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Trucking Company Involved in Fatal Crash in Manitoba No Longer Allowed to Operate in Alberta

Trucking Company Involved in Fatal Crash in Manitoba No Longer Allowed to Operate in Alberta

Trucking Company Involved in Fatal Crash in Manitoba No Longer Allowed to Operate in Alberta
The company's truck was in a fatal crash in Brandon, Manitoba, in May. This happened after the company's safety permit was pulled in Manitoba. Now, the company cannot operate from Alberta.
Conquer Transportation is one of 20 unsafe carriers that are no longer allowed to operate in Alberta. This was announced by Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen on Thursday.
Minister Dreeshen said, 'We are trying to clean up the industry.' He also said, 'It's the bad actors that are giving the industry a bad name.'
A Conquer truck driver went through a stop sign at a Brandon intersection and hit an SUV. This accident killed a 49-year-old woman in the Manitoba city.
Brijpal Panwar is charged with dangerous driving causing death. Xiaoyun Zhang died in the crash near her workplace.
Her son Jay described her as 'a really hard-working woman and a powerful person.'
Conquer Transportation registered in Alberta in 2022. This happened after Conquer Transport, which is owned by the same family, had its safety permit pulled in Manitoba in 2021.
A family is dealing with the loss of a loved one after a woman was killed in a crash with a semi in Brandon.
In April, the company was considered one of the highest-risk transportation companies based in Alberta.
The province downgraded the trucking company's safety fitness rating to 'unsatisfactory' in June. This effectively shut down the company's operations immediately.
The 20 trucking companies that are no longer allowed to operate in Alberta include 13 'chameleon carriers.' These are companies that start operating from another jurisdiction when they are forced to shut down.
The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators is working to develop a national database. This database will help deal with carriers that exploit gaps in interprovincial data sharing and enforcement.
In Alberta, 40 chameleon carriers were prevented from getting safety fitness certificates through document review.
Alberta has also shut down five 'fraudulent' Class 1 trucking schools.
Barry Prentice, director of the University of Manitoba's Transport Institute, said the fatal crash in Brandon shows the need for tighter regulation in the industry.
Prentice said, 'This is why we need regulations like licensing, not so much to permit someone to operate, but to be able to remove the license so they can't operate.'
Alberta has shut down a trucking company involved in a fatal crash in Manitoba.
Prentice also said that regulations are important for the good players in the industry. This is because something like this can give the entire trucking industry a bad name unfairly.
Robert Harper, president of the Alberta Motor Transport Association, said he is happy to see more resources devoted to getting bad carriers off the road.
Chameleon carriers are tough to tackle because provinces need to share information about companies' track records. They also need to share information from agencies, such as property registries.
A trucking company at the centre of a fatal Manitoba crash has a spotty history, according to records.
Harper said, 'The company can transfer their assets between provinces and reopen, and that doesn't necessarily mean that that's a bad thing that you're doing, but a lot of bad actors use it.'
You also need to track directors, owners, operators, and assets such as vehicles, Harper said.
Harper said, 'How do you lock down that chameleon carrier? It's not a simple thing at the moment.'
Harper asked, 'Why are they registering these assets in Alberta? Were they registered in a different province? And have they been re-registered or de-registered in Manitoba and moved to Alberta?'
In the case of Conquer, the company's name changed slightly. The Manitoba director of operations told the CBC in June that he was no longer involved and that his son and daughter-in-law were running the company since he helped them set up in Alberta.
Manitoba Transportation Minister Lisa Naylor said the only way to track the companies is through a national database.
Naylor said, 'Just in the last few months, Manitoba has removed the safety fitness certificates of seven different trucking companies, and there's really no way for us to track if they turn around and go open up in Saskatchewan or Alberta.'
Manitoba currently doesn't have a way to track chameleon carriers that come to the province from other jurisdictions, Naylor said.
There are more stories from Southwest Manitoba.
Naylor said she's glad other jurisdictions are recognizing the problem. She hopes to hear about progress on a national database when she meets with ministers from across Canada this fall.
Naylor said, 'A national database with a registry across the country would allow every province and territory to know what's happening.'
Federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon sent a statement saying his government continues to work with provincial and territorial partners to strengthen road safety.