Update – Pacific Highway (Surrey/Blaine): As of this afternoon, CBSA systems remain unstable at Pacific Highway. Brokers are still reporting intermittent or missing release notices (RNS). That means shipments may appear filed but officers at the booth don’t see a valid release record. Without a confirmed transaction number, trucks risk being held on the U.S. side. Until systems stabilize, we are only dispatching freight with valid RNS or in-bond instructions.
On September 30th, CBSA systems that handle commercial entries (EDI/eManifest) went down. While the agency has said the issue is “resolved,” the reality at the border is different. Outbound messaging is unreliable—transaction numbers, rejections, and completeness notices aren’t consistently flowing back to brokers and carriers.
This outage directly impacts cross-border trucking. Every shipment on a truck needs to be accounted for with a valid transaction number (RNS) or an in-bond movement. If not, the truck should not attempt to cross into Canada. Otherwise, it risks being held at the border and the carrier faces penalties.
Delays at key crossings. Pacific Highway and other Southern Ontario and B.C. ports are experiencing the longest slowdowns.
Manual processing. CBSA requires paper fallback during outages. Commercial invoices, PARS/ACE barcodes, and carrier codes are essential.
Unreliable status updates. Even if an entry was transmitted, you may not get confirmation back from CBSA systems.
Confirm transaction numbers before dispatch. Don’t send a truck unless you’ve received RNS for every shipment on board.
Plan for in-bond moves. If a release can’t be obtained, work with your broker to move freight in-bond to an inland sufferance warehouse.
Carry paper backups. Drivers should have invoices and broker contacts ready in case of manual fallback.
Stagger or reroute. If freight isn’t urgent, adjust pickup times or use alternate ports while Pac Hwy stabilizes.
Monitor updates. Watch for CBSA trade bulletins and broker advisories throughout the day.
No RNS, no go. We won’t send trucks to the border without confirmed release numbers.
Broker coordination. We’re in constant communication with brokers to confirm entries when electronic messaging lags.
Routing adjustments. We’ll reroute or reschedule linehauls if necessary to avoid extended border holds.
Driver preparedness. Our drivers are equipped with complete paper packets and broker contacts to handle manual processing.
The CBSA outage highlights how fragile the flow of cross-border freight can be when systems fail. Until full stability returns, assume manual procedures are required and transaction numbers must be confirmed before dispatch.
Moto is actively monitoring the situation at Pacific Highway and other ports. We’ll keep customers updated in real time and continue to adjust operations to keep freight moving as smoothly as possible.