The owner of a Canadian trucking company and an academic analyst say supply chains are in trouble and vaccine requirements for truckers crossing the border will make it worse..Since January 15, the Canadian federal government has required truckers crossing the border to be double-vaccinated for COVID-19. U.S. regulators clarified January 13 that domestic truckers would not have such requirements, but as of January 22, it will be required for those crossing into the U.S..Order of Canada recipient Ron Foxcroft runs Fluke Transport in Hamilton, Ontario, a company that transports to big box stores, grocery stores, and pharmacies. .“If we’re going to have thousands of truck drivers taken out of the system for a retirement because they’re not vaccinated, it’s going to have an enormous effect on the supply chain and pricing,” Foxcroft told the Western Standard..Foxcroft founded Fox 40 International, which exports the famous referee whistle and other products to 140 countries. The Burlington, Ontario resident says his trucks cross over to their plant in Niagara Falls, New York every day, but the vaccine mandates will make that harder to do..“I don’t think they’ve thought out the possible border delays at the booth, while the border agents check out the validity of the double vaccination of every driver now. Before all you had to do was be an essential service truck driver. You went through, things were very efficient,” Foxcroft said..“We’re in lockdown in Ontario right now. And I prefer that we just say that the government just say to a business go be who you are and operate safe by the rules as opposed to a lockdown.”.Foxcroft said factories in some places are shut down for periods of time due to COVID outbreaks and the result trickles down into “serious problems.” .“At Fox 40, we’re having a terrible time getting cardboard product. There’s a great demand for [it]. We ship with cardboard containers, we package with cardboard containers. And we are on allocation right now for cardboard product, which really hurts us. And you’re gonna see a lot of that in the upcoming months, particularly with this new law coming into effect.”.Foxcroft, who spent decades as a basketball referee, wants the government to delay the policy six months to give the industry time to adjust. In the meanwhile, charity directors and other contacts have expressed concerns..“I’m getting evidence from people that shelves already are starting to look depleted or bare, and I’m hearing it from people in Florida, from people in Regina, from people in Ontario, from people in New York State. And also too, shoppers are telling me already, fruits and vegetables are going up 7% already,” Foxcroft said..“This is going to have an adverse effect on not for profits and charities. Nobody is printing that. Nobody is talking about it. I am really concerned about our not for profits, our charities, and our disadvantaged people that count on being able to afford necessities of life, like groceries.”.Barry Prentice, a professor of supply chain management at the University of Manitoba, agrees the mandate will be negative in its effect, even if that plays out unevenly..“It’s also going to be hit and miss. I think the fruit and vegetable supply chain will be hit harder than others…But yeah, there’ll be lots of other delays. People aren’t getting goods they thought they were going to get on time. It’s just disruptive to trade without any redeeming benefit that I can see.”.Prentice, who is also an Associate of the Transport Institute and its former president, said he witnessed the supply chain problem first hand at a Winnipeg pet food store..“I went to the shop, which is normally pretty stocked. It looked like they were going out of business. There wasn’t much to choose from. And I asked the guy, ‘You guys going out of business?’ He said, ‘Oh, no, no,’” he recalled..“A few weeks ago, we were [recently] reading they’re unloading Halloween costumes. I’ve been expecting some fire sales to be going on in the next few months on the winter clothing [arriving late].”.Statistics released by the Canadian Trucking Alliance say there are nearly 23,000 vacancies for posted trucking jobs and they estimate as many as 12,000 to 16,000 truck drivers will lose their cross-border routes due to the new mandate..The Canadian Chamber of Commerce made a statement signed by 34 business groups, to warn the mandate “will also seriously aggravate the existing truck driver shortage and lead to price increases that will hurt the Canadian economy and consumers.”.Lee Harding is a freelance contributor from Saskatchewan.
