Maritimers hoping for a break from inflation won’t find relief anytime soon, be it at the pump or elsewhere, according to Atlantic Provinces Trucking Assocation president Jean-Marc Picard.
The soaring cost of fuel is putting even more pressure on the trucking industry, which was already dealing with staffing shortages and other challenges.
In an interview on Friday, he said fuel costs are the highest costs after labour for trucking companies.
“With the labour situation, fuel prices, equipment is extremely high, insurance is high…It’s just hard for small operations right now to bear all those extra costs,” he said.
“Price of freight is extremely high and customers are paying more so consumers are paying more,” he added.
Jason Rinzler, manager of Rinzler’s, an independently-owned grocery store in Moncton, said he’s already had to raise prices due to the rising cost of food production.
“Over the last several months we’ve received many notifications from suppliers letting us know that there would be price increases within the next several months, so it’s still continuing and hopefully doesn’t get any worse,” he said on Friday.
“You hear the customers from time to time surprised at different prices, especially beef. Ground beef in particular is quite high right now.”
He said supply chain issues have also had an effect on the availability of the items his store typically stocks.
“There’s been some times yeah, where certain items have been hard to come by. Fish in particular, frozen fish is a really tough one,” he said.
Picard said there are too many unknowns involved to say what the possible effects could be on the trucking industry as a whole.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty with the global situation right now so if this keeps up for three to six months, then yeah, it’s certainly going to impact a lot of things.”