry said the new fines, which are the highest of their kind in the country, are “part of a suite of new enforcement tools to mitigate these types of incidents involving commercial vehicles.”

While the stiffer penalties intend to deter future wrecks, the suspension handed down to Chohan exposed a flaw in the province’s new regulation. With its British Columbia fleet placed out of service, the trucking company turned to its Alberta division to continue moving freight.

Because the firm operates in Alberta as a separate entity, the provincial suspension did not apply to that fleet, allowing Chohan to continue to operate in British Columbia. This clever maneuvering led the ministry to ask the federal government for help with enforcement efforts.

In a letter to Federal Minister of Transport Pablo Rodriguez, the British Columbia ministry asked the federal government to collaborate with the provinces and territories to “improve the current decentralized safety certificate model and take an active role in finding solutions that will reduce the gaps in the current system that currently allow extra-provincial motor carrier undertakings (carriers) to lawfully avoid enforcement consequences when operating commercial vehicles unsafely across Canada.”

In its letter, the ministry requested the matter be added to the agenda of the upcoming Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers of Transportation meeting on Feb. 23 in Montreal. LL