Border Crossing Issues

[piper1]

If you have experienced significant delays in getting a load cleared I would like you to share this information with me.

What I am looking for is loads that resulted in you sitting at the border waiting for the "OK to cross" message from dispatch and it has been more than 2.5 hours since you departed the shipper.

Please PM me with what details you can remember but I specifically would like to know the broker used, load number, length of delay and what border you were at (and which way you were going). Any other details you wish to provide are appreciated.

Please do not PM me with issues you have had with a customs officer or delays incurred because you had to go through x-ray or secondary inspection, I'm interested in delays you feel were caused by FedEx or the broker.

There are signs that this is an ongoing significant issue that is not improving and I am preparing a presentation to FedEx to illustrate the scope of the problem. I need information from those beyond the group of FedEx contractors I know and the ones I have talked to on the road.

Information shared with me will be shared with FedEx but I will remove any personal info unless you consent to me sharing it.

Thank You
Stay Safe
Piper.

 

[ATeam]

Diane and I have been burned several times at the border due to crossing issues, some of which forced us to spend an entire night at the border waiting for the broker or key person with the shipper to return to work the next day.

I don't have specifics to share because these incidents happened too long ago to remember the details and we did not document them. It seems that most of the time, the problem traces back to an errant broker or shipper. At least that's what dispatch tells us.

We have no way of knowing because we seldom talk to the brokers or shippers. That is probably for good reason. It has happened more than once that I would have had to exercise extreme self restraint if I actually got the chance to talk to the person who gave no thought to or showed little concern for the document that, poorly prepared or not prepared, resulted in us spending a night at the border without meaningful compensation.

We have had no significant incidents in a while and take that as a hopeful sign. I know that there have been changes made in dispatch that were intended to improve border crossing experiences. Exactly what they are, I do not know.

We are diligent in holding up our end and double and triple checking the work others do. Doing so caught mistakes that might have resulted in a border crossing delay had they gone undetected.

 

[D Team Brothers]

I tend to cross frequently, and as Phil mentioned I make sure all my t's are crossed and i's are dotted before I fax the paperwork in. I will not give load info but resently arrived at border after 7 hours of driving and was given an entry # and told to proceed. Nope, entry # not on file. Had to wait from 9PM to 8AM and then be told by FE - problem with paperwork, continue waiting. At 1500hrs am told paperwork cannot be fixed - return the cargo back to the shipper! On this past Monday I took another load from this shipper and again when FE gave me the entry #, again Customs said not on file go inside! After several hrs. FE gave me another entry #, NOPE still noton file! With the assistance of a Customs officer I called the broker, had to call a different broker, found that the paperwork had been cleared - the second entry # given to me by FE had 2 of the numbers reversed and that was why I could not cross! I believe that in the past 11 months only once did I cross with no trouble - that time I was just tripping through and I handled all the paperwork myself. The problem seems to have gotten worse since the change was made and we do not call the brokers directly to check on the paperwork.

JMO, Jack

 

[jj214]

I cross frequently and have spent over 8 hours waiting to be cleared. It almost seems that every run has some issues. Three times this year I arrived at customs and was told the load was set up to cross and Windsor or Sarnia and I was directed to the wrong crossing. Dispatch blames the broker, the broker blames the shipper. In every case the Officer let me know how upset he/she was with having to change the paperwork. More to your question; the major problem I have is the inability of dispatch to notify me the load has been cleared. I call every 30 min. after waiting 2 hours, get a different dispatcher each time who promises to let me know right away when the load clears. That almost never happens without a phone call. Using the clink usually does not elicit a response of any kind. I have a regular load the picks up one hour from Port Huron. I always wait 2 hours before calling. 50-60 percent of the crossings result in "some problem with the broker" - I had much better luck when I faxed directly to the broker and called them for updates.

 

[ATeam]

More to your question; the major problem I have is the inability of dispatch to notify me the load has been cleared. I call every 30 min. after waiting 2 hours, get a different dispatcher each time who promises to let me know right away when the load clears. That almost never happens without a phone call. Using the clink usually does not elicit a response of any kind. I have a regular load the picks up one hour from Port Huron. I always wait 2 hours before calling. 50-60 percent of the crossings result in "some problem with the broker" - I had much better luck when I faxed directly to the broker and called them for updates.

You are jogging my memory. What you descirbe as frustration in getting dispatch to confirm to you that the load has been cleared, I included in my comment about triple checking the work others do. Having been burned before, we leave nothing to chance and take nothing for granted.

We prefer that dispatch call the brokers instead of us. Calling them was even more frustrating than it is getting confirmation from dispatch. The more questions you can ask the earlier in the load, especially from the shipper, the greater the opportunity to nip a problem in the bud.

These issues are one of several reasons many contractors hate or flat out refuse to go to Canada. Their feelings and choices are not without grounds.

 

[1CHINGON]

I've been crossing into Canada for 3 1/2 years now. Twice I had to wait before crossing in for about an hour, but the PU was near the border. Once I had a NOF and had to go in, clarified the broker problem, and 2 hours later I was back on the road. So maybe once a year I hit a glitch and get held up a bit. And I cross at least 20 times per year. From BC to NB I've crossed at almost every commercial port of entry.

I find that there is one border broker firm that I prefer not to deal with, but even with them I still get in quick. The key to my success I believe is to make sure the info required by Canada is on the paperwork: Shipper/Origin, Consignee/Destination, Country of Origin, Value in US/CAD $$$, Weight, and Freight Description. Put a PARS sticker on the paperwork and a seal on the darn load!!!

I feel for those that do wait at the border. I hope it never happens to me. But I also never leave the proximity of that fax machine at the shipper until I hear the agent at departure tell me all paperwork is legible. Good luck to you all crossing into Canada.

Jack, putting a yellow bow tie around you BR Unit is not a proper seal!

 

[bcordell70]

I can tell you that me and the wife have a printer/scanner here in the truck and if the fax at the shipper dont work then we ask dispatch for an email address and scan and send it our selves and this works great, but if there is no email address then we also have a service called Efax which allows sending faxes over the net, it also allows you to receive faxes and sends them to your email already in PDF format. which is great for the logs..lol.

Back to the topic the only real issue we have had lately was someone at dispatch or the broker entered our truck tag number wrong, so when we went to cross, the border agent gave us hard time about it but wasnt a bad delay.