Highway rest areas are essential for the trucking industry, which is an extremely important activity for the Mexican economy as it moves over 85 percent of its exports.
Mexico requires hundreds of additional service and rest areas to reduce our current elevated road accident rate where trucks are involved. We also need the National Guard to be in charge of the safety of these areas, comments Mr. Ricardo Bustamante Medina, president of the Mexican Association of Private Security Companies and Satellite Industry (AMESIS in Spanish).
AMESIS specializes in satellite geo-positioning and protection technologies for logistics and supply chain to reduce accidentality.
Mr. Bustamante says there are several activities and initiatives from various groups involved in the transport sector to safeguard rest areas, but ultimately it should be the National Guard who is in charge of security there.
In Mexico, the National Guard has been operational for four years, it has 128,000 elements and it is part of the Secretariat of National Defense.
“We believe that safe rest areas are extremely helpful in the prevention of highway robbery, they also aid tracking and surveillance companies. If truck drivers stop and there is no security, they can easily become victims of highway robbery. Safe rest areas ensure truck drivers have a place to eat, shower and rest, and this prevents accidents. A tired driver is likely to fall asleep and cause an accident,” declares president, AMESIS.
Mr. Bustamante mentions that Mexico is among the countries with the highest road accident rates in the world. One in four accidents in Mexico involves trucks. In 2021, 23,986 vehicles were involved in some sort of road accident and 27.4 percent (6,486 units) correspond to single or double trailer vehicles.
He emphasizes the importance of rest time for drivers when doing long-hauls. However, he points out that these rest breaks rarely occur because there are very few safe rest areas across the entire national highway network. Unfortunately, organized crime is a permanent threat and units cannot have rest breaks in certain areas.
“Safe rest areas should be available nationwide. We have had conversations with the National Chamber of Trucking (CANACAR in Spanish) and the National Association of the Private Transport (ANTP in Spanish) to seek government help to set up more safe rest areas all over the country. The investment is not minor, but totally worth it. It would be ideal to have safe rest areas every 80 or 100 kilometers across the main highways, so truck drivers feel safe to stop and rest without fear of being robbed. Safe rest stops can prevent robbery and accidents,” says president, AMESIS.
“We believe that safe rest areas are extremely helpful in the prevention of highway robbery, they also aid tracking and surveillance companies. If truck drivers stop and there is no security, they can easily become victims of highway robbery.”
Ricardo Bustamante Medina, president, AMESIS.
Moreover, Mr. Bustamante emphasizes it is instrumental that organizations such as the National Confederation of Mexican Transporters (CONATRAM in Spanish), the CANACAR and the ANTP, together with other sector players, continue to lobby with local governments and federal authorities to resolve the safe rest areas issue.
According to CANACAR, trucking companies account for 3.5 percent of the GDP and 52.7 percent of the logistics services GDP. The sector serves 101 branches of the national economy and approximately six million families, directly or indirectly, depend on it. Trucking services in Mexico move 548.1 million tons of goods per year, equivalent to 81 percent of the land cargo and 56.8 percent of the national cargo. Trucking companies move 83.3 percent of the total trade value with the US (imports and exports).
AMESIS has identified the following as the most dangerous highways for truckers: Arco Norte, Mexico-Querétaro, Mexico-Puebla, Córdoba-Veracruz, Celaya-León Corridor, Circuito Exterior Mexiquense and Mexico-Pachuca. The most frequently stolen goods are groceries (24 percent), perishables (28 percent), shoes (13 percent); steel, packages, electronics and medicines (40 percent).
“Fortunately, the trucking industry in Mexico is growing a lot. CANACAR and many other associations are working together to standardize policies and make changes,” concludes Mr. Bustamante Medina.
NOM 087: the fatigue norm
Given the importance of having appropriate rest breaks during long-hauls, president, AMESIS, highlights how crucial it is for company managers and authorities to stick to the NOM 087 or “fatigue norm”.
The NOM 087 or “fatigue norm” became official on June 28, 2018. The norm was put in place as a way to regulate maximum driving times and mandatory breaks to avoid accidents and increase road safety.
The implementation of NOM-087 was a real breakthrough for trucking services and one of the most impactful measures ever taken to improve road safety nationally.
“We strictly abide by the norm in AMESIS, our clients can verify drivers by checking our digital logs. However, the Norm has not been implemented 100 percent because authorities lack the technological tools to enforce it, therefore some companies abide by it and some do not,” comments Mr. Ricardo Bustamante Medina.
The Norm specifies that drivers must rest 30 minutes for every five hours of uninterrupted driving and, depending on road conditions, drivers can distribute the break time over a period of five and half hours. Driving times are never cumulative and drivers must always fill out a service log and have it ready in case it is requested.
NOM-087 establishes that for tourist transport a second driver is required if the driving time exceeds nine hours. The maximum driving time for cargo is 14 hours and after that, the driver must have a break of at least eight uninterrupted hours, in addition to the 30-minute breaks every five hours.
Several government representatives and other instances participated in the elaboration of NOM-087, including Pemex, chambers and associations of the transport industry (CANACAR, CANAPAT, AMIA, ANPACT, ANTP, AMF, CONATRAM and Freno), licensing agencies; other chambers such as CANACINTRA and CONCAMIN; the Mexican Association of the Chemical Industry and research centers (IMP, IPN, UNAM and the National Academy of Medicine).
