The BC Trucking Association says the number of commercial trucks crossing the border into the province is almost back to normal.

But President Dave Earle says those trucks usually aren’t full, as the economy isn’t back to normal because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We received some data from Canada Border Services Agency; truck crossings are back to within five per cent of where they were pre-COVID. But that’s not freight volume,” he said. “Freight volume is still a little soft. Economic conditions are still very soft in a lot of sectors. There’s still a lot of challenges ahead of us.”

“As much as it was an essential industry and we continued to operate as much as possible, a lot of business activity just evaporated. It just went away. And what that meant was a lot of our members, a lot of people in the industry, were hurt.”

Earle notes there has been recovery in a lot of areas, and truckers continue to see good signs.

“Consumer goods, personal goods, continue to flow. Fresh food, vegetables, fruits, consumables, they all continue to flow,” he added. “What’s changing is the B2B world, the business-to-business world. Particularly with physical property, durable goods, that type of stuff, that remains pretty soft.”

Earle says the challenges in the global economy mean there is still a long road to recovery for the trucking industry.