U.S. truck heads to Mexico today; first under '94 treaty
Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 14, 2007 12:00 AM

The first U.S. truck approved to deliver cargo in Mexico is expected to cross the border at Nogales today with a load of plastic resin destined for a razor manufacturer in southern Sonora.

It will be the first time in memory a U.S. truck has been permitted to operate in Mexico.

The truck's approval completes a reciprocal arrangement in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Last week, a Mexican truck left Nuevo Leon bound for New York under the agreement.





The U.S. Senate subsequently passed a bill to cut funding for the program amid safety fears voiced by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Sierra Club and Public Citizen.

To date, 39 Mexican firms and 14 U.S. firms are eligible to operate across the border.

The first U.S. firm to receive a Mexican permit is Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution of El Paso.

The Mexican government cleared two of Stagecoach's trucks to operate south of the border, including the one crossing today.

Founded in 1986, Stagecoach has 173 vehicles, which is more than all Mexican trucks eligible under NAFTA's one-year cross-border pilot project.

Stagecoach was involved in 15 crashes, three of them fatal, in the past 30 months, according to a U.S. government database. The database does not track who was at fault in the accidents.

During that time, government inspectors pulled Stagecoach trucks out of service for safety violations half as often as the national average. At the company's last inspection in 2003, the government gave it a satisfactory rating.

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