Squeezing the Border

For John, BLUF:  The COVID-19 Pandemic, like life itself, requires tradeoffs in which it is not all win-win.  Sometimes the Government Bureaucrats choose poorly.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Vaccine Mandate for Cross Border Trucking Now in Effect, Mandate for Domestic Trucking Begins in a Week, Prepare Your Affairs Accordingly

From The Conservative Three House, by Sundance, 16 January 2022.

Here is the lede plus three:

The cross border vaccine mandate for truckers in/out of Canada is now in effect.  The U.S. vaccine mandate takes effect on January 22nd.

It will take a few days to see the consequences, but there will be consequences.

Keep in mind, any impact is taking place in a supply chain system that is already tenuous and unstable at best.  A small disruption that may have been minimally significant against a fully operational supply chain, is more likely to be a much bigger disruption in a supply chain that is already under a severe amount of demand side stress.  Somewhere in the range of 16,000 to 38,000 daily loads are likely to be impacted.

When questioned about this, Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc says the trucking industry “has had adequate time to prepare for this.”  Keep in mind, the mandate was announced 45 days ago (November 30th).  According to the Canadian government, changing the structural rules for all the logistics and commerce in cross border shipping, 45 days is enough notice.

Yes, plan for shortages.  I am not thinking the bureaucrats have thought this out long term.  Or maybe they didn't talk amongst themselves.

As for the Truckers, "Last Year's Heroes, This Year's Zeros."

The good news is that we have a capitalist system, which gives flexibility to the economy, allowing individual entreprauners to adjust here and there, keeping the economy going.^nbsp; At least let us hope so.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff