Cocaine bust in Alberta

At the Sweetgrass / Coutts border crossing into Alberta a transport truck was

pulled over for secondary screening because the driver was on the CBSA radar

as suspected of involvement in drug trafficking. During inspection the CBSA

border officers came across 83 one-kilogram bundles of cocaine stashed in

different locations within the cab area. The cocaine, valued at $5 million, was

found behind the microwave, under a mattress, in a duffel bag and inside the two

jockey boxes. Upon the truck being returned from the impound lot to the truck’s

owner, there was a further 17 one-kilogram packages that had apparently not

been found during inspection at the border. The 54-year-old driver was from

British Columbia and the junior driver, 32 years old, resides in Ontario. The

younger driver was new to Canada and to trucking, barely spoke English and

needed a translator during the inspection, questioning and trial. Both drivers

claimed that they were completely unaware of the cocaine being in the truck.

During the trial it was concluded that there was not enough hard evidence such

as DNA or fingerprints to prove beyond reasonable doubt that these two drivers

had anything to do with the placement of the cocaine in the truck. It was

concluded that the younger driver’s charges of possession with the intent to

traffic and importation of drugs into Canada were dismissed and the senior

driver, 54, his charges were stopped due to his passing away. I chose not to

identify names in this article out of respect to the families related to the death of

one of the drivers.

For more information about this article or safety & compliance programs such as

CTPAT, FAST, PIP, TTP, AEO, CSA, please contact Cross Border Services at

www.crossborderservices.org [email protected] 

By: Dawn Truell, President, Cross Border Services

crossborderservices.ca 

July 23, 2018

Despite the fact that cannabis (marijuana) will become legal and regulated in Canada in the near future, it will remain illegal to take cannabis across Canada’s national borders, whether you are entering or leaving Canada. 

By: Dawn Truell, President, Cross Border Services

 

April 11, 2017

 

Stockholm, Sweden, Friday, April 7, 2017, a terrorist stole a company's tractor trailer and used it to try to murder innocent civilians walking in the streets of Stockholm. In Sweden this has not been experienced before and was completely a shock to everyone there. During this past year many similar incidents have happened, specifically in Berlin, Germany, Nice, France, and London, England. The US CBP Department of Homeland Security, Officer Dan Bauer from the JFK International Airport office, has issued an urgent notice to all truck drivers, owner operators and transportation companies to be “..Vigilant and see that their drivers and vehicles are not in jeopardy of falling victim to such diabolical actions.”   Please see the following preventative measures suggested by this Officer:

 

As per US CBP DHS Officer Dan Bauer, all of us can fall prey to terrorists, we need to keep diligent in our day-to-day practices to ensure everyone’s safety.

 

Dan’s further comments:  “Thank you everybody for your continued participation in this important effort by the program to maintain secure trade in a safe supply chain. Your input, vigilance, and expertise has been critical to our successes up to this point.  A long road is still ahead but we are confident that with your help we will get to where we need to be.”

 

For more information about transportation and aiding in the fight against drug smuggling, anti terrorism, safety & compliance programs such as C-TPAT, FAST, PIP, CSA, please contact Cross Border Services at www.crossborderservices.ca  [email protected]

 

By: Dawn Truell, President, Cross Border Services

 Sept 13, 2016

3 days post truck driver charged in the death of an Ottawa cyclist, president of Greater Ottawa Truckers Association Ron Barr, defending truck drivers, "bikes shouldn't have been made equal to trucks on the road."

Conley, the truck driver, charged with criminal negligence causing death, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and dangerous driving causing death, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

There are limitations for Truck Drivers due to the size of their vehicles, if you can imagine, they cannot see you when they are turning, the mirrors don't allow the truck driver to see behind, beside or underneath whilst in a turn. Please be aware of this fact and be cautious when riding a bicycle near a Truck. 

By: Dawn Truell, President, Cross Border Services

In the Transportation Industry we have all been told about the importance of conducting our safety inspections pre trip and post trip. These safety inspections are mandatory for both our driver logs for the MTO and DOT requirements as well as those of us who are part of the C-TPAT, FAST, PIP and CSA Programs. But, are we all actually doing this every single day prior to every single load that we do? Somewhere I think that the importance for safety has been lost.   Recently an innocent passenger vehicle driving along the highway 400 near King City, ON, January 27, 2015, 9:20 AM, was struck by two flying loose commercial truck tires. The gentleman driving that vehicle was killed when the two tires hit the windshield shattering it to bits and collapsing the roof of his vehicle. Unfortunately the truck driver, carrying a load of lumber, continued for 2 km before stopping to realize what had just happened. The 69-year-old, Paul Koenderman, from Burlington, ON, former CEO of Aecon Group Inc., was air lifted to a Toronto hospital where he died from his injuries sustained when the two 200 lb. truck tires came loose from the commercial truck body and hit his GMC Yukon.

     

 

The amount of truck tires coming loose from the truck bodies whilst driving has increased from 2010 and in fact just last year in 2015 there were 127 incidents of these detached wheels just in Ontario.

 

 

With the new Operation Wheel Check that was launched in Ontario in December 2015, the requirements are getting more strict and to enforce this action the fines are getting steeper ranging from $2,000 for minor infraction to $50,000 for wheel separation. Daily inspections are an absolute liability law by the MTO and requires companies to do specific specialized training for the technicians that are involved in the wheel installations.

 

Ministry enforcement with on-road inspections by specially trained police officers has become the norm and their eyes are peeled for those operators failing to do their proper inspections. Just since December 2015 there have been 1,800 trucks and 10,000 wheels inspected by the ministry.

Cutting corners for truck safety inspections seems like a time saving idea when one is in a hurry to make a shipment as time is money in our JIT era, however, we must remember that lives are far more important here than monetary gains, after all, what are we working for everyday? Money to support our lives and our families; think about everyone else’s families out there that we could potentially be putting in danger by not performing our daily pre trip and post trip inspections properly. It shouldn’t have to take someone’s life to remind us of how important these safety inspections truly are. The trucking company involved in this unfortunate accident stated that their last inspection on this truck was done January 22 and that their standard practice is to only inspect the trucks once per week; according to MTO standards, you must inspect your truck Daily for safety of the vehicle including it’s tires.

 

Please conduct your daily safety inspections and help save lives.

For further information regarding Safety & Security Training, C-TPAT FAST PIP TTP & CSA contact Dawn Truell, Cross Border Services at: www.crossborderservices.ca    [email protected]