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The Final Word by Helen Roush
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In a recent article from FoxNews, it states that "President Biden's vaccine mandate requiring truck drivers who cross the border to be vaccinated is being questioned and rejected by industry professionals who see no upside to the new restrictions.

Transportation Intermediaries Association [TIA] president and CEO Anne Reinke told Fox News on Thursday that since trucks were already beyond capacity before the president's order, the nationwide supply chain crisis will only worsen. Reinke predicted the mandate would eliminate at least 10 to 15% of drivers.

"It's making the problem that we already saw with bare shelves and high prices even worse," she said.

Currently "The Freedom Convoy" protests have erupted in Ottawa, Canada against a vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the US-Canada border.

According to an article from the DailyMail, it states that "The truckers say there is no 'end date' in sight and plan to stay in the capital 'for as long as it takes' and until the Canadian government flips and withdraws its policy on vaccine mandates.

The chaos clogged the capital's downtown near parliament throughout the weekend and brought criticism from officials, including Ottawa's mayor who said residents were 'prisoners in their own home.'

But the demonstrators say they intend to stay and that their aim is to 'create chaos' and a 'logistics nightmare' for Trudeau's government.

"Right now, yeah, it's really cold, but we hang in there, the days are going to get longer and we take this block party and put it into overdrive," BJ Dichter, one of the organizers of the Freedom Convoy, said at a press conference. 'We're in this one for the long haul. We don't have a time limit."

The vaccine mandates and subsequent protests are not helping to ease the supply chain issues.

In a recent article from Recycling Today, it states that "but continued logistics issues have contributed to rising high-grade prices, particularly for sorted office paper (SOP) as facilities compete for supply."

The article goes on to state that "As mills fill with OCC, transportation issues are creating what the broker calls a bottleneck in export [markets] that's coming full circle. OCC is available, but logistics issues continue to plague facilities nationwide, preventing them from sending much material overseas.

The transportation issues also are affecting containerboard mills' ability to get their products to customers. Mills are full. Machines are running 24/7 making new boxes, the broker in the South says. Domestic trucking shortages are impacting mills' ability to ship cardboard out of the facility. I've heard a lot that the lead times to get new boxes are just through the roof. ... That's what's driving downward pricing pressure."

We will keep you apprised of further developments.

Helen Roush is Executive Vice President of Paperitalo Publications.

 

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