border lines

The squeaky wheel gets the grease-and New York congressmen John McHugh and John Sweeney, along with Senator Charles Schumer, have been doing a lot of "squeaking" in Washington about delays at high-volume border crossings in their home state. Their lobbying has paid off: In April, Schumer announced that 25 new U.S. customs inspectors would be hired to work at the Peace Bridge, Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, Whirlpool Bridge, and Rainbow Bridge, all in the Buffalo-Niagara area. Schumer and McHugh were instrumental in obtaining more than $1 million from the General Services Administration for infrastructure improvements to the Champlain, N.Y., border crossing, according to the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce. Sweeney and McHugh, meanwhile, have been lobbying the Federal Highway Administration for funding to improve clearances on CP Railway's Montreal-to-New York route, a truck inspection facility at Albany, and further improvements at Champlain.

Four motor carriers have teamed up to offer U.S. shippers more efficient customs clearance for shipments to Canada. The members of the ExpressLINK North American Transportation Network-G.I. Trucking Co. of La Mirada, Calif.; Lakeville Motor Express of Roseville, Minn.; Estes Express Lines of Richmond, Va.; and TST Overland Express of Mississauga, Ontario-have opened a PARS (Pre-Arrival Review System) center in Toronto. The center, operated by TST Overland Express, processes and checks U.S. shippers' documentation for accuracy. The center's staff works with customs brokers, Canada Customs, and the group's border terminals to obtain clearance prior to a shipment's arrival in Canada.

NAFTA is right on track, judging by the surge in trade between Canada and Mexico. It may not come close to the tremendous volume of business each of those countries conducts with its immediate neighbor, the United States, but the economic benefits of free trade appear to be overcoming the disadvantage of distance. That trend prompted Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to open its own office in Mexico City this spring following the successful introduction of "CPR-MEX" rail service in November. Thanks to CPR-MEX, which links CPR with the Union Pacific Railroad and Mexico's Transportaci�n Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), Ferrocarril Mexicano (FXE), and Ferrosur (FSRR), CPR's business with Mexico jumped by 25 percent for the year. CPR-MEX provides bulk and intermodal ramp-to-ramp transportation, pre-arranged truck pickup and delivery in Mexico, port delivery service, and single-bill/single-contact service.

NAFTA Notes: UPS Logistics Group has opened a 32,000-square-foot distribution center in Laredo, Texas, to serve the maquiladora industry. The facility, which houses U.S. customs officials and Mexican customs brokers, will hold up to 88 trailers and offers cross docking, warehousing, order fulfillment, light assembly and manufacturing, and support for supplier-managed inventory systems. UTi (Union-Transport) has opened an office in Laredo, Texas, to manage customs clearance of imports from Mexico. Triple Crown Services, an affiliate of Norfolk Southern Corp., will offer service five times weekly to Mexico City. The service will use RoadRailer bimodal trailers to provide single-invoice pricing, door-to-terminal cargo insurance, and customs clearance at destination.