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Posted on 11/11/2001 5:22:49 AM PST by Deadeye Division

A truck driver's view of NAFTA’s effects on the American Road

By Lawrence Budd

e-mail address: larry_budd@coxohio.com

Dayton Daily News

Editor's note: During four days, Dayton Daily News reporter Lawrence Budd and photographer Ty Greenlees accompanied trucker Ronald L. Presley as he hauled freight between Mexico and Canada. The trip allowed Budd and Greenlees to see first-hand some of globalization's impact on the American landscape. Presley now is an administrator for M.S. Carriers involved in driver training.

LAREDO, Texas | A tractor-trailer full of racks emptied at a General Motors plant in Mexico crossed the new, trucks-only bridge over the Rio Grande and headed toward the truck terminal. A driver waited there, anxious to begin a 1,500-mile run to Canada.

Inside the lobby of M.S. Carriers' new terminal, Ronald L. Presley greeted his passengers and grabbed some of their luggage, the final bits of cargo comprising his load.

To capitalize on the shift of American businesses to global markets, Presley's employer, Memphis-based M.S. Carriers, opened a 50-acre terminal in 1999, tripling the size of one built in 1991, before adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In 1999-2000, revenues from freight M.S. Carriers hauled in and out of Mexico surpassed $275 million — 20 percent of the company's total revenue.

As national markets go global, the highways that link cities like Dayton and Cincinnati are becoming more congested with traffic. Meanwhile, commercial development along these highways is expanding, thus changing the face of the nation. The passenger seat of Presley's big rig provided an excellent vantage point to observe the changes.

Since 1994, GM has produced the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon and Suburban at a 1.2 million-square-foot plant in Silao, Guanajuato, where 3,000 Mexican workers assemble trucks and SUVs previously assembled in the United States. Since 1999, the Mexican workers, who earn about one-tenth of their American counterparts, have also been assembling the Escalade, Cadillac’s entry in the hot SUV market.

American jobs have been lost to Mexico and Canada, but new ones have been created to serve the booming multinational network.

American truck drivers guide the rigs hauling 80 percent of the global loads.

On this trip, Presley would carry empty racks back to Canada, where they would be reloaded with catalytic converters to be installed in GM SUVs assembled at the Mexican plant. His truck becomes one link in a mighty chain joining three nations in a borderless economy.

To accommodate such corridors of commerce, new highways are being built and old ones brought up to date to ensure efficient transport of global goods. Sprawling commercial and housing developments are sprouting up along most-favored truck routes, including Interstate 75.

I-75, the country's busiest truck route, will remain the choice of truckers through the Midwest only as long as the proposed extension of Interstate 69 south from Indianapolis to Laredo stays on the drawing board.

Given an alternative, truckers say they would steer clear of Ohio's split speed limits, crowded truck stops and vigilant state troopers.

As Presley prepared for the cross-country haul, the 49-year-old driver had slept in a bunkroom at the company's new terminal on the outskirts of Laredo, Texas, a once-sleepy border town now growing more quickly than every American city except Las Vegas.

After a final inspection and an entry in a logbook at the M.S. Carriers gate, Presley began a four-day, 1,500-mile cross-country haul.

I-75 was still hundreds of miles away as Presley steered the high-tech, 70-foot long rig north on Interstate 35 on the northern edge of Laredo.

After 29 years and 3.5 million miles, Presley had a spotless truck-driving record, of which he was immensely proud.

"No tickets, no accidents, no service failures, not even in Ohio," Presley said.

Truckers are slow to accept the near-chronic traffic congestion on Interstate 75 from the Ohio River north to Interstate 70 in southwest Ohio.

"Traffic is like water, it's got to flow. That's what's the matter in Cincinnati and Dayton, it's not flowing," Presley said while turning his attention to another crowded interstate, as he headed north toward Austin, the Texas capital.

Ahead, a traffic jam outside Austin delayed him an hour. The tie-up also tested his patience with "four-wheelers," a trucking term generally referring to car drivers who sometimes disregard warning signs about merging traffic and other hazards.

