BORDER LINES

A roundup of North American news:

An innovative partnership between the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Roadway Express, and the Association of Laredo Forwarding Agents has earned Vice President Al Gore's Hammer Award for improving government. The public and private organizations worked together to bring the Automated Export System (AES) to the U.S.-Mexico border. That system has made collecting data on export shipments more accurate and timely, allowed electronic filing of Shippers Export Declarations (SEDs), and for the first time let shippers obtain real-time updates on the status of their shipments as they cross the border. As a result of this initiative, electronic filing of SEDs has grown from 239 in December 1997 to 22,619 in December 1999. According to Peter Baish, U.S. Customs outbound program director, the resulting cost savings have been in the millions of dollars. (For more information, see "AES Pilot Program Fills Border Information Gap," Logistics, February 1999.)

The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Mexico's Secretariat for Communications and Transportation have signed a memorandum of understanding outlining the two countries' intent to cooperate in improving railway safety. The agreement provides for an exchange of information about rail safety regulations, technology, and partnerships between railroad management, labor, and customers that will improve safety in both countries as well as in cross-border rail operations. As part of this initiative, the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, Transportaci�n Ferroviaria Mexican (TFM), and the FRA are planning to offer a seminar on safety regulations in Mexico later this year.

Transport privatization has been a focus of Canada's government over the last five years, so it's a fitting theme for the Canadian Transportation Research Forum's annual conference, to be held June 4-7 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. More than 60 speakers will explore the effects of privatization on all modes of transport as well as its role in infrastructure planning, policy making, economics, safety, and more. Special emphasis will be placed on the topic of how to eliminate existing or potential transportation deficiencies. For more information about the conference, contact Eric Hildebrand of the Canadian Transportation Research Forum at (506) 453-4521 or e-mail edh@unb.ca.

NAFTA Notes: Lykes Lines' Mexico-West Coast South America service now includes the ports of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver. The service calls weekly at Manzanillo and connects to Lykes' Mexico-Asia route. The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway has launched intermodal service between the United States and Monterrey, Quer�taro, and Mexico City. The daily service, offered in conjunction with the Texas-Mexican Railway and Transportaci�n Ferroviaria Mexican (TFM), will operate through Laredo, Texas. USCO Logistics has purchased Nortel Networks' distribution center in Calgary, Alberta. USCO also is building a new, 220,000-square-foot distribution center nearby and will consolidate all regional operations into that facility in July. Viking Freight, an LTL carrier serving the Western United States and Canada, now offers online access to rate quotes and shipment tracing for shipments to and from Canada through its Web site (www.vikingfreight.com).