cabotage rules

greyghost · Dec 3, 2003

Back in the 90s there used to be a ruling whereby a canadian or us driver could pick up a load going towards a border crossing on route to his house.
To give you an example, in the 1999 Rand Mcnally truckers atlas it gave an example i.e. pick up a load in chicago deliver in detroit, the next load would have to be going into canada or go to canada and pick up a load going to the us.
However the following year us immigration says you cannot do this.
They did away with this around 1991 or 2 not quite sure.
As you can imagine getting a load to sth. carolina is great but the deadhead kills any profit you make on the load, I also knowits a sore point my us freinds.
If anyone knows anymore information,I would be glad to hear from you.
Failing that have a great christmas and a profitable new year, and remember drive safe.

RobA · Dec 3, 2003

Hey Greyghost, I take it that you are a fellow Canuck. To the best of my knowlege, the simple answer is NO!!!!!!!! A Canadian driver driver cannot pick up a domestic shipment within the USA and transport it towards the border. Cabotage is still Cabotage.
Do you read Daniel Joyce's column in Truck News every month? There's lots of information there.

OntarioVanMan · Dec 3, 2003

There's always an exception to every rule. My wife being an "American Citizen" as long as SHE DRIVES ONLY we could do Chicago to Detroit The most direct route back toward Canada. I've enquired at U.S. Customs 5 times and it's a 3-2 split Yes. But it's still a grey zone most companies would rather not do it.

Whiterabbit · Dec 4, 2003

At my first border crossing into canada for my orientation ,i told the customs agent that i would be getting loads in ca. and del. in ca. when got hired on..welp they wrote me up on the yellow ticket ,and i had to go into immigrtion ,customs, they told me in no uncertain terms that no way in h*ll was i going to pickup a load in Ca. and del ,that item to a Ca. co. and if i did i was NEVER going to be allowed to get into Ca. again!....so its not just you my friend ( we us types have the same problemo as you good folks!)ill be doing a lot of deadheading myself like from oshawa to the US before i can get another load...customs told me that NO WAY WAS I GOING TO TAKE A JOB AWAY FROM A CAN.... i wanted to tell them then that ,maybe that person should get a van and geta job! ,,,,(but i didnt..ill keep my political discussions among friends! )

So that was my first border crossing experience ,guess i got my cherry popped EH? LOL...

teacel · Dec 4, 2003

QUESTIONS???

Being this is the rule, can a driver do his math, and determine that it may be best to ask their company to have another driver at the border so they can pass the load off to a citizen of that country? Will a company do this for the drivers? It may be better for a driver to get a peace of the pie and share, than to keep the whole pie and end up a looser in the end. Facts of the load would determine if the driver would even want to enter into another country.

If I was offered a trip from, “say” Detroit to 4 or 500 miles into Canada, knowing I would have to deadhead back out of Canada 400 miles, I would refuse the trip, or demand the company pay me all miles.

jujubeans · Dec 4, 2003

Tony..you as a US driver can bring a load back into the US, you just can't deliver Canada to Canada. Dynamex has on occasion done the driver to driver tradeoff at the border, and it's usually because someone either doesn't WANT to do the border, or they can't. I seem to fall thru the loophole since I am an American citizen driving for a Canadian Company and as Ken says, as long as I am driving, we can pick up a load US to US ONLY as long as it's enroute to Canada..ie: Chicago to Detroit, then we could pick up another load in Detroit and bring it over. However, our company stays away from doing just that. It does seem to fall in those gray zones that if you get the wrong custom quard, they could toss me out of the US permanently and I've chosen NOT to take that chance.

jujubeans

jujubeans · Dec 4, 2003

Wow Tony..just noticed your kind words...many thanks to a swell fella!

jujubeans;-) ;-)

Whiterabbit · Dec 5, 2003

Tea...Yeah i here every word ! Ill see how it goes for a bit, bein a greenpea ill just kickback and take note,showem my stuff , for a spell then negotiate at a later date . (that is if of course if theres a problem gettin a load from say Oshawa or Toronto back to "say",

, Detroit...thx for the words... Co. seems to be good people , time will tell !

RobA · Dec 5, 2003

RE: A Matter of Choice

>If I was offered a trip from, “say” Detroit to 4 or 500
>miles into Canada, knowing I would have to deadhead back out
>of Canada 400 miles, I would refuse the trip, or demand the
>company pay me all miles.

Tony:
As a US citizen and driver you have the choice to refuse to come to Canada..or not.
Canadian drivers don't really have a choice whether they want to go south or not. Most of our trucking goes into The States. There is very little that stays in Canada. This is especially true of expediting.
A US driver can bring a load up and if there is nothing coming straight back can dead head back to the border (and it ain't 400 or 500 hundred miles) and look for a domestic load.
A Canadian driver in Georgia or Oklahoma has a long deadhead home if he can't find a Canada bound load. The rates going back to Canada reflect this.
Sometimes, I think it would be nice to go back to pre 1980 when US drivers stayed in The States and Canadian drivers stayed here. Loads were in fact relayed over the border.
Times have changed though, and that is no longer acceptable to shippers and receivers.

RichM · Dec 5, 2003

RE: A Matter of Choice

I was under the impression that a US driver could do ONE internal Candian load and then had to come back to the US.A couple of years ago we did a weekend trip from Brantford Ontario to Halifax Nova Scotia. We had no problems other then,we could not get A New Brunswick permit on the weekend and were fined $400. Roberts insisted we go,so we paid the fine and it took 2 months to get reimbursed.
From Halifax instead of driving 900 miles back around we put the truck and us on a ocean ferry from Yarmouth Novia Scotia to Portland Maine. It cost $230 but we saved 900 miles of driving and had a pleasnt day. We have also loaded out of Winnipeg Manitoba to Vancouver BC with no problems.

Whiterabbit · Dec 5, 2003

RE: A Matter of Choice

Rob A. , good point there, the relaying might even create a few more jobs for our "comrades"...the way i see it there just is never a utopian situation , and in reality how boring would that be (?) , i will and have gladly sacrificed a few dollars for the privilage of working alongside "good people"...I dont think anyone here, is in this biz , "for the money" . As for me its " the call of the road ",while actually performing a VERY valuable service . No matter the country we are all in it together ? Yes? As far as deadheading goes it would be nice if the prices of fuel were a bit better in our favor , we REALLY should get a break in that department. How to go about gettin that is the question for me anyway . I see now that my statement about "then maybe they should get a job " was a bit Rude and arogant for that i apologize , i for one absolutely would not be where i am, if it werent for some help from my friends& co. Yes sir , i came off way wrong in my post , my bad...just a "tad" headstrong i was actually maybe even foolish..........

Doggie Daddy · Dec 6, 2003

RE: A Matter of Choice

>
> ...I dont think anyone here, is in this biz , "for
>the money" .
i cant speak for anyone but myself,and dont get me wrong,i love my job. BUT... i am definetly in the biz for the money,it's what pays the bills puts food on the table and allows me to live in the manner to which i am accustomed. DD