Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

For a Traveler - note the capital T; I sense you are one - such a journey might be exciting. It would get you away from the madness, paranoia, and extreme uprightness of this country for a while.

 

you'll have to take a 'class' or 'orientation' if you will at one of the northern Swift terminals. Did mine at Lewiston ID terminal. They just go over hours of services differences, proper macros when crossing borders and various paperwork requirements. Generally you have to call the broker before crossing into Canada to confirm the PARS paperwork is in the system and call and message Swift for registration numbers before crossing back into the World.

Typically you'll deliver directly to a customer in Canada then get preplanned to go pick up a load from a Canadian customer for delivery to a US customer or tcall at a drop yard or terminal. Cannot pick up in Canada and deliver in Canada.

 

That isn't what he said. You can take a load into Canada, but your next load has to deliver back in the states. You can't drop a load there and then get a load in Canada, that delivers in Canada

 

Can't do that, it's illegal ... same with Canadian carriers, they can only drop in the US and load right back to Canada.

 

Loading passengers or cargo in one country and delivering that load in the same country by a carrier from another country is called cabotage. Countries normally frown on it and in aviation, it's still illegal. NAFTA had something to say about it for non-aviation entities, but I've forgotten what.

 

Canada's 34 is 36 hours. Swift does a lot of business in Canada. Lots of wine loads going to Edmonton AB from northern California. When I was doing it Swift had a drop yard up in Calgary for drivers coming up to drop the load and go on and pick up their southbound load, the idea being that some other Swift driver would deliver the previous dropped load. Bison trucking drivers found out about it and pitched a big stink and the word was that Swift was hammered in the Canadian courts over that controversy.