Canada-U.S. Trucking Sees Bad First-Half

(Journal of Commerce Online – Courtney Tower)

Cross-border trucking over the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, the busiest commercial connection between the United States and Canada, fell by nearly a third in the first half of this year. At other key crossings, traffic was little better.

There were 173,202 truck crossings either way between Detroit and Windsor, in June, a 32.7% decline from the 257,276 in June of last year, according to the Public Border Operators Association (PBOA). For the first half of this year, to June 30, there were 1.1 million truck crossings, a 31.1% drop from the 1.6 million in the 2008 period.

At the second busiest U.S.-Canada crossing, the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron, Mich., and Point Edwards, Ontario, the half-year truck crossings were down 24.4 percent, to 621,624 from 822,050. They were down 24% on the month, as well. Read more here.

Related: The Department of Transportation said its freight transportation services index fell 14.8% in May from a year earlier to its lowest level in 12 years. The drop to 94 was the largest May-to-May drop in the 20-year history of TSI calculations, DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said in its monthly report.