During this period of uncertainty one important fact has emerged that has a direct effect on all Canadians; the need to protect the supply chain that delivers food, supplies, services, medication, and personal protective equipment to families across the nation, and to protect those who are part of the industry engaged in this service.
Transportation is part of the Canadian Government’s recognized Critical Infrastructure. The bottom line is that means our truck drivers are equally critical and need to be provided with the equipment and service to keep them safe.
To “flatten the curve” as the medical community refers to it, early warning of the transmission of the Covid-19 virus is key to stopping the spread. Technology has been designed to understand the numerous points of contact one person might have to others to limit the spread of the virus within a fleet. In the case of professional truck drivers, many of whom travel across multiple jurisdictions, and into hot spots, sacrificing their own health and well-being to ensure we have what we need, contact tracing is critical to ensure we limit any possible exposure of COVID-19, for the protection of the driver, their families, and the general public. The PMTC Board of Directors has voted in favour of early contact tracing as a recommended best practice.
Private fleets, and the Industry as a whole, are in an excellent position to make use of ‘early contact’ tracing as an additional measure for proactively addressing Covid-19 to protect drivers and to minimize the chance of outbreaks. Fleet data collected from the truck’s GPS/ELD systems, already installed by many fleets, makes it easy to do ‘early contact’ tracing and is not intrusive from a data privacy standpoint as the data for tracing where a driver has been and who they have been in the vicinity of is already available to fleets from these devices.
We encourage fleets to consider adopting the practice of ‘early contact’ tracing, along with all the other best practices that have been recommended,(see link from Transport Canada below) to strengthen your business continuity plan to proactively address the future threats your fleet and your drivers, customers and the public may face with this pandemic.
