The Ambassador Bridge, linking Windsor to Detroit, is privately owned by Michigan-based businessman Matty Moroun. He profits from a generous 60 million dollars annually, in toll revenues and it’s no big surprise since this bridge serves North America’s busiest trade corridor, handling 500 million dollars daily.

So the Windsor-Detroit link is very important, for both Canada and the United States but there’s a huge problem. As it stands, the bridge is a bidirectional traffic nightmare featuring ongoing bottlenecks and congestion that doesn’t even spare the trucking industry which is hurting badly from this state of affairs.

In short, the clogged Windsor-Detroit crossing is a heavy barrier to both trade and travel.

Matty Moroun knows this and he’s planning another “twin-span” bridge to be erected just a few meters from the current 79-years-old Ambassador Bridge but his plans aren’t moving fast enough so the DRIC has studied alternative locations to build a new bridge, intended to resolve the massive traffic problems at the border, on both sides.

After evaluating several routes, the DRIC is said to have chosen a preferential corridor that spans from Brighton Beach, on Canada’s side of the Detroit River and lands just northeast of Zug Island, on the US side, to then travel into a plaza located in an industrial area of Detroit known as Delray.

So who’s part of DRIC?

Decisive public partners such as Transport Canada, the Ontarian Ministry of Transportation, the US Federal Highway Administration as well as the Michigan Department of Transportation are in charge of the Detroit River International Crossing Project (DRIC) binational border transportation partnership group.

The entire end-to-end project, including the Windsor-Essex Parkway, is anticipated to cost 5 billion dollars and create up to 25,000 person years of employment — this is very good news for both Windsor and Detroit workers. The final say on the new bridge’s location will however be officially announced sometime in the summer of 2008 by officials from both sides of the border.

Get a feel for the whole project with the following images from the WEParkway web site:

It’s important to note that Canada is experiencing its second-longest period of economic expansion in history. That’s mainly why Canada is investing in such modern, world-class infrastructure projects in order to foster a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and hopefully safer, more prosperous communities.

While the new bridge isn’t built yet, commuters and truckers on both sides of the border will benefit from a massively upgraded crossborder highway transportation system.

Tags: ambassador bridge, windsor, detroit, bridge, north american, trade, travel, border, prosperity

The entire supply chain is under great financial stress as the spot price of WTI crude oil rose steadily to over US$110 per barrel, on March 13th of 2008 — a record-setting price.

While the price for WTI crude oil is expected to average near $100 per barrel through the rest of this year, transport companies and everybody else getting their supply through their services are bracing for the effects of higher fuel prices during the summer season, defined as the period from April 1st to September 30th.

Pricewise, let’s start with the regular grade gasoline retail prices, which averaged $2.93 per gallon last summer (of 2007) and are projected to average $3.54 per gallon during the current driving season.

The trucking business is going to be hit even harder as diesel fuel prices, which averaged $2.85 per gallon last summer, are projected to average $3.73 this summer.

In fact, the monthly average gasoline price at the pump is projected to peak at just over $3.60 per gallon in June while the monthly average diesel price is expected to peak at just over $3.90 per gallon in April.

These rather scary retail price projections reflect higher prices for the refiners’ average acquisition cost of crude oil, projected to average close to $97 per barrel, up from about $67 per barrel last summer which account for a hefty $30 price hike, per barrel. Furthermore, strong world distillate demand growth, especially in Europe and Asia, will do nothing to help the situation domestically, in America.

It is important to note, however, that even if the US national average monthly gasoline price comes to peak around $3.60 per gallon this summer, it’s entirely possible that prices, at some point, will cross the $4 per gallon threshold, severely hurting the transport industry and those who depend on it.

Countless consumers may be forced to reconsider driving their cars at all and the same kind of dilemma may happen for transport operators of all sizes as well as petroleum-based product manufacturers.

Transportation and logistics companies, especially in America, need to plan (and provision lots of “emergency money”) right now for this summer’s potential fuel price explosion.

Tags: gas, fuel, wti crude oil, oil, diesel, petroleum, pump, america, usa, transport, logistics, summer

The number of elderly drivers will skyrocket across the United States, over the next 20 years. That could pose significant problems for states concerned about highway safety, according to William Neikirk of the Chicago Tribune.

Slightly over half the states have taken steps to deal with safety problems posed by older drivers but there’s growing concern that as the Baby Boom population retires, states might have to do more to prevent additional age-related accidents.

The Government Accountability Office (GOA) cited the issue in a report, in April of 2007, as a looming problem that will mean more public expenditures to help the aging Boomers stay safe, on the roads.

For those who had lost count, here’s a reminder: the oldest Boomers will turn 61, this year.

