In Gear - Today's Trucking

customers with its own trucks
or via contracted drivers.
In 2004, the Calgary
Employees Association unionized
CFF employees in
Calgary. It didn’t take long
before The Teamsters swooped
in, convincing the Alberta
Labour Relations Board
(ALRB) to certify the union to
collectively bargain for CFF
workers nationally under the
Canada Labor Code.
The case ping-ponged back
and forth among various
courts, until the Alberta
Court of Appeal sided with
the Teamsters and upheld the
original labor board decision
that CFF should be federallyregulated.
It reasoned that that the
physical transport of cargo
was not the main issue, but
“whether the functional
nature of the operation is to
connect the provinces.”
Late last month, the
Supreme Court dismissed
that verdict by a vote of 6-3.
“I am of the view that an
undertaking that performs
consolidation and deconsolidation
and local pickup and
delivery services does not
become an interprovincial
undertaking simply because it
has an integrated national
corporate structure and contracts
with third party interprovincial
carriers,” wrote
Justice Marshall Rothstein.
“While Fastfrate has local
operations at both the originating
and terminating locations
in the several provinces,
and with that can provide
comprehensive service to its
customers, it nonetheless
remains only a shipper using
cross-border transportation
services in the movement
of freight.
“Fastfrate does not perform
any interprovincial carriage
itself.”
Although he noted that
Fastfrate drivers used to haul
freight between their Ottawa
and Montreal branches, that
practice ended in 2004, in
part, because Fastfrate itself
recognized that it raised a
“contentious issue” for jurisdictional
determinations.
“This is their economic raison
d’être,” continued
Rothstein. “In most cases,
Fastfrate and its employees
play no role in the operation
of CPR’s interprovincial railway
system.”
Ruth Snowden, director of
the Canadian International
Freight Forwarders
Association (CIFFA) said that
although this particular case
stemmed from a question on
labor issues, the “decision
could impact employment
issues, it could impact health
and safety, it could impact
GIMMIE SHELTER
SHADOW LINES
TRANSPORTATION has
unveiled one of the most
interesting trailer innovations
trucking has ever had. And it won’t
make the company a cent.
It’ll help fleet president Ron
Reid sleep better at night, though,
along with countless of others.
The Langley, B.C.,-based carrier
transformed a typical, used sea
container into a temporary
homeless relief shelter that can
be transported every night to
and from locations where the
homeless are known to sleep on
the street.
“I’ve always wanted to do
something for the homeless or
needy. I spend a lot of time in
downtown Vancouver where there
are lots of homeless people,” says
Reid. “There are a lot of issues with
them getting beat up, and this
will give them a warm, safe place
to sleep.”
All construction and fabrication
work on the refurbished container
was done in-house by Shadow
Line employees.
It’s divided into eight
individually heated and lighted
units, along with a toilet (no shower)
and small office. And get this:
The mobile trailer is more accessible
to the handicapped than most
buildings. One unit has been made
�
Shadow Lines’ Ron Reid
married innovation and
compassion this winter.
to accommodate wheelchairs.
Each unit has two foldaway
bunks, which allows individuals to
park their belongings—many
times in shopping cart form—
inside the unit and sleep on the
top bunk. In extreme weather,
however, having two bunks in
each unit will allow the shelter to
sleep 16.
“A lot of them won’t go where
they can’t take their shopping
carts, which is why we made space
for that,” notes Reid. “It’s a good,
warm, dry place for the homeless
to sleep at night.”
As well as supplying the shelter,
Shadow Lines is committed to
picking it up in the morning and
hauling it back to the terminal to
have the batteries charged and
disinfect the rooms.
Nightshift Street Ministries will
organize the operation at night.
The project has cost Reid
about $100,000 so far, before the
$10,000 a month that it’ll run to
maintain and service the unit. If
he could find the right people to
operate additional shelters, Reid
would gladly build more, ideally
two more in Vancouver and one
each in Calgary and Edmonton.
“It’s a way to put something
back into the areas that have
treated me so well,” he says.
— Steven Macleod
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JANUARY 2010 11