The city of Laredo, Texas, recently passed an ordinance requiring all trucking companies using the World Trade Bridge to have $100 minimum in their automated vehicle identification (AVI) accounts in order to pay crossing fees.
The ordinance, which was unanimously approved by the city council on July 22, is aimed at ferreting out commercial operators whose empty accounts have resulted in their being forced to turn around on the U.S. side of the international bridge, causing massive delays and long lines for other truckers.
For commercial trucks, the fee to cross Laredo’s World Trade Bridge and the nearby Colombia Solidarity international Bridge can be up to $20.
“The anticipation will be that the new rule will greatly reduce and eventually eliminate turnarounds due to insufficient funds,” Laredo Mayor Victor Trevino said in an email to FreightWaves.
Trevino said when trucks have to make U-turns at the World Trade Bridge because of insufficient funds, it interrupts the flow of traffic, as well as hurts trade between the U.S. and Mexico
“The purpose of this is to avoid a loss of time, revenue and job creation due to turning trucks around because of insufficient funds,” Trevino said during the July 22 City Council meeting. “The reason for this is that it doesn’t make any sense that we’re having trucks carrying millions of dollars in goods, and then for $20, we’re going to send them back. It doesn’t make sense for international trade or for us or even for them. We need to implement this modification of this system to keep all the trucks flowing.”
Laredo officials recently met with Alicia Barcena, Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, who told them that every 10 minutes they see $27 million worth of commercial goods that support around 3,000 jobs crossing the World Trade Bridge from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
Nuevo Laredo is the sister city of Laredo, just across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Now you take an eight- or 10-minute turnaround per truck, it may end up being a major loss,” Trevino said.
The port of entry in Laredo — which includes the World Trade and Colombia Solidarity bridges — is the No. 1 international gateway for U.S. trade among the nation’s 450 international gateways for trade, according to Census Bureau data analyzed by WorldCity.
Laredo recorded $29.3 billion in trade during May, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau. As of July 30, 228,482 commercial trucks crossed the World Trade and Colombia Solidarity bridges.
The Colombia Solidarity International Bridge is not included in the proposed $100 minimum balance ordinance.
Trevino said the Colombia bridge is not usually as busy as the World Trade Bridge, and doesn’t see as many traffic bottlenecks.
“The new rule is for the World Trade Bridge, and currently applicable to the World Trade Bridge only,” Trevino said. “Due to the volume of traffic at the World Trade Bridge, this is where the turnarounds (6-10 minutes) due to insufficient funds have the greatest detriment (based on the total value of goods and jobs supported by those goods per minute).”
The fee to use bridges is assessed using an AVI tag on cargo trucks that is linked to an account with the city.
Trevino said he met with local trucking companies and associations to get their feedback on the ordinance.
“I have had several meetings within industry, including trucking companies, logistics companies and custom brokerage houses. This includes input from the members of the city’s Port Advisory Committee and COMCE Noreste (the Northeast Mexican Foreign Trade Council),” Trevino said.
Yvette Limon, bridge director for the city of Laredo, said when trucks arrive at the World Trade Bridge toll booths without enough funds in their accounts, bridge staff have to turn the trucks around, forcing them to go against traffic.
In the past, there were months when almost 600 trucks had to turn around because they were unable to pay the fee.
Limon said most trucking operators currently have less than $100 in their commercial AVI accounts with the city of Laredo.
“We have 5,149 commercial accounts. Out of those 5,000 accounts, we have 1,864, 36% that have a balance greater than $100,” Limon said at the July 22 council meeting. “That means 64% of the accounts have less than $100 in their AVI account. By making this change, it will affect the majority.”
One issue could be policing trucking operators that have less than the $100 minimum, Limon said. There are currently 267 AVI accounts with the city that have a negative balance.
The city currently sends email blasts twice a month to customers to remind them of the different ways they can deposit funds into their accounts, Limon said.
“Keep in mind that the majority of our crossers are drayage. They make round and round trips throughout the day. By forcing them to keep a balance, that would also impose more work on bridge staff. How would we be able to monitor 3,000-plus accounts daily and notify them that their balance in their AVI account has dropped below $100?” Limon said.
Laredo City Councilwoman Vanessa Perez suggested a modification to the city’s AVI tag system that notifies trucking operators when their account balance is below $100.
“I would recommend that the burden not be on staff to be calling and checking up on the $100 minimum, that it could be like a computer modification to the system, that the system automatically requires that $100, so our staff doesn’t have the burden of calling them,” Perez said.
Council members said they would discuss how to monitor minimum balances in accounts at the next meeting.