Border Lines

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 2/1/1999

* A favorite sport in Laredo, Texas, is speculating on why there are such long lines of trucks waiting to cross the main bridge to Mexico. The truth is that many factors combine to create the city's legendary congestion. Nevertheless, the phenomenal growth in the number of trucks crossing the border there has to play a big role. According to Miguel A. Conchas, president of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce, 227,000 loaded trucks crossed the Rio Grande at Laredo in 1987. Ten years later, the number of loaded crossings had soared to more than 1.2 million. "That's an average of more than 6,000 loaded trucks daily," he said in a speech at a recent border-operations meeting hosted by Roadway Express. That number is likely to increase this year: The city's economic-development agency predicts more than 1.8 million loaded trucks will pass through Laredo in 1999.