Coming or going, terrorism alerts, new regulations and hours of service affect Canadian runs.
On a Friday in early October, things are moving smoothly on the Ambassador Bridge – Detroit’s main link with Windsor, Ontario. Hundreds of trucks are traveling across the four-lane, privately owned bridge, and most are skipping through customs on both ends and are briskly on their way to a destination in Canada or the United States.
This is the way things are supposed to work when the weather is good and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded threat-level is yellow (elevated). Of course, any number of things can turn Windsor’s main drag and Detroit’s freeways into parking lots for the 6,000 or so trucks that cross the bridge every day.
The possibility of a slowdown is close at hand. Canadian customs workers are considering a strike. Since the law prevents them from walking off the job, they are talking about processing traffic by the book, which would significantly slow transit times. Jim Gibson, manager of safety and personnel for the Ryan Transportation Group, worries that his drivers carting auto parts from New York across Ontario to Detroit will be snagged in massive traffic jams. Ryan’s office is 22 miles from the bridge, but a security shutdown or a slowdown in processing can affect traffic on the freeway nearby.
“If we have four- or five-hour backups, we may have to relay drivers to make sure they have enough hours,” Gibson says.
Meanwhile, bridge operators were worried about new federal regulations that were scheduled to go into effect Nov. 15, which will require truckers coming into the United States to submit their manifest electronically to U.S. Customs officials at least one hour before they get to the border. Truckers who fail to comply won’t be allowed into the United States and will be forced back into Canada until they can sort out the paperwork.
For drivers and carriers the new rule will likely come with a grace period before Customs officials begin sending truckers back across the border. But unlike the three-month trial period U.S. Department of Transportation officials gave truckers when the new hours-of-service rule came out, “Full enforcement of the rule will probably be a whole lot closer to six weeks,” says Thomas L. “Skip” McMahon, director of special projects for the Detroit International Bridge company.
