Canadian vaccine mandate sees little change in cross-border truck traffic

Fewer truck drivers crossed the Canada-U.S. border in the week after Canada's new vaccine mandate was imposed, but the drop was in line with a general reduction in overall traffic. Federal data released this week said 97,321 truck drivers crossed from Jan.

17-23, representing 89.5% of the total seen the week before. But there were 119,343 non-commercial highway travelers, representing 88.2% of the numbers seen the previous week.

Canada began to enforce its vaccine mandate for border-crossing truck drivers on Jan.

15, blocking unvaccinated or partially vaccinated U.S. truckers from entering the country. Canadian drivers, while allowed to return from the U.S., faced new testing and quarantine requirements. The U.S. introduced its vaccine mandate for cross-border truck drivers on Jan.

22, blocking unvaccinated or partially vaccinated drivers from entering the country. The total number of truck drivers who crossed from Jan.

17-23 was down when compared to the same week in 2021 (111,360), 2020 (106,785), and 2019 (107,665). The totals for the week of Jan.

10-16 were also lower than those seen in 2021 (112,055) and 2019 (110,742).

There were 102,798 truck drivers recorded during that week in 2020, before pandemic-related restrictions began.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance projected that Canada could lose 12,000-16,000 cross-border truck drivers because of the vaccine mandate, based on community-wide vaccination rates.