The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Profitable NAFTA Superhighways

Since my last post this question has been bouncing around my brain like a BB in the back of my trailer.

Cheap crap coming from Asia is going to travel 30% further to get to a
Mexican super port. Plus the extra miles in Mexico and then add-in the
expense of a toll road on one of the NAFTA Superhighways. After all
that expense is it really going to be cheaper than ports on the west coast of the USA??? How much cheaper is it going to be???

I wish I knew the numbers of how much it costs now and how much corporations think it’s going to cost later and how much of those savings they are going to pass to the American / Canadian consumer. (Yeah, right!)

I think I have it figured out – Since the NAFTA Superhighways are going to be private roads, they can make the weight and length regulations anything they want. We see double 53 footers on the NY Thruway all the time. Imagine three or four or five containers being pulled by one truck. The ATA has been pushing to expand the weight and length limits to increase the efficiency of trucking, but thank goodness for the Public Citizen and other groups for doing us that one favor. Longer and heavier trailers do the drivers absolutely no good.

And since the general public isn’t going to be on most of these Superhighways, safety won’t be a major concern like it is on the interstate. Imagine freight trains down the middle of the highway and now road trains of as many trailers hooked together as a truck can pull, traveling down the road. At least on I-35, I can’t think of a single big hill those trucks would have to pull. So, a single tractor could probably pull quite a few.

That’s the only way I can see how all this would be profitable for anyone. Am I totally off base?