There was a desperate need for truck drivers two years ago, and now things are even worse.
Jean-Marc Picard, executive director of the Atlantic Province Trucking Association, says it was somewhat manageable before, but not anymore.
“By 2025, we are actually going to be short around 60,000 drivers in Canada. It’s critical,” said Picard.
Picard says the pandemic has intensified the problem even more.
“Driving schools were shut down. Immigration was shut down, that created a backlog. Drivers that were close to retirement, probably some of them decided to hang it up and call it a career, which because of our dire need for drivers, it just amplified the situation.”
Picard adds they risk losing five to 10 per cent more of their drivers because of current vaccine mandates.
A mandate with isolation periods for unvaccinated drivers crossing the Canadian border went into effect on January 15th.
A similar United States mandate was implemented on January 22nd.
