As uncertainty swelled in recent months around the long-awaited opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, representatives from the privately-owned Ambassador Bridge up the Detroit River were “aggressively” pursuing trucking companies in an apparent bid to retain their business, according to an industry representative.
Lak Shoan, director of policy for the Ontario Trucking Association, said his organization started hearing from a “handful of members” about the bridge’s efforts around springtime.
“It wasn’t something that they came to us with or anything like that,” he said. “It would just come up in conversations sort of, you know, ‘Have you heard that the Ambassador Bridge has been, you know, reaching out to more companies?’ And that’s when we started hearing from a few more folks that this was occurring.”
CBC Windsor contacted several Canadian trucking companies with cross-border operations to ask if the Ambassador Bridge had approached them with toll rate offers. Those who answered said they couldn’t discuss private business agreements, while others simply did not respond.
But in a now-deleted post from late July, a U.S. trucking union official ordered his members not to use the new publicly-owned crossing because of a contract with the Ambassador Bridge in which they were saving $240,000 on tolls per month.
“If we wanted to begin using the Gordie Howe bridge, the Ambassador Bridge would first have to be notified that we intend to terminate the current contract,” wrote UAW Local 212 Chair JT Barrett, who represents FCA Transport (Stellantis) drivers.
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Toll rates and revenue were a key part of the months-long political saga to open the $6.4 billion Gordie Howe bridge, which the Canadian government paid for in full. The deal to open the crossing contains a provision giving the U.S. government the ability to block the new bridge from lowering tolls “below the average of comparable regional crossings.”
The wealthy Moroun family of Michigan, which has owned the Ambassador Bridge since 1979, ramped up its political influence efforts in the months before U.S. President Donald Trump suddenly threatened to block the new crossing from opening.
Though the bridge eventually opened to traffic on July 27, it came after a June opening was scrapped at the request of the U.S. government, according to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Trump has been accused of trying to block the new bridge’s opening to benefit the Morouns.
Representatives for the Ambassador Bridge did not respond to questions before publication time. But a notice on their website suggests there is a cheaper toll program available to some trucking companies.
“Commercial customers with over 150 expected monthly crossings are eligible for new A-Pass Subscription Accounts,” the page reads. “These feature fixed monthly rates, determined based on expected crossings.”
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Shoan said the trucking association doesn’t know the exact details of what the bridge was offering companies, but he believes “it was around retention or trying to attract fleets to use the Ambassador Bridge.”
He said his group welcomes “healthy competition” between the bridges, which can lead to lower toll costs for trucking companies.
Barrett’s Facebook post provided some financial specifics about the deal he said FCA Transport has with the Ambassador Bridge.
“Under that contract, we pay a flat rate of $160,000 per month, regardless of how many crossings are made,” he said.
“Before this contract, we were paying north of $400,000 per month on a per-crossing basis,” he continued.
Barrett did not respond to a request for comment. Stellantis declined to confirm whether its FCA Transport drivers are under an exclusive toll contract with the Ambassador Bridge.
“The opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge strengthens the single most important border crossing in North America,” the global automaker said in a statement. “We are looking forward to using this additional crossing to support our just-in-time operations across our manufacturing operations in both countries, improving the flow of goods for an integrated industry that depends on seamless logistics. As a matter of company policy, Stellantis does not comment on proprietary information.”
The saga of the Gordie Howe bridge
Shoan said the uncertainty around the Gordie Howe bridge’s opening would have made any deals offered by the Ambassador Bridge appealing to trucking firms.
“If you look at the current economic climate, which has been unsettled over the last several months, businesses are looking for certainty wherever you can find it,” he said. “If there’s an opportunity to look for certainty from a cost perspective, […] most business owners would definitely take that peace of mind.”
