Both the U.S. and Canadian governments have exempted trade from their travel restrictions. On March 16, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada would ban entry to foreign nationals except for Canadian citizens, permanent residents, family of Canadians and, at that time, American citizens. Two days later, both U.S. and Canadian governments expanded that restriction to include any non-essential travel across the Canada-U.S. border.

Truck drivers were also exempt from the 14-day isolation imposed on all other international travellers returning to Canada.

Why it matters: On paper, it looks like COVID-19 precautions won’t impact trucking traffic across the border. In reality, lack of services has added more challenge to life on the road.

Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau later said that the risk posed by those trade-based exemptions could be effectively managed with screening.

Truck drivers have since said they are running into more subtle obstacles.

There have been reports of rest stop closures or restricted services, including a story published on industry website FreightWaves, which announced that all highway rest stops in Pennsylvania would be closed following an announced state of emergency. FreightWaves later reported that some of those rest stops were reopened for parking and were adding portable toilets, although indoor services were still unavailable. The same website reported that most rest stops in other parts of the U.S. were still open.

Bill Rempel, CEO of Steve’s Livestock in Blumenort says their drivers have run into reduced services while in the U.S.

“There are changes in availability of restaurants, so they have to plan ahead a little bit more and that’s what we’re encouraging them to do,” he said.

Drivers have been encouraged to do more meal planning and meal preparation. There is still food at truck stops, Rempel noted, although restaurants themselves may be closed. Washrooms and showers, likewise, are still available at locations their drivers use, although drivers must bring their own toiletries, etc.

“The travel stops with fuelling and that, they communicate on a daily basis with the trucking industry, so they send out daily bulletins,” Rempel also said. “They’ve continued to provide fuel — there hasn’t been any interruption with the fuel service.”

Rempel says they have familiarized their drivers with COVID-19 symptoms, are limiting driver contact at offices and terminals and boosting cab sanitation when drivers switch out. The company also has a portal to inform drivers of any service change when they’re on the road.

Insurance woes

The trucking industry has also made headlines after it was reported that some insurance providers may not be providing health insurance if drivers become ill while in the U.S.

On March 19, an article reported that at least one Atlantic-based trucking company had been told by their provider that they would not be covered, and instead advised drivers to immediately head back to Canada if they fell ill.

Rempel says there is no such danger for their employees. Their provider has assured Rempel that drivers will be, “fully covered” as long as they were showing no symptoms before crossing the border, he said.

The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association has also sought to reassure truckers. In a March 19 release, the association said it had, “confirmed that commercial truckers with group insurance coverage will continue to have coverage for emergency out-of-country medical expenses as they bring goods across the U.S.-Canada border.”

The concern stemmed from group plans with an exclusion for areas under a travel advisory, the association said. They suggested companies look at their policies and contact their providers if clarification is needed.

Ag advantage?

A livestock focus, and in particular, pigs, may work in their favour while dealing with COVID-19, Rempel also noted.

Pig shipments have required drivers be well acquainted with biosecurity. Manitoba’s pork sector has been embroiled in another fight with porcine epidemic diarrhea (PEDv), with 80 cases reported in 2017 and 82 this year. In 2017, the transport industry was among those to come under the PEDv microscope, including increased scrutiny and sanitation across the international border.

“I think the benefit we have is that we have a driving pool that is very used to change and to biosecurity and additional protocol… They take precautions; they have booties when they step out of the truck when they have pigs loaded,” Rempel said. “So, there are steps that they have to take on a daily basis about cleaning their footwear, about disinfecting their truck.”

The company hasn’t had any major delays crossing the border so far, Rempel also said.

The post Truckers deal with new reality under COVID-19 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

If you guessed the Canadian Wheat Board, you’d be wrong.

“Animal transport is the issue that he gets the most letters on from constituents,” said Canadian Cattlemen’s Association vice-president Martin Unrau at a recent town hall meeting.

That’s because the only time the average urban consumer actually catches a glimpse of live farm animals is when they are on a truck.

“It’s amazing the amount of letters that he gets from consumers across Canada that talk about the transport of animals,” said Unrau, as part of a discussion on the CCA’s bid to renew and update the beef industry’s code of practice.

The dairy industry finished its code about two years ago, but progress for the beef industry has been much slower, he said, mainly because stakeholders are demanding that the guidelines be realistically achievable by ranches and feedlots.

Unrau, who once operated a trucking business and sits on the CCA committee working on the code, said revisions to the current transportation regulations have been in the works for about a decade.

Discussions on the subject are generally based on the number of hours cattle spend on trucks and the number of animals per square foot.

That’s especially significant for Manitoba ranchers, who regularly ship cattle to Nebraska, Alberta or as far as Quebec.

“The closest market for our product is 800 miles away,” he said.

