Mexican truckers transporting goods to the US are suffering tripled wait times at the border after Texas directed state troopers to increase inspections.
Some commercial vehicles arriving the US at the Colombia bridge near Laredo, Texas, have had to wait as many as three days to cross, while normally they would pass the same day, said Oscar Ortiz, director at northern Mexico trucking company Grupo Omega.
"There are a lot of delays," Ortiz told Argus.
The increased delays began on 7 April after Texas governor Greg Abbott called for increased security at the state's southern border as the Biden administration ends a pandemic-related health order that allowed US officials to turn away migrants.
Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to ramp up inspections of vehicles crossing international ports of entry ahead of what Texas said would be a "significant rise in cartel-facilitated smuggling via unsafe vehicles," according to Abbott's office.
"Texas will immediately begin taking unprecedented action to do what no state has done in American history to secure our border," Abbott said.
Ortiz of Grupo Omega confirmed that the additional inspections were being carried out by Texas state officials and not by federal Customs and Border Protection agents, who are normally in charge of inspecting trucks at border crossings.
Mexican truckers, who are already dealing with low staffing levels and supply chain challenges, said the increased delays are affecting their productivity and causing customers to receive their products late. He added that the situation is causing bottlenecks at the Laredo border crossings.
"If you could do two or three crossings a day before, you can only do one now," Ortiz said.
He added that the delays are more challenging now than those experienced at the height of the pandemic because there is increased demand now.
The increased inspections also come as Mexican truckers are dealing with fuel shortages in northern Mexico.
"We cannot get fuel at our normal providers, so we have to go to different providers," Ortiz said.
US fuel consumers, particularly from southern Texas, have also been crossing into Mexico to fill their tanks given the southern country's continued fuel subsidies, which have been stronger in the US-border area than in the rest of the country.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador already used the gap in prices to tout his administration's strategy for maintaining lower fuel prices, as he recently showed how gasoline prices in Ciudad Juarez were 10pc lower than in Texas.
