TORONTO — Kriska Transportation driver and Ontario Road Knight, Peter Durant, transported more than just freight across the Windsor-Detroit border last month.

Durant picked up U.S. Consul General (Toronto) John Nay and John Dickson from the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa for an opportunity to experience what it is like to cross the border in a truck and to encourage more trucking companies and shippers to get involved in the FAST program.

The two embassy officials requested the ride-along as part of their ongoing efforts to stay apprised of border conditions.

The ride began at the “foot” of Huron Church to demonstrate to Durant’s two new wingmen how trucks must run a gauntlet of traffic lights located along the route to the world’s busiest international border crossing. Huron Church is the main artery leading to the Ambassador Bridge, and cuts through Windsor “making it less than an ideal situation for local residents and a waste of time for trucks moving international freight,” the Ontario Trucking Association said in describing the trip.

Durant took the men through the crossing’s FAST lane to exibit the benefits of pre-clearance programs.

“Peter Durant was very helpful and informative in explaining procedures and impressive in his organizational abilities,” said John Dickson. “I learned one thing: when it works, as it did yesterday, it works very well. Got to get more people in FAST.”

Durant showed them the paperwork that is required for a FAST crossing, and explained that to qualify to move a load under the program both he, the company he drives for and the shipper whose freight was inside his truck, had to meet strict requirements and be willing to undergo intensive auditing.

While FAST does expedite the movement of freight across the border, only a small portion of freight crossing the border actually moves under the FAST program. In spite of the trucking industry being a big booster of the program, participation in FAST by shippers is low, OTA says.