The Mexican Association of Freight Agents (Amacarga) expressed its concern about the bills that seek to eliminate the operation of double-articulated tractor-trailers known as “fulles,” since it would have serious consequences for the country’s foreign trade if approved by the Congress of the Union.
“There are no conditions to replace the disappearance of double-trailer trucks (sic) and there would be a strong impact on logistics and freight transport costs that are already high,” said Juan Pablo Pacheco, president of the organization.
He also mentioned that these modifications could lead to unfair competition, since one of the reforms seeks to allow double-trailer tractor-trailers only for use in official vehicles , such as Pemex “pipes” or other official services.
During the last weeks of October and part of November, both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies , initiatives were presented by Morena and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, in order to prohibit the circulation of tractor-trailers in the country, in order to avoid accidents and safeguard the lives and safety of those who travel on the roads.
In view of this, the aim is to reform section XV of article 2, add a fourth paragraph to article 50 and a section VI to article 74 Ter of the Federal Roads, Bridges and Motor Transport Law.
S aúl Monreal Ávila , senator of Morena , said that the initiative will be to prohibit the circulation of heavy vehicles with double trailers , double semi-trailers and double articulated vehicles in rural, urban areas, highways and federal roads, due to the risk that these units represent.
“It is urgent. It has caused many accidents, not only in Zacatecas, but throughout the country. That is why there should not be double semi-trailers and I am going to lobby the senators, even those in the opposition, for this,” he said.
While the deputy Carlos Alberto Puente Salas, of the PVEM, mentioned that the occurrence of traffic accidents on the country’s roads is increasingly frequent, caused by double-articulated tractor-trailer trucks, also known as double-trailer trucks, which can measure up to 32.5 meters in length, and given the magnitude of these units, “overtaking becomes impossible and those who try to do so risk their lives in each one of them.”
“We understand that the permanence of this type of vehicle is an economic issue for companies that operate fleets of cargo transportation, since the use of these units represents a significant reduction in operating costs by allowing them to transport more than double the tons of merchandise on each trip. It is immoral that we continue to put at risk the lives of people who travel on our roads just because some seek to keep their profits intact,” he warned.
Salvador Saavedra Ceballos, president of the Automotive Industry Sector of Canacintra , published in T21 on November 19, that the initiatives propose reducing the length of these configurations to a maximum of 22 meters and a maximum weight of the configuration of 58 tons, and the prohibition of the transit of this type of configurations, although one of them allows its use when it is for the benefit of the federal government.
He explained that contrary to what the initiatives seek, according to the statistical data published in the IMT statistical yearbook for 2022 with figures from 2021, it would result in an increase of 64 people dying on site per year, 92 people injured, in addition to the fact that emissions from transporting the same amount of cargo that is transported in full would increase by 1,481 million tons of CO2.
It should be remembered that in December 2020, the then members of the Communications and Transportation Commission of the Chamber of Deputies rejected the initiative that sought to gradually reduce the gross vehicle weight (GVW) of the fulles configuration.
Juan Pablo Pacheco explained that in the current conditions of the country, where there is a deficit of more than 50 thousand truck operators for public cargo transportation , the elimination of the “fulles” would become an obstacle to guarantee the mobility of cargo to the main ports of the country.
In addition to this problem, increasing the number of tractor-trailers to avoid affecting the transport of goods would have major consequences for vehicle traffic , impact on the environment, severe damage to the asphalt on roads and highways, and would impact the logistics costs of transporting goods.
He also said that the rail transport option would not solve the damagebecause most of the train traffic is toward the northern border for the cross-border market in the United States and not toward the country’s seaports where the largest amount of import and export products arrive.
He also said that the intention to increase passenger movement by train in the near future would further limit the transport of goods by this route.
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