Land Border Vaccination Mandates for Essential Workers

I hope this communication finds you well. I am writing on behalf of the membership of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada (PMTC). The PMTC is the only National Association in Canada that represents the views and interests of Canada’s private and dedicated carriers. The PMTC was founded in 1977. Private trucking represents an estimated 50% of the class 8 trucks on the road in Canada today, and roughly 70% of the smaller urban delivery vehicle market. 

The purpose of our communication today is to express our concerns over the border vaccination mandates for essential workers, set to take effect in January 2022 for essential workers crossing land borders into Canada and the U.S. (coming into effect on January 15 for non-residents entering Canada, and rumoured to be taking effect January 22 for non-residents entering the United States of America). 

Our concerns are that this policy will cause severe shortages, in an already depleted workforce, on both sides of the border. 

To date, essential workers, including professional truck drivers, have been exempt from land border closures and restrictions that have been in place at our shared borders
(in some way) since March 2020. The reasoning for this, and the mutual understanding of both Canada and the U.S., was how important truck drivers were in ensuring essential services and supplies continued to be delivered through our shared border. This was true then and continues to be today. In an industry that, according to a recent Trucking HR Canada survey indicated had 18,000 vacancies in Canada, any reduction in the workforce is extremely problematic. A recent study by the American Trucking Association indicates there is a shortage of 80,000 drivers in the U.S. 

To be clear, the PMTC Board is in full support of people getting vaccinated. We believe in the science and the medical experts who tell us vaccinations are our best way out of this pandemic. We encourage everyone who can, to get vaccinated as soon as possible, for the health and safety of all of us. With this said, no matter how much we encourage this, a certain percentage of the population will not get fully vaccinated. While this may be unfortunate, it is a reality. Recent numbers from Health Canada indicate 85.49% of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated. If we assume these numbers can be translated to the truck driver workforce, this means a vaccine mandate will eliminate roughly 15% of the eligible Canadian driver workforce. Canada employs roughly 120,000 cross border truck drivers, meaning 18,000 drivers may be out of work and leave vacancies for trucks that provide essential supplies on both sides of the border. Roughly 40,000 U.S. truck drivers cross into Canada. Recent numbers from the CDC indicate 70.9% of Americans, who are 18 and older, are fully vaccinated. If we assume these numbers are the same for drivers, roughly 12,000 American drivers would exit cross border trade if the vaccination mandate takes effect. 

A recent survey conducted by the PMTC indicates the unvaccinated numbers for drivers in Canada is actually a bit higher, at 30%, with companies expecting the number to drop slightly, to 24% unvaccinated, by January 15, 2022. If the vaccination mandate was deferred until April 15, the unvaccinated rate drops to 18%. (See PMTC Vaccination Status Survey summary on page 19).

Throughout the pandemic, drivers continued to work, to ensure that the goods we needed, while many of us sheltered in place, were there for us. Drivers supply the fuel for our vehicles, heating fuels for our homes, food, medicines, blood, medical supplies, and many more of the essential items we require.

Drivers, by the very nature of their job, are isolated most of the day. They are isolated in their truck and, in many cases, when they make deliveries, come in direct contact with almost no one. Paperwork is either done electronically or via other physical distancing measures. In addition, the transportation industry has put in place many protocols, since the beginning of the pandemic, to ensure the safety of their workforce; as a result, a very limited spread of COVID-19 has been attributed to drivers.

There was a time when every time we went to the store, everything we needed was there, shelves and stockrooms were full. In our pandemic world, almost every time we go to a store now, we see an empty shelf, out of supply, waiting to be replenished. While a lot of these shortages are a result of supply chain issues that do not involve a driver, a significant portion of the shortages are still attributed to a truck sitting empty waiting for a driver to fill it. In a time that our supply chain is as fragile as it is, eliminating a minimum of 15 to 20% of our cross-border work force is something that will cause severe harm to the health and safety of residents on both sides of our border. 

70% of the 700 billion in trade between Canada and the U.S. is moved by truck. This will have a dramatic effect on supplies and services reaching their destination and getting in the hands of those who need them. One needs
to look no further than the recent UK fuel shortage, where the military had to be brought in to deliver fuel as a result of a lack of truck drivers. We are already seeing shortages – if these shortages reach critical levels on items such as fuel, food, blood, medicine or medical supplies, we will see real long-lasting damage.

If a reconsideration of the border vaccination mandate for essential workers is not something either country is willing to consider at this time, we need to seriously look at a delay in enforcement for truck drivers. We need to work on what the protocols will be at the border for drivers to show proof of vaccination, to ensure we don’t slow border crossings down to a snarl. We also need to provide extra time for drivers who reconsider and decide to get fully vaccinated, to have time to do so. There is a minimum four-week lag between a first and second shot, then a two-week lag before you are considered fully vaccinated and protected. This is in an ideal world, where access to appointments is available. Not all locations have ready access, and drivers, by the nature of their job, may be on the road for two weeks or longer. It would be a great help to industry, if at the very least, we can consider moving this date out further to allow the proper time for drivers to receive their vaccinations, should they decide to do so. 

The PMTC is hopeful we can sit down with officials from both sides of the border, with other industry stakeholders, to have a discussion and information sharing session on the vaccine mandate for essential workers and its implications on our supply chain. 

We look forward to your reply.

Mike Millian
President, Private Motor Truck Council of Canada

Sent via email on December 1, 2021:

To: Honourable Alejandro Mayorkas
Secretary of Homeland Security
DHS
alejandro.mayorkas@dhs.gov

Honourable Deborah W. Meyers
Director, Canadian Affairs
DHS
deborah.meyers@hg.dhs.gov

Honourable Marco Mendicino
Minister of Public Safety
Government of Canada
marco.mendicino@parl.gc.ca

Honourable Omar Alghabra
Federal Minister of Transportation
Transport Canada
omar.alghabra@parl.gc.ca 

Cc: Melanie Vanstone
Acting Director General
Transport Canada
melanie.vanstone@tc.gc.ca

Fred Gaspar
Director General, Commercia
Canadian Border Service Agency
fred.gaspar@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca 

David Yessen
Chief, North American Borders
FMCSA
david.yessen@dot.gov

Carla Vagnini
Transportation Specialist
FMCSA
carla.vagnini@dot.gov