last november canada and the us
announced that beginning this month
truck drivers crossing the border must
be fully vaccinated or test and
quarantine but according to some
industry voices that could lead to major
problems with us now for that
perspective in clinton ontario mike
million president of the private motor
truck council of canada hello mr million
good evening thanks for having me today
thank you so much for being on the show
um what are the current rules for
unvaccinated canadian truck drivers and
as of midnight tonight for u.s drivers
as well
okay so there's two rules the first the
first one is coming into canada it's
been in effect since last saturday
january 15th so any unvaccinated
canadian driver returning to canada has
to arrive with a pcr test
within 72 hours
is allowed to deliver their load and
then they will have to quarantine for 14
days an unvaccinated american driver
will be turned around at the border and
sent back
effective midnight tonight
any non-american who is entering the u.s
by land
who is unvaccinated will be turned
around and sent back and will not be
allowed entry into their country
what do these new rules mean for your
industry
it's going to have a severe effect on
our on our supply chain we've uh there's
a hundred and twenty thousand canadian
truck drivers who cross the us border on
a regular basis
there's 40 000 u.s drivers who cross
back and forth between the border on a
regular basis
these
drivers move
roughly there's 700 billion dollars of
trade that crosses our border every year
and roughly 70 percent of this is moved
by trucks
according to a study that that we just
completed
um that 70 trucking companies replied to
which accounted for 13 600 drivers
25 of the drivers are unvaccinated on
that survey that we did so if we look at
a 20 on the unvaccinated rate giving
room for error
we're looking at removing a fifth of
that workforce and that's just canadian
drivers
on the u.s side we're looking at roughly
a forty percent on vaccinated rates so
we're looking at even removing more
drivers so you remove a fifth to a
quarter of the workforce that brings
our groceries over our produce our
fruits our vegetables our meats our fuel
all our essential goods you remove that
capacity
it's going to cause serious problems
we're going to go over those numbers
that you mentioned in just a moment
um
you know
a lot of people have said that i think i
guess one of the
defenses that the government is using is
that your industry has known about this
for a while that these changes uh were
coming um
so do you feel
uh taken aback or do you feel like you
weren't you need more time
yeah
that statement by the government is is a
little concerning to us
the industry hasn't known about these
roles for a long period of time that the
canadian government announced on
november 19th
that if people wanted to cross the
border they were going to have to be
fully vaccinated by january 15th
that is a period of roughly eight weeks
so if you have any drivers who were
hesitant to get the vaccine for one
reason or another
and then decided they were going to get
vaccinated to keep their job you have
not provided them enough time for when
you made that announcement
if we look at the timelines
it takes you roughly six weeks if
everything works perfect
for you to become fully vaccinated you
have to make your appointment for your
first
first shot then it's a four week delay
before you can get your second shot and
then you have to wait 14 days after that
before you're considered fully
vaccinated so that's a minimum of six
weeks
and these drivers are on the road in a
lot of cases so they're gone a week or
two at a time and and i think we all
know there's been periods of times in
here especially in december
when some people were booking
appointments and they were booking them
two months out so to say that eight
weeks notice was a sufficient amount of
time
to allow drivers to become fully
vaccinated that had changed their mind
to become fully vaccinated
that's simply not true we have been
asking for a delay
for at least three months for quite some
time and and just it fell on deaf ears
and unfortunately we didn't receive one
how would you describe the morale in
your industry right now
uh
it's tough
there's a lot of people that are
affected by this he said you have a lot
of people that are going to be out of
jobs and you're looking at the trucking
industry
as a whole who since march of 2020 has
been considered considered essential
workers
and have been moving goods back and
forth across the border
you know we went from march of 2020
where i think everybody
in the industry found out what it is
that drivers do
and the drivers felt they were getting
the respect
that they hadn't been given for quite
some period of time so they were thought
of as heroes when we were all asked to
stay home
quarantine in place reduce contacts long
before vaccines were around truck
drivers were asked to continue to do
their job and did continue to do their
job to make sure we could get medical
supplies oxygen blood
uh food fuel
excuse me all the other items that we
need
drivers have been doing this for 22
months when our borders were closed in
march of 2020 to everybody except
essential travelers
truck drivers continued to go back and
forth across the border so
the fact that they feel they sacrificed
and now they're being told um
you're out of work and unless you get
this vaccine when they were doing the
job before vaccines were around
it's some of them are pretty upset about
that
do you think that um
the public is uh a bit to blame in this
conversation because as you mentioned
you were considered to be um heroes at
one point during this pandemic
and for us when we go to our grocery
stores and if something is missing maybe
that's when we realize that something is
going on
but we're not able to make uh we're not
able to connect the dots do you think a
part of this has to do with the public
the general public just you know kind of
taking uh for granted what you all do
i never want to blame the public i i
think we all take things for granted
that is just always there for us i think
that's human nature
