August 2014 BCBusiness 35
D
Dan Williams reaches
the crest of the Pattullo Bridge on a
brilliant, sunny morning at exactly
7:34, well under half an hour since he
pulled his five-tonne truck away from
the loading dock at Argus Carriers in
Burnaby. So far, traffic has been rela-
tively light for him and it continues
to look good as he coasts down the
south side of the bridge toward Sur-
rey, his truck loaded with a televi-
sion, a furnace, a case of saw blades
for cutting steel, stacks of boxes filled
with packing tape that are shrink-
wrapped to a wooden pallet, packs of
flattened cardboard boxes and more.
The other way, though, is not so
pastoral or free. In the stream of
barely moving bug-like sedans and
SUVs, the big tractor trailers, cube
vans and flatbeds stacked with lum-
ber sit like boulders, vibrating slightly
as their engines idle. This isn't the
only or worst traffic snarl this morn-
ing. Williams's radio emits constantly
updated reports about slow traf-
fic northbound on the Alex Fraser,
because of an earlier accident, and
traffic slowed to a crawl on Highway 1
around Mount Lehman, also because
of a crash.
b y f r a n c e s b u l a
p H o t o g r a p H y b y a d a m + K e v
