Rebounding truck volumes are a welcome sign of economic improvement south of the border and perhaps an indication of a \u2018rebalancing\u2019 cross-border freight market, says the president of the Ontario Trucking Association.<\/p>\n
Trucks crossings in Detroit-Windsor alone rose 8 percent year-over-year in the fits quarter of 2016. Total U.S.-Canada truck crossings rose 3.2 percent in the first quarter, but were up 6.2 percent at the three largest border crossings.<\/p>\n
OTA president Stephen Laskowski told the Journal of Commerce<\/em> those figures should get attention from shippers increasingly using Canada as a gateway to U.S. consumer markets, and manufacturers considering locating production facilities in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cThree percent is a big number,\u201d Laskowski said. \u201cEven 1 percent or 2 percent is a big number.\u201d The increase \u201cis a reflection of the (weakness of the) Canadian dollar, and of a healthier U.S. economy.<\/p>\n He suggested the rebound may reflect a \u201crebalancing\u201d of the market. \u201cWe may be entering a world of flatline, reverse and rebound economies that give us rebound jumps that look larger than the standard growth rates we\u2019ve been used to. It\u2019s a different world than we\u2019re used to.\u201d<\/p>\n The increase quarter also raises concerns about the speed and fluidity of cross-border freight traffic at busy crossings like Detroit-Windsor, reports JOC.<\/p>\n Construction on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, designed to relieve congestion on the 87-year-old Detroit Ambassador Bridge, I expected to start next year but isn\u2019t expected to be open to traffic until 2020.<\/p>\n The 3.2 percent first-quarter increase in truck border crossings certainly looks like a rebound. Total U.S.-Canadian truck crossings rose only 0.9 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, after falling 1.2 percent in the third quarter and 1.6 percent in the second quarter last year.<\/p>\n The number of truck crossings would be even larger, Laskowski said, \u201cif (Canadian) factories hadn\u2019t been shut down when the U.S. and Canadian dollar hit par\u201d a few years ago. \u201cRather than ramping down from three production lines to two, we went from three to none,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The loss of that manufacturing output shifted the focus of truck traffic in Canada from north-south to east-west, especially when Western Canada\u2019s energy business boomed. That changed again as the exchange rate dropped toward 70 U.S. cents per Canadian dollar.<\/p>\n The JOC notes that truck border crossings also may increase as Canadian motor carriers are allowed to haul \u201cin-transit\u201d domestic shipments through the U.S. to save miles and time. An international pilot restoring such in-transit shipments was launched in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn many cases, if you\u2019re moving goods from Michigan to New York, it\u2019s faster to cross the border and go through Ontario than to go a southern route through the U.S.,\u201d Laskowski said.<\/p>\n