A convoy of Canadian truckers has been rallying in Ottawa this week, urging the government to drop a requirement that cross border truckers show proof of vaccination. Critics say the new rule will strain the supply chain, drive up inflation and create a truck driver shortage. In Maine, The Motor Transport Association surveyed its members and found that of those companies responding, 60% of their drivers are not vaccinated.
Association President Brian Parke says the group is asking Maine's Congressional delegation to seek an exemption. Parke says early in the pandemic truckers were heroes, and now they can't do their jobs.
"They were out there delivering everything America needed when Americans were locked down in their homes," Parke says. "We didn't have vaccines, PPE, and these same drivers now cannot deliver the same goods across the border. It makes no sense."
Parke says the 80,000 trucking jobs are open across the nation right now. And he says the situation will get worse as the aging trucking workforce begins to retire in the coming years.
