Certain to affect grocery store prices
U.S.- Mexico border region trucker shortage
But now, not so much. There is a severe trucker shortage. Transportation brokers estimate there are 1,500 trucks sitting in Nogales right now because they don't have drivers.
Entrepreneurs have had to hire Mexican truck drivers to run their trucks. These Mexican drivers have valid U.S. trucker licenses but they're required to go straight from Mexico to their destinations in the U.S., and this means they're not a real solution to the trucker shortage as they can't pick up produce in Nogales.
In Nogales, most of the winter produce gets sorted, boxed and shipped across the country but it is getting tougher to get these vegetables out of town. Insiders talking to azfamily.com expected that a lot of these produce companies are going to move out of Nogales and find other ways to transport their product. So a lot of local workers are going to be out of a job.
For now, this means transport rates are going sky high. A load from Nogales to L.A. used to cost $1,600. Now it’s $2,200 and will likely go even higher. The result will be higher prices in the grocery store and department stores for consumers.
