Speeding up fast: Shortening waiting times for commercial freight at the Canada–U.S. border

The Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program provides participating commercial vehicles with shorter waiting times at the Canada–U.S. border. Prior to 2011, FAST vehicles had access to a dedicated approach lane and inspection booth at the southbound Pacific Highway Crossing (PHC) in Blaine, WA. Non-participating vehicles were restricted to a general purpose approach lane and two general purpose inspection booths. While this configuration had the advantage of rewarding FAST participants with shorter border waiting times, it could result in undesirably high waiting times for non-participants during periods of high demand. A simulation study was conducted to determine if an alternative border configuration could reduce the waiting times of non-participants without notably increasing the waiting times of FAST vehicles. A new border configuration was found to dramatically reduce waiting times for non-participants with only a small increase in waiting times for FAST vehicles. In spring 2012 the southbound PHC was reconfigured to implement the recommendations of the study, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the existing border infrastructure. This paper reviews the concerns with the pre-2011 state of the southbound PHC; the recommendations of the simulation analysis; and the documented results of the subsequent implementation of the new configuration.