United States “pirates” Mexican truck drivers

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In the neighboring country of the north there is a deficit of between 50 thousand and 80 thousand drivers; so the companies in that country take drivers from Mexico

Due to the growing deficit in the United States of truck drivers, transport companies in that country are hacking Mexican operators.

The American Trucking Association (ATA) estimates a deficit of between 50 thousand and 80 thousand drivers, but that shortage will be accentuated and will add a greater degree of difficulty, as they will require that they be better trained to handle units more and more Sophisticated

And this is one of the factors that have contributed to Mexico having a deficit of 50 thousand operators, according to Enrique González Muñoz, president of the National Chamber of Cargo Autotransport .

He explained that the sector suffers from the American competition since constantly companies from that country come by operators that have a federal license granted by the Ministry of Communications and Transportation.

“Data that we have established according to the licenses issued of the number of trucks that there are, we have an approximate deficit of 50 thousand drivers, but in the United States, figures from the ATA reveal that they have a deficit of 80 thousand and this is going to potentialize the year that enters 100 thousand, “said González Muñoz.

The greater economic growth in the United States and a new policy of restricting driving hours, with the introduction of an electronic log, are generating that companies in that country have to have a double driver for some routes, added Ramón García Garza, vice president general of the Association of Carriers of Reynosa.

“In the United States there is a huge deficit, which has caused that in Rio Bravo, Reynosa, Miguel Aleman, and Matamoros have a deficit of about one thousand operators, if we had about 400 with a visa and another 600 for local and national trips, it would allow us to grow as companies. “

“There are companies that have 15, 40, 60 trucks stopped because there is no one to handle them.”

In addition, he warned, they can not compete with US wages, because while in Mexico an operator receives between 4 thousand and 6 thousand pesos a week, one in the United States earns between 1,500 and 1,700 dollars, that is, between 27 thousand 825 and 31 thousand 535 pesos, taking a retail exchange rate of 18.55 pesos per dollar.

Many of the operators that are brought to the United States received training in which the average investment was 1,500 pesos per week, an amount that is granted for three months, that is, about 18,000 pesos each.

“Of every 20 that we train, 30 are gone, we are always subtracting, instead of adding,” lamented García Garza.

In addition, the deficit of drivers has also generated shortages of trailers, which is already affecting companies in Nuevo Leon.

Just in June, the Mexican Council of Foreign Trade Northeast revealed that there are factories that want to export and are struggling to get boxes, which at that time represented a deficit of 15 to 20 percent.

By: Reforma Agency