Farmers don’t have to struggle too much these days to sort out all the competing bids from truckers desperate to haul their grain.
They’ll be lucky to find anyone willing to haul grain on short notice in Alberta, and the shortage of grain truckers is extending across the Prairies.
It’s all part of the collateral damage caused by the big boom in the oil patch, which is attracting workers from many other industries.
“I know of at least 50 trucks-worth of companies that have shut down hauling grain and are exclusively working in the oil fields,” said Doug Chambers, a broker with Quality Grain.
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“With the price of oil today, they realized they could make a lot more money working for someone in the oil fields than they can hauling some poor farmer’s grain.”
Farmers are finding they face high trucking bills today, eroding the price they get for their crops. It’s not easy to complain to the trucking companies about the bad rates, because those companies are getting hammered by their own escalating costs caused by the oil boom.
“Is it the fuel or is it the labour,” wondered Brenda Tjaden Lepp, a marketing adviser with FarmLink Marketing Solutions in Winnipeg.
“Is it the cost to run the trucks or the cost to have someone behind the wheel? I think it’s both and it’s costing them.”
She has noticed it’s hard these days in southern Manitoba to quickly arrange trucking for a farmer.
Chambers said Alberta farmers are suffering from a double whammy: the high value of oil is making many companies switch into that industry away from farming, and the ones focused on farming have had a lot of casualties as fuel prices have risen.
“A lot of truckers got caught in the price squeeze, with expenses going up, but not revenues,” said Chambers.
“There are a lot of companies that aren’t in business now that were in business two years ago.”
Tjaden Lepp said the situation provides lucrative opportunities for farmers who have invested in their own grain hauling trucks. Some grain buyers, who have trouble arranging transport, will offer good bids to a farmer who can get the grain to the elevator.
