The new crop year will see several changes for producer car shippers. Effective Aug. 1, the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) put five changes in place.

They will now be issuing CGC ID numbers to producers, allowing administrators to submit a weekly shipping request list, requiring producers to have email addresses for communication, sending email confirmation for producer car applications, and implementing backlog and performance allocation rules.

Catherine Jaworski, manager of CGC's producer protection, says the backlog rule ensures that one or two producers won't tie up an entire loading site.

"It's two times the maximum car spot for that particular loading site," she says. "We used the example of a four-car spot. So let's say a producers had ordered ten cars, he would get two times four, so eight of his cars. Then it would go to the next person, first in line."

She says the performance allocation rule clarifies when the CGC will cancel applications for producer cars.

"Essentially we will cancel an order if a producer tells us they no longer need the car. So we don't get involved in the contractual side of things between the producer and [the contracting company], we just basically go on what the producer advises because the car is actually for the producer, it's not for the company. We order producer cars on behalf of producers."