Canada-U.S. Trucking Sees Bad First-Half

Cross-border trucking over the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, the busiest commercial connection between the United States and Canada, fell by nearly a third in the first half of this year. At other key crossings, traffic was little better.

There were 173,202 truck crossings either way between Detroit and Windsor, in June, a 32.7 percent decline from the 257,276 in June of last year, according to the Public Border Operators Association (PBOA). For the first half of this year, to June 30, there were 1.1 million truck crossings, a 31.1 percent drop from the 1.6 million in the 2008 period.

At the second busiest U.S.-Canada crossing, the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron, Mich., and Point Edwards, Ontario, the half-year truck crossings were down 24.4 percent, to 621,624 from 822,050. They were down 24 percent on the month, as well.

The third busiest, the Peace Bridge between Buffalo, N.Y., and Fort Erie, Ontario, was down 17.5 percent for the half-year to 545,461 crossings from 661,377. For June, it was down by the same 17.5 percent, to 93,107 crossings. And at the Lewiston, N.Y.-Queenston, Ontario, bridge traffic was down 20.8 percent on the half-year, to 329,150 trucks from 415,490, and down 14.8 percent for June.

These crossings are four of the six chief U.S.-Canada commercial crossings. The two others, between Douglas, British Columbia, and Blaine, Wash., and Champlain, N.Y., and Lacolle, Quebec, do not publish such statistics, but have experienced similar degrees of decline.

Contact Courtney Tower at ctower@sympatico.ca.