When Kiratsimran Deol joined the trucking industry, he never imagined he would be second-guessing his decision after a mere two years.
“I’m thinking about changing my job. This is the thought we’re all having right now,” he said.
For almost 24 hours, Deol and his colleague have been stuck at a gas station along the I-90 in the town of Ripley, N.Y.
The truckers, carrying goods into Canada, were supposed to cross the Peace Bridge into Fort Erie at 1 a.m. Thursday.
However, an IT outage experienced by the Canada Border Services Agency four days prior has left him, along with tens of thousands of other truckers from across Canada, stranded in the United States.
“It’s hard sometimes waiting here. It’s a guessing game when it’s going to be cleared … We heard some of our friends have been stuck for almost two days,” he told Global News.
Deol said they heard about the outage from their colleagues who are stuck in the queue at the Peace Bridge.
The pair decided to pull into a gas station on the I-90 and wait things out, while having access to nearby amenities.
Soon enough, dozens of other Canada-bound trucks started doing the same thing after learning that the truckers at the border had run out of food and had no access to washrooms.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) says approximately 70,000 trucks cross the Canada-U.S. border daily.
The alliance told Global News that delays are being experienced by truckers from across the country, leaving the industry outraged.
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Those trying to get into Canada’s western border are facing four to five-hour delays, according to the CTA, but the worst delays are being seen at the Ontario border, including at crossings in Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Windsor.
“We’re seeing trucks stuck for over 24 hours,” Stephen Laskowski, president and CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, told Global News over Zoom.
“In some cases, truck drivers are being fed by bridge authorities because they’ve been sitting and waiting on the U.S. side for so long.”
Port authorities at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and the Lewiston-Queenston crossing in Niagara Falls advised commercial truckers Thursday to avoid both areas as their queues are at, or beyond, capacity.
Laskowski said he is not surprised by the outage, as this has been a recurring issue, despite a federal pledge to invest in the border.
“It is puzzling. Incredibly puzzling, troubling, frustrating to not understand why that investment hasn’t gone on to the IT systems,” he said.
In a statement to Global News, the CBSA said the outage happened Sunday morning following a routine maintenance and was resolved by Tuesday.
“A data entry problem during the maintenance caused the outage and is being investigated,” said spokesperson Guillaume Bérubé.
“Commercial drivers may continue to experience delays as we resume normal processing and continue to clear a backlog of requests that were received during the outage,” the statement continued.
But Laskowski says the alliance has heard nothing from the federal agency as to why the delays continued well into Thursday evening.
“Local ports have been working with the industry throughout this crisis, giving the best information out to us,” said Laskowski.
“Unfortunately, with regards to Ottawa, we are yet to get a clear message as to what is going on, and when this will be addressed, and quite frankly, equally as important, how this issue will never happen again.”
The alliance warns the price of this hiccup will be paid — not just by truckers — but by the supply chain as a whole, which is depending on those goods to make it onto Canadian soil.
Until then, those stuck south of the border are playing a waiting game to see when they can finally return home.
“It’s frustrating sometimes,” said Deol.
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