ChicTrib

Mexico trucking fight gears up

By Teresa Puente Tribune staff reporter Published August 27, 2001

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- From eight in the morning to midnight, Mexican trucks carrying cargo as varied as auto parts, television sets, blue jeans and shoes line up to cross the expansive World Trade Bridge over the Rio Grande River and into Laredo, Texas.

More than 8,000 trucks a day cross the bridge into the United States, but they cannot go beyond a 20-mile commercial zone to unload their trailers.

Under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement approved during the Clinton administration, Mexican trucks were supposed to be permitted to deliver their wares to California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico by the end of 1995, and the remainder of the U.S. this year. But those provisions were never implemented.

In Washington and Mexico City, politicians, union leaders and trucking industry experts are debating whether Mexican trucks and their drivers are safe enough to transport their goods throughout the United States.

The debate has pitted President Bush against Congress. Earlier this month the Senate voted to require Mexican trucks to meet strict safety standards before gaining access to U.S. highways. Earlier, the House had passed an even stricter measure that would ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roads.

Bush has threatened to veto bills including restrictions on trucks from Mexico and has said he wants Mexican truckers to be able to travel beyond the restricted border area by Jan. 1, assuming safety programs are in place.

Bush is to meet in Washington next week with Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has threatened to bar U.S. trucks from his country until Mexican trucks are allowed on U.S. highways.

Leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters fear that giving Mexican truckers access to U.S. highways will lead to the loss of jobs for union members. While much of the union's public opposition has focused on what it contends are unsafe Mexican trucks, the bottom-line issue for the Teamsters is protecting their members' jobs.

"It is discrimination at its rawest form and it is nothing else but discrimination. The Teamsters have nothing to worry about," said Elizabeth Flores, the mayor of Laredo.

Safety record

Flores said the safety issue has been blown out of proportion in the border region, where more than half the population works in jobs related to the trucking industry.

"Webb County has one of the lowest [truck accident rates], and we have the most Mexican trucks," she said.

Here along the border's busiest cargo crossing point, trucks waiting to cross into the U.S. look much like those that frequent U.S. interstates. But some Mexican truckers say they do not want to travel deep into the U.S. because it would require bilingual training, licensing, insurance and a large capital investment.

More than 90 percent of Mexican trucking companies are "mom and pop" businesses that can't afford to get into the long-haul trade, analysts say. There aren't enough truck drivers in Mexico to meet domestic demand, industry experts say.

"I wouldn't really want to go. I would have to learn the language and the laws over there. It would be hard," said Jose Merced, 36, who drove an 18-wheeler for 14 hours from the central state of Guanajuato to Nuevo Laredo.

Mexican truckers said many of the vehicles that make the short-haul border crossing are older models. They said they would need newer long-haul trucks if they were to travel farther into the U.S.

A blue 12-wheeler driven by Aurelio Rivera was one of those flagged down last week on the World Trade Bridge by U.S. transportation inspectors who found problems with his brakes and would not let him enter the U.S. Rivera waited for more than five hours at the border for a private mechanic to repair his rig. It cost him $110, about a third of his weekly wages. Then he drove into the U.S. border zone, delivered his trailer and returned to Mexico.

That his truck's brakes were in poor condition may underscore the Teamsters' point that Mexican trucks can be a safety hazard.

"In reality there are problems with Mexican trucks. They are very old," said Rivera, 38, of Nuevo Laredo, who usually drives across the border six times a day. "But they check the trucks every day, and the transportation officials will fine you."

At the TUM company truck yard in Nuevo Laredo, newer model, bright green Volvo trucks are equipped with the Global Positioning System, which allows dispatchers to pinpoint a truck's location and send messages. But these trucks are used for long-haul trips within Mexico.

TUM sends its older models on the short trips across the border. After passing through customs, these "drayage," or short-haul, trucks go to transfer centers and unhitch their trailers. The trailers are then taken by long-haul American drivers, who transport the contents to cities such as Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

But even the big companies such as TUM said they do not have the ability to train a fleet of drivers to travel into the U.S.

"That would take a lot of effort, a lot of investment and training and money," said Rafael Tawil, director of TUM and the head of border affairs for CANACAR, the Mexican national trucking association.

There are an estimated 63,000 Mexican trucks in use in the commercial zones along the U.S.-Mexican border, according to federal transportation figures.

Industry analysts say that fewer than 200 Mexican trucking companies have applied for permission to transport goods along U.S. highways under the blocked NAFTA provision.

"There aren't enough [Mexican truckers] who even have the capacity to compete in this market," said James Giermanski, who lived in Laredo for 12 years and is the director of international business studies at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. "We're talking about a gnat compared to an elephant," he said.

More consolidation

In the long run, lifting the restrictions would most likely lead to increased business ventures between U.S. and Mexican firms and a consolidation of the trucking industry. These companies, however, would most likely employ Mexican truck drivers in the south and American drivers in the north, Tawil said.

The Teamsters argue that Mexican truckers are unsafe and cite federal transportation figures to support their case.

The U.S. Department of Transportation tracks the Mexican trucks entering the U.S. that are pulled out of service for safety problems. In all commercial border zones, that rate was 54 percent in fiscal year 1995, but it fell to 36 percent in 2000. By comparison, the out-of-service rate for U.S. trucks within the U.S. was 23 percent in 1995 and 24 percent in 2000.

Most of the Mexican trucks are older model, short-haul vehicles operated by small Mexican companies. Most of the U.S. trucks that had problems were long-haul trucks.

If Mexicans were to travel on U.S. highways, they would likely use newer long-haul trucks, industry experts said.

The Teamsters dispute that.

"The argument they somehow will have different trucks is totally bogus," said Rob Black, a spokesman with the Teamsters union in Washington.

Black pointed out that Mexico does not limit the number of hours a driver can travel and there are no strict weight limits. There also is no central licensing database to track the driving records of the truckers.

Along the roadside in Nuevo Laredo Meliton Perea, 45, waited next to his 1985 truck for a transfer driver to take the trailer across the border. "I've never driven on the other side," said Perea, a trucker for more than 18 years. "But if there was an opportunity, I would take it."

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001