More Than 150,000 Mexican Cargo Trucks Await U.S. Permits



Caracas, Tuesday November 1,2011

MEXICO CITY – Eleven Mexican trucking companies hope to join a pilot program that could see more than 150,000 vehicles delivering products to destinations deep inside the United States by year’s end, the vice president of the Canacar transport association said.

Eight of the 11 firms have already submitted applications and are awaiting a response from the U.S. Transportation Department, Luis Moreno said.

It was only last Friday that a Mexican long-haul truck became the first to deliver a shipment to the U.S. interior under the revived pilot program.

Nearly two decades after the North American Free Trade Agreement linking the United States, Mexico and Canada came into force in 1994, a Mexican trucking company began shipping cargo beyond a buffer zone near the border.

“There are eight or nine companies enrolled (in the program), more don’t yet have permission from the United States to enter,â€