Brownsville Trucking Company Owner Claims County Commissioners Dropped the Ball On Mexican Produce

While McAllen and Pharr officials are salivating at receiving a huge upswing in toll revenues with the nearing completion of Mexico Superhighway 40 from Mazatlan to Matamoros, Cameron County will likely not get a slice of that pie.



A Brownsville trucking company owner states that the primary commercial crossing at Los Tomates simply is not prepared to handle the large volume of produce expected to be trucked from the Pacific coast of Mexico.  "We simply do not have the necessary cold storage inspection facility in Brownsville.  Lettuce, limes, avocados, cantaloupes all need to be unloaded into cold storage for inspection or the loads will be ruined," stated the business owner.

"All the county commissioners care about is getting the credit for increased bridge revenue, but will not do what's necessary to get ready for increased traffic," continued the trucker.  A Brownsville Herald article by Ty Johnson published August 17 estimated an increase of 1,000 trucks per day coming through the Rio Grande Valley with Veteran's International at Los Tomates getting 250 of that total, but the owner/operator does not see that happening.

"It's not just the cold storage problem, it's that Veteran's is a training facility for the Department of Transportation with rookie inspectors  issuing more tickets to make a name for themselves.  Why would you cross at Brownsville, wasting two hours of down time and fuel with the increased risk of a ticket that goes on your permanent driving record?"

Superhighway 40 has been under construction for a decade.  As usual Cameron County officials are incredibly slow to react.  As former Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada used to say:  "McAllen is eating our lunch."