About Us

Preferred Service is a family-owned and operated business established in 1982 by Jack and Dorothy Peterson. Starting from humble beginnings in a small office at the Vancouver International Airport, driven by Jack’s emphases on customer service, Preferred Service has grown with offices across Western Canada and a network of agents worldwide.

Their 3 children Kevin, Kelly and Ryan have all worked full-time for the firm.

Kelly has been working full time since 1998 with experience in all facets of the business. She is a fully Certified Customs Specialist. Kelly has marketing and business education which proves to be invaluable to her managing the business.

All three children worked part-time throughout elementary and high school gaining valuable experience at a very young age.

Jack and Dorothy feel very fortunate and confident having their ‘Junior Partners’ on board and well positioned to maintain and expand Preferred Service in the future.

In the early years, Jack had several movie productions referred to him. He took them on and quickly learned of their unique needs and grew to be the ‘go to’ guy for the industry. Jack lobbied with Ottawa to create special tax reliefs and exemptions for the industry to further make BC & Canada an attractive destination to film movies, TV shows, MOWs, and TV commercials. Today the BC film industry has grown to be the 3rd largest in North America and Preferred still works with almost all productions in BC. Preferred is a proud member of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association which represents all sectors of the film industry and is proving extremely effective in working together and with various levels of government, business and community organizations to improve our competitiveness on the world stage.

The Petersons are proud members of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise (CAFÉ) www.cafebc.org. This association is dedicated to the wellbeing and success of family businesses in Canada. The members form strong, educational and personal bonds with other people who understand the challenges and rewards of working and living with family members.