Canadian cross-border commercial drivers will need to provide proof of vaccination.

Early January will see Canadian cross-border commercial drivers needing to prove their vaccination status for COVID-19. This mandate will be imposed on all essential travellers.

Currently, (as of October 2021) the Canadian border is open to vaccinated non-essential travellers, while the U.S. plans on opening their land borders to vaccinated non-essential workers come November. Essential service workers have continued to be allowed to cross.

According to the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, the requirements for the system “will create consistent, stringent protocols for all foreign nationals traveling to the United States […] and accounts for the wide availability of Covid-19 vaccinations”.

Officials have stated that they have put the mandate off for essential workers to give them time to get their vaccinations in place if needed.

What if you have mix and match vaccine doses?

The United States government has yet to state whether they will accept vaccinated individuals who have received mixed does of types of vaccines. They have also not stated what types of documents they will accept for proof of vaccination. We will update this post when they release this information.

Canadian Government has put together an International Vaccine Passport.

As it stands, the Government of Canada is currently putting together an international vaccine passport call the Smart Health Card. So far, the Smart Health card is available in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon.

The remaining provinces are working towards getting the Smart Health Card in place.

For now the Government of Canada has provided links to where an individual can get their proof of vaccination for each province here.

According to Trudeau, “We are very confident this proof-of-vaccination certificate that will be federally approved, issued by the provinces with the health information for Canadians, is going to be accepted at destinations worldwide.”

The passports will be issued by the provinces and territories as they each have their own healthcare and vaccine databases. There will be no federal database of COVID-19 vaccine created, as it was considered redundant as each province/territory already has this information.

These “standardized pan-Canadian” passports will have the Government of Canada logo, along with the province of issuance. No other medical information will be included in the vaccine passport beyond the QR code, name of individual, birth date, vaccine type, date of vaccine, and lot number of the vaccine.

Here’s a sample of what it will look like:

What does this mean for trucking?

As it currently stands, about 20% of the eligible Canadian population is not vaccinated. It is extrapolated that then 20% of the trucking industry is unvaccinated as well. As a result of fewer eligible drivers to make cross-border deliveries some are predicting a supply chain shortage.

It remains to be seen if this new mandate will encourage more cross-border commercial drivers to get vaccinated, or if we will be seeing a shift in the industry as some leave, while new members move into these positions.

Whatever your status and thoughts, safe journeys to all!