‘We’ve got trucks sitting for hours on end’: As blockades drive up transport costs, fear of economic toll grows

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Murray Mullen, the head of one of Canada’s biggest trucking firms, sees blockades at border crossings this week in terms of productivity and pinch points. He sees trucks unable to move, or forced to take roundabout routes to get where they’re going, adding extra time and distance, eating into an already short supply of drivers and equipment.

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“We’ve got trucks sitting for hours on end,” said Mullen, the CEO of Alberta-based Mullen Group Ltd., said in an interview on Thursday. “It’s going to cost us a lot of money. Eventually, I’m going: ‘Well, I’m not paying that cost.’”

So the costs get passed on —  a familiar story lately in the trucking business. Transport companies were facing high costs, high demand and a low supply of drivers and trucks even before the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., shut down a vital trade artery into the United States.

“I can’t get equipment. I can’t get new drivers. The people I’ve got all want to be paid more money,” Mullen said. “When these things happen, it backs everything up.”

Get live updates on the Ambassador Bridge blockade and other COVID protests here

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On the ground, Windsor’s mayor and police chief had been pushing for a peaceful resolution to the protests blocking the bridge, for fear that physically removing them would only inspire other protesters to flock to the city as reinforcements. But on Thursday, Mayor Drew Dilkens said the protests had “gone too far.”

Unifor, the private-sector union that represents tens of thousands of auto workers in Canada, said roughly 12,000 of its members who work at the top three automakers in the region were either laid off, or working on reduced hours, on Thursday. Ford Motor Co., Stellantis N.V., and General Motors Co. were forced to shut down or scale back production at their plants because they couldn’t get enough parts across the Detroit-Windsor border.

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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer urged Canadian legislators to do something about the blockade, joined a growing chorus of business leaders who have been demanding action for days.

“They must take all necessary and appropriate steps to immediately and safely reopen traffic,” Whitmer said.

By Thursday afternoon, Windsor city council had opted to seek a court injunction against the protests. At a press conference, Mayor Drew Dilkens acknowledged the move would likely serve as a “clarion call” to others who oppose COVID-19 restrictions. A provincial court will hear the application at noon Friday.

“To those who are thinking about joining the protest, let me just say this: You are not welcome here,” he said. “This is a national crisis.”

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For Mullen, it is another disruption in two years of disruptions. His trucking firm has struggled through lockdowns, labour shortages, and catastrophic floods in B.C. that washed out highways across the province late last year.

“All of these things add up to much higher cost,” he said. “I hope we can get back to normal and quit talking about this.”

The increasing cost of freight has already had a ripple effect. For example, the Quebec cheese giant Saputo Inc. reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of 25 per cent in an earnings update on Friday — which it blamed, in part, on $43 million increase in freight and logistical costs.

Mullen said he expected his trucking rates to increase by 10 per cent, unrelated to the blockades, just to recoup inflationary pressures.

“I’ve got no choice,” Mullen said. “I can’t get ahead of the cost curve right at the moment. It’s the first time in decades.”

With additional reporting by Reuters

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