Cross Border Logistics - Analysis

• In addition to the pandemic, the recent implementation (July 1) of the USMCA trade agreement as well as new tariffs, is having an impact on the cross border logistics industry (US/Canada).
• UMSCA means for example, that Canadians will not have to pay duties on goods under C$150, and goods under C$40 will be tax exempt. This comes as e-commerce is booming due to COVID-19.
• The land border is closed to non-essential travel. Supply chain and logistics are the exception.
• Customs paperwork is now being done via e-mail, texts and other electronic forms, and that is bringing with it some challenges. Rules for customs compliance are also ever shifting.
• Some Canadian truckers have expressed concern about crossing into the US, due to the high number of cases there.

Cross Border Logistics - Data Points

• According to Transport Canada, some 30,000 trucks cross the Canada-U.S. border every day, transporting an estimated $1 billion in goods.
• Commercial traffic entering Canada remained relatively stable throughout the pandemic, when compared to last year, with weekly declines averaging between 10 and 30%.
• Over the past month, the volume of trucks crossing the US-Canadian border has remained roughly stable, with a dip around the 2 and 3 of August. Likewise, the crossing duration was stable at around 9 to 10 minutes, but reaching an average of 14 minutes on 30 July.
• Truck traffic crossing across all US-Canadian borders is at 75% compared to normal volume.

Available Information

• We found that most available information was either focused on the impact of USMCA on e-commerce and trade more broadly (rather than just the logistics industry), or that reports focused on the logistics industry under Covid didn't hone in only on to the US-Canadian border (that is, all the data was just for the US as a whole, for example).
• Information that was available tended to focus more on the US-Mexican border, than the border with Canada.
• While the logistics industry includes producing, obtaining, packaging, transporting and distributing products, the main element of the logistics industry that is impacted by land border regulations is transportion. Hence, we suggest focusing mostly on transportion (delivery, logistics) and trucking.