It’s been a bumpy road for truckers since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Manitoba trucker David Henry told 680 CJOB he’s experiencing it first-hand, as he’s stuck in the U.S. waiting for a load to take back across the border.
“We have that same issue as drivers in other places — waiting for loads to get back home again.”
Henry said this trip down south was initially due to some trailers that had been ordered several months ago and were ready to be picked up.
Now it’s a waiting game.
“We don’t want to come down here unless we have a good chance of getting something, and so we wait before leaving home.
“We’ve got manufacturers and other facilities out there that aren’t able to take advantage of their typical economies of scale… maybe instead of production 24 hours, they’re only working one or two shifts, and so their costs are increasing and they’re looking for savings,” he said.
“Unfortunately, some of those savings they’re looking for are coming from trucking companies and the rates they’re looking to pay.”
Shaw said the supply chain is interconnected — so if a trucker is taking potatoes from Portage la Prairie, Man., to a manufacturer in the southern U.S., they need to get back to Manitoba, but there may not be a direct load.
Instead, they might take a roundabout route, going from, say, Georgia to Florida, Florida to Toronto, and Toronto back to Winnipeg.
“With all of the closures and with all of the changes lately to businesses, the supply chain has eroded, so the distances between those reloads and those connecting loads has increased,” he said.
“The time it takes to wait for those reloads is increasing. Time is money and those delays are very costly.”