Researcher: Logistics, transport sectors lose up to US$500mn/y due to congestion - Mexico
Researcher: Logistics, transport sectors lose up to US$500mn/y due to congestion - Mexico
Sunday, July 6, 2008
(BNamericas.com) - Mexico's logistics and transport sectors lose up to US$500mn a year due to bottlenecks in customs checkups at crossing points along the country's border with the US, Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef) researcher Gustavo del Castillo told BNamericas.
The entity has just released the results of a study conducted to determine the causes of congestion at entry points to the US from Mexico.
"The study tries to determine why the bottlenecks at the border are so severe. We looked at transport costs, pedestrians crossing the border and private cars. We reached some conclusions and proposed some brief suggestions on how to resolve them," del Castillo said.
"We estimated the direct and indirect costs of the time spent by trucks waiting to cross the US border from Mexico, based on production and labor. The combination is what you could call 'wasted money' or de-capitalization for the logistics and transport sectors," the researcher added.
"At all the crossing points along the border - the cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez and Nuevo Laredo - total losses are almost US$500mn a year in salaries, production, time, fuel, etc," he said.
FINDINGS
According to del Castillo, the main reason behind the truck congestion is the rapid economic growth spurred by Nafta, which has resulted in an increase of Mexican industrial exports to the US.
Growth has been so fast it has saturated customs-area infrastructure, as well as the road infrastructure leading up to the customs area, he added.
"Most of the customs areas are located in the cities, so trucks are delayed by local traffic. In addition, many of the locations currently being planned as crossing points are becoming urbanized," the expert said.
Nogales, in Sonora state, is the only point of entry to the US from Mexico which does not involve going through a city.
Another reason cited by del Castillo are excessive inspections at the US border.
"The US puts so much effort into controlling so many things at the border that it takes a very long time to get into the country," he said, adding: "The Mexican government has installed scanning equipment to speed up the process. However, the US does not trust those scans, so it repeats the process."
RECOMMENDATIONS
For del Castillo, the easiest way to solve the situation is by improving existing infrastructure.
"The most obvious recommendation is to improve the infrastructure, which is totally insufficient. This includes customs areas, bridges, roads, etc," he said.
"In addition, the personnel is completely inadequate to deal with the flow, both in Mexico and in the US," he noted.
"We are dealing with bureaucracies that are awfully slow. Even in the US, building a new entry port has to go through 16 different entities and requires a presidential permit. On average, the construction of these new ports takes 10 years," he said....
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