Though almost every mode of transport has been shaken by the impact of the fast-moving virus, the most severe pain is being felt in airfreight, where travel bans have forced airlines to park planes and send employees home. Aside from carrying travellers, passenger planes are crucial to the quick delivery of goods including pharmaceutical and medical supplies.
“There are no passenger planes flying, so all the belly space that carried hundreds of thousands of kilos a day in cargo just doesn’t exist,” Singh said. “The hardest thing is getting things out of China by air. The rates they are charging have tripled because of the demand. Everybody is struggling, but that’s the biggest problem, getting goods out of Asia.”
Trucking industry leaders are also increasingly concerned about another long-standing problem threatening supply chains: driver shortages. The job vacancy rate in trucking has soared higher than in any other industry in Canada aside from crop production as older drivers retire and the industry struggles to draw new recruits, a recent study by Trucking HR Canada and the Conference Board of Canada found.
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