Duty free alcohol in truck

I believe that is a US law, I have bought at duty free and put in trailer or underbunk and told canada customs and never had a problem.

 

I bought alcohol at the duty free every week for many years, never had a problem, just make sure you declare it at Canadian customs though.

 

Customs officers wont care about this, but if you hit a scale thats another story. Only thing they will check (custom) is the quantity and how long you have been gone.

duty free will advertise but will also tell you how much a citizen is allowed to buy tax free.

you are a citizen but carrying it in a commercial vehicule.

cant have alcool in a commercial vehicule without a manifest.

 

Write up a manifest for it

 

Could you please post the section of the NSC or relevant provincial legislation that applies?

 

Pretty much as I thought, I can find no restriction on having alcohol in a CMV in Canada. I searched the entire NSC and the Alberta Commercial Vehicle Safety Regulation and there is no mention of the transportation of alcohol. I also called the Coutts scale and the enforcemennt officer there stated that their only concern is that the regulations of the Traffic Safety Act are followed, i.e., can't be within reach of the driver, etc.

However, he did bring up an interesting point. That scale is a joint Alberta/Montana facility and due to that fact a driver could be issued a ticket by the Montana DOT officer (I was asking about being northbound and buying alcohol at the U.S. duty-free), even though any inspection might take place in Alberta. He was aware of an instance where someone had a substantial amount of alcohol dumped out and a ticket was issued. I don't know if the issue of it being a substantial amount was significant (in practise it probably would be... but would a Montana officer really go "by the book" over a couple of bottles of wine purchased 15 feet from the border?). He stated that at any other scale it would be a non-issue, but it could be there.

In the case of an inspection where alcohol was found, I assume the Montana officer would have to prove that it was in the vehicle in Montana in order for the charge to stick. It is a mile from the border to the scale, there is a 90 degree turn and no line-of-sight between the scale and the border. There is no way to prove the alcohol was actually in the truck unless the officer observed the driver purchasing the alcohol and placing it in the truck, observed the truck and driver (uninterrupted) from the border to the scale, or the driver confesses (NEVER admit to anything keeping my mouth shut kept me from getting a ticket in BC because the officer couldn't prove what we both knew to be true). There are a number of plausible, legal, ways I can think of whereby the alcohol could have been transported across the border and then placed in the CMV.

Another, somewhat related, question I have had for quite some time is the legality of any ticket issued at that scale by a Montana officer (I have never had one). I may follow up with a lawyer on it. In fact, the only time I have ever been called into the scale there, I was northbound and they were going to do a level 1, but I had one in Calif. about three weeks prior so they took a quick look at my log book and sent me on my way. An Alberta officer was doing all the talking and while there was a Montana officer beside him, he never spoke nor looked at my log book.

Of course, you may be restricted from transporting alcohol by the policies of your carrier.

 

Mich DOT sits on ramp out of Duty Free store that goes to the Blue Water Bridge to Canada and they bust truck drivers all the time. The alcholol has to be manifested and must be in/on the trailer to be legal.

 

Some drivers have to make up BOL for their loads, such as livestock and other things like grains, so whats to say a driver can't make up his own BOL for some alchohol?? its an LTL shipment being shipped from the store to the drivers house!