cURL Error: 0{"id":105703,"date":"2023-11-08T10:34:03","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T10:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/texas-dps-ends-truck-safety-inspections-after-1-9b-impact-25\/"},"modified":"2023-11-08T10:34:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T10:34:03","slug":"texas-dps-ends-truck-safety-inspections-after-1-9b-impact-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/texas-dps-ends-truck-safety-inspections-after-1-9b-impact-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas DPS ends truck safety inspections after $1.9B impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott may have stopped state-run truck safety inspections at the Mexican border, but business leaders said it could be weeks before cross-border traffic patterns return to normal.
\n\u201cWe hope that in the next three weeks, if we continue without setbacks, there will be good progress in the usual exports, as well as exports that have been waiting,\u201d Manuel Sotelo, vice president of the Juarez chapter of Mexico\u2019s National Chamber of Freight Transport (Canacar), said at a Tuesday news conference in Juarez, Mexico. \u201cIn three weeks, the backlog of 24,570 exports should be resolved, possibly not 100%, but it\u2019s a goal we can have.\u201d
\nJuarez is located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
\nTrade across the U.S.-Mexican border has slowed over the past several weeks as U.S. authorities shifted customs personnel to immigration duty as migrants began arriving in large numbers at border ports of entry across the country.
\nIn addition to the migrant surge, Abbott ordered the state\u2019s Department of Public Safety (DPS) to do safety checks at several border crossings beginning Sept. 20 on all cargo trucks, reportedly as a way to deter cartel activity across Texas.
\nBoth the migrant surge and the Texas DPS inspections generated long lines and snarled commercial vehicles at border crossings in Laredo, El Paso, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and Tornillo, Texas.
\nWhile the migrant situation began to ease, Abbot kept the Texas DPS inspections going until Monday in El Paso. The DPS inspections ceased at the other locations last week.
\nCanacar officials said the safety inspections by the Texas DPS stranded 19,000 trucks carrying about $1.9 billion in goods destined for the U.S. at the Mexican border.
\nThe DPS inspections that began in September are at least the fourth time since April 2022 that the agency has implemented the state-run commercial checkpoints. They are in addition to cross-border truck inspections conducted by Mexico customs, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Transportation.
\nU.S. and Mexican officials have criticized the DPS inspections as unnecessary since Texas state troopers do not have the authority to inspect cargo trailers.
\nMexican President Andres Manuel Obrador sent a diplomatic note to federal officials in response to the Texas DPS inspections, blaming them for disruptions to international trade.
\nSotelo and other trucking and logistics professionals at the Tuesday news conference said they have contacted both U.S. and Mexican authorities about what can be done to make sure the DPS does not implement the safety inspections again.
\n\u201cOn both sides of the border, we have the challenge of correcting the effects that were experienced on Mexican exports and making sure that these situations are not repeated,\u201d Miguel Angel Martinez, Canacar\u2019s national president, said. \u201cWe cannot forget the importance that Texas has in the commercial relationship between both countries.\u201d
\nHomero Balderas, general manager for the city of Eagle Pass International Bridge System, said commercial trade flows are back to normal after several weeks of disruption. Balderas said the Texas DPS inspections were slowing cargo trucks by as much as 40%.
\nThe Port of Eagle Pass usually sees about 850 cargo trucks a day. That number fell to roughly under 400 due to the Texas DPS inspection delays.
\n\u201cEverything is luckily back to normal regarding inspections and are getting very close to the 800 trucks a day,\u201d Balderas told FreightWaves.
\nIn Arizona, cross-border operators said trade flows are still not back to normal after federal officials removed customs personnel from their inspection posts at the Nogales-Mariposa port of entry to help handle the influx of migrants in the area.
\n\u201cNogales-Mariposa is still operating at reduced staff,\u201d Joshua Rubin, vice president of business development at Javid LLC, told FreightWaves.
\nJavid is a Nogales, Mexico-based shelter company that helps manufacturers set up operations in Mexico. Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico, are sister cities along the border.
\nRubin said commercial trade and pedestrian crossings at the Nogales-Mariposa port of entry have suffered because of the reduced staffing at the ports and because of the arrival of large groups of migrants in the area.
\n\u201cThis past weekend, lines for people crossing were almost four hours. Normal is an hour. People were waiting in lines half a mile long,\u201d Rubin said. \u201cMigrant crossers are stable, as in they have not gone up or down, but we still have a lot crossing illegally.\u201d
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\nTexas resumes cargo truck inspections at Laredo port of entry
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\nBorder bottleneck continues, creating huge delays for truckers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"