Grain sector dodges bullet on trucker shortage

A chronic and ever-worsening truck driver shortage in Canada has not had a big impact on grain transportation to date, says an industry official.

There will be an estimated 17,230 truck driver vacancies per year between 2021 and 2025, according to Trucking HR Canada.

In the second quarter of 2021, more than 18,000 vacancies existed, the association said in its October 2021 Labour Market Snapshot report.

“The labour pool is shrinking and the shortage is growing, escalating stress on the supply chain while significantly impacting critical sectors of the Canadian economy,” stated the report.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the acute driver shortage problem.

About 40 percent of trucking companies surveyed for the report said their level of business is higher than pre-pandemic levels. Yet more than two-thirds were unable to hire all the people they needed over the past year.

“The main reason, according to employers, is that they receive very few applications for vacant truck driver positions and the ones they do receive rarely have the required levels of training and experience to be able to start work immediately,” stated the report.

Susan Ewart, executive director of the Saskatchewan Trucking Association, said the shortage has been around for 15 years and the situation is getting worse.

The industry is aging, drivers are retiring and there isn’t enough young drivers to replace them.

Ewart said when she grew up in the 1970s kids thought truck drivers were cool. They would try to get them to toot their horns as they drove by in their big rigs.

These days it is not seen as a desirable profession. Today’s millennials are not interested in a career in truck driving. They don’t like the long hours and the time away from family and friends.

She said many progressive trucking companies are attempting to address that shortcoming by setting up switch yards and devising flexible schedules.

But there is still a huge shortfall that needs to be addressed.

“We do have members who say we have trucks we could put 50 more drivers on if we could find them,” said Ewart.

“They’re going, ‘we need people. Turn them out.’”

Trucking associations are working with governments on ways to address the problem. They are asking for increased funding for driver training programs and for ways to make it easier for immigrants to work in the sector.

Steve Pratte, policy manager for the Canadian Canola Growers Association, doesn’t think the driver shortage issue has caused any big problems for Canada’s grain farmers.

“I haven’t heard about it impacting that first mile of the grain supply chain in Western Canada,” he said.

Pratte thinks that might be because the grain industry relies on short haul trucking for the most part.

Statistics back up that assumption. The vacancy rate among long-haul drivers is almost double what it is for short-haul drivers, according to Trucking HR Canada.

Pratte said grain is too bulky and low value to be hauled long distances by truck. The industry relies on rail to get the product to port.

He noted that both railways shipped record volumes of grain last year, so farmers appear to be getting the product to their local elevators without too much trouble.