Mexican truckers lift blockades after two-day CANACAR strike

The News

CANACAR, Mexico’s national freight trucking chamber, and other carrier groups agreed to lift their highway blockades a day after the chamber launched an indefinite national strike, Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Segob) said.

On the first morning, Segob counted 38 protest points in 19 states, with 691 vehicles.
In return for lifting the blockades, the government will set up working groups on highway security, infrastructure, tax, social security and labor.

The details

Truckers held their strike over cargo theft, extortion, towing fees and rising operating costs.

CANACAR counted 1,105 freight truck robberies and 15 drivers killed through September.
Mexico’s 2027 budget proposal would narrow a tax credit carriers get for highway tolls.

Not every trucking group joined the strike that CANACAR and the trucking alliance HAMOTAC called.

Four industry groups, including CONCAMIN and CANAPAT, met with Segob and said they opposed it.
A representative of AMOTAC said its members in the State of Mexico and Mexico City would not take part.

Reports from Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Juárez and Piedras Negras named no closed US border crossing.

In Nuevo Laredo, truckers gathered at kilometer 17 of the highway to Monterrey.
Truck caravans in Reynosa and Piedras Negras drove without blocking traffic. Organizers said the Juárez caravan would not block the international bridges.

The closures hit highways inside Mexico, some of them into the second morning.

The México-Pachuca highway was shut for about 14 hours on the first day.
On the second morning, before the deal, closures continued near Toluca, the port of Veracruz and Guadalajara.

My notes

The strike hit roads inside Mexico and left the border alone. No report from Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Juárez or Piedras Negras named a closed bridge. The closures sat on highways near Mexico City, Toluca, Veracruz and Guadalajara, so northbound loads felt the strike on the drive to the border, before they reached it.
The deal fixes none of the truckers’ complaints yet. Cargo theft and a plan to narrow a toll tax credit set off the strike. The working groups that are supposed to deal with them have no meeting dates.