Simmering tensions between Toronto-area cartage companies and the Canadian National Railroad reached the boiling point last month when a power blackout created a five-day logjam that led to hours-long wait times at CN's Brampton intermodal facility. Tempers flared and boycotting carters reportedly were directing violence at independent truckers trying to enter the facility for pickups.

At the center of the storm are local drayage drivers, who say they can't make a living if they can only turn around one or two containers a day due to congestion. Adding to the tension is an effort by the railroad to get them to work on a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week basis. "Everybody wants to come in on Monday at 9:00 a.m. and say, 'Where's my box?'" says CN spokesman Mark Hallman. "The trains work 24/7. There's a continual flow of import containers coming into the facility, so there needs to be a better pickup system to get things cleared out."

But George Kuhn, executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association, contends that the problem is not with the cartage firms. "The problem is that the rest of the import/export community is working eight hours, five days a week," Kuhn says. "This is a process that would require a gradual phase-in but…how many people would buy into the concept?"

At press time, life had largely settled down at Brampton. Some cartage firms had returned to work, CN had agreed to a 60-minute maximum wait time, and the yard was being worked 24 hours a day to clear the jam. Demurrage fees were waived retroactive to Sept. 6. But that's not the end of the story: According to Kuhn, a backlog of trains waiting to discharge containers was making it hard for ports to move incoming shipments off the docks. With holiday-season shipments starting to hit U.S. and Canadian shores, he notes, the after-effects are likely to be felt for some time.

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