WINDSOR, ONT. -- In the month since non-essential cross border travel was halted by the U.S. and Canadian governments, the transportation and logistics industries have seen significant volume drops, according to new data from the Windsor-Essex COVID-19 Economic Task Force.
And now that sources confirm to CTV News the U.S. and Canada have agreed to extend those restrictions for another 30 days, industry reps say the challenges are expected to continue and perhaps, worsen.
Sources say the new 30-day pact will limit non-essential travel, but commerce and vital health-care workers can continue to cross, sticking with the same tight restrictions put in place mid-March.
But since non-essential travel was stopped a month ago, a number of trucking companies are “driving empty trailers or have idled their trucks” according to the task force, which means they are generating little to no revenue.
The local logistics and transportation sector is made up of 2,600 businesses and employs more than 10,000 people across Windsor-Essex.
The idling of the local automotive sector, combined with the travel bans “have has a dramatic impact” to this local sector, the task force says.
“Governments in Canada have acted swiftly and in an unprecedented manner to respond to the needs of companies, but this support is needed now and quickly,” says Adam Pernasilici, Vice President, Laser Transport Inc. “As an employer of a local trucking company, I am fortunate to have a group of dedicated and loyal employees but the costs of doing business during this crisis are extremely challenging for a sector that already faced very tight margins.”
By the numbers
According to data compiled by the task force, daily traffic on Huron Church leading to the Ambassador Bridge is down 52 per cent and truck traffic is down 43 per cent. It’s even worse at the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, where year-to-date traffic has dipped 88 per cent compared to the same period las year.
“This sector is represented by a variety of companies and interests. And, yet, these hard-working individuals (dispatchers, warehouse workers, truck drivers, toll collectors, airport officials, border officers and others) are also the faces we see daily on the frontlines of this crisis doing their job,” says Susan Anzolin, executive director, Institute for Border Logistics and Security. “They, too, are our heroes.”
The Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry even stopped operating for the first time in 30 years due to travel restrictions and commercial flights to and from Windsor International Airport have been grounded until at least the end of April.
Even though volume of cross-border commerce has been virtually halved over the past months, Pernasilici remains optimistic that business will pick up when the border restrictions are loosened, whenever that may be.
