BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – With the holiday season underway, supply chain issues continue to affect just about everyone who is buying or selling goods. Now that the Canadian border has reopened, North Dakota is once again a port of entry for our neighbors to the north. However, some Canadian policies might make problems at the ports worse.
Dion Wald is a truck driver who recognizes the importance of his industry.
“We need it to live and survive and stuff like that. I mean, we need our food, and water and everything else, and everything mostly comes in on almost all trucks,” Wald said.
And although Wald doesn’t transport goods to and from Canada, he sees why it might hurt the industry if Canada requires vaccines for truck drivers starting in January. The current proposal would require all truckers crossing into Canada to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 15.
“It means that we’re not gonna be able to get our supply and demand of what we’re gonna need,” Wald said.
Jeff Hinz of Ace Hardware is no stranger to supply chain issues.
“We went six months without any toasters, we just couldn’t get ‘em. You don’t know that until you want a toaster, and you want to know why,” said Hinz.
He says he understands why people get frustrated.
“In this country, we’re used to getting everything we want. Whatever size, color, flavor, you have the choice of shopping around to find the best price, we don’t have that anymore, we’re gonna accept what’s on the shelf,” Hinz said.
The big takeaway? Just about everyone is being affected by disruptions to the supply chain.
More than two-thirds of goods traded between the U.S. and Canada are transported on roads and highways. The Canadian Trucking Alliance estimates that as many as 40 percent of American truck drivers traveling to-and-from Canada would be sidelined by the vaccination requirement.
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