COVID-19 pandemic taking a toll on truckers, says B.C. association president
Posted March 24, 2020 2:22 pm.
Last Updated March 24, 2020 2:23 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll on truckers, especially those needing to cross the U.S. border.
Even though the border remains open to the transportation of essential goods, drivers are reporting the new screening process is intense, said Dave Earle, president and CEO of the B.C. Trucking Association.
The measures are meant to ensure the safety of drivers and others, and so essential supply chains keep moving.
Earle said drivers should be carrying their passports with them as proof they haven’t recently travelled to countries where the COVID-19 pandemic originated or has rapidly spread.
“That will show where they have been in the past two weeks,” he added. “So, for example, if they ask you have you been to a country where COVID-19 declarations are in place, and they say, ‘No,’ they will immediately have their passport there to indicate, ‘No, I haven’t been to any of those countries.'”
Earle also suggested drivers take extra food with them to reduce how often they get out of their trucks.
ded. “So, for example, if they ask you have you been to a country where COVID-19 declarations are in place, and they say, ‘No,’ they will immediately have their passport there to indicate, ‘No, I haven’t been to any of those countries.'”
Earle also suggested drivers take extra food with them to reduce how often they get out of their trucks.
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“We and our federal body, the Canadian Trucking Alliance, are also putting together strategies for drivers to be able to use, in addition to the usual control strategies that we all are practising,” he said.
The ban on non-essential cross-border travel went into effect Saturday and will stay in place for at least 30 days as Canada and the U.S. attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Previously Federal ministers said that truckers relied upon to provide food, medical supplies and other essential goods, will not be blocked at the border.
