Mexico Trucker Online

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican long haul truck driven by Luis Gonzalez of Monterrey, delivered a load of construction steel in North Carolina early Monday under a long-delayed NAFTA-mandated program allowing Mexican and U.S. trucks unlimited access within each others’ borders.

The American-made Freightliner 2007, Unit # 53, arrived at the Building System company in Wilson, N.C., before dawn Monday and was waiting to unload the cargo early Monday afternoon, said Jose Gil, manager of operations for Transportes Olympic, the northern Mexican company that owns the truck.

The company is awaiting word from clients in Arkansas and Alabama to see if the truck will return to Mexico with U.S. steel products, Gil said.

So from all appearances, Transportes Olympic is hauling for their own customer in Mexico to that customers subsidiary in the United States. It is also apparent that they will be hauling stell back to that same customer.

Whether or not consumers will benefit from the reduced cost of these movements remains to be seen, but when you cut out the other two trucks needed to complete the movement under the old rules, money is saved.

Historically though, the end consumer never sees the savings. But that is no reason to dismiss the program. For once in our history, we are actually doing something we agreed to do. That counts for something.