Garros Inspections: 100 down, 4,900 to go

By their own admission, Garros is expecting to process about 5,000 truckloads at the World Trade Bridge in their first year of managing the operations. Also by their own estimate, they fully expect to be processing about 10,000 truckloads a year by the third year of their 10-year contract.

So far, according to today's LMT, they have processed about 100 truckloads since July. They still have 4,900 more to go to fullfill their predictions. The city was warned that local brokers might, in essance, boycot the facilities if another broker was handed to contract. It would be interesting to find out how many truckloads of perishables passing through Laredo have NOT used the facilites.

Excerpted from today's LMT

The warehouses — one at Colombia Solidarity Bridge and one at World Trade Bridge — began operating in early July and are expected to draw more traffic from shippers importing perishable goods such as fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Only a fraction of the trucks that passed through those bridges in July and August also used the inspection facilities — about 100 so far — while upwards of 6,000 trucks cross northbound each day.

But Raquel San Miguel, a partner with Garros Services, said the group expects traffic to start slow and pick up over time.

“We always projected that it would be slow the first year,” she said in an interview.

“But the mere fact that we had this available to the trade community and the City of Laredo — we always kept that as the priority.”

The facilities were completed last year at a cost of $1.9 million, using funding from 2005 city bonds.

Laredo City Council chose a proposal from Garros to manage the warehouses in November, but the 10 year-contract was not approved until April of this year.

In addition to San Miguel, the group’s partners include fellow customs brokers Eduardo Garza Robles and Salvador Rosas Quintanilla.
Mayor Raul Salinas told attendees of Thursday’s ceremony that opening the warehouses was a step toward solidifying the city’s leadership in international trade.