Trucking firms recalibrate over vaccine mandate

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This article was published 17/01/2022 (822 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Trucking firms across the country were recalibrating staffing, pricing and cost issues as they started the first week under the new federal government mandate requiring truckers crossing the border into Canada to be fully vaccinated.

The first week under the new mandate started with an organized “blockade” of sorts at the Emerson border with reports of 50-to-60-long truck lineups with trucks moving from the scales to the border and back in an attempt to slow things down.

Brent Arnold, director of corporate development at Arnold Bros. Transport out of Winnipeg, said the delays were adding about an hour to their drivers’ trips.

But all day long Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) was reporting there were no delays at the Emerson crossing.

Their official spokesperson said, “We can confirm that these protests have had no impact on CBSA operations.”

Simon Resch, who owns and operates the Duty Free Shop at the border in Emerson, along with his family, said he saw truckers and a few people in private passenger vehicles arrive to the border early in the morning.

“They started lining up about 3 a.m. — that was the planned start time — and that was to be present before the typical commercial lineups start on Monday. Mondays are very busy days down here for commercial vehicles leaving Canada and entering the United States,” he said.

“I didn’t count the vehicles as I was coming in, but they did occupy both the south lanes and the north lanes and stretched for a couple of kilometres, so they were numerous.”

By mid-morning, Resch said, the protest had largely dissipated.

Some officials in the industry believe it may have been organized by an outlier firm out of Winkler that has been opposed to vaccinations. Many were defensive of the industry’s pro-vaccine policy and bristled at the suggestion that its attempts to forestall the mandate was akin to anti-vaccination sentiment.

Rob Penner, the CEO of Bison Transport, the sixth-largest trucking company in the country, said his cross-border driver cohort is 90 per cent vaccinated.

“We had taken steps to deal with the mandate,” he said. “We don’t want the industry to be tarnished. This is not about being anti-vaxxers. Our cross-border driver population would be among the highest vaccination rates in any business, certainly higher than Canada’s overall vaccination rate.”

Bison provided a $2,500 bonus for new drivers before the end of the year who wanted to do cross-border work. Bison also provided an across-the-board raise for workers of close to 15 per cent.

Many other companies, including Payne Transport and Arnold Bros. have been doing the same thing. But that additional cost, as well as skyrocketing equipment costs — trailers have doubled in price in the last 18 months – is leading many in the trucking industry to start sending out signals that shipping costs are going to be going up.

Brent Arnold said it’s hard to explain to its customers why trailers have doubled in cost.

“But now we have that to contend with that and wage inflation is real,” he said. “We are using all that in conversations with our customers to keep our costs in line with revenue base — because right now it is not there. It is a discouraging environment at the moment.”

Arnold Brothers has lost about six per cent of its U.S. capacity because that’s the portion of its cross-border drivers who are unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, demand is skyrocketing, at least partly as a result of U.S. trucking firms forgoing cross-border work because of the hassle at the border and the fact there is enough domestic U.S. work to keep them busy.

Tom Payne the owner of Payne Transport, said business is booming.

“Usually the holidays and a couple of weeks into January are pretty quiet,” he said. “I’ve never seen it this busy in the first few weeks of January in the 40 years I’ve been in the business.”

If all those issues were not enough to contend with, the industry is also worrying about a domestic vaccine mandate that may come into effect.

The federal government announced its intention to impose such a mandate on federally regulated industries, including the airlines and the passenger rail business. Trucking had been exempt, presumably because they do not carry people as passengers.

Aaron Dolyniuk, the general manager of Manitoba Trucking Association, said, “We have not heard anything recently. I have no idea what the timeline will be on that.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Erik Pindera