Late on January 12^th,  Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) stated that, unvaccinated, or partially vaccinated Canadian truck drivers arriving at the border will remain exempt temporarily from pre-arrival, on arrival and post-arrival testing and quarantine requirement. American truck drivers will continue to be subject to the vaccine requirement. However, they warned that Canadian drivers could still face restrictions once the reciprocal American policy comes into effect, expected on January 22nd.

Previous the CBSA stated that as of January 15, 2022, certain groups of travelers, who are currently exempt from entry requirements, will only be allowed to enter the country if they are fully vaccinated with one of the vaccines approved for entry into Canada. These groups include:

• Individuals traveling to reunite with family (unless they are under 18 years of age if traveling to reunite with an immediate or extended family member who is either fully vaccinated or a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person registered under the Indian Act.)
• International students (18 years of age and over)
• Fully vaccinated students will be allowed to attend any provincially or territorially designated learning institution in Canada.
• Unvaccinated students under the age of 18 must attend a designated learning institution with a COVID-19 readiness plan approved by the province or territory where the school is located.
• Professional athletes and their support staff, and amateur athletes.
• Individuals with a valid work permit, including temporary foreign workers, outside of agricultural and food processing.
• Most essential service providers (including truck drivers, emergency service providers and marine researchers).

Odyssey Commentary:

Since early December 2021, Odyssey has taken action to prepare for this event and has reviewed our routing guides and surveyed those carriers routed into and out of Canada to ensure they will be in compliance of the vaccination mandate. While our US partner carriers will primarily encourage and not require vaccination for their drivers, Canadian carriers are either already in compliance or near compliance with their vaccinated driver force. Further, Odyssey routing guides are already positioned to utilize either carriers based in Canada or US carriers with partnerships with Canadian carriers to move goods from the US to Canada. We are confident in our backup carriers routed into and out of Canada that could provide service should there be a coverage issue with the primary routed carrier. Finally, we fully expect carriers routed and accepting Canada cross-border shipments to provide a compliant driver.

Based on our carriers surveyed across all modes of ground transportation we expect minimal service disruption due to this mandate but there may be service disruption as a result of border crossing delays due to border process changes or potential border protest unrest.

Odyssey is confident in our preparedness through our routed carriers surveyed that we will continue to meet the coverage and service needs of our MLS clients.

Odyssey Logistics & Technology will provide updates as they are available to keep you informed during this event. If you have any questions or need immediate assistance, please contact your Client Services Manager.

Click here for Canada’s border and travel measures