Why it issues: Inconsistent interpretations of cabotage guidelines might take away skilled drivers from cross-border operations, tighten obtainable capability and create further uncertainty for producers, carriers and shippers that depend upon predictable U.S.-Mexico freight flows.
Mexican trucking business leaders are calling on U.S. border officers to determine clearer and extra constant guidelines governing B-1 visa revocations amid considerations that drivers are shedding their capacity to function cross-border routes over alleged cabotage violations.
Ismael Reyes de la Rosa, the Nationwide Chamber of Freight Transportation’s (CANACAR) consultant in Mexicali, Mexico, mentioned Mexican carriers need U.S. Customs and Border Safety to obviously outline what constitutes an irregularity involving cabotage and clarify the method used when revoking a driver’s visa.
Mexicali, Mexico lies throughout the border from Calexico, California, and is a crucial industrial port of entry for cross-border transportation. The Calexico-Mexicali crossing dealt with $71.82 million in U.S. exports in June, down 1.33% from the identical month a yr earlier, in line with U.S. Census knowledge analyzed by WorldCity.
Reyes mentioned CANACAR has traditionally maintained working relationship with CBP and met with the company earlier this yr as considerations about visa revocations started rising.
“We’ve all the time had an excellent relationship as a chamber, as an establishment,” Reyes mentioned throughout an Aug. 21 information convention posted by Cree En La Noticia.
Reyes mentioned CANACAR met with CBP round February and was initially advised that nothing had modified relating to enforcement procedures. However visa revocations continued after the assembly, he mentioned.
“They settle down for 2, three weeks, per week, after which all of a sudden the operation comes all week,” Reyes mentioned, describing periodic enforcement actions during which a number of drivers have their visas revoked.
About six weeks in the past, CANACAR sought one other assembly with CBP, in line with Reyes, however was advised by e-mail that nothing had modified and one other assembly was pointless.
“That could be very worrying, that they not wish to have a dialogue with us,” Reyes mentioned.
Associated: US revokes 20,000 visas for Mexican truckers as cabotage crackdown expands
For Mexican drivers, CANACAR mentioned shedding a B-1 visa can eradicate revenue earned from worldwide freight journeys.
Reyes mentioned CANACAR estimates that between 150 and 200 drivers within the Mexicali area have had their visas revoked up to now in 2026.
CANACAR representatives have individually estimated that roughly 25,000 visas have been revoked from Mexican industrial truck drivers throughout the nation’s northern border, though U.S. officers haven’t publicly confirmed that determine.
The dispute facilities on how cabotage guidelines are being interpreted throughout worldwide freight actions.
Cabotage usually includes a overseas provider transporting freight between two factors inside america fairly than conducting a world motion. CANACAR officers mentioned they acknowledge that Mexican B-1 drivers can not transport home U.S. freight however contend that enforcement officers are making use of completely different interpretations to reputable worldwide journeys.
Trade representatives need officers to obviously outline what actions represent a violation as a result of they consider the principles are being interpreted in a different way by enforcement personnel alongside the U.S.-Mexico border.
Alfonso Esquer Millán, vice chairman of CANACAR’s Northwest area, pointed to differing interpretations over what occurs after a Mexican truck delivers a world cargo in america.
Some officers, he mentioned, apparently consider the truck should return to Mexico empty after finishing the supply after which reenter america empty earlier than selecting up one other worldwide cargo. Others enable a Mexican driver who delivers a cargo within the U.S. to reposition the truck, decide up a Mexico-bound load and return south.
CANACAR maintains that neither state of affairs constitutes cabotage so long as the driving force isn’t transporting freight between two home U.S. factors.
“Whereas the Mexican operator with the B1 visa is on a world journey, there isn’t any drawback, loaded or empty,” Esquer mentioned the identical information convention as Reyes. “Cabotage is shifting cargo between two factors in america. We all know that’s prohibited; we aren’t doing that.”
The uncertainty comes amid heightened scrutiny of Mexican industrial drivers on the border. CANACAR mentioned some drivers have been subjected to inspections of their vehicles and telephones, whereas Reyes alleged that in some situations officers coated cameras put in inside vehicles earlier than conducting inspections.
Reyes and Esquer additionally mentioned that shedding skilled cross-border drivers might have unintended security penalties for carriers scrambling to switch them.
Carriers may very well be compelled into the labor market to switch drivers rapidly, probably rising the chance of hiring somebody who’s much less certified, in line with Reyes.
“Our concern is that we now have to go to a market of unemployed operators with a necessity to rent rapidly, and we will make a mistake within the substitute of a driver not absolutely certified from the attitude of safety,” Reyes mentioned.
CANACAR mentioned the visa revocations are affecting not solely Mexican carriers and drivers but additionally producers and maquiladoras that depend on cross-border trucking to maneuver items between Mexico and america.
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