The Star<\/a>.<\/p>\nA mid-January deadline for the vaccine mandate was announced by the U.S. in mid-October. Last week, Canada announced a Jan. 15 deadline for truckers crossing into this country.<\/p>\n
Laskowski estimates that up to 20 per cent of the 120,000 Canadian truckers who regularly cross into the U.S. might not be vaccinated by the time the deadline rolls around.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if every single company gets their vaccination rates up to 90 per cent, that\u2019s still 12,000 drivers,\u201d said Laskowski, who\u2019s calling on both governments to delay the deadline.<\/p>\n
The Star article suggests those estimates are frightening to people in industries as varied as fruit and vegetable imports to auto parts manufacturing, who say it could wreak havoc on an already-reeling supply chain.<\/p>\n
Steve Bamford, a board member of the Toronto Wholesale Produce Association, predicted the driver shortfall will push the already-rising price of fruits and vegetables even higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe supply chain is already broken. You can\u2019t take 20 per cent of the workforce out of the mix and expect it not to have a major impact,\u201d said Bamford, a fourth-generation produce supplier.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are 20 per cent fewer drivers on the job, everybody\u2019s going to be scrambling to pay the remaining ones more,\u201d said Bamford, adding that the increased shipping costs will be passed onto wholesale customers, and eventually to prices at your local fruit and vegetable stand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to pass those costs along, or you\u2019d go out of business pretty quickly,\u201d said Bamford.<\/p>\n
For Canada\u2019s auto parts industry, trucking is vital, said Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrucking is the lifeblood of our industry. Cars get shipped via rail, parts get shipped by truck,\u201d said Volpe, who estimated that almost half of the Canadian industry\u2019s $35 billion output crosses the border.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is hitting the industry at a time when supply chains are having the most difficulty they\u2019ve had in a hundred years,\u201d said Volpe.<\/p>\n
Laskowski agreed:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a trucking industry issue. This is a North American economy issue. Every single sector will be affected, from manufacturing, to electronics, to food and auto parts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an interview with the Toronto Star and other mainstream media this week, CTA president Stephen Laskowski explained how thousands of Canadian who won\u2019t be vaccinated in January to meet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16,1493,28,62],"tags":[1993,77,21,33,319,1156,98,24,2010,1983,1774],"class_list":["post-3252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-customs","category-business-conditions","category-covid-19","category-labour-hr-driver-shortage","category-operations-safety","tag-disruptions","tag-driver-shortage","tag-economy","tag-freight-market","tag-manufacturing","tag-retail","tag-shippers","tag-supply-chain","tag-toronto-star","tag-vaccination-mandate","tag-vaccine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}