Trucking | San Antonio is Ready for Mexican Trucks

In a perfect situation, I agree with this -

The Trucking Monkey Weblog with Elegant John ? Mexican Trucks-A Moot Point!

On a short-distance basis, say trips to Corpus Christi or San Antonio, a different scenario would exist. These destinations would represent extensions of the Mexico carrier freight bill. Instead of the bill saying Monterrey, Mexico, to Laredo, Texas, it would say Monterrey to San Antonio.

These loading points/destinations are cumbersome for many U.S. carriers because of the short miles involved. Their costs are constant, and they don’t have the miles in the trip to justify the cost. So these carriers are usually not competitive in their pricing. This will work like a charm for Mexico carriers because it represents an extension of their service. Also, market conditions are such that as much equipment as possible is needed in Mexico to support the export boom fueled by the U.S. economy. Quick equipment turnover is needed for this.

Keep in mind, the author of this article JORGE CANAVATI is a consultant specializing in Mexico transportation programs and projects. He’s probably very much in favor of all this. It’s a good concept and hopefully that would be the situation. The US drivers along the border would definitely be affected.

San Antonio is planning on this situation -

MySA.com: David Hendricks

The alliance already has resumed its efforts to convince Mexican manufacturers, especially those in Monterrey, that San Antonio is the best place to base U.S. warehousing and distribution once cross-border trucking starts.

That has never been the case, not when freight had to change carriers at the U.S.-Mexico border. But the alliance knows from its marketing program in 2002 that Monterrey industries are interested in staging freight in San Antonio once cross-border trucking commences.

In the same article -

The more Mexican carriers that bring products directly to San Antonio, the better the chances that trucking companies will make warehousing, terminal and logistics investments in San Antonio. That, in turn, makes San Antonio more attractive for manufacturing investments.

This is why the city’s business community, through the alliance, has long sought cross-border trucking, indeed why it is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

California doesn’t see it this way. I’m not even sure if this is a good situation for Laredo, Yuma, El Paso or other border towns since Mexican trucks can just bypass these towns altogether. Bypassing their warehouses to continue north.