(DC Velocity – Mark B. Solomon)
What if they threw open the U.S.-Mexican border to all qualified trucking
companies, but no Mexican truckers showed up?
It would indeed be an ironic outcome of a battle that has dragged on for more
than 11 years, culminating in March 2009 in a mini-trade war that has cost U.S. exporters billions
of dollars in lost revenue and, according to U.S. Chamber of Commerce
estimates, led to the loss of more than 25,000 American jobs.
Yet it is entirely plausible, according to various experts. For all the
publicity surrounding the March 3 announcement by President Barack Obama and
Mexican President Felipe Calderón of a tentative resolution to the cross-border
dispute, few expect the status quo to change for years to come. The agreement
would allow carriers on both sides of the border to operate beyond a 25-mile “commercial
zone,” but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll take advantage of that
freedom. In fact, Mexican truckers will have little, if any, desire to operate
deeper into U.S. commerce than they
already do, these experts say.
“The majority of Mexican truckers don't want any part of it,” says Herb
Schmidt, president and CEO of Con-way Truckload, the truckload unit of Con-way
Inc. Schmidt estimates that only 5% of the 80 Mexican truckers that have
cross-border interline relationships with Con-way Truckload have even
considered serving the U.S. market beyond the
commercial zone. Read more here.
