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BUS TALES GIPX

 
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Cdntruckphotog



Age: 71
Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Mississauga Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:02 am    Post subject: BUS TALES GIPX Reply with quote

Many years ago; the summer of 1975 to be exact, I was employed as a Customs Broker. I still am but that isn't gemaine to this story. Customs Brokers prepare a "customs entry" for any goods crossing an international border.
I was located at a Sufferance Warehouse near Toronto. One day the Branch Manager asked if I would be willing to go to another branch at some point over the summer to cover for people on vacation. That seemed like a good idea so I readily agreed.
My call finally came in July; I was to report to the branch office at Windsor (Ontario) the following Monday morning. Reservations had been made at the National Traveler Motel for a week's stay.
Then a wrinkle popped up; I was to go to the Windsor TUNNEL office to clear bus shipments. The Customs Broker who employed me at that time was BORDER BROKERS LTD.,a subsidiary of Greyhound. As such, we were responsible for clearing the Bus Parcel Express shipments.
The Greyhound buses came from Detroit to Canada through the tunnel, not over the Ambassador Bridge.
The drill was to get all the papers, commercial invoices etc from the driver as soon as the bus pulled into the Customs Plaza at the mouth of the tunnel. We were allowed 20 minutes to get the papers, prepare an entry, take it to Customs and get Customs to release the goods before the bus would leave for London and Toronto.
So there was this insane burst of work 4 times per day as the buses rolled across the border. The rest of our day was almost nap time until the next bus was due.
Later, Border Brokers Ltd. opened a GIPX terminal in downtown Toronto.
All the BPX shipments went straight through to Toronto, were cleared Customs there and then put on another bus for delivery to the local agent.
Today; procedures have changed and I actually see very little international bus express traffic. UPS and FedEx now handle the majority of small parcels.
I thought I'd share this memory of a little known facit of Greyhound's past.
I hope some readers find this interesting.

GIPX was Greyhound International Parcel eXpress.

Rob Archer.
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HwyHaulier




Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 932
Location: Harford County, MD

PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 10:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rob -

Great to see you onboard! Welcome!

I appreciate reading of your recollections of what happened when Greyhound Express shipments hit a national border...

Recalling personal experience at Buffalo, many of the freight carriers had good volumes of cross border work. Many of the lines, as part of
the process, had at least one resident wizard handling all of the paper flow...

With someone in place, with all the right answers at hand, it was quite welcome for the shippers and receivers who weren't comfortable
with movement of cross border shipments. It was commonplace. We had an inside joke at NAVAJO in Baltimore, about shipments thru the
local Piers, and shippers located well inland. Remarks they were usually familiar with farm ponds, but didn't quite understand the idea of
an ocean!

.....................Vern................
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Cdntruckphotog



Age: 71
Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Mississauga Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Vern: You must remember M&M Forwarding of Buffalo. They made a good living accepting BPX, USPS and UPS shipments on behalf on Canadian consignees, making sure there were some sort of invoice for Customs and then assembling them and moving them over the border.
There were other companies in that business but M&M is the name that comes to mind.
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HwyHaulier




Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Posts: 932
Location: Harford County, MD

PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rob -

Not so much with recall of M&M. Where I saw the cargo moving, tho I didn't handle the Customs desk, it was "LTL Carrier" kinds of stuff.
I was with CFWY, at its acquired Liberty Motor Freight terminal, on Military Road, just below Sheridan. IIRC, this all interlined with a CDN
carrier (Smith's, Maislin, Overland and so on). I guess they were all fussy about dumping freight on their various docks without correct
border documents at hand. Besides all that, to my recall, CFWY did not run the Fort Erie - Windsor "short route" to and from Detroit...

Do I want to say there were moves handled by "Tower International"? There was also a P-I-E controlled CHB, active in the trade. At the
time, P-I-E hadn't quite arrived. In the era, it did acquire All States Freight (Akron, OH), which brought them into the East...

...................Vern..................
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Cdntruckphotog



Age: 71
Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Mississauga Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I will answer - Tower International, at that time was CJ Tower & Sons.
However, jump forward to 1995 and Tower International, by that time owned by McGraw-Hill, expanded into Canada by buying a Montreal based Customs Broker who had offices in Toronto, the Ontario border cities and Vancouver. This broker was United Customs Brokers who were my employer at the time. We were known as Tower Group International (Canada).
McGraw Hill decided they didn't want to own a Customs Broker and put us up for sale.
FedEx was looking to expand their transportation services and a Customs Broker was a good fit.
So, today, I work for a FedEx OPCO called FedExTrade Networks Transportation & Brokerage (Canada).

Bonded freight is better discussed at Hank's as more on topic.


Rob.
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Mr. Linsky
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 5071
Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll tell you a funny story about the Detroit to Windsor tunnel where I almost got arrested!.

It was 1958 when I was invited to a personal tour of the Cadillac plant in Detroit arranged by Nachman Cadillac of Jamaica (NY) (Bob Nachman and my father were good friends and he knew of my interest in automobiles).

Off I went from LaGuardia Airport on a Capital Airlines Vickers Viscount powered by Model # 700 Turboprop engines (the latest thing at the time and similar to the Lockheed Electras flown by Eastern).

Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, I saw the 58 Cadillacs rolling of the assembly line and even took a Great Lakes Transit 5103 all the way to Pontiac to see Truck and Coach - both very interesting experiences.

It was after that that I had some extra time and wanted to go to Canada actually just to say I was there so I boarded a bus (the make and model of which I don't remember - but it wasn't very big) and traveled through the tunnel to Ontario to spend a few hours in Windsor which seemed to be a very nice town.

It was my trip back to Detroit where I ran into a problem; the tunnel must have been very deep because as we ascended to the Customs stop on the Detroit side my ears clogged up just as they usually do on an airplane.

We arrived at the booth and I don't remember whether we were required to get off the bus or if the inspector came on board but when I was asked for identification I couldn't hear what he was saying and he kept repeating his request until finally I was taken aside for further examination - I eventually understood what he wanted and I was released unharmed!

And that's my story of the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel experience.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY
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roymanning2000



Age: 75
Joined: 01 Aug 2007
Posts: 198

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. L,

Interesting story. Sounds like a great trip.

Those tunnel buses were probably Twin 41-S. Detroit-Canada Tunnel Company bought fifteen in one order in 1947. I remember riding them in the early 60's just before they were replaced with GM new-looks (TDH4519's, I believe).

If you had taken that trip a year earlier, that Great Lakes Transit 5103 would have belonged to Greyhound. They acquired the Detroit-Pontiac suburban route early in '58.

Roy
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Cdntruckphotog



Age: 71
Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Mississauga Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:50 am    Post subject: The Tunnel Reply with quote

There weren't too many trucks using the tunnel back in '75.
I believe there was a 12 foot height limit. Steel haulers could use the tunnel and they could be heard grinding up the grade like it was a long steep hill. I guess from Mr Linsky's tale, it certainly was.


Rob Archer.
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