After being cancelled earlier this year, the pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to carry cargo on U.S. roads may be back on. This is due to a six billion dollar lawsuit aimed at the U.S. government as well as the steep tariffs imposed on U.S. goods as punishment. Industries on both sides of the border have been calling for resolution.

The program was a long delayed response to NAFTA’s call for the creation of a trans-border trucking program to exist by the year 2000 and represents the first step toward compliance. For many, this news raises concern over the safety issues that initially delayed the project.

In 1995, the government responded to concerns that Mexican trucks could not pass U.S. safety checks by restricting them to designated commercial zones within twenty miles of the border. Goods destined for other areas of the U.S. and Canada were required to be transferred to new trucks to continue their journey. The safety issues in question are related to Department of Transportation studies that show forty one percent of Mexican trucks did not pass safety checks in 1998. In comparison, there is a twenty five percent failure rate for U.S. trucks and a seventeen percent failure rate for Canadian trucks. But these failures seem to be primarily related to certification, logbook issues, and English language fluency rather than poor equipment. When a meeting was called earlier this year to address these concerns, the American Trucking Association noted that the pilot program was working fine.

It has been said that if the trucks stop, America stops. The truckload industry is one of over sixty five billion dollars spread over more than fifty thousand carriers. It’s a large and vital part of American society where almost everything around you has been shipped from one location to another, often multiple times before it reaches its destination. There is a constant and enduring need for its services, and though it is suffering at the moment as the result of the depression, over time it is poised to become even stronger and more lucrative.

The challenges the trucking industry currently faces date back to 2006. They are due to falling automobile sales, problems in the housing sector, sluggish growth in retail markets, and the overall economic issues plaguing the country. These issues have resulted in low freight volumes and a difficult pricing environment. In spite of all of this however, the truckload industry is highly competitive. This is due to its rates, service, and equipment availability. The economy has finally bottomed out, and with it, the trucking industry. Although it is not expected to see significant growth for 2009, the expected rise in the economy means that a corresponding rise in demand and freight volume may occur as early as 2010. Once that happens the truckload industry is expected to see slow, but steady growth.