The strike of the Canadian Rail Workers appears imminent with a potential strike commencing August 22.  On Sunday evening the Teamsters union served their strike notice, which will be in effect at 12:01 a.m. ET Thursday, barring any last-minute agreement.  Reilly International is in the process of taking steps to divert your goods around the ports of Halifax and Montreal until further notice.  This situation is fluid (we regret overusing that word over the last 5 years) and the timing and duration of such a strike is unpredictable.

Imports to the USA:

In cases where we are able to do so, we are diverting your containers to the USEC (New York in most cases) to keep them moving.

In these cases, we are filing a post ISF (Importer Security Filing) or we are providing your designated Customs Broker with the information to make these filings.

As a refresher, ISF’s must be filed prior to vessel departure at the origin port.  When shipments are planned for offloading at a Canadian Port, an ISF is not required.  Since we have taken action to reroute your shipments for offloading at New York, and New York being a US Port, an ISF becomes a requirement.  Since these consignments are already on the water, filing prior departure is not possible.  Although unlikely, Customs and Border Protection may issue a penalty for the late filing of your ISF.  However, in our experience, CBP takes a very common-sense approach to such matters.  It may be necessary that a future penalty will require and a petition with the relevant facts to mitigate the penalty.  We will preserve all of the necessary documentation to support the late filing and decision to reroute.

In cases where we are unable to divert your containers, we have been working to identify solutions to move your containers via truck through Canada into the Midwest.  Obviously, there are not enough trucks to handle all the container traffic, so in some cases there will be delays.

Your client service team member will be in touch with you shortly to advise you of the relevant consignments which have been affected.

Export Shipments:

We are taking action to reroute these shipments as required to minimize delays to your consignments.

This matter required a swift decision, and we made the decision we are certain you would have made.  We are confident that we have taken the best care of your supply chain with this decision.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

August 19, 2024