Read about how CSCB member, Suzanne Cascanette, is helping out.
Last Wednesday, Joe Sears, a big rig driver from Sydney, N.S., set off on a six-week trip that will take him across the country — and into the heart of the provinces hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.
"I'm driving into the unknown," he said in an interview as he drove through Fredericton. "I can't even imagine because they're much more hard hit than the East Coast."
Sears loaded up everything he needs to survive: two barbecues, food, water, vitamins, gloves and toilet paper...
On the 5,600-kilometre drive to his destination, Kamloops, B.C., to move furniture, he'll need truck stops that provide clean showers — he'll settle for a tidy washroom — and good meals.
These essential services are increasingly hard to find for truckers, who are transporting vital shipments including food, hand sanitizers and masks. Truck stops are reducing hours or are closed altogether because of the virus that had infected more than 1,300 people in Canada as of Saturday evening...
He said the provinces should follow California's move to declare truck stops an essential service during the COVID-19 crisis...
The rigs will be needed as the country hunkers down for the long haul in its pandemic battle. That's driving a social media campaign #thankatrucker for the "extraordinary job" they're providing during the crisis, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance.
"We can not survive this pandemic without our truck drivers, that is for certain."
That's Suzanne Cascanette's concern. The Halifax woman is a customs broker who helps to clear trucks crossing from the U.S. into Canada...
Cascanette is also a member of the Facebook group, Caremongering-Hfx. She's calling on group members to put together care packages of food, clean socks and other items. She's hoping diesel stations will allow her to leave them for any trucker or delivery driver who wants one...
This was excerpted from 22 March 2020 edition of CBC News.