Janice R. Andrews
The impending prospect of a rail strike has prompted U.S. freight forwarder C.H. Robinson to declare on Monday that it is rerouting some of its U.S. clients’ ocean goods away from Canadian ports. Of the customers who switched, over 80% are now shipping through the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports; the remaining customers choose Seattle/Tacoma.
Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City are among the Canadian railways that are getting ready for a possible work stoppage by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Union. Shipping might be severely disrupted by the strike, especially for cargo that has to arrive quickly.
In order to guarantee that freight crosses the U.S.-Canada border without incident, C.H. Robinson is obtaining more transportation capacity, according to Scott Shannon, vice president of the company’s Canada operations. In order to prevent delays at train terminals, he pointed out that some Canadian clients are proactively employing trucks to move cargo.
Businesses in both nations are modifying their logistics strategy, giving over-the-road cargo priority in order to reduce disruption risks, given the prospect of a strike as early as August 22. This change highlights the increasing unpredictability that shippers are facing in light of possible labour unrest in Canada.
