Canadian transport leaders, including staff from the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the Quebec Trucking Association met in Montreal yesterday to address the capacity crisis in the supply chain.

“It is clear from this week’s discussions, all members of the supply chain are stressing the urgent need for the Canadian business and policy community to overcome the current inefficiencies in the supply chain to protect the reputation of Canada’s global competitiveness,” said CTA president Stephen Laskowski. “It is CTA’s goal to identify inefficiencies throughout the supply chain and present solutions to government and stakeholders to implement.”

CTA raised several regulatory and administrative barriers the Governments of and the United States could work on with the trucking industry which would help introduce more efficiencies in the supply chain and address inflation to transportation costs.

Regulatory items such as in transit, empty trailer moves, immigration policies and 10-sick day legislation were items raised by CTA that impact truck capacity; while administrative funding items like the twinning of highway 185 and its ability to open an Eastern-Canadian LCV network were also raised by CTA.

Border items like the reopening of FAST enrollment centres in Canada, strong support for continuous investments in customs hardware/software, streamlining food inspections, and improving the level of service by some in the custom broker industry, were also discussed.

On labour and driver capacity specifically, CTA emphasized the need for the Government of Canada to work with CTA to provide training dollars to the sector, better access to foreign labour and commence a widespread, national crackdown on Driver Inc.

CTA will be formally submitting comments to the National Supply Chain Task Force. Members who want to suggest additional policy improvements, please e-mail geoffrey.wood@cantruck.ca.

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