NS: Frustrated truckers threaten to block ferry

[NORTH SYDNEY, NS] — Tension continues to mount as truckers on both sides of the Cabot Strait threaten to block Marine Atlantic’s ferry service over frustration with the commercial reservation system.

A protest had been planned for Wednesday but was postponed after Marine Atlantic warned truckers that any disruption of service wouldn’t be tolerated.

“We were set to go at 5 a.m., but Marine Atlantic was going to deem us a threat to their organization and block us from using the ferries,” said Chris Howlett of Akita Equipment in Mount Pearl, N.L. “We have the protest on hold and are obtaining legal advice.”

Howlett said all the truckers want is fair and equal access to the ferry.

“Anyone with deep pockets is booking up the ferry,” he said. “A lot of us are on the brink of going out of business. They are really hammering us. Right now I have a trailer in North Sydney loaded with building materials and the earliest I can get on is August 20.”

Marine Atlantic made changes to the commercial reservation system in June after smaller trucking companies complained that larger carriers were booking blocks of reservations, then cancelling reservations they didn’t need at the last minute.

Independent truckers argue that the ships are leaving with space available and that the reservation system isn’t working.

Marine Atlantic is heading into its busiest three weeks of the summer season. According to some independent truckers, a fair playing field would be for Marine Atlantic to give up the commercial reservation system until the Argentia run comes off in September, and go back to the old system of first come, first served.

Marine Atlantic president and CEO Wayne Follett said the corporation is monitoring the situation in the event of any protests.

“We feel the reservation system is working for the most part to meet the objectives that were established. The majority of the trucking industry have told us they support the system.”

Follett said Marine Atlantic understands the transition to the commercial reservation system has been much more difficult for some smaller trucking companies.

“We met with them on a number of occasions and made a number of significant adjustments to the reservation system to accommodate their needs.”

Marine Atlantic requires people to cancel reservations 24 hours in advance to give people a chance to pick up those reservations.

“We allow the independent truckers the option of making a partial payment up front, which helps them with the cash flow issue,” Follett said. “We met with the independent truckers on June 30 and agreed to establish a wait-list at our terminals, which would give them a first-come first-served basis, which they had under the old system.”

He noted that since the wait-list was implemented, there has been on average less than one truck per sailing on the wait-list.

“Over 90 per cent of the people on the wait-list were able to get a crossing within a 24-hour period. The longest wait has been 30 hours.”

He said normally, customers can get a reservation the same day or the next day out of Port aux Basques. Generally it is a seven- to 10-day wait to get a reservation out of North Sydney.

“We are halfway through the summer and if we get through the month of August, we should see some relief in store as the capacity shifts back to commercial.”

Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking called on the Conservative government to step in.

“We have one situation where a local manufacturer has an opportunity to sell product in Newfoundland, but it would take weeks to get it shipped. This is killing business.”