(The CBC posted the following article on its website on March 5.)
WINNIPEG — The phone has been ringing off the hook at a local trucking company since 5,000 CN maintenance workers – more than 1,000 of them in Winnipeg – started walking the picket line Feb. 20.
Jeff Pries, vice-president of sales and marketing at Bison Transport, says most of the calls are coming from eastern Canadian companies that want to ship all sorts of goods to the West. Most of those goods moved by rail before the strike, and with little truck service available, nothing is moving.
Pries says his company is taking on extra business and is hiring more drivers where possible.
“We’re stretching wherever we possibly can.” he says. “If drivers are planning to take vacation, we’re asking if they will push the vacation off to continue working and certainly our dispatch and customer service crew are working extended hours to ensure that customers are aware as to what the status of their shipments are.”
Even so, Pries says he’s had to turn away hundreds of truckloads of potential business.
As a backlog of shipments builds in eastern Canada, Pries predicts companies will start hiring American trucks to bring goods to the west. He says that could result in higher retail prices on some goods.