um you know before the pandemic hit we
used to joke in the in the in the
industry uh trucking part of it as well
as the entire supply chain
we all did our jobs too well we
everybody in the supply chain did their
jobs so well
the shells were always stocked and
everything you needed was there and when
everything you need is always there it
is going to be taken for granted because
you don't have to worry about it when
coveted hit the supply chain started to
fracture not just from the trucking end
but the entire supply chain raid rail
marine
air trying to get the components made
and into the boats and shipped across
the whole entire supply chain
started to fracture and then when people
realized
the role that truck drivers taken it
they are the first and last mile of
every delivery it doesn't matter if it
comes by a train or a boat
um or a plane the truck has to get it
from
that facility inland or get it from
inland to that facility so you are the
first and last mile so i don't think
i blame the public it's just
industry has always stepped forward and
done its job and when you do that people
do tend to to take it for granted
we talked a little bit about the supply
chain um with these new rules how will
the unvaccinated trucker situation
affect our supply chains
well you know as i mentioned before when
you remove
up to a quarter of the workforce so a
quarter to a fifth you know we're
talking 160 000 drivers um you know
we're looking at removing anywhere
between 30 to 40 000 of that from the
workforce
if you do that you cannot help but have
dire consequences on your supply chain
so what we're going to see
within a week or two in my opinion
we are going to see two things that this
is going to affect we're going to see
shortages
at our grocery stores
and other places where we get our
essential supplies and needs
and we're going to see more inflation
and we know how bad inflation already is
where report come out the other day
inflation's at 4.8 percent it's the
highest it's been
since 1991.
when you remove
shrink the capacity the way we're
shrinking it and remove this many
drivers from the capacity
those that are bidding to get trucks to
pick up their freight
are going to have less capacity to reach
out to so if you're lucky enough to get
a truck to move your freight you're
going to have to pay more to get that
truck to bring it across you know it's
simple supply and demand economics
so as shipping costs go up the shippers
can't afford to absorb that they are
going to have to pass that along to the
consumer and we're also going to see
more increase in prices at our fuel
pumps in our grocery stores and anywhere
else where we get our items
um about two-thirds of the goods moved
between canada and the us were shipped
by truck and the survey that you
mentioned earlier i wanted to go through
some of the numbers uh this survey was
conducted by your organization private
motor truck council of canada it ran for
two days between january 17th and 19th
it's not a scientific sample but it can
give us an idea of where your members
are at um according to the survey here
at home
there are about 120 000 truck drivers in
canada approximately 75 of canadian
drivers are vaccinated around 30 084 of
canadian drivers are not vaccinated
as for the situation uh south of the
border there are about forty thousand
cross cross border american drivers
approximately fifty five percent of
american drivers are vaccinated and
around eighteen thousand of these
american drivers
are not vaccinated
you know um i think there are people who
are watching this and listening to this
and they're wondering why not just get
vaccinated
well and and let me be clear our our
association our our membership we are in
favor of vaccines
we we believe when the scientists tell
us it's it's what we need to do to get
out of this um
i'll be honest i'm fully vaccinated my
family's fully vaccinated so it's not
that we're against vaccines what we are
against
is mandates that are putting people out
of work
in an industry where the very nature of
the job of a truck driver
is working in isolation a truck driver
spends the majority of the day
in a cab of a truck
by themselves they don't interact with
with other people on a regular basis
when they pick up and deliver at the
shipper and receivers premises the
industry the supply chain has put
protocols in place back when the
pandemic first hit to reduce contacts
most of the paperwork is exchanged
electronically her hand threw us a slot
in the door
you know we've had ex
enhanced cleaning measures in the in the
vehicles
themselves um so all these measures have
reduced the
risk of spread from the trucking
industry and we've had no major
outbreaks associated with the industry
so i understand where people might say
get vaccinated and
hey would we love to see more people
vaccinated sure we would but but the
fact is no matter how hard any of us
push
a hundred percent compliance is never
gonna happen
and we have an industry that we already
had an eight percent on them or um sorry
eight percent of jobs not filled 23 000
vacancies existed at the end of the
third quarter
um so we've already got a shortage and
we already have supply chain issues and
removing people from these supply chain
jobs
we just don't feel is the best way to do
it so we we certainly encourage people
to get vaccinated
we just don't believe
making this decision in the silo is in
the best interest of
of our society
to be honest with it um
you know we make it we know the
decisions are made to try and increase
public health and protect our health and
safety we know that's why the
government's doing
this and we appreciate that
but my fear is we look at stuff in a
silo too much so we're worried about
looking at the effects on public health
and safety on this side
but how seriously are we looking at the
fact that if we remove 20 to 25 of the
workforce and we have shortages of our
essential needs
how much is that going to affect the
public's health and safety so a decision
on one side has repercussions on the
other side
i hope i'm wrong but i'm afraid we're
going to see serious repercussions on
the other side
you mentioned that truck drivers um tend
