PortandTerminal.com, October 24, 2020

LAREDO, TX – Mexican truckers belonging to the Unión de Fronteriza de Operadores (Border Operators Union) blocked two lanes of the “World Trade” Bridge number III this morning.

The action, which lasted just an hour and started at 7:00 am, was to protest the increasingly longer wait times and inadequate service they experience hauling goods through the South Texas border crossing. The drivers are demanding that the Mexican Customs and the North American Customs authorities open of a greater number of booths to expedite the flow of truck traffic.

Drivers on the Mexican side of the border say they are waiting up to three hours in lines that stretch more than 12 miles.

The Laredo port of entry is the No. 1 inland port along the U.S.-Mexico border, accounting for $231.58 billion in imports and exports in 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by WorldCity.

More than 1.8 million commercial trucks crossed the World Trade Bridge from January to July, down 6% compared to the same period in 2019.