Thanks for your comments. We kind of put it on hold for now but we probably get back to this idea after New Year's. Do you know how it works with the interstate loads if we have a branch in US? Are my Canadian drivers eligible to carry interstate loads in US or they have to be US Citizens in order to do that? I heard different opinions about that...
Definitely NOT. Regardless of whether or not you have a U.S. office in addition to your Canadian office, Canadian drivers cannot engage in interstate commerce. More to the point, if you have a U.S. office and engage Canadian drivers in interstate commerce you risk far more than the $400.00 fine you will get if you are solely Canadian and get caught inter-stating. There is a pretty good chance you will end up with a government sponsored vacation courtesy of the U.S. Immigration Department who will in turn drop a dime to their colleagues at the IRS.
Assuming you are properly licensed and registered for Canadian domiciled carrier operations in the United States, there are only three (that I am aware of) very specific ways a Canadian carrier can move freight point-to-point in the United States;
1) The cargo is of Canadian origin, and has not been enhanced in value ... i.e.: Canadian product in storage in the United States.
2) The Canadian driver has a U.S. Green Card (good luck in applying for one of those), or dual citizenship.
3) The driver is a card carrying North American aboriginal.
The part that really hurts is if you are properly licensed and registered for U.S. commerce, it is perfectly legal for your equipment to engage in interstate commerce, it's just your Canadian drivers that can't do it.
Have we all engaged in interstate commerce as a Canadian carriers? I seriously doubt that anyone would answer that question honestly, but I would guess that everyone has done it at least once. It's a $400.00 fine/bond for getting caught, and your driver gets red-flagged for a while, which means he gets checked every time he crosses the border, professionally and privately ... discretionary short-arm inspection included at no extra cost. The fact that I know this should lead you to the answer of how I know this ... wink, wink, nudge, nudge
The cabotage rules in the U.S., as they pertain to Canadian carriers, are a pretty tricky minefield. Keep this in mind ... technically it is illegal to move your empty trailer from Dallas to Laredo, or El Paso, or Atlanta for a reload to Canada, because they are not on a direct route to Canada, but it is not illegal to move to Little Rock, because that is on a direct route back to Canada ... and these are the relaxed rules. At one point in time the only legal way to get back out of the US to Canada was to reload out of the exact same place you unloaded at.
As a point of interest, it is perfectly legal for a U.S. carrier to deliver a load from anywhere in the U.S. to Toronto, reload in Montreal and deliver to Vancouver, pick up a load in Vancouver and go back to the U.S. This is called a repositioning move. Thank you Transport Canada for that one. The reverse is not true for a Canadian carrier delivering into the U.S.
My own personal opinion ... I have to assume you are pretty new to this industry, or at least U.S. commerce. The questions you are asking are basic Trucking 101 questions. This particular subject has been scrutinized by every major and minor carrier in Canada, and every transportation lawyer on either side of the border, six ways from Sunday. You're not onto something new, or something that everyone else hasn't already thought of. However, I sure wish we could all do what you've been thinking of. Eventually the driver shortage is going to dictate that the U.S. will have to allow Canadian carriers loaded repositioning moves in the U.S. if for no other reason than to keep the store shelves full. We can always hope that this will be sooner rather than later ... who knows ... they're making nice with Cuba again