Fighting Back: Groupe Robert unites truckers to get what they’re owed

BOUCHERVILLE, Que. (May 10, 2004) — An outspoken veteran trucker from Quebec is asking the industry to unite against companies that he says hide behind the blanket cover of Canada’s lenient bankruptcy laws.

Claude Robert, president of Groupe Robert in Boucherville, Que., told Today’s Trucking’s sister publication Transport Routier that too often carriers are victims of court decisions that give refuge to bankrupted businesses, even going as far as to force service providers to work for companies that “will never pay them what they owe.”

In what was called a “precedent-setting” event, Transport Robert and a handful of other carriers joined forces in late March and withdrew services from a customer in a desperate move to recoup what they say are millions of dollars owed. The carriers’ trucks stopped showing up for pick-up duties at Montreal-based steelmaker Ivaco, which has been operating under bankruptcy protection from creditors since Sept. 16, 2003. The protection was recently extended until May 21, 2004.

At the time, OTA president David Bradley said the collective action was the first of its kind, but predicted it wouldn’t be the last. “More and more big companies are resorting to protection under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act, so that it appears to have almost become a way of doing business,” he said.

However, the boycott was cut short. The next day, an Ontario Superior Court ruled that the carriers must continue to haul for the company. Justice James Farley singled out three carriers — reportedly Groupe Robert, the Cooney Group, and Best Transfer — to continue trucking for Ivaco. He stated the carriers were still obliged to continue services since the debt owed pre-dates Sept. 16, 2003. The OTA strongly criticized the decision, noting the carriers were not under any formal agreement or even commitment to provide services to Ivaco.

Today, Robert claimes that even though Ivaco won an injunction forcing his company back to work, the steelmaker began slashing Robert’s volume compared to last year. It is his belief the move was done to “send a message” to other carriers in order to “secure” transport services while operating under bankruptcy.

He isn’t deterred, however, and is trying to rally other carriers in similar situations to fight back. “The industry has to show solidarity. Sooner or later, other carriers will be in the same situation. If we stop hauling for (companies that owe payment), they will stop shipping,” says Robert, who claims he’s owed a total of over $2 million. “With margins as thin as they are in trucking, these companies can easily make you lose your profits of one year. Carriers have to stick together and say, ‘We don’t support companies who [hide] under chapter C-36.'”

Robert’s lawyer Louise Baillargeon said at press time the company and other carriers are on the verge of a deal with Ivaco for about $455,000. To recoup the rest, the carrier will lean on the federal Bills of Lading Act. The law, as well as a similar Ontario provision called the Mercantile Law Amendment Act, draws the consignee into the contract of carriage, including for possible freight charges.

Baillargeon is also developing what she calls “a preventive tool,” to be built into contracts with customers. This agreement would include a provision stating the shipper agrees that payment owed to the carrier is not part of the shipper’s patrimony, but the carrier’s. If the shipper goes under court protection, transfers assets, or declares bankruptcy, money collected on the carrier’s behalf is owed to the carrier and the shipper has to declare it to the receiver, the monitor, or the liquidator.