U.S. and Mexico cross-border truck traffic nears 5 million annually   

Cross-border truck traffic between the U.S. and Mexico increased 2.6% in 2011 to 4.9 million units. In 1995, traffic was only 2.9 million units. Traffic was down slightly in 2008 and then dropped 11.8% in 2009, but has now recovered to pre-recession levels. The one truck that has actually crossed the border under the FMCSA cross-border pilot program crossed 9 times between October and February or about 2 times per month. To put that in perspective, there were about 400,000 total crossings per month in 2011.

There is now almost as much cross-border traffic with Mexico now as there is with Canada, which is quite a change from 1995. Canadian traffic had reached 7 million units annually in the early 2000’s but has dropped to 5.5 million. Cross-border Canadian freight did increase slightly in 2011. In 2002, the Canadian dollar was worth about 64 U.S. cents but now is roughly at parity. That is a major factor in the reduction of goods crossing the U.S. Canada border.