Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The Freedom Convoy, a massive blockade of trucks which has been protesting vaccination requirements for truckers to cross the border, has blocked the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.
The blockade has already spilled over to the Peace Bridge in Buffalo where there were long delays late Wednesday as rerouted trucks from Detroit waited along the I-190 and bridge span to enter into Canada.
There are fears over what could occur if the convoy makes its way to Buffalo and blocks the Peace Bridge or any of the Niagara region bridges as well.
At the University of Buffalo, Mike Braunscheidel says there's already a supply chain dilemma. "We've already seen the impacts of chip shortages on the manufacturer of automobiles as well. So this just adds a whole another layer of complexity to an industry that's already suffered a lot of disruptions because of the supply chain problems," says Braunscheidel.
Braunscheidel notes there's lots of trade going back and forth between factories in both Detroit and Windsor. "There are trucks going back and forth every day, especially with just in time deliveries and different things like that. So there's a big impact, because the factories on either side of the border are waiting for the parts that are being made on the other side," says Braunscheidel. He notes a lot of those are the major automobile manufacturers like GM. "The financial impact could be could be huge, because, again, with just in time, deliveries, and just in time inventories, you can run out of parts in a fairly short amount of time. So if the delays are longer than something, in some cases, several hours, you can have a substantial impact where you're actually shutting down facilities," warns Braunscheidel.
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Fred Floss of SUNY Buffalo State says the financial impact will depend on the length of the blockade. "If the blockade lasts a few days or over the weekend, it's not going to have any impact at all," believes Floss. "But if this starts to go on for a few weeks, it's going to start to disrupt the inventories of the auto companies, and the manufacturing companies that need the products that go across the border in order to continue to operate. So you could start to see if layoffs for example, or plants close down."
What could happen if the blockade expands to the Peace Bridge and other WNY border crossings? "A lot of the traffic that goes across the Peace Bridge, and the Rainbow Bridge, and the bridges at Lewiston, are really tourists, and this isn't a tourist season. So to some extent, this convoy, if it blocks off the bridges where we're looking at car traffic, that's going to have very little impact. The other reason it's going to have very little impact on individual travel is because people need to have their vaccination status up and they need to take the tests, which are fairly expensive. So it really has slowed down the transportation between the United States and Canada already,' believes Floss.
Braunscheidel warns a blockade at the local crossings could have more consequences on the regional auto industry. The Ford stamping plant in Woodlawn, he says, supplies parts to an assembly plant in southern Ontario. "As parts are being made at the Woodlawn stamping plant, it's being shipped across the border. If they can't do that it could have a significant impact on assembly car operations," he notes.
The Freedom Convoy began more than a week ago.