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January 5, 2012 8:40 AM, EST

By Frederick Kiel, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the Jan. 2 print edition of Transport Topics.

Trucking executives said the industry could see some benefits of the recently announced U.S.-Canadian trade agreement as early as this year.

President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed an agreement on Dec. 7 at the White House dealing with a range of trade and border issues. The agreement built upon a framework assented to in February.

“Trucking should benefit from specific objectives listed, including an integrated cargo security strategy, developing pre-clearance initiatives to relieve border congestion, provide information on border wait-times and service levels, establishing a single window for electronic data submissions and enhancing border infrastructure,” American Trucking Associations said in a statement.

Margaret Irwin, ATA director of customs, immigration and cross-border operations, told Transport Topics the industry should begin to see improvements almost immediately.

“It’s pretty obvious what they have been doing is to ease transit and build harmonization of electronic systems,” Irwin said. “Those programs have been very difficult since 9/11. We’ll have a more practical solution now. It’ll be an equitable system, and everyone will be on the same page.”

David Bradley, president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, which has 4,500 member companies, called the agreement “historic and excellent.”

“Both ATA and CTA are aligned in what we wanted to see, and we got a significant part of what we asked for,” Bradley told TT, but he was cautious about how much of it will be implemented.

“The agreement is just that: an agreement, not a treaty,” he said. “It doesn’t mean by any stretch of imagination that this is over. What was agreed to now has to be implemented. Some might make the argument that it’s subject to vagaries of domestic politics.”

Still, he said he thought truckers might see some changes quickly.

“One of the agreements that should be implemented almost immediately . . . covers domestic shipments that transit though the other country,” Bradley said. He said that before 9/11, Canadian trucks carrying domestic freight could easily transit the United States between Canadian stops, but new security measures have made that nearly impossible.

Bryan Richards, vice president of specialized road services for the Yanke Group of Cos., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, said that he hoped Bradley’s supposition was correct.

“Before 9/11, my five best routes to eastern Canada went through the States,” Richards told TT. “It wasn’t only saving miles but avoiding heavy snow and bad weather, as well.”

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Grain Valley, Mo., said the agreement did little to assist his members.

“On Canadian-U.S. issues, we have what should be simple issues that are made more complex than they need to be, from the standpoint of small truckers,” Spencer told TT.

He said some actions by individual provinces, more than Canadian national policies, made his members “grumble.”

“We have provinces that are actually dictating design standards for U.S. vehicles,” Spencer said.

“Quebec and Ontario say that trucks have to have tamperproof governors set for 65 miles per hour, and we’re opposed to that, basically because at least 27 U.S. states have speed limits higher than that,” he explained.

Spencer added that some provinces imposed “wheelbase limitations” on the size of tractors.

“That seems to be designed mostly to discourage U.S. trucks from operating in Canada,” he said. “We don’t think the length restrictions on tractors make any economic or safety sense.”

Similarly, some Canadians didn’t think all of the post-9/11 U.S. regulations were aimed solely at improving security.

“Where there is a great mood about this agreement is the mutual recognition that, if you clear security in one country, you also clear it in the other,” Marc Cadieux, CEO of the Quebec Trucking Association, told TT.

“Before, there had to be duplications of all of those processes, which were very hectic and complicated, and many criteria were put on the shoulders of our carriers,” he said.

“Deep down, there was a feeling that protectionism might be under the security blanket,” Cadieux said. “But now, everything is clear and we can gear up to make sure the corridors continue to be open to all.”