There have been few tickets handed out so far as 91原创 Township runs its pilot project allowing large commercial trucks to park on the streets of the Gloucester Industrial Park.
Metro Vancouver has been dealing with a shortage of truck parking for some time, as industrial land is scarce and expensive. This has led to illicit truck parking lots springing up on agricultural land, including several in South 91原创, drawing the ire of neighbours.
Starting last year, the Township began approving temporary truck parking lots and looking into other reforms to ease the shortage of parking space, including this pilot project in Gloucester.
A memo to council, an update halfway through the one-year pilot program, showed that many trucks have been using the now-legal parking, with relatively few infractions discovered.
Officers with the Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) police unit, along with Township bylaw officers, patrolled the parking areas at Gloucester at different times and days of the week to understand how the parking was being utilized.
They manually counted trucks and also used an automated licence plate reader to determine if a truck had been there longer than the 72-hour maximum.
Between April 3 and July 8, bylaw officers did 44 patrols and found 279 trucks parked on Gloucester Way and 453 parked on 272 Street.
During this period, they handed out three warning tickets and issued five violation tickets. Most of the tickets, according to the memo to council, were for leaving unattached trailers, and for parking in restricted zones.
The memo recommended extending the pilot project to collect more data.
