Traffic Jam

I don't drive the I-43 corridor between home and southeast Wisconsin as much as I used to before retirement; nevertheless, when I've previously made a trip down and back It's not at all unusual to note a significant volume of Canadian truck traffic - particularly on the down-bound southern route.  I actually made it practice to keep an eye peeled for rigs sporting the Bison Transport logo and their distinctive Manitoba tags.  

photo credit Land Line Magazine

Unsurprising, the primary Canadian port of entry in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge connecting Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan with Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  There is also my favorite border crossing; the Grand Portage-Pigeon River port of entry connecting Grand Portage, Minnesota, with Neebing, Ontario and Thunder Bay. It's a major route between Duluth, Minnesota, and Thunder Bay, Ontario.

No wonder a significant portion of Canadian freight found its way to Interstate 43.

As the chaos and confusion, Red Light, Green Light, moving of the goal posts of the White House's tariff policies roil the global economy it turns-out that the trucking industry is emerging as another victim of these tax increases on international commerce.

To be clear, truckers are not a direct object of Trump's levy wrath; nevertheless, this sector is feeling unwelcome pressures and upheavals because lots of stuff moves across North America by truck. 

How much stuff you ask?  Consider this -  The North American trucking industry is a massive sector, generating significant revenue and employing millions of people.  In 2022, the US trucking industry alone generated $940.8 billion in gross freight revenue and had 3.54 million truck drivers.  The entire North American trucking industry (including Canada and Mexico) is even larger, with over 12.7 million truck entries combined on the Canadian and Mexican borders in 2022, and the value of goods traveling via truck across the borders jumped to over $947 billion in 2022.

Impacts are not isolated to freight companies and drivers; last week Mack Truck and Volvo announced the layoff of hundreds of workers as a consequence of falling demand due to tariff troubles and market uncertainties.  It hasn't taken very long for negative impacts to ripple across the entire industry.  

It is clear that this meaningful player with our largest trading partners has been seriously disrupted.  But we all know that Donald Trump thrives on disruption and breaking things.  Pure speculation on my part; but I don't think he thought this thru sufficiently to understand how broken this is becoming.  But that's how Trump rolls (pun intended).

Anyway, follow this link for a higher-level analysis of how the president's taxes on trade have disordered and begun to seriously dislocate a previously well-oiled engine of supply chain logistics.  It's a short read and worth it.  Trust me.  Further evidence of the Law Of Unintended Consequences.

Meanwhile, If I'm driving to the Naked City for any reason I'm gonna keep an eye peeled for any Canadian transports.