Border Lines

A roundup of North American news:

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 4/1/1999

* While most businesses are preoccupied with the Year 2000 problems that may occur on Jan. 1, companies that do business in Mexico should be preparing for the end of next year, when Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo will complete his six-year term. That's the word from Dr. Deborah Riner, chief economist for the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico. Why does that matter? "Historically, the ends of ... presidential terms have been times of economic problems such as currency devaluations, inflation, unemployment, and so forth," she told an audience at last month's Transporte Internacional conference in Monterrey, Mexico. With economic instability spreading throughout Latin America, she warns, history could well repeat itself as Zedillo's term winds down.

* The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will carry out the six recommendations contained in a highly critical report by DOT's Inspector General on truck-safety enforcement at the United States-Mexico border. (See "DOT report: U.S. not ready for Mexican trucks," Logistics,February 1999.) In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee in late February, DOT Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs Charles Hunnicut told committee members that DOT would implement all of the recommendations before NAFTA's truck-access provisions took effect. Negotiations over allowing Mexican and U.S. truckers into border states continue to make progress, he said, predicting that the border would open "within a reasonable time period."

* The United States and Canada have agreed on several provisions affecting U.S. and Canadian drivers' authority to operate commercial motor vehicles in both countries. Drivers who have received exemptions from meeting their own countries' medical restrictions will not be allowed to drive in the neighboring country. Canadian drivers, however, no longer need to obtain a U.S. medical examiner's certificate of fitness to drive. Instead, their Canadian Commercial Drivers License will be accepted as proof of medical fitness. The United States now is considering merging medical-fitness determinations with the licensing process; until that takes place, U.S. drivers will need both a U.S. CDL and a medical examiner's certificate to cross into Canada.

* NAFTA Notes: CF Alfri-Loder, Consolidated Freightways' Mexican subsidiary, has been accepted as a full voting member of CANACAR, Mexico's national trucking association. Canadian Pacific Railway Co. reported its third consecutive year of record operating income. Income in 1998 was CDN $721 million, up $53 million from 1997. TMM and APL will upgrade their joint Asia-Mexico service by eliminating calls at U.S. ports. That allows them to introduce the first direct, non-stop service between Asia and the Port of Ensenada, as well as faster service between Asia and Manzanillo. Stevens Transport has opened a full-service facility offering freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and overnight and time-definite delivery between Toronto and the United States. Vitran Corp., a Toronto-based provider of trucking, intermodal, brokerage, and logistics services, reported record financial results for 1998. Operating income rose by 36 percent to CDN $18.8 million, while net income rose 58 percent to CDN $8.7 million.