Reprieve from blanket tariff eases some stress but truckers across Peel still anxious

While Canada was exempted from a blanket American tariff this week, levies on steel, aluminum, automobiles and energy products have created a cascading set of barriers for the trucking industry across Peel and much of the country. Some drivers feel a sense of relief, while others remain anxious about the long-term consequences.

Those hauling food and consumer goods are hoping to see stability, while those who make their living transporting tariffed goods are already experiencing disruptions, cancelled orders and layoffs.

Parminder Singh Dhaliwal, who hauls food supplies between Canada and the U.S. for Connors Transfer Ltd., told The Pointer he is experiencing some early signs of recovery since food products were spared from U.S. tariffs earlier this week.

“It’s giving us a sigh of relief — I’m feeling much better now,” Dhaliwal said. “There’s been a slight growth in my work. Since we last spoke, when I was coming back from the U.S. with empty loads, I’ve seen some progress. I’ve gone twice since then and didn’t return empty.”

Parminder Singh Dhaliwal, a Brampton-based truck driver with Connors Transfer Ltd., says U.S. tariff exemptions on food products have already brought some relief — but worries remain as other sectors face growing uncertainty.

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However, Dhaliwal said many of his fellow drivers — including his cousin, who hauls steel products from Brampton and Alberta — are feeling the impact of the new tariffs.

“They’re facing the repercussions. Their work was already slow, and the tariffs have only made it worse.”

Amrit Grewal, a representative of the Canada Truck Operators Association, says the industry is facing compounding pressure from shifting freight dynamics and a saturated market.

“Like I said, those people — those wheels need to be turned, and those wheels might start absorbing the lanes where others are hauling that produce, so that's going to get saturated. That's going to bring competition,” Grewal said.

“And if they were hauling food one way, and they were hauling another commodity the other way. Now that the commodity is tariffed, you're going to have disruption.”

Amrit Grewal, a representative of the Canada Truck Operators Association, told The Pointer the trucking industry is facing shrinking freight volumes and intensified competition as companies pivot in response to U.S. tariffs.

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For drivers who transport the same commodity or goods in both directions, he said the emerging dynamics are complicated.

“Let's just take paper goods. There's a lot of truckers who haul paper goods, and so far…I haven't heard anything about paper goods tariffs so far. But what's going to happen is all the people who are hauling the paper goods or any other commodity, you're going to have other people step into those freight routes (because they are losing orders for tariffed items).”

He is concerned about the impact on drivers and tens of thousands of others who support the transportation, warehousing and logistics sector, the largest employer in Brampton where according to the 2021 Census 55,000 people worked in the industry (more than 80,000 residents across Peel). “So there's going to be more competition in an already saturated market. And I think the saturated market was due to freight availability. And trucking has always been on one short leg. So if the outbound freight at one time is lower, the inbound might be higher, and vice versa. So this has always been flipping. Now with the tariffs, you have uncertainty.”

Trucking moves the majority of goods between Canada and the U.S.; in March of last year the value of those items was roughly $54 billion, about 70 percent of the total value of all items that moved between the two countries (rail, air, shipping).  

Grewal warned that confusion is already affecting real-world operations.

“You have shippers recently not even clearing the border, having their guys turned back because they did not know what was going to happen with that freight.”

Last month, when U.S. President Donald Trump first announced sweeping tariffs before postponing most of them, industry leaders already sounded the alarm. At the time, the Canadian Trucking Alliance warned that even the uncertainty alone was causing disruption in shipping schedules, cross-border logistics and driver retention. Many fleet operators began rerouting or halting their U.S.-bound cargo, anticipating a major slowdown. The Ontario Trucking Association said the threat of auto and steel tariffs alone was enough to create instability in one of Canada’s most vital economic sectors. Both of those industries have a 25 percent American tariff to deal with, directly impacting the transportation industry across Canada.

Marco Beghetto, a spokesperson for the Ontario Trucking Association, told The Pointer last month that with Trump’s strategy of using tariff threats, “we may see two out of three trucking companies perhaps implementing some sort of layoffs."

Grewal informed The Pointer that the two-week shutdown of Stellantis’s Windsor assembly plant starting April 7, along with temporary layoffs in affiliated facilities, will further disrupt the already strained trucking sector, as companies scramble to pivot in an oversaturated freight market.

According to two official fact sheets released by the White House, the 25 percent tariff imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 targets a wide array of foreign-made automobiles, including sedans, SUVs, minivans, crossovers and light trucks, as well as essential components for engines, transmissions and powertrain systems. For Canadian-made vehicles and parts manufacturers across Ontario, the tariffs apply only to non-U.S. content, provided the goods are certified as compliant under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Additionally, under the ongoing fentanyl and migration-related American action (Trumps claims have been widely debunked including by the U.S. Congress) USMCA-compliant goods from Canada and Mexico continue to receive preferential treatment and remain exempt from new tariffs. Non-compliant goods, however, are subject to a 25 percent tax now, while non-USMCA-compliant energy and potash exports face a 10 percent tariff.

As Canada braces for the economic toll of the auto tariffs, on top of existing levies on steel and aluminum, the country’s already strained automobile sector faces mounting pressure, and truck drivers who haul in these sectors are growing increasingly anxious about what lies ahead.

In response to these newly imposed tariffs, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a press release this week, striking back with a sweeping set of countermeasures. The press release described the U.S. action as "unwarranted and unjustified" and warned that the new levies—especially those targeting Canada’s automobile sector—would “fundamentally change the international trading system.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would impose 25 percent tariffs on non-CUSMA-compliant fully assembled vehicles imported from the United States, along with an identical tariff on the non-Canadian and non-Mexican content in CUSMA-compliant vehicles. Additionally, Ottawa plans to develop a new framework to incentivize domestic production and investment in the Canadian auto industry.

"Trucking is going to be directly impacted, and a lot of companies will feel the heat more than others," Grewal warned. "Now… the uncertainty and the fear is set in the market, even in trucking and the whole market itself. Now it's implemented. And then you had car makers such as the (Stellantis) plant shut down for two weeks. They already announced it for two weeks, starting April 7 in Windsor and across the border, with 900 jobs temporarily being laid off in the partner plants."

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