I'm thinking about selling our wood chips to pellet mills, and theres one in Massena NY, about 15 km from the Cornwall border crossing I wouldn't be hauling anything back, so what would I need for paperwork, licenses, etc?

That would best be answered by a Customs Broker. UPS has a brokerage at all of the crossings,.........I am tired so I can't remember all the different names, but there are a dozen at least, that handle freight inbound and outbound.

Or you can look at the US Customs border website.


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Hi Classic,

I cross that border on a pretty regular basis...went in an out today as a matter of fact. Last week I followed a couple of their chip trucks across RT122 IIRC. I have posted the answer to your question a few times on here so a search should reveal some info that I will probably miss with this quick reply today. We did ~285 cross border shipments in the last 12 months, crossing mostly Alex Bay but also Ogdensburg, Massena, Champlain, Highgate Springs, Buffalo and a couple others. Here's the general procedure (not sure if you already have your own trucks)

1. Buy truck/trailer
2. Bend over.
3. Get insurance
4. Apply for CVOR (4-6 week wait).
5. Apply for USDOT #
6. Apply for SCAC code with NMFTA
7. Apply for ACE account
8. Apply for UCR (unified carrier registration)
9. Get E-test on truck
10. Get plates for truck/trailer
11. Get NY HUT permit
12. Open IFTA account and get decals
13. Get passport

I think that's it...now you're ready to cross the border. Round trip toll is $30. Plus US Customs will probably ding you $10 for the FDA inspection tax grab unless you buy a transponder for $200 - $300 an year.

Contact US customs at Massena and ask them if you are able to cross as an "informal entry". Not sure if they will let you do this or not. They will not let me do it. You might be OK if you're just talking a few shipments. This means you don't need a customs broker. Not sure how to do this because I haven't done an informal entry in several years and the process may have changed. Used to me you just filled out a paper manifest by hand and gave it to the customs dude in the booth. My how things have changed.....now you must send an electronic ACE manifest prior to your arrival.

Once you are ready to head to the border then you'll have the "pleasure" of meeting Officer Chase.

By the way, that pellet company sends trucks across the border to deliver pellets...maybe they will come to you and pick up your chips.

Thanks for the help guys, rank I already have 6 out of the 13 steps and a customs broker, those trucks they send up here are they hauling chip trailers or dry vans?

I've seen only flats...they're delivering pellets. But that shows that they have ON authority so it may be as simple as asking them to bring a chip trailer up......not sure what the tariff situation is on chips tho. Isn't they're a pellet mill in Papineauville?

My info is probably out of date but don't you need Quebec plates or something to run into there? I would rather stay in Canada though.

Yeah. How are you currently plated...ON commercial? ON farm? ON IRP? Unless you have an IRP plate, you will need a trip permit. If you have IRP plates, you "ammend" your cab card by adding QC. Or you could just chance it........

Any idea of the cost of the IRP plates? and what is involved with the ammendment?

I get my plates and cab cards at the MTO office on John Counter Blvd in Kingston. They must be picked up in person and that is the closest office to me. You have an office in Ottawa on Albion Rd. Price of the plates depends on how many jurisdictions (provinces & states) you are plated for and how many miles you run in each jurisdiction. I can't tell you exactly because I submitted the bill for payment and therefore I don't have it in front of me, but it's ~$2,000 per truck for us based on last year's 328,232 kms for our 3 truck "fleet". We are plated for northeastern US and Canada so if you are only QC and ON, it would be much cheaper I imagine.

In order to ammend your cab card, you download the forms from the MTO/IRP website or you can ask the office to fax them to you. After you get the forms, you need to specify which jurisdictions you want to add to your cab card and how much gross weight you want to be registered/plated for and then you need to estimate how many miles you will run in each of the jurisdictions. There are 2 methods of estimating distance. One way is to use the average kms travelled in QC by every ON based truck (lots = more money) and the other way is to calculate the exact miles from Ottawa to Papineauville and then multiply that by the number of trips you expect to make (not many miles = less money). The you fax the form to the MTO and they will call you to come and pick up the new cab card when it's ready. At that time you will have to pay the fee.

Clear as mud?

Ok well that doesn't sound nearly as bad as I thought it would, especailly since I don't plan on driving very far into quebec.