OTTAWA — A new series of redundant border security charges on Canadian truck drivers shows that the escalation of transportation levies are not abating, says the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

The CTA is referring to recent fees imposed on cross-border truckers and carriers by U.S. Customs and other transport authorities.

Starting March 1st, the single crossing fee per truck for agricultural inspection — regardless of whether the truck is carrying agricultural products or not — will jump to US$5.50. The cost to obtain an annual user fee transponder for agricultural inspection will now be $205 per truck, $105 up from the previous $100 charged by CBP.

Critics have called the fee a “cash grab.” Truckers who haul auto parts, for example, have told Today’s Trucking they don’t like being forced to subsidize the cost of extra inspections for asparagus loads.

Canadian truckers are getting tired of identical
security requirements and fees to cross the border.

The announcement sets April 1, 2007 as the date for a 50 cent (US) increase — from $5.00 to $5.50 — in the single-crossing fee for commercial truck entering the United States from Canada. The fee is supposedly designed to offset the costs to operate the US Customs and Border Protection agency.

“I suppose one could look at a 50 cent increase and say it’s not the end of the world,” said Canadian Trucking Alliance CEO David Bradley in a statement. “But what bothers me, and should be of grave concern to Canadian exporters, is that the cost to send goods into the United States continues to rise, with absolutely no end in sight.”

CTA says the industry as a whole could be paying as much as half a billion dollars per year in various fees and charges.

Meanwhile, a sister agency of CBP, the Transportation Security Administration, recently announced that it will be charging truck drivers who require access to US ports between US$107 and US$127 for a Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC).

Even though CTA and the American Trucking Associations have been pointing out for over a year that cross-border truckers already undergo similar security clearances under programs like the Free and Secure Trade (FAST), the additional fee will apply.

It’s been state by U.S. officials that TWIC will eventually extend beyond ports to other “safety sensitive” areas within the transportation industry.

“We’ll continue to do what we can as an industry to raise awareness of the importance of this problem,” said Bradley. “But in the end, it will take intervention at the highest levels of the Canadian government with the U.S. to put a stop to this disturbing trend. In the meantime, we have no alternative but to encourage carriers to pass these costs along to our customers or die the death of a thousand knives.”