Law of Averages catches up or How I got stuck in Canada.

Picked up the preloaded tanker at Washington, NJ just as they were finishing up the paper work.  It was perfectly timed, could not  been better.  The office people at Washington set up the border crossing and fax the PARS to the broker for entry.  Yesterday the load to Brockville had no problems with the PARS from the same facility.  They know what they are doing.

The broker listed in the work assignment was the usual one.  They have a web based PARS tracking system which they recommend using rather than calling up to confirm the border crossing is set up.

All yesterday their system did not recognize the PARS number. So I could not cross last night and spend the night at our Guelph facility which is 12 miles from the consignee. So much for that plan, I had to spend the night south of the border.

At 5 am I called the broker to see if maybe their website was broken.  The lady said that it was working and that they had not received the papers. Since the fax machine on the Rest area on the NEW York freeway was in the gift shop with business hours commencing at 7 am, I drove back to the last truck stop off the thruway to fax the papers.  When I got to the truck stop, I made my 2nd call of the morning to extended shift to ask if by chance there was a different broker.  The extended person called the broker and got a yes.{I was patched in the call}

So I faxed the papers to the broker.  The paperwork shows as being received on the broker's website, border crossing not setup.

At 10 I left the truck stop and went to the border and parked in the duty free lot on the American side. I then called the broker.  The broker said that at 530 they told us (extended) that they were not the broker on this load.

I called the boss.  He said he just found out that there was different broker from the work assignment and they were sending the name of the true broker with telephone numbers. He said they had me crossing at Ft. Erie.  The work assignment had said Niagara Falls and that it where I am --  500 yards from the border and no place to turn around even if I had wanted to backtrack to Ft. Erie.

So I waited for the updated work assignment to come through, complete with two different sets of phone numbers for this other broker.and an apology from Customer service for listing the wrong broker.

I called the new broker with the PARS number.

Yes, border crossing is all set up and you are ready to go. (done yesterday I bet)  Because I was feeling a little paranoid, I asked her where I was set up to cross.

broker [answer]:  WINDSOR, ONTARIO

me:You must be joking, I originated in New Jersey

broker: whoops

me: you can change it to Niagara Falls electronically right?

broker:  Yes, it takes about 10 minutes, I'll call you when it is changed.

15 minutes later I called her and was informed that it had just be changed.

No line at the border, No trick questions.

Had to wait 1.5 hours for the lab to test the product before unloading.

So... since it is foggy with occasion snow showers, the chances of going 225  miles along with a border crossing at a major city in the 4 legal hours left were very small.  I went the 12 miles to our facility in Guelph and will set out in the early morning hours for Trenton, then Wyandotte, then Pine Bluff, Ar.