U.S.-Canada Border Traffic Slumps

Trucking activity, a bellwether of general trade and economic conditions, is in sharp decline along the United States-Canada border.

The Public Border Operators Association, which represents crossings between Michigan and New York with Ontario, but containing four of the six busiest crossings along the whole 4,000-mile border from Atlantic to Pacific oceans, reported March 18 steep declines for February and for the year-to-date.

The busiest crossing by far, the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., had 180,063 truck crossings in February, down 31 percent from 261,089 in February 2008. And for the first two months of this year, the 337,794 truck transits of the bridge were down 35 percent from 518,596 in the period last year.

The second busiest, the Blue Water Bridge between Point Edward, Ont., and Port Huron, Mich., saw truck traffic decline 27 percent to 97,001 from 131,212 in February this year from February last year. Year-to-date, the 189,678 truck crossings were down 28 percent from 263,876 in 2008.

The Peace Bridge between Buffalo, N.Y., and Fort Erie, Ont., recorded 86,318 truck crossings in February versus 104,182, down 17 percent in February 2008. Year-to-date, there was a similar decline, down 19 percent, at 174,518 against 214,122.

The Lewiston, N.Y. – Queenston, Ont., Bridge had 51,276 truck crossings in February this year, down 22.46 percent from 66,126 in February last year. For January and February, the bridge recorded 104,152 truck transits, down 22.59 percent from 134,552 in the first two months of last year.

It is not just trucks. Passenger car crossings, and those by buses and other miscellaneous vehicles, were down by similar numbers and percentages at the four crossings.

The other two of the six busiest crossings are between Quebec and New York and British Columbia and Washington. They do not publish similar counts but anecdotal evidence is of a precisely similar trend.