COVID-19 vaccine mandate ‘not an issue at all’, trucking company TFI says
Global News
Canada's largest trucking company is virtually untouched by the vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border, says TFI International Inc. chairman Alain Bedard.
Canada’s largest trucking company is virtually untouched by the vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border, says TFI International Inc. chairman and CEO Alain Bedard.
“Vaccination at TFI is not an issue at all,” he told analysts on a conference call Tuesday.
`We have a few drivers that still say no, but what we do with them is we just keep them in Canada” – a strategy adopted by several large transport outfits but less available to smaller ones.
The vast majority of TFI’s Canadian drivers are inoculated against COVID-19, Bedard said, adding that an eventual end to the exemption for cross-border truckers had been predictable. It was announced by the federal government on Nov. 19 and took effect Jan. 15.
He said last month looked like “the best January ever for the company,” coming after a fourth quarter that saw profits jump by more than two-thirds and revenue leap by 91 per cent.
“The biggest issue for us really in January is sick people in the U.S. with COVID” – particularly at TForce Freight, the massive transporter of smaller packages and cargo previously known as UPS Freight that TFI bought from United Parcel Service for US$800 million last year – Bedard said.
Last month, the federal government required non-essential Canadian workers including truck drivers to be fully vaccinated if they want to avoid a 14-day quarantine upon re-entry from the United States _ a rule the Canadian Trucking Alliance asked to be delayed but has now accepted. The United States imposed the same rule on American drivers a week later on Jan. 22, with Canadians who are not fully vaccinated barred from entry to the U.S. and vice versa.
The past 11 days have seen truckers bear down on Ottawa for a protest against the mandate and other pandemic restrictions, snowballing into an entrenched demonstration downtown encompassing a grab bag of grievances that has jammed streets and sparked confrontations and 60 criminal investigations. Starting Sunday, police have tried to get a firmer grip on the scene below Parliament Hill, seizing thousands of litres of diesel fuel and hauling away an oil tanker and a plywood shack.
