The Mexican city of Guadalajara was the first to pass a measure in November prohibiting cargo transportation from entering the metropolitan area from Monday through Sunday, between 6 a.m.-9 a.m., starting Jan. 1.
The new regulation is aimed at improving traffic, reducing air pollution and increasing road safety, according to officials.
“We hope this will contribute to reduced road congestion in the main accesses of Guadalajara,” Enrique Alfaro, governor of Jalisco, said in an interview with Mexican news outlet Notisistema.
The vehicles with restriction are tractor-trailers, semi-trailers, and double tractor-trailer trucks – called “fulles” in Mexico. Transporters that break the rules may be fined up to $739.20.
Mexican officials have also discussed the issuance of a special traffic permit for heavy vehicles in freight transportation in Guadalajara costing from $950 to $1,900 annually.
Manuel Sánchez Benavides, a vice president with Mexico’s National Confederation of Mexican Carriers, said freight transporters are being treated unfairly.
“We are disappointed by the way we are treated; they portray us a bad, when in fact we are just doing our jobs – we take goods to factories, distribution centers and markets – thousands of products and raw materials,” Benavides said in an interview with news outlet Revista Transporte y Turismo. “It is unfortunate the situation they are putting us in.”
Nuevo León, Querétaro, Jalisco, Sonora, state of Mexico, Mexico City, Yucatán and Colima are other cities or states that have already passed or are considering similar freight transport restrictions.
Francisco Cervantes, the president of Mexico’s Confederation of Industrial Chambers, said the new regulations would hurt supply chains of trucks traveling all over the country.
“Governments are undermining the logistics side with restrictions on schedules for cargo trucks, and what they don’t understand is that the thing they are hurting is the supply of goods,” Cervantes said in an interview with Revista Transporte y Turismo. “There are already four or five metro areas that insist on restricting freight transport – it is a measure that does not benefit the country and will hurt the supply of goods.”