CTA chief warns goods won’t move if transport policy doesn’t improve

OTTAWA, (April 28, 2004) — The head of Canada’s largest trucking association told a group of business leaders in Ottawa that the nation’s top economic priority should be to maintain efficient access to the U.S. markets, but that freight transportation is taken for granted north of the border.

“Since most of the trade between (Canada and the U.S.) moves by truck it is imperative that Canadian manufacturers and shippers have access to efficient, productive and predictable highway and border infrastructure, otherwise direct investment will flow south of the border and there will be no need for trucks, trains, planes and ships,” CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance David Bradley said in a speech this week to the North American chapter of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport.

However, the association boss added that Canada is the only major industrialized country not to have a national highway program, and all to often, trucking is at best considered a “necessary evil” by policy-makers in order to satisfy the market’s demand for flexible, just-tin-time service.

Yet, while Transport Canada continues to be fixated on shifting freight on to tracks, the major Canadian and U.S. railways have been putting freight back onto truck, Bradley said, warning that freight will soon be left sitting at docks if Canada’s transportation policy doesn’t improve.

“The truth is we need all the modes. Service is the name of the game. Truck and rail are both at capacity,” he said. “Government policy should be focused on improving the efficiency and productivity of all modes with the ultimate goal being increased aggregate demand in the economy which will in turn generate more freight for all modes — not more for one and less for another.”