Presley switched on his CB radio and asked for the best lane through the sea of vehicles. Minutes later, he switched the radio off again, truncating one driver's angry string of obscenities.

"The frustration level is so high, you can just feel it," he said.

After dark, Presley pulled into a new truck stop outside Waco. The center was the latest opened by Williams Oil Co. Like one Williams operates at the Ohio 123 interchange off I-75 near Franklin in Warren County, the Waco truck stop offered a wide range of services for all travelers.

Williams especially caters to the truck-driver market. Big rigs fill the 268 truck parking spaces, the hum of their idling engines filling the night air. These drivers settled in for the night, but Presley was behind schedule due to the Austin gridlock.

Close to midnight, he found a hotel in Hillsboro, Texas, just off the interchange in a busy commercial strip, where he pulled the 70-foot rig into a front lot designed for smaller vehicles.

"Boss, that's my Lexis parked out there. Is that gonna cause any problems?" he asked an agreeable hotel clerk.

After 10 hours on the road, his workday was done.

Presley awoke eight hours later and prepared for another day on the road. After a quick breakfast, he refilled his Thermos with decaffeinated coffee and quickly guided his rig out of the hotel lot back onto I-35 north.

The interstate splits south of Dallas-Fort Worth — a region that has grown together, much like Dayton and Cincinnati are now doing — breaking the string of development that has lined the road virtually unchecked since south of San Antonio. For awhile, the crowded corridor developments gave way to farms and ranch lands so far unchanged by sprawl.

As Presley approached Dallas, the landscape featured strip centers, condominiums and apartment complexes resembling those lining Interstate 75 in Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan.

"That's what's causing the traffic problems," Presley said, turning east onto a stretch of Interstate 30 leading to Texarkana. He was leaving Dallas, but not the sprawl.

"It looks like we're still in town. Town's 25 miles back," Presley said.

Presley veered east, off the route favored by North America's Superhighway Coalition, a multinational group of companies, governments and other private interests dedicated to seeing that highway officials eventually steer NAFTA freight haulers north on I-35 all the way to Kansas City. From there, the route would fork, a western prong north to Winnipeg, Manitoba; a middle one to Duluth, Minn. The eastern route would wind up in Quebec via Chicago, Detroit, Toronto and Montreal.

None of the trade routes would come through Cincinnati, Dayton or any other part of Ohio, according to maps of proposed NAFTA routes. International trade would bypass I-75, now the country's main truck route.

Of $368 million spent by Congress during the past three years for planning of future trade corridors, I-75 in Ohio received a mere $400,000.

Meanwhile a proposal to extend I-69 south from Indianapolis through the South is now getting serious consideration. The proposed route would provide a more direct path from Mexico to Canada, establish a development corridor to compete with I-75 and alter transportation patterns throughout the Midwest.

A multinational group of I-69 backers has already attracted $44.9 million in federal highway funds to finance its plans. For the past decade, another powerful coalition of corporations and government officials has been promoting corridor status for I-35 from Duluth to Laredo, and has already received $11 million. Interstate 75 still has no regional coalition advocating its case.

Presley bypassed a Truckstops of America center where he — like his grandfather and stepfather before him — had stopped before the Dallas sprawl engulfed it, prompting calls for it to move and make way for other development.

Farther up the interstate, massive Lowe's and Oceanspray distribution centers stand along the roadside in Sulphur Springs, recent additions in response to the needs of multinational markets. Trucks transport the vast majority of goods moved from these distribution centers to retail stores.

After more than 600 miles of Texas interstate, Presley drove through Texarkana into Arkansas, home of former President Bill Clinton, whose Democratic administration in 1995 completed the NAFTA trade agreement. But the trade pact was first envisioned in the 1980s by former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican.

Except around Little Rock, the state capital, Arkansas' highways appeared unaffected by the development that transformed much of Texas' highway corridors. The roadway was limited to two lanes.

Presley pressed on toward Tennessee. Less than an hour from the border and Memphis — where Presley's home and his company's headquarters are located — he hit another traffic snag.

