Trucking Industry
Trucker Safety and Well-Being Must Be Ensured
- Normand Chouinard -
On March 18, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
announced the "temporary closure" of land, air
and sea borders effective at midnight March 21
for all non-essential travellers. The
announcement came after a telephone conversation
between Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump
that same morning, just a few hours before the
U.S. administration announced it was also
closing its borders.
"We are working very closely with the United
States at this time to introduce specific rules
that will keep both Canadians and Americans
safe," Trudeau added. "Travel restrictions will
not apply to commerce or trade," he noted.
"Our governments recognize that it is critical
that we preserve supply chains between both
countries," Trudeau continued. "These supply
chains ensure that food, fuel and life-saving
medicines reach people on both sides of the
border. [...] Trucking will not be affected by
this new measure."
The Need to Ensure the Safety of All
For Prime Minister Trudeau to say in the same
breath during his March 18 press conference that
the Canadian and U.S. governments will "keep
Canadians and Americans safe" while stating that
"trucking won't be affected" is disingenuous.
While everyone recognizes the need during the
present period to ensure the safety of all, the
safety of the workers who are ensuring, 24/7,
"that food, fuel and life-saving medicines reach
people" by truck, is not being looked after.
Prime Minister Trudeau had nothing to say about
the safety of truckers, nor about how their role
as essential workers is going to be ensured
during the pandemic. Truckers are very concerned
about these matters and are holding public
authorities and employers to account for
guaranteeing that their right to safe working
conditions during this difficult time is
protected. As transportation falls mainly under
federal jurisdiction, it is the responsibility
of the Trudeau government to meet the needs of
transportation workers. On that issue, François
Laporte, National President of Teamsters Canada,
which represents a large number of drivers
employed by transport companies, had this to say
in a press release:
"To date, the federal government has not
consulted with the union on how to protect
transportation workers. No federal safety
guidelines have been made available to protect
truck drivers, who need to travel to the United
States and across the country to keep Canadians
supplied."
"Every store in the country depends on
deliveries from truck drivers. If we fail to
protect truckers from the virus, our country's
supply chain will collapse and we won't be able
to get food and other essential goods to
Canadians," he warned. "Our union stands ready
to help in any way possible."[1]
The decision by certain U.S. states to close
public rest areas and the possibility that truck
stops operated by private interests may do
likewise has met with strong disapproval from
truckers across North America. Not only union
organizations but also thousands of truckers who
have a presence in the trucking world through
digital platforms, have voiced strong opposition
to these arbitrary decisions. Truckers are
rightly claiming that as an essential service
for securing the supply chain, strict measures
must be taken to protect them under current
conditions. Amongst other measures, special
protective equipment must be provided to them
and sanitation measures taken so that employees
performing regular cleaning of rest areas are
safe, along with measures that ensure that
truckers can eat properly and that workers
employed at these restaurants can work safely.
Some truck drivers are even demanding that
public authorities take responsibility to
provide this and ensure that the owners of rest
areas comply with health regulations.
 Truckers are also
demanding that their rest periods be respected,
which is absolutely essential for them to be
able to continue their work without risking
their lives and the lives of others. This
concern arose following the decision of the U.S.
government to temporarily suspend the
hours-of-service laws at the federal level that
mandate how many hours truck drivers may work, a
change that went into effect on March 13. Now, a
similar exemption has gone into effect in
Canada. On March 24, Michael DeJong, Director
General of Transport Canada's Multimodal and
Road Safety Programs, signed the Essential
Freight Transport Exemption. It applies to
"extra-provincial truck undertakings and their
drivers, who are employed or otherwise engaged
in the transport of essential supplies and
equipment, in direct assistance to the emergency
relief efforts during the response to COVID-19"
in all provinces and territories and remains in
effect until April 30.[2]
A number of proposals have come from truck
drivers themselves, including that of rotating
hours within the company, and that businesses
take all the measures necessary so that drivers
are not unnecessarily exhausted. Within the
context of the current pandemic, certain sectors
of the industry will be slowing down, so truck
drivers from those sectors will be called on to
lend a hand to the essential transport and
distribution sectors, such as health care and
agro-food, and fuel and other materials
necessary for production.
Truck drivers are also demanding that measures
be taken in reception and shipping areas in
factories, warehouses, distribution centres,
etc., to ensure social distancing norms. Many
truck drivers are concerned that they may
contract the virus while their trucks are being
loaded or unloaded, or that they themselves
might become vectors for its spread across North
America. These measures are all the more
important as truckers travel to areas of higher
risk, where the danger of spreading the virus is
even greater.
There has been much confusion and concern about
whether or not Canadian truck drivers who
contract COVID-19 in the United States will be
protected by insurance companies. Crisis
committees comprised of the transport industry
and unions, along with government and transport
ministry officials have reassured truckers that
they will be covered. The Canadian Life and
Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) has
confirmed what the public authorities have said.
"With restrictions to non-essential travel
beginning in the coming days, Canada's insurers
want to be clear that commercial truckers will
not lose their group out-of-country medical
coverage due to recent travel restrictions,"
said Stephen Frank, President and CEO of CLHIA.
Doubts about insurance coverage arose after
several insurers sent memos indicating that due
to the government's notice of travel
restrictions, they would not be providing travel
coverage for COVID-19. The uproar that this
created, not only amongst truckers but also
fleet managers and trucking and trucker
associations, has resulted in truck drivers
crossing the border now being covered for
COVID-19, so long as they have no symptoms
before crossing.
Truck drivers are aware that their job of
securing the supply chain goes hand in hand with
the need to take care of everyone working on the
production chain. It is the entire industrial
and non-industrial working class that produces
all of the goods and services upon which the
society depends who must be protected to ensure
that the people can be supplied with what they
need so that this pandemic crisis can be
overcome for the benefit of all. Truck drivers
will continue to work in that vein, by putting
forward themselves what they need to be able to
do just that.
Note
1. Teamsters
Canada
website.
2. Canada's Commercial
Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations
state:
12 (1) No motor carrier shall request,
require or allow a driver to drive and no
driver shall drive after the driver has
accumulated 13 hours of driving time in a day.
(2) No motor carrier shall request,
require or allow a driver to drive and no
driver shall drive after the driver has
accumulated 14 hours of on-duty time in a day.
Mandatory Off-duty Time
13 (1) No motor carrier shall request,
require or allow a driver to drive and no driver
shall drive after the driver has accumulated 13
hours of driving time unless the driver takes at
least 8 consecutive hours of off-duty time
before driving again.
For details on the March 24 Essential Freight
Transportation Exemption to the above
regulations, click
here.
This article was published in
Number 16 - April 1, 2020
Article Link:
Trucking Industry: Trucker Safety and Well-Being Must Be Ensured - Normand Chouinard
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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