By the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced many obstacles and created a chain reaction of issues. From labour shortages and supply chain issues to parameters around the vaccine, Canadians continue to ‘ride the wave’ of the pandemic.
Canada’s trucking industry has also felt the woes of the pandemic, with the ongoing issues that have come with operating as an essential service. The demand for delivering and receiving goods has come at an all-time high – and yet, so have the restrictions for the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
To quote the Government of Canada’s statement on the mandate:
As of January 15, 2022, unvaccinated Canadian drivers entering Canada will need to meet the requirements of pre-entry, arrival and Day 8 testing, as well as quarantine requirements. Any individual who is symptomatic upon arrival in Canada will be directed to a Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officer and will be directed to isolate for 10 days from the time they enter Canada.1
This decision comes with a domino effect of mixed reactions and realities within the trucking industry. The heart of the matter is that not all Canadians are vaccinated. So, when it comes to maintaining operations as an ‘essential service’ with the mandate in place, a percentage of professional drivers are unable to conduct the day-to-day operations that keep our supply chain moving.
Jim Dimech, Chairman of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada (PMTC), has been hearing reports of produce shipment issues and empty shelves at grocery stores. His projection for how these matters will impact us in the long term revolves around inflation.
“We were already seeing inflation and supply chain issues happening even before this, but the cross-border vaccine mandate is going to accelerate those inflationary factors,” explains Dimech. “It is already more expensive to put food on the table, and I think we’re all going to continue to see those shortages.”
Another potential issue on the horizon is a federal vaccine mandate, which would create another layer of restriction for drivers travelling province-to-province. If this second mandate is implemented, more drivers will be unable to deliver freight in ample time. (In December the feds indicated this would come into effect in early 2022, as of writing this on March 16th, no proposed legislation has yet to be tabled).
According to Trucking HR Canada’s Labour Market Index (LMI) from September 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the industry in unprecedented ways, only further exacerbating already acute driver shortages.2 According to the LMI snapshot for January 2022, there were over 22,000 vacant truck driver positions in the last quarter of 2021 with a vacancy rate of 8%. In comparison, the vacancy rate across all occupations in Canada was 2.7%.3 While the number of vacancies is projected to ease slightly after 2021, it is still projected that vacancies across the sector will average 28,000 jobs between 2021and 2025, with an estimated 17,230 truck driver vacancies per year.4
Mike Millian, President of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, says that the crux of the Association’s concern is the labour shortage and how it feeds into the supply chain and inflation issues. Millian explains, “There are 315,000 truck drivers across Canada and over 120,000 cross-border drivers. If you remove say 15% of those drivers, that’s 18,000 Canadian truck drivers that are unable to conduct cross-border work.”
That’s just in Canada. In the US, there are 40,000 cross-border drivers that drive shipments into Canada, with an estimated vaccination rate of 60%. The US/Canada cross-border mandates remove another 16,000 US drivers, which fractures an already-broken supply chain.
“We have the highest inflation rate that we’ve seen since 1991,” says Millian. “The inflation rate in grocery stores (as of December 2021) is 5.7%. Most of our fruit, vegetables and produce comes from the southern US and our members have indicated that those costs have gone up almost 50% since January 15. So that’s going to get passed down to people at the grocery store.”
Millian and Dimech completely support the COVID-19 vaccine and understand that safety measures need to be made – in every aspect of our lives – to keep people safe. The biggest challenge in implementing this mandate is timing and placing it on a group of workers who are isolated by the very nature of their job, and who have been crossing the border as essential workers since the beginning of the pandemic.
“The eight-week period (to prepare for the mandate) wasn’t enough time for us, which one key piece of our lobbying. Being aggressive with these timelines is not providing that balance that we’re required to meet while trying to fill empty shelves and dealing with inflation,” explains Dimech. “If we can take a more balanced approach to these solutions and mandates, we can mitigate a lot of these factors that have played a part in some of these emotional responses that we have seen over the past few weeks.”
What Can You Do?
As PMTC members, private fleets, and industry professionals, you can continue to drive the industry forward by attracting new/younger drivers into the workforce. Despite the ongoing obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of drivers are leaving their role for retirement. As private fleets, you have the power to offer new drivers a life-long career that starts off with a strong compensation package, benefits, and empowerment to stay home if they are not well.
Dimech explains that the industry needs to make itself more attractive by giving people the proper training and tools they need to be successful on/off the road. And in today’s climate, attracting professional drivers is more important than ever.
The PMTC offers many resources, including the Young Leaders Group that shows young professionals how to be a driving force in their career and behind the wheel.
To learn more about the PMTC’s programs and how you can evolve your hiring
and retaining practices, connect with
Mike Millian at trucks@pmtc.ca.
Sources
1. Government of Canada. Requirements for truckers entering Canada in effect as of January 15, 2022. www.canada.ca/en/public-health/news/2022/01/requirements-for-truckers-entering-canada-in-effect-as-of-january-15-2022.html.
2. Trucking HR Canada. Labour Market Snapshot: October 2021. www.truckinghr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/LMI-Snapshot_Oct2021_web.pdf.
3. Trucking HR Canada. Labour Market Snapshot: January 2022. www.truckinghr.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/LMI-Snapshot_JAN-2022-4.pdf.
4. Trucking HR Canada. Special Report: Vacancies in Trucking and Logistics. January 2022. www.truckinghr.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Special-Report-Jan-2022-5-1.pdf.
