David Hendricks: Cross-border trucking might finally get going

Web Posted: 03/13/2007 09:02 PM CDT

San Antonio Express-News

If the cross-border trucking pilot project actually happens, San Antonio is prepared to capitalize like no other U.S. city.

And no one knows that better than two longtime warriors for the cause of cross-border trucking: banker Tom Frost and lawyer Ed Einstein.

Businesses in Monterrey, Mexico, are poised, as well. In fact, an Alamo city delegation led by the Free Trade Alliance San Antonio is in Monterrey today brainstorming strategy on how both cities can bridge the border for more efficient freight movement and economic development.

The first word of this column — "if" — remains the key. The 12-year fight to start international deliveries beyond the U.S.-Mexico border zone has seen numerous surprise delays. The union forces and others fighting the proposal are powerful.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Transportation is starting the process of authorizing Mexican carriers to make deliveries to the U.S. interior. San Antonio will be a primary stopping point for freight originating in Mexico, especially the Monterrey-Saltillo industrial corridor.


More coverage
• David Hendricks: More columns
• News link: Free Trade Alliance San Antonio


San Antonio, thanks to the Free Trade Alliance, is the only city that has conducted instruction for Mexico carriers on how to comply with U.S. trucking laws and requirements — everything from drug-testing drivers to setting up log books and acquiring the necessary insurance.

The alliance will continue to offer the service as up to 100 Mexican carriers participate in the one-year test period, said the alliance's acting executive director, Sarah Sanchez.

To break the 12-year delay, San Antonio also proposed the test period to the DOT. Blake Hastings, former alliance executive director, presented the proposal in February 2005.

Since then, Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. Senior Chairman Frost and high-powered Monterrey businessman Eugenio Clariond headed a binational committee seeking approval of the pilot project from both countries. Frost has never given up despite a dozen years of frustration. Many others would have quit long ago. He will tell you that San Antonio's huge distribution potential is stymied only by the current system of U.S.-Mexico freight.

Three trucks in sequence hand off freight at the border in a time-consuming and costly process. Under cross-border trucking, the same driver could haul freight from the interior of one country to the other with only a minimal delay at border crossings.

Because drivers and trucks now must start anew at the border, they bypass San Antonio's terminals and warehouses during a 10-hour driving day. If drivers can start instead in Monterrey or Saltillo, San Antonio suddenly becomes a logical stopping point.

"This lies at the heart of San Antonio becoming a significant distribution point, the key to Port San Antonio," Frost said.

Einstein is another San Antonian who has waited a dozen years for cross-border trucking. It was his suggestion 14 years ago to phase in cross-border deliveries at border states that allowed a cross-border trucking provision to be written into the North American Free Trade Agreement.

San Antonio was not ready to service freight in 1995, when the border was supposed to open, but the city is ripe now, Einstein said. "I can't wait to have the theory proven. Nothing happens overnight. It will be a gradual change. We're not looking for every truck to end up here, by any means."

Not long after Mexican carriers make U.S. deliveries, U.S. companies will be able to send drivers into Mexico's interior.

Frost cited H-E-Butt Grocery Co.'s desire to expedite fresh produce deliveries to its Mexican store chain's distribution points. Toyota suppliers also could receive components more quickly and at lower cost.

San Antonio indeed is ready for cross-border trucking as never before.

In 1995, H-E-B did not have a Mexican chain or a Toyota plant. Kelly AFB was starting to close. Its potential as a national distribution center remains unrealized. That's why Frost has never given up.

"I'm going to keep on hanging around until we see Kelly Field blossoming," Frost said.

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