B.C. truckers complain they're pushed beyond safe limits

Three B.C. truck drivers have come forward to warn that public safety is at risk on North American highways as drivers are pushed to stay behind the wheel longer than the law allows.

In written complaints to federal and provincial authorities, the drivers claim the company they worked for compelled them to drive beyond legal time limits. 

"I was threatened with suspension if I didn't do it," said truck driver Ray Bouliane.

He drove tractor-trailer units for Kerver Trucking Ltd., a subcontractor that owns and operates more than a dozen trucks for DCT Chambers Ltd. of Vernon, B.C.

Chambers, the larger company, dispatches the drivers who work for Kerver and other subcontractors, primarily to pick up and deliver wood chips throughout B.C. and the western United States.

Bouliane filed formal complaints with the Canada Industrial Relations Board, as well as Worksafe BC and the Ministry of Transportation, claiming he was forced to quit his job to avoid compromising safety on the road.

'It just scared the daylights out of me.' —Truck driver Ray Bouliane, on cross-border trip

"During training, I rode in one of the trucks — as a ride-along — with a guy who was driving eyes wide open, looking straight ahead, but he didn't know that all the traffic had stopped in front of him," said Bouliane.

"It just scared the daylights out of me because we hardly made it. We hardly stopped before those cars."

Bouliane's complaints detail how he quit last winter, after he refused to drive from Castlegar, B.C., to Lewiston, Idaho, and back, dispatched by Chambers, which he said would take 16 hours in winter driving conditions, including loading, unloading and weigh-scale time.

"I really needed my job, but I also needed to protect my safety, public safety and my driving record," said Bouliane.

It is illegal for anyone to drive a commercial truck for over 13 hours in Canada, 12 hours in the U.S. Drivers are allowed an additional one-hour maximum of on-duty time for loading and unloading.

Two other drivers formerly employed by Kerver have also sent statements to the authorities. They complained they were also expected to drive beyond legal limits — and did. Both also said they then falsified their driver logbooks, by recording shorter hours, to cover up the extra, illegal time on the road. 

'Wild West mentality'

"Falsifying my logbook was a requirement of the job," wrote Glen Boesel, who quit in June. "It was a Wild West mentality, and when I first started I was shocked."

"I was told not to refuse any work, even if it meant I would be over on my hours. Dispatch sent me on trips near the end of my shift, knowing I would go over [the legal limit]," Boesel added in his written statement.

 "I was told [by Kerver] to log illegal hours on the weekend under the boss's name. I would also say I started later than I actually did and make the runs shorter than they are," he explained.

James Beasley, who was fired in February for damaging trucks while loading, said in his written complaint he was sent on a run to Idaho in severe winter weather that took him 16 hours.

"I was swerving and everything," Beasley told CBC News. "Kerver Trucking will not let you overnight anywhere. I flubbed my logbook to make it look like it was 13 hours."

Beasley claimed his supervisor also told him to keep driving without adequate rest after he had reached his weekly legal limit of 70 hours.

"I later learned he had put me in a position where I could have been fined for a logbook violation and have a mark placed on my National Safety Code record," Beasley wrote in his submission.

No comment from trucking firms

Pat Ramsey, who runs Kerver Trucking, did not return calls from CBC News requesting an interview. David Chambers, vice-president of DCT Chambers, refused to be interviewed or provide any comment.

A spokesperson for B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation, which is responsible for enforcing the rules of the road for commercial vehicle operators in the province, told CBC News that Kerver Trucking's safety practices were audited in June — including its logbooks — and the results were "not satisfactory."

Because of that, Jeff Knight said, Kerver is now operating under a conditional licence, pending another audit.

He said if Kerver Trucking's practices do not improve within six months, the ministry will hold a "show cause'' hearing that could remove the company's licence for good.

Beasley, Bouliane and Boesel also claim in their complaints that the trucks they drove were often in disrepair.

"It's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt," said Boesel.

Truck in flames started forest fire

He said he had a very close call last summer, when the indicator light in his truck went on and the cab quickly filled with smoke. Boesel said he jumped out seconds before the truck was engulfed in flames.

The blaze disintegrated the tractor and started a forest fire near Lake Roosevelt in Washington State.

"And before that truck burned, the shifter boot was not attached, allowing exhaust gases and burnt oil from the exterior of the engine to enter the cab. This can cause dizziness and drowsiness. I would blow my nose at the end of the shift and it would be black," Boesel wrote.

The truckers said there were also several rollovers of wood-chip trucks in 2008. Internal memos from DCT Chambers on two of those incidents blame the drivers.

"Driver came into a 50 km/h corner at 62 km/h hugging the yellow line and met an oncoming vehicle doing the same thing," reads a memo from June 2008. "Driver made a correction…thus causing the rollover."

Another Chambers memo about a different rollover that same month states the cause as "driver inattention to the road, along with speed."

"That was happening all the time," said Bouliane. "People were overdriving corners. Feeling rushed, probably feeling rushed."

There's too much pressure dumped right on the drivers," he added. "By the end of your shift, you are tired. You are really tired."

Industry group wants electronic monitoring

B.C. Trucking Association president Paul Landry, whose group represents industry, told CBC News he has no way of knowing how many drivers falsify logbooks or drive too tired, but he believes it is a small number.

"If a driver is fatigued and drove off the road, for example, the typical explanation will be there was an animal on the road and they took evasive action, that sort of thing. So it's a very difficult thing to measure," said Landry.

Landry said he could not speak to the truckers' specific claims about their former employer.

However, he said the BCTA has been lobbying governments for years to make it mandatory for driving time to be monitored electronically in every truck in Canada. Theoretically, he said, a uniform monitoring system would make it impossible for drivers or companies to get away with pushing over the driving time limits.

"There's no question, eventually logbooks will be replaced by electronic monitoring and we believe that will create a level playing field for our industry," said Landry.

"I think both industry and government share the blame for not advancing this as a proposition. I think governments will be receptive to the need to develop a standard."

The B.C. Ministry of Transportation audited 333 commercial vehicle licence holders last year for potential violations, a small fraction of the 26,000 licence holders provincewide. Seventy- one per cent of those companies failed their audits, and had their licence status downgraded to either conditional or unsatisfactory.

"A lot of people do a lot of things they shouldn't do," said Bouliane. "If you are already looking at your bills, thinking, 'Well, I'm not going to make it,' you might just decide, ' I'm going to take a chance.'"