to spend uh a lot of time by their by
themselves um have there been uh coveted
outbreaks within the trucking industry
that you know of
well the trucking industry is part of
the general public so i mean sure we've
had some we've had some outbreaks but
none of them that we have found have
been contributed uh to their jobs you
know there was an outbreak
um back
let's say in the fall
um
in the peel region but most of that was
involved in community spread so a lot of
it is occurring
when the drivers are perhaps outside
their their workplace
you know they still they still have
lives like the rest of us do and i think
when they're on the job and they're
working like a lot of us they're more
hyper protective and sometimes the guard
gets let down a little bit when you're
at home
so i'm not gonna say that there's been
zero cases attributed to the trucking
industry because that would that would
be a lie but there hasn't been any large
outbreaks
attributed to the work that the drivers
are doing when it comes to their job
well looking forward because the
situation as it stands um you are
concerned that they're going to be
unintended consequences
what is the solution then to the lack of
drivers if encouraging vaccines isn't
getting the response you'd like
well
i mean ultimately and both countries
have made their decisions now but
ultimately we're we're hopeful that that
we could see decisions made to push this
back if we see serious repercussions on
the supply chain
long term as an industry we we need to
get more people interested in in this
profession uh and so long term we need
to you know get reach out to our youth
reach reach out to schools get involved
um and make this job
top of mind to people when they're
younger make it top of mind to parents
when they're younger
you know we have a truck driving
shortage we also have mechanic shortages
we also have it jobs within the industry
safety and risk specialists there's all
sorts of opportunities within this
industry that we have shortages for and
people you know we need to do a better
job of making them aware of all the
opportunities within the industry
you want to be a driver
you can get into it relatively quickly
and make you know a good living right
off the bat and if you want to stay as a
driver you're more than welcome to do
that or there's opportunities to to move
up through it so
long term we need to do a better job of
of getting people interested in our
industry and you know i think we
seriously need to look at pay structures
down the road too you know we we need to
transition more into a pay by the hour
industry as opposed to you know pay by
mile where drivers may be getting
punished if they're stuck in a traffic
jam or other things and they can't help
it like there's a whole bunch of things
we need to look at but i've been in this
industry for
32 years now
i had to do some math and i had started
out as a driver and moved up through i
believe in this industry it's a good
opportunity i believe there's lots of
challenges or lots of opportunities
within it
but as an industry we need to do a
better job of getting that out there
um you know canadians have been sharing
different images online of the rising
costs in the grocery store
mt shelves you mentioned uh inflation at
a 30-year record high um your industry
of course helps stock those shelves when
do you see the effects of this mandate
appearing on uh you know on not having
enough goods um on the shelves
when do you see the impact of this
mandate
yeah in some instances i think we're
going to see it very short uh you know
we're almost a week into the canadian
mandate now and i i think we're going to
start to see it in the next week or so
um especially when it comes to items
like produce fresh fruits and vegetables
this time of year the majority of our
fresh fruits fruits and vegetables are
coming from south of the border and the
majority of them are being transported
by truck
so i believe in areas like that there's
a lot of meat moved across across the
border in areas like that i think we're
going to see it very very quickly
um i have seen posts online already from
people showing empty shelves at their
grocery stores in the produce and meat
sections
i i don't believe that's because of the
border mandate yet um i could be wrong
um but i mean i saw these posts within
two three days and i don't think it
would affect quite that quickly i think
we had people
panic buying
um which led to increased traffic and
pulling these products down and then we
had some severe winter weather
on the uh on the east coast on the
weekend as well as in ontario and quebec
that likely attributed to some of these
challenges but
i think we're going to see it very
quickly when it comes to produce and
meat and
so we
affected with this is is going to be
decreased supply in options
and increased pricing
we've been hearing of a trucking convoy
making its way to ottawa
in protest of these new rules can you
tell us anything about that
i i don't know much about it other than
what everybody else has seen it's we're
not involved with organizing it this is
for the most part a driver-led
organization and protest
um
our messaging is i we believe in
people's rights to peacefully protest
that's what makes this grunt country
such a great place to live
what we do encourage is people that are
involved in this pro test and trying to
get their their voices heard and help
get the message out there
be respectful be polite get the
messaging out appropriately
and do not interfere with people's
safety when it comes to the highway we
don't want live lanes of traffic blocked
we don't want live lanes of traffic
slowed down
we don't want accidents caused by this
and people's safety affected so again be
respectful um be polite
uh protest and get your message out
could do it in the right way and do it
safely
uh thank you so much for your time we
really do appreciate your insights and
uh thank you for everybody in
your industry for uh helping to keep
everything moving these past two years
we really do appreciate your time
tonight thank you
thank you thanks for having me on have a
good night
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