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Dear Customer,
Following the tragic incident on July 21st, delays are still to be expected for containers moving in/out Fraser Surrey Docks. CIFFA has shared with us the below message from the CEO at FSD, offering an update on the current situation.
CIFFA – Update re Fraser Surrey Docks – Message from CEO
Fraser Surrey Docks issued the following message yesterday from CEO Jeff Scott:
As most of you may be aware, on Saturday July 21st, a mechanic in our diesel shop was fatally injured while working on a machine. This tragic event delivered a significant emotional blow to all staff at the terminal. Consequently, our maintenance department has been shut down since and has prevented the majority of our container handling equipment from being deployed in operations. The impact of this tragic incident experienced last Saturday has been difficult for all involved. While our first priority remains to the employees and their families, we recognize the need to resume to normal operations as quickly as possible.
Over the past 10 days we have been working closely with the union and regulators to determine the root cause of the accident, why it happened and how we can prevent a similar incident from reoccurring. During the review we have been identifying areas of improvement and determining how best to prepare the maintenance workforce to return to work. In the evening of Friday July 27th we were able to resume maintenance operations with two small groups of maintenance teams who focused on priority items. The return to work process will unfortunately take a few days to implement and we will not be able to release the equipment to operations as quickly as hoped. We aim to increase the number of maintenance teams by Friday. All going well, this will allow us to have full maintenance activity back in place by the beginning of next week along with sufficient machines to resume normal gate operations.
We recognize that the return to full operations has been slower than expected and this has had an impact on gate operations. Prior to the incident on July 21st we felt we had made progress towards improving our queuing, fluidity and reservation availability. It is our goal to pick up where we left off and continue to implement further improvements. We have been working with the Port of Vancouver and have aligned on a plan that will include the widening of the geo fence to include IDC to improve the reporting of actual wait times. This will include a mobile device that will allow us to check trucks in prior to entering IDC. We will also be looking at the way we manage reservations and have better correlation to cut offs and activity. We have, and will continue to meet with customers and trucking community to improve understanding, access and use of the reservation system. We are also looking at creating more consistency around our night gates and improving communication to customers and trucking community when changes occur.
We want to assure you we are aware of the concerns that have been raised and remain committed to implementing the necessary improvements.
We thank you for your patience during this difficult period.
ITN Customer Service and Operations teams are monitoring the import and exports shipments moving through Fraser Surrey Docks and will keep you updated on the status of your shipments.
Thank you,
Kind Regards
ITN Logistics
