Beginning yesterday, January 22nd, all truckers crossing the Canadian border, whether Canadian or American, have to be vaccinated. That mandate will surely cause headaches both for the truckers themselves and the customers they deliver goods to as 15% of Canadian truckers and 50% of American truckers are unjabbed.
In fact, the problems are already cropping up. As the Calgary Herald reported of a Calgary grocery store struggling under the added burden of dealing with supply shortages caused by the mandate:
This has led to shortages in staples their customers have been accustomed to relying on them for like grapes, strawberries and citrus. When they can get some of those items, the price has gone up exponentially . Grapes that used to be 99 cents a pound are now running $4.99 a pound.
With the trucks Freestone can secure, they are focusing on vegetable deliveries, and the cost of those trucks has also skyrocketed. The average truck out of California pre-pandemic cost Freestone $6,000 to 7,000, now it’s costing them $9,000 to 11,000.
So, it’s near-impossible to get goods in a speedy manner and far more expensive to get the trucks in the first place.
But consumers aren’t the only ones being deleteriously impacted by the mandate; the unvaxxed truckers face the tough choice of either not being able to work their cross-border routes or taking a vaccine they don’t want to.
That’s led to a major protest in Canada, where, according to The Conservative Treehouse, a massive “Freedom Convoy” of truckers has raised $1.8 million for food and expenses and is headed to Ottowa to protest the mandate. Watch the Freedom Convoy here: Read more