Fuel crisis taking TJ truckers off the road

By Omar Millán González

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 20, 2008

TIJUANA – Public transit operated in the city with no apparent problem Friday, but truckers say their workdays are numbered due to the shortage of diesel fuel.

On the outskirts of town, dozens of truckers transporting merchandise from other cities are stuck, some for as long as three days.



DAVID MAUNG
Truck driver Ramiro Castaeda, left, and driver's assistant Gerardo Zapata sit outside their truck as they wait out a shortage of diesel fuel in Tijuana. The two men are from the city of Torreon in the Mexican state of Coahuila and are stranded.

Shift managers at gas stations said Pemex, the state-owned oil monopoly, began on Thursday to send tanker trucks full of fuel from Guaymas, Sonora, about 12 hours from Tijuana, to ensure the city's trucks keep moving. Diesel fuel from the Pemex terminal in Rosarito Beach started to become scarce Wednesday.

The tanker trucks hold 15,600 gallons of diesel each and only supply a gas station with about 5,200 gallons a day, said Juan José GarcÃ*a, shift manager of a Pemex station south of Rosarito.

“That lasts us some four hours and there isn't enough for everyone. Some truckers wait in line for up to six hours and leave with nothing,â€