By Mata Press Service

A growing driver-shortage crisis is threatening to put the brakes on the transportation industry as trucking companies face long delays in the processing times to get foreign drivers to fill vacancies.

“I have been waiting for close to three months to get permits for 10 foreign drivers for three local trucking companies,” said a Vancouver-based labour consultant.

“What took weeks is now taking months and we have applicants idling overseas and trucks parked in lots locally,” he said.

Many trucking companies have been looking to get foreign drivers, especially from South Asia, as employers become more creative in their efforts to attract potential hires.

According to one recent report by Newcom Media Inc. based on Statistics Canada's National Household Survey, less than two per cent of Canada's truckers were South Asian immigrants, a decade ago. In 2016, they comprised 18 per cent of the country's roughly 181,000 drivers.

Now, more than half of all truckers in the Vancouver and Toronto areas were born in South Asia. One-third of Canada's big-riggers are immigrants, with those from India making up by far the highest proportion at more than 40 per cent. The vast majority speak Punjabi, according to StatCan.

The average salary for a truck driver in Canada is about $48,000 a year, but more experienced big-riggers can pull in more than $100,000 annually, the report said.

But efforts to get foreign drivers is being hindered by an unanticipated increase in the volume

of applications for permits under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program.

We are currently experiencing an unanticipated increase in the volume of Labour Market Impact Assessment applications across Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) said in a statement to the South Asian Post.

A Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) is a document that an employer in Canada needs to get before hiring a foreign worker. Once an employer gets the LMIA, the worker can apply for a work permit.

“The Department has received approximately 3,700 more LMIA applications across all regions compared to the same period last year. Data from the Western Region currently indicates an 18% increase from the same period last year. As a result, employers are experiencing longer than normal processing times for LMIA decisions,” a said.

The most recent data for the Western Region indicates an average processing time of 47.6 days. The average processing time for the same period last year was approximately 29.9 days.

“All regions are using overtime, and staff from other parts of Service Canada have been engaged to help with the backlog of applications,” the HRSDC spokesman said.

A study commissioned by the Canadian Trucking Alliance states the trucking industry will be short as many as 48,000 drivers by 2024.

It is proposing key changes to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) to speed

up the processing times.

“With the shortage of truck drivers reaching a crisis point, it is essential the TFWP is

operating as efficiently as possible as it will be increasingly utilized by industry in the

coming years,” the CTA said in its recent submission to Ottawa.

“The situation is expected to intensify as the trucking industry comes to terms with massive retirement numbers over the next five to six years, Canadian Trucking Alliance president Stephen Laskowski told attendees at a recent transportation summit.

“The driver shortage is now a reality trucking companies are scrambling to address,” states Dave Earle, President & CEO, of the BC Trucking Association (BCTA), whose members operate over 13,000 vehicles, employ about 26,000 people, and generate over $2 billion in revenue annually in B.C.

The association’s annual general meeting in Whistler this summer was told that B.C.’s trucking industry is facing a dire employment picture, with 10% of industry positions needing to be filled immediately.

Ken Peacock, chief economist and vice-president of the Business Council of B.C. said that with one out of every 10 positions in the industry in the province sitting vacant and companies struggling to find qualified workers, B.C.’s thriving trucking sector is in need of approximately 4,000 people to fill the empty spaces.

“I don’t know what you’re going to do,” he told the attendees of the B.C. Trucking Association (BCTA) annual AGM and Management Conference.

As frustration grows with the backlog, HRSDC is now conducting a survey of employers and their representatives to get feedback about the processing of LMIA applications and the LMIA processing fee.

“This is a time for action not more surveys…everyone knows what the problem is…the government needs to do its job in a timely manner…they need to get moving so we can keep on trucking,” said the owner of a Vancouver-based trucking company.

Like many in the industry, he has several trucks sitting idly in his lot, while waiting for his application to get foreign drivers approved.

By the numbers

About 26,000 registered trucking companies in BC move the essential ingredients of our lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

In Canada, trucks transported over 64 million shipments in 2015, carrying 731 million tonnes of cargo. Altogether, they travelled over 39 billion kilometres in 2015.

 According to Statistics Canada, truck transportation was a $2.3 billion industry in BC in 2016 (and that’s just for-hire trucking, not private trucks carrying goods for their own companies).

Between 2007 and 2016, trucking grew by 30%, at an average rate of about 3.0% per year. The growth rate of all BC industries combined was an average of 2.1% per year.

 Truckers pay up to $49,000 per truck, per year in taxes, including up to 20 different taxes and fees such as: $16,850 fuel taxes, $14,500 income tax (for the driver & other employees), $4,500 corporate taxes and $4,000 in licensing & registration fees.