border lines

A roundup of North American news:

Camino Colombia, the first private toll road in Texas, is scheduled to open later this month. The four-lane road was built at a cost of $85 million by Camino Colombia, an enterprise headed by Carlos Y. Benavides III. The 22-mile-long toll road, located 17 miles west of Laredo, Texas, connects Laredo's Solidarity Bridge and Mexico's Nuevo Laredo Highway. Camino Colombia offers an automated vehicle-identification and toll-assessment system; seven-day, 24-hour operation; on-site truck-transfer and U.S. Customs facilities; and reversible tollbooths to accommodate changes in traffic flows. It also has been approved as a hazardous-cargo route. "Camino Colombia offers truckers safe passage while offering an alternative that allows them to spend less time in line and more time moving freight," says Benavides. For more information, visit the company's Web site (www.caminocolombia.com) or call (956) 723-6779.

The next joint meeting of the NAFTA Land Transportation Standards Subcommittee (LTSS) will be held in San Juan del Rio, Quer�taro, Mexico, on Oct. 23-27. Working groups under LTSS, which includes transportation officials from the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, will discuss driver and vehicle compliance with safety standards, harmonization of vehicle weights and dimensions, transportation of hazardous materials, and traffic-control standards. A sub-group, called the Transportation Consultative Group, will be examining issues that are not related to standards, including cross-border operations and facilitation, rail safety and economic issues, automated data exchange, and maritime and ports policy. Non-governmental groups have been invited to attend a "listening session," during which they may present their comments, but working and plenary sessions remain open only to government representatives. A summary of the two groups' decisions will be posted in the Federal Register approximately one month after the meeting.

Cabit Systems Corp. has introduced Internet Truckstop Canada, an online freight-matching service for the Canadian truck-transportation market. The service allows shippers and carriers to view the availability of trucks and loads and arrange transportation via the Internet. The service incorporates a variety of software, including a credit-reporting feature and a customized version of ProMiles software that calculates mileage, routes, and profit margins. Truckstop Canada is a joint venture between Internet Truckstop of the United States, which boasts more than 22,000 subscribers, and Cabit. For more information, visit www.cabit.com.

NAFTA Notes: CFI, the Joplin, Mo.-based truckload carrier, has promoted Cynthia Heredia to regional sales manager for the Reynosa, Tamaulipas, area of Mexico. William Heffelfinger III has been named the new northern border coordinator for the U.S. Customs Service. Stephen Kelly, formerly U.S. Consul General in Quebec City, has been promoted to deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics will establish a joint venture in Mexico with customs broker Grupo Eduardo Diaz SA de CV, which has offices in eight Mexican cities. Big Freight Systems of Steinbach, Manitoba, is the first carrier outside of the United States to join Transportal Network, an online resource that provides decision-support software for truckload carriers.