SPECIAL REPORT: U.S. Daylight Savings Plan Would Throw Off JIT Schedules: Shippers

WASHINGTON, (July 20, 2005) — Some Canadian businesses could be left in the dark if the country doesn’t follow the U.S. in extending daylight-saving time by two months.

The proposal — which would extend daylight savings in the U.S. by forwarding clocks one hour on the first weekend of March and rolling back an hour on the last weekend of November — was adopted by Congress yesterday, reports the Wall Street Journal. Currently daylight saving begins the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday in October.

Michigan’s Fred Upton and Massachusetts’s Ed Markey sponsored the bill as an attempt to curb energy use in the States. The theory is people would cut the need for artificial light in the evenings under the new time frames. If President Bush signs the bill, the revised timeline could take effect as soon as this fall.

The plan is raising eyebrows north of the 49th however. Transport-based industries should be especially concerned. If Canada doesn’t mirror the plan, cross-border business could be thrown into a tailspin, not to mention impact travel scheduling and connecting flights.

However, if Canada does follow the U.S. lead, we could see commuters and children going to work and school in the complete dark. Some critics have suggested it could make winter driving more hazardous for early risers as overnight ice and snow would not have had a chance to melt before the morning commute.

Bob Ballantyne, president of the Canadian Industrial Transportation Association — a national shipper group — says there’s reason for concern. He told TodaysTrucking.com this morning that if Canada doesn’t change times with the U.S., the gap would not only affect travel, but also throw just-in-time freight off balance — especially for the Southern Ontario auto sector where parts are designed to be delivered at plants exactly as they’re needed.

Also, Ballantyne wonders how a time shift would impact cross border paperwork requirements. For example, shippers and carriers are just now getting used to pre-notification rules in which truckers must forward U.S. Customs or the Food and Drug Administration shipment information up to an hour before the freight arrives at the border.

And what about hours-of-service rules? “I would think it would affect HOS in some way,” predicts Ballantyne. “Whose time would you be working on? Truckers who cross the border may be hard pressed to keep tabs.”

Currently, Saskatchewan is the only province that does not shift time with the rest of the country’s daylight savings calendar. “Obviously businesses in Saskatchewan has found a way to deal with that,” says Ballantyne, “although they don’t have a large automotive sector or perhaps the JIT (demands).”

“The whole idea of going to some standard time system is fundamental to the working of any economy,” he continues. “For Canada not to follow suit would be a big mistake.”

— with files from Wall Street Journal