A protest involving a convoy of truckers in the Canadian capital has continued to gain support online. A GoFundMe page for the “Freedom Convoy” was approaching $10 million as of Tuesday evening, which is more money than the major political parties of Canada raised during the last quarter of 2021.
The group is protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates which began earlier this month. Canada began requiring northbound truckers and other incoming visitors to be vaccinated beginning Jan. 15. Mexico has no such requirement.
The freight industry said the impact has been immediate, with fewer drivers able to cross the border and prices spiking as a result. The scarcity of drivers, they say, has translated into long waits for available trucks.
Anne Reinke, president and CEO of the Transportation Intermediaries Association, said although the requirement has been in place for only a few days, “we’ve seen an impact.”
“Is this going to help the health and safety of the American population, or just make the supply chain worse,” she asked.
The association estimated that about 10 percent of U.S. truck drivers are unvaccinated, a number that puts pressure on a supply chain where capacity is already at 100 percent. She did not quantify the impact of the vaccination requirement.
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