The United States and Canada have a very close trading relationship going back centuries. With the arrival of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), this relationship went even deeper. Today, on an average, the two countries have an annual trade of $535 billion. For the United States, trade with Canada amounts to 17% of their global trade, a statistic which vividly conveys the importance of Canada for the American market.
Obviously, to facilitate such a large amount of trade, there should be good facilities for transport between the USA and Canada. Road transportation is the most important aspect of it as the two nations are geographical neighbors. Not surprisingly, on-ground transportation takes care of the majority of the $535 billion trade.
The main dimensions of freight transport on-ground between the two countries are road transportation accomplished through trucks and rail transportation making use of rail-routes linking the two countries. If we focus on road transport between the USA and Canada, it will become clear that great facilities are provided for trucks carrying freight from one side to the other.
When it comes to shipping freight from the USA to Canada, transporters have three options: FTL freight transport, LTL freight transport, and Intermodal rail transport.
FTL or Full Truckload transport between USA and Canada allows a company to put its entire cargo to be shipped in one truck if it can fill it to capacity. Less Than Truckload or LTL transport comes into use when the material you want to transport is not capable of filling a whole truck. It then travels along with other contents headed into the same direction. In this option, you will have to pay a price as per the size of your shipment.
Rail transport is another method which can be employed. There are two documents that are required for this mode of transport between USA and Canada: Canada Customs Invoice (CCI) and Bill of Landing (BOL).
When it comes to shipping freight from Canada to the USA, apart from the three options mentioned above, there are three others: Hot Shot Exclusive Trucks, Line Haul Services and Padded Van service. All three services are truck-based and provide safe transportation.
With so many options for transport between the USA and Canada, no wonder trade between Canada and the USA has soared over the decades.