Trucking firm linked to fatal crash failed to comply with safety laws: province

Conquer Transport, the firm whose truck is connected to a fatal crash near Brandon, had its safety certificate pulled by Manitoba in 2021 for “ongoing deficiencies in safe operation and non-compliance with highway safety laws,” the provincial government said Friday.

A Conquer semi-truck blew through a stop sign on Highway 110 at Richmond Avenue East Wednesday, hitting an SUV driven by a 49-year-old female driver who had the right of way, Brandon police said. The woman, who worked at a nearby meat-packing plant, was pronounced dead at the scene. Brijpal Panwar, 35, has been charged with dangerous driving causing death.

Transportation Minister Lisa Naylor said Thursday the truck shouldn’t have been operating in Manitoba, but after its certificate was yanked here, the company was given a safety certificate from the Alberta government.

On Friday, a Manitoba government spokesman said the safety certificate was removed in late 2021 for non-compliance with highway safety laws and truck-specific regulations. The Winnipeg-based business is listed as permanently closed online.

However, in late February 2022, the Manitoba government learned the company was operating in Manitoba using a safety fitness certificate and vehicle registration from Alberta. The company changed its name when applying for the new document.

“Manitoba has been in regular communication with (Alberta) regarding this carrier since that time,” a government spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen was unavailable for an interview Friday.

The Manitoba government is working with Brandon police in the investigation of the fatal crash, including by auditing the driver’s hours of service logs.

On Friday, Conquer Transport didn’t respond to questions. A woman at the company director’s address told the Free Press the owners had gone to Alberta.

Manpreet and Paramjit Dhaliwal are listed as Conquer Transport leads in a provincial government database.

Since the crash, Naylor and industry representatives have renewed the call for national data sharing of trucking companies’ safety fitness information.

“We need to make it a priority as a country,” said Aaron Dolyniuk, executive director of the Manitoba Trucking Association.

Conquer Transport’s safety fitness certificate was pulled while Manitoba was refining its “safety monitoring framework.” Now, information is sent to other provinces when a company’s certificate is suspended or revoked, a government spokesperson said.

Still, firms regularly get away with closing operations in one province and starting up elsewhere, Dolyniuk said.

Such companies are called “chameleon carriers.” They often change their name when getting fresh documentation in new areas.

Dolyniuk has made a presentation to an internal Manitoba government working group looking at chameleon carriers and immigrant abuse in the industry.

There’s a willingness for change in Manitoba, but momentum needs to build on the national stage, Dolyniuk said.

He said he has written to Manitoba MPs to flag a national database and its “foundational nature to regulating commercial fleets in Canada.”

Jill McBeth, a transportation safety consultant based in Alberta, said governments and industry reps have viewed chameleon carriers as problematic for years.

She said she spent decades as a public safety investigator in Alberta and Manitoba before launching Raven Transportation Safety Consulting.

Achieving uniformity from coast to coast for a national database is tricky, she said, because each province has its own standards and methods of data tracking.

“Maybe those algorithms don’t work with another jurisdiction,” McBeth said. “The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, they all know it’s broken — they’re trying to fix it — but all that old data is still in there.”

The council struck a committee to examine chameleon carriers and the safety certificate model. It was instructed to do so by a council of ministers in 2024, but the work is ongoing.

McBeth said a national system should incorporate vehicle identification numbers — VINs — to catch chameleon carriers. There’s VIN fraud, but that has and can be monitored, she said.

Sharing employees’ names — including owners and compliance officers — is pertinent, Dolyniuk said.

He joined peers from other provinces in Ottawa this month. The group advocated for improved safety certificate information sharing, among other things.

Paul Larson, a University of Manitoba supply chain management professor, said he believes a national database could prevent highway deaths.

“Anything that can be done to reduce the chances of these things happening would certainly be a win,” Larson said.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com