“Older driver safety issues will become increasingly significant in the future because older adults represent the fastest-growing segment of the American population”, said the GAO. “By 2030, the number of licensed drivers aged 65 and older is expected to nearly double to about 57 million”.

Nifty ideas like multigenerational households, customized public transit, home office employment alternatives, intelligently integrated proximity services, elderly-friendly neighborhood designs, drivers retraining as well as safety-enhancing car technologies might help deal with this influx of Baby Boomers driving from point A to point B.

The states that still haven’t tackled this important demographics issue should look into it promptly before they’re overwhelmed with requests they don’t know how to properly handle.

Tags: baby boomers, elderly drivers, gao, states, population, driving

At some point, it’s important that the transports and logistics industry ask some hard questions to our politicians. Every time we fuel our vehicles with gas, our wallets dry up and it’s getting scary.

What if all this time we’d been lied to? What if gas, or even hydrogen wasn’t our best alternative? What if some powerful people found happiness in enslaving you and your company to the fuel pumps?

Influent voices are now rising to explain, with abundant proof, that it would be a lot more productive and cost effective to use batteries, instead of hydrogen fuel, to power our vehicles.

Sadly for us all, though, it’s a lot more profitable for the apparently omnipotent petroleum industry to develop the hydrogen technology, despite the considerable dangers involved, than investing for the development of efficient batteries.

Why? Because hydrogen will keep us tied up to the pumps.

Again, it’s all about the money.

Would it be possible that we’re all spectators to a giant play resembling a global conspiracy to move us all from one dependency (fossil fuel) to another (hydrogen)?

Sony Pictures has launched, on June 28th 2006, in both Los Angeles and New York, an amazing documentary / movie titled “Who Killed the Electric Car?” that tackles this situation head-on. The movie should be available locally, in most cities, this summer — as a T&L Professional, you should probably see it.

You may ask yoursefl why you should sit at your local cineplex looking at a “documentary” for a few hours? It’s a good question but let’s start with a few facts. In 1996, not so long ago, electric cars began to pop up on California’s roads. They were quiet, fast (zippy, to be precise), produced no exhaust and basically ran without any gasoline… a dream on four wheels, right?

Ok, so why are electric cars on the way out?

What happened?

In the transports and logistics industry, it’s hard to imagine daily business without using fossil fuel but, in comparison, look at the rest of our lives.

We use batteries in toothbrushes, rasors, flashlights, remotes, wireless phones, portable devices and computers… nowadays, even the books we buy for our kids come with little battery powered sound systems that play music while they read!

I’ll admit we either have to recharge the batteries once in a while (or even change them) but overall, we’re getting decent performance.

Why can’t we use batteries in our vehicles, especially for shorter commutes?

Imagine the savings in the T&L industry if all short distances could be taken care of by electric vehicles. Nobody would want to switch back to fossil fuel or even hydrogen so why are we so passive and tolerant about those “alternatives” now?

The ongoing debate over how to fuel the many vehicles in our highly mobile society will not stop here but hopefull, by asking questions, T&L operators from around the world will keep an open mind about what the future may have in store.

Tags: electric cars, gm, mobile society, fossil fuel, hydrogen, no emissions, documentary

Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 14.8% higher in March 2006 than in March 2005, reaching $68.2 billion, the highest monthly level ever recorded, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Table 1).

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), reported that total North American surface transportation trade rose 14.1% in March from February (Table 2). Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors.

The previous monthly high was $64.0 billion in October 2005. Surface transportation consists largely of freight movements by truck, rail and pipeline. About 90% of U.S. trade by value with Canada and Mexico moves on land.

Total North American surface transportation trade value in March was up 35.8% compared to March 2001, and up 100.5% compared to March 1996, a period of 10 years (Table 3). Imports in March were up 114.6% compared to March 1996, while exports were up 84.8%.

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

U.S.–Canada surface transportation trade totaled $44.0 billion in March, up 11.4% compared to March 2005 (Table 4). The value of imports carried by truck was 8.6% higher in March 2006 than March 2005 while the value of exports carried by truck was 13.3% higher.

Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in March with $6.7 billion (Table 5).

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S. – Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $24.2 billion in March, up 21.5% compared to March 2005 (Table 6). The value of imports carried by truck was 18.1% higher in March 2006 than March 2005 while the value of exports carried by truck was 21.9% higher.

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in March with $7.7 billion (Table 7).

The Transborder Freight Dataset is a special extract of the official U.S. foreign trade statistics. The data are tabulated for BTS monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division. March transborder numbers include data received by BTS as of May 15.

Tags: surface trade, canada, mexico, usa, foreign trade, statistics, transborder, bts