"It's like this every day," said Presley, obviously frustrated. "Yesterday we lost 2 1/2 hours. That's pretty normal. This gets so old after awhile, " he said.

Northbound on Interstate 40 the next morning, Presley cruised past a traffic jam — a 3-mile long string in the southbound lanes.

"Look at this backup. You can see the frustration building," he said.

Tennessee looked much like the states already traversed on this trip. A weigh station in Kentucky featured a new rear parking lot where truckers can stop for federally mandated rest breaks.

Later, another truck hauling an M.S. Carriers trailer flew by Presley, although his rig was traveling at 64.8 mph — the maximum possible for company trucks, which are altered to top out at that speed.

While most trucking companies hold their drivers to similar standards, Presley said, some independent owners and drivers who lease their rigs gamble that they can cover the cost of speeding fines by covering the miles and delivering their loads more quickly.

Presley stopped for dinner at a bustling truck stop south of Louisville, where drivers huddled over cigarettes and coffee in booths at the restaurant. They expressed a distaste for driving in Ohio because of its split speed limit and crowded roads.

"The only time I go there is when I want to go home," said Doug O'Bryant of Peebles in Adams County.

O'Bryant's key complaint about Ohio concerns the split speed limit. While many states have the same speed limit for cars and trucks, Ohio still requires trucks to run at 55 mph — 10 mph slower than other vehicles.

"Why should there be a difference?" O'Bryant said.

From Louisville, Presley takes I-71 north. It's Sunday night, and there's nowhere for him to park in a truck stop at the Interstate 75/71 junction in Kentucky, south of Cincinnati.

About 10 miles south of the Ohio River, the land along I-75 once again becomes crowded with commercial strips that continue with only brief breaks for almost 100 miles through Cincinnati and Dayton and into Miami County.

Presley's mood changed as he entered Ohio and slowed down to 55 mph.

"This is the first time I've driven in Ohio in four or five years," he said.

The truck parking lot off the Ohio 123 exit in Franklin was crowded, but Presley found a spot for the night.

A dash-mounted laptop computer beeped the next morning with a message: The load must be delivered to a Canadian customer by 6 a.m. Tuesday. Otherwise, Presley would have to wait nine hours to finish the job.

Outside Dayton, the truck briefly sped up to 64.8 mph, still slower than most cars on the road, but almost 10 mph over Ohio's legal limit for truckers.

"I'm in Ohio, I'm in Ohio. I started thinking I was in Tennessee somewhere," he said, quickly slowing down and checking his mirrors.

North of Troy, Presley passed the large Panasonic and Honda plants before commmercial development along the interstate gave way to farmland. In Findlay, Presley's push toward the Canadian border is stalled by another traffic jam.

As he drove toward Michigan and Canada, Presley anticipated no problems with customs officials because his freight consisted of empty racks. Still, he grew anxious as he pondered possible obstacles at the border or while outside the United States.

"I don't want to go to Canada," he said as he neared Michigan. "I haven't been there in three years."

Later, Presley passed Mazda and Ford plants in Detroit. Taking the Mexicantown exit, named for a poor neighborhood just beyond the Ambassador Bridge, Presley found the ramp to the border closed for construction.

Presley steered his rig alongside cars and trucks stopped in traffic at the U.S. approach to the bridge. Over the doorway to a tollbooth office, a sign advertised, "The Key Link on the NAFTA Superhighway."

The bridge was selected for the installation of a model intelligent transportation system, using technologies to automate customs, toll collecting and other procedures — to shorten the time spent at border crossings by those hauling international freight.

Presley crossed over the Detroit River into Windsor, Ontario, and stopped at the new customs complex. After a few brief questions about the driver, his passengers and his load, the customs official said, "Welcome to Canada."

From the border, Presley drove another hour to within easy striking distance of a Mississauga, Ontario, plant where he met his delivery deadline the next morning. Then he was off to pick up his next load.

Soon, the racks were headed back to the GM plant in Mexico, loaded with catalytic converters for SUVs to be sold in the United States.

• Contact Lawrence Budd at (513) 932-6776 or e-mail him at larry_budd@coxohio.com

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