Free and Secure Trade (FAST) Program Promotion
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) have implemented the bilateral Free and Secure Trade Program - FAST. The program aims to increase the integrity of supply chain security by offering expedited clearance to carriers and importers enrolled in Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) or Canada's Partner's in Protection (PIP). At the Pacific Highway Port-of-Entry, a dedicated FAST lane opened for southbound commercial shipments in 2002. In 2007 a northbound FAST lane was completed.
The IMTC forum identified the marketing of FAST as a priority in 2003, and over the past several years, the Whatcom Council of Governments (WCOG), has worked with CBP and CBSA on numerous outreach and educational efforts directed at commercial vehicle drivers, carriers, and shippers, designed to provide more information about the program. The objective of FAST marketing is to reduce overall border congestion by expediting low-risk commercial movements, and allowing inspection agencies to focus their energies on higher-risk shipments.
As an early phase of this regional FAST marketing effort, CBP, CBSA, and WCOG invited representatives from BC and WA trucking associations and regional border brokerages to a roundtable to identify the most effective ways to conduct outreach and promote enrollment in the FAST Program.
Outreach to Carriers and Drivers
The first phase of marketing focused on identifying a target market of carriers who make up the majority of cross-border trips. WCOG worked with CBP to conduct data collection and analysis as part of the FAST Marketing project. Early outcomes of this work suggested that over 50 percent of the cross-border truck trips at Pacific Highway are made by just 15 percent of the carriers who use the crossing.
WCOG then worked with agencies to hold a series of workshops and exhibition information booths that provided details on joining the FAST program, either as a driver or as a carrier company.
Lynden Data Collection Effort
Additional data collection was completed southbound at the Lynden/Aldergrove Port-of-Entry. While FAST clearance of a loaded truck requires enrollment of the driver, the carrier, and the importer, FAST clearance of an empty truck would only require driver and carrier enrollment. The Lynden port-of-entry is often congested with "empties"-hypothesized to be a result of trucks avoiding longer waits at Pacific Highway. To assess and respond to this dynamic, CBP recommended an intercept survey at Lynden to identify frequent, empty carriers and encourage them to apply for and use FAST at Pacific Highway.
Analysis of the data collected showed that there is a significant, yet smaller-than-expected set of frequent, empty carriers who would seem better served by a FAST lane at Pacific Highway. Most carriers crossing south at Lynden (empty and loaded) are either leaving from origins closer to that port or are headed to destinations close to Lynden and thus would likely view Pacific Highway as off the best route.
2008 Marketing Efforts
In 2008, WCOG began a second wave of FAST marketing, focused on two goals: 1) getting more information out regarding the newly constructed northbound FAST lane; and 2) identifying key regional shippers and promoting the FAST program with their organizations.
If a trucking company and driver are enrolled in FAST, but the goods they are shipping come from a shipper that is not part of the C-TPAT program, they cannot use the FAST lane. This effort is to better understand the commodity flows and main shipments of the region, to identify options for targeted marketing to shippers. WCOG will be using data from the 2004 and 2006 manifest surveys, as well as other available commodity and port data, to complete this effort.