The pandemic has exposed its weaknesses.Ottawa—Worker shortages are well-documented challenge throughout the Canadian economy including the trucking industry that needs almost 20,000 more drivers required to keep goods flowing, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) says.The shortage predates the pandemic but has worsened during the last year and a half, the CTA says, “A pre-COVID report published by the Conference Board of Canada found that there could be 30,000 to 40,000 jobs vacancies for Canadian truck drivers by 2023,” said the CTA, which represents more than 5,000 trucking operations.Truck drivers were already one of the oldest workforces in Canada and many have chosen to retire, it said. The labour shortage extends to other critical industry positions, like heavy truck mechanics, which is causing longer periods of downtime for equipment in need of repair.As well, there is a shortage of pre-owned equipment and significant delays in new equipment deliveries for trucks and trailers. Wait times for new equipment – currently between eight months and over a year – is more than three times longer than normal.Add to that are shippers who rely on trailers as mobile warehouses to store preloaded goods for pickup or who delay the departure of drivers who have delivered goods, CTA said.The industry has reacted by launching a national recruitment campaign to attract new workers; ongoing training; competitive compensation packages and flexible work schedules. As well, drivers can deselect customers who treat them poorly, unnecessarily detain them and waste their limited time at loading docks.Governments could help by providing funding for training new drivers and increasing access to foreign workers who could be trained as drivers.The CTA said the pandemic has brought to the surface a preexisting problem in trucking related to the growth of unscrupulous trucking fleets who use the underground economy, cheat on tax and labour rules and sidestep safety regulations to lower operating costs and attract drivers away from safe and compliant fleets. Governments need to broaden national enforcement against the practice – known as Driver Inc.CTA said the pandemic has shown Canadians the important role trucking has in the national economy keeping factories operating and store shelves full. The Canadian supply chain has been fragile throughout the COVID-19 crisis and some uncertainty persists, “but with businesses and governments working together we can overcome many of these challenges to safeguard against widespread disruptions while emerging from these extraordinary times with a stronger and safer truck transportation sector.”