Industry fears CN strike fallout
LACK OF TRUCKING ALTERNATIVES STOKE INDUSTRY FEARS
A chronic shortage of truck drivers across Canada is compounding the effects of a strike at Canadian National Railway Co., says the CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada.
“While FPAC respects the collective bargaining process, and the right of workers to go on strike, we are concerned about the devastating economic impacts this dispute will have on our industry, which is already facing significant headwinds, not to mention the impacts on forestry families and communities,” said chief executive Derek Nighbor on Wednesday.
“Further compounding the severity of a disruption is the ongoing truck driver shortage, which means additional costs, higher rates and an inability to ship products to customers.”
The forest industry supplies about 10 per cent of the tonnage transported on Canada’s railway system, he said, adding his industry is already reeling from a downturn that has resulted in several mill shutdowns and hundreds of layoffs in British Columbia.
The Trucking Alliance of
Canada estimated in 2016 that the industry, made up of some 300,000 drivers, will be short by 34,000 drivers by 2024.
The strike by roughly 3,200 Teamsters Canada Rail Conference members began after the union and company failed to reach a deal by a Monday midnight deadline.
Conductors, trainpersons and yard workers took to the picket lines Tuesday, halting freight trains across the country.
Potential new customers have been keeping phones ringing at Winnipeg-based Bison Transport, one of Canada’s largest trucking and intermodal carriers, since the strike began, said Brad Chase, senior vice-president of logistics and multimodal.
The demand is a welcome change from what has been a “soft” year for freight movement, he said, but it exceeds what the company has been able to provide.
He said Bison has enough drivers to keep its 2,150 tractors on the road.
Transport firm Altex Energy Ltd. of Calgary has been loading about 50,000 barrels per day of oil recently at its four crude-by-rail terminals in Alberta and Saskatchewan, said CEO John Zahary.
“CN actually pushed some empties into our (Lashburn, Sask.) railyard just before the strike started so we’ve got a few days worth of work because we can take oil out of the tanks and put it in the empty railcars,” he said.