Thought of the Day - January 25 2022 - Transport Disruption Setbacks

It is fascinating how policy changes continue to be put in place that at their core seem to be designed to disrupt transport.

Two recent examples come to mind.

First, there are the "flight wars" with China. It seems that in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics, that kick off at the end of next week ( Thought-of the Day - November 24 2021 - China Here We Come ), China is redoubling its COVID-Zero efforts. One of the tactics, besides trying to ban packages from Canada, is cancelling international flights if passengers test positive. Chinese authorities have suspended 20 United Airlines, 10 American Airlines and 14 Delta Air Lines flights since the start of the year. Now the US has decided to retaliate and is busy cancelling the same number of flights from Chinese airlines - Xiamen, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. It seems France and Germany are also following suit.

The second example is the crazy restriction just implemented concerning truck drivers crossing the border. Here we are almost two years into the pandemic, a year after the mass deployment of vaccines and six weeks after Omicron's arrival, and Canada decided to prohibit US truckers who have not been vaccinated with Canadian-approved vaccine brands from driving over the Canadian border and to have Canadian drivers now require testing. Of course, in retaliation, the US has now followed suit. Just another blow to supply chains, one that will hamper economic recovery and push up our inflation, which is currently already at a 30-year high in Canada and the highest in 40 years in the US.

Brian Hitchcock, executive director of the Michigan Trucking Association, sums it up by saying across fifteen trucking companies 75 percent of drivers were unvaccinated. “How do you force a mandate on a bunch of truck drivers who have been out there on the front line for 20 months and never asked for anything?” he said. Figures published by the Canadian truckers association say about 10% of Canadian truckers are unvaccinated.

I guess you can say we are now busy implementing our "too much too late" strategies, many of which just keep pandemic thinking alive.

Cheers

Cliff