A Challenging Start to the Year

Faced with the highly contagious Omicron variant, the transport industry was forced to start off 2022 under tight sanitary restrictions. These measures, in addition to limiting the mobility of goods, oblige a large number of players of the supply chain to constantly readjust their operational strategy, both at a national and international level.

COVID-19 not only exerts a considerable influence on our daily lives, but also imposes a prompt reorganization of the supply chain due to several factors, which include:

• the partial or complete closure of one or more ports, causing costly delays and significant disturbances to the supply chain;
• the lack of manpower accentuated by mandatory isolation periods for employees who are symptomatic or who have tested positive for COVID-19;
• new restrictions such as prohibiting unvaccinated truckers from crossing the Canada-US border.

While these measures are put in place following one same logic, which is to limit the spread of the virus through a considerable decrease in contact, they nevertheless exert great pressure on the supply chains whose fragility is ceaselessly growing; with an increasing demand and reduced mobility solutions, transport costs are skyrocketing, undermining the global economy.

The transport industry has been deeply affected by the pandemic for two years now and must constantly adapt due to

• the imposed restrictions, which result in a scarcity of raw materials and sharp price increases;
• the lack of manpower causing delivery delays often resulting in additional transport costs;
• which all causes a considerable decrease in the export capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises.

It goes without saying that the beginning of this new year is shaped by complex logistics challenges for the transport industry, whose unforeseen events are becoming a decisive factor in the implementation of concrete solutions, whose goals are to counter these difficulties and push the economy forward.

 

*Sources

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https://splash247.com/union-seeks-two-year-reprieve-on-port-of-vancouver-ban-on-trucks-mo re-than-10-years-old/

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https://splash247.com/tianjin-forced-into-greater-lockdown-as-covid-19-cases-spread-to-shan ghai-and-dalian/

Normand, François (2022, 11 janvier). « Coûts du cargo : la COVID-19 a frappé beaucoup plus fort que la crise financière ». Les affaires [actualités en ligne] sur le site lesaffaires.com. Consulté en janvier 2022.

https://www.lesaffaires.com/secteurs-d-activite/transport/couts-du-cargo-la-covid-19-a-frappebeaucoup-plus-fort-que-la-crise-financiere/630070?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebo ok&utm_campaign=postfity&utm_content=postfityf0e89&fbclid=IwAR2Tw4tQR-Vqbq03zAdo Wf-1e5XNJOz0lmmwa0NXF5Q_qso3WW9drFiynSQ

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