Restrictions on the length of time cattle can spend aboard trucks will inevitably increase cost. For example, unloading cattle once per trip adds one cent per pound to the load. Twice, and it adds two cents per pound.

When Unrau hauled cattle, rest stops were based on weather. If it was hot, they’d unload twice. If it was -10, they wouldn’t unload at all.

In his opinion, restrictions on trucking cattle should be based on type. Wet-nosed calves should have more frequent rest stops than feeder cattle, for example.

Slapping a strict limit on loads might backfire, too, if it gives truckers an incentive to try to beat the clock by “hammering through.”

“In Europe, they are talking about an eight-hour limit, which would mean unloading the animals every eight hours,” he added.

To Unrau, that doesn’t make any sense, because in his experience, it takes at least four hours again for the animal “to get his legs.”

On a 40-hour run, if the driver stops for a rest after 14 hours, he’ll often find the cattle are laying down to rest. But if they are run off the truck for feed and water, they fill up their bellies, which adds to their discomfort for the next two to three hours.

“It doesn’t hurt them to stay on the truck,” said Unrau. “Bureaucrats don’t always understand that, but we have to make sure that the message gets through.”

A CCA study of 10,000 loads between Ontario and Alberta found that 99.9 per cent of the cattle arrived with no problems such as deads, downers or sweaters, but weaned calves and old cull cows were at the highest risk.

“The greatest risk, even more than weaned calves, was skinny dairy cows,” he said, adding that in his opinion, future regulations should reflect this reality.

The post Trucking front and centre in talks on new beef code appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Christmas week: RCMP in Manitoba report 24 impaired-driving violations, down from 45 a year earlier, in the third week (Dec. 21-27, 2009) of their annual Christmas Checkstop program. RCMP said Dec. 29 the average blood alcohol reading in this program’s third week was 0.16; the highest was 0.26. Six people drew 24-hour licence suspensions. Out of 15,641 vehicles checked, the RCMP’s three-week total included 85 impaired-driving charges laid, along with 45 24-hour suspensions, 240 seatbelt charges and 1,986 other charges.

The post In Brief… – for Jan. 7, 2010 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“I don’t know that it will happen in four years, but at least the trend line is changing.”

– PAUL ROHDE

U. S. President Barack Obama’s plan to inject billions of dollars into infrastructure projects is welcome news for the world of agriculture, transportation industry experts said.

But the government must also pass targeted legislation to iron out the sometimes-outdated policies that slow movement and increase the cost of raw materials flowing into and out of crop-producing areas of the world’s biggest grain exporter, they said.

U. S. farm exports totalled a record $115.5 billion in 2008. Commodit ies move from farms located mostly in the interior of the country to domestic markets and export terminals via truck, rail and river barge.

“We’re excited about the new administration, but this is going to be a mammoth challenge,” said Paul Rohde, vice-president at Waterways Council, Inc., an advocacy group that works to sustain and improve the U. S. system of navigable rivers.

“The way we build these locks, the cost of overruns, our country is hamstrung by the process,” he said on the sidelines of the Commodity Classic grain industry convention.

“I don’t know that it will happen in four years, but at least the trend line is changing,” he said.

In his budget proposal laid out this week, President Obama requested $5 billion to create a national infrastructure bank in fiscal year 2010 which starts Oct. 1, saying it would expand and enhance existing federal infrastructure investments.

The transportation industry says that necessary repairs to aging roads, bridges, and river locks and dams have often been neglected until it is too late.

“The whole river works as a system. If just one lock goes down, there’s a ripple effect and all of a sudden the rail rates go up,” Rohde said.

Rail infrastructure has not been neglected as severely as U. S. roads, bridges and river locks because of private investment, but limited competition and a lack of government regulation of the industry has sometimes elevated shipping costs.

Businesses that transport grain and other goods via rail, represented by Jennifer Owen of the group Consumers United for Rail Equity, argue that railroads operate nearly as a monopoly but are not regulated by antitrust laws as they should be.

The rail industry has consolidated from about 40 large railroads in 1980 to just four major players today, she stressed.

Efficiency in the trucking industry has been hampered by rigid regulation that should be updated, some in the industry believe.

“Truckers are limited to the hours they work and that’s for all of our safety,” said Russell Laird, executive director of the American Trucking Associations.

“But during the planting and harvesting seasons, while safety is still important, it’s really hard to get the job done without exemptions,” he said, citing proposed revisions to the number of hours a trucker must rest between shifts during busy periods.

He said ATA is also aiming to revise existing weight limits to ease gridlock and to help make truck transportation of goods more efficient.

Increasing the number of axles on a truck and spacing them out differently can increase the amount of material a truck can haul without undue wear on roads, he said.

The post U. S. Farmers Cheer Road, Rail, River Upgrade Plans appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.