I describe this story on the basis of my journey from Hermosillo to Monterrey with one truck driver in September 2019 and some other truck journeys which I have already made in different places in the country whilst hitchhiking from city to city.
As there is no real railroad system, almost 100% of Mexican traffic, passenger as well as freight transport, takes place on the roads. As Mexico is five to six times bigger than Germany distances of more than a 1,000 kilometres between large cities are not unusual. Furthermore Mexican roads (including highways) are full of holes, crossing animals and other dangers. That reduces the theoretical maximum speed limit of 110 km/h on many major highways and makes the travel times, especially for trucks, even longer.
Let's take a look at the live on road of a truck driver. Of course, I can only give a limited insight based on my own impressions. Although according to law there are some regulations which control the working conditions for truck drivers. Nevertheless there seems to be no need for logistics companies to respect these. My journey from Hermosillo to Monterrey covered a distance of approx. 1,670 kilometres and took us a little bit more than 36 hours. That means, my truck driver, let me call him Carlos, completed this trip without sleeping at all. Our average speed whilst we were underway was in between 70 and 80 km/h. This was due to the fact that some of the road surface was in poor condition, the truck was heavily loaded (40 tons) and outside temperatures were high so Carlos was worried that the tires would overheat and burst if going faster. Furthermore we transported hazardous materials, chemicals and residues from industry. This was also the alleged reason why Carlos had to deliver his load as quickly as possible and his employer wouldn't let him take a break on the journey. The dangerous materials had to be disposed of as soon as possible, too long a stay on the road would be too dangerous.
What made it even worse. We started our journey at dusk, between 6 and 7 o’clock and arrived in Monterrey at dawn, between 7 and 8 o’clock. The 36-hour drive therefore included two complete nights. Of course, Carlos hadn't woken up from a good restful sleep one hour before the start of the journey, but was probably awake the whole day. And after I finally left the truck together with my belongings, he continued his journey for another few hours.
Let me get right to the obvious. Carlos had to throw in drugs every few hours to keep up so long without sleep. Carlos was 27 years old at that time, one year older than me. He told me that he has been taking drugs since three years as he was involved in three major accidents as he had fallen asleep so he jumped on taking drugs as many colleagues and drivers all over the country do on a regular basis. What drug are we talking about: The Mexican drug drivers all call it "cristal". English terms to describe the officially very illegal drug methamphetamine include blue, crystal, ice, meth or speed. I won‘t go into the details of this drug which is the most commonly used one among truck drivers in Mexico, usually by heating it up in a crystal (light) bulb and inhaling the smoke. Methamphetamine is produced illegally in Mexico and easy to get for truck drivers along their journeys. Furthermore it is comparably cheap, a few dollars are enough for a daily ration or even several days, of course fully dependent on consumption.
One effect of methamphetamine is that it causes a lack of appetite. So it comes that Carlos‘ eating habits are very exceptional and he has a thick belly although he eats much less food than he should. During our journey he just had one cookie as I bought some and offered it to him. However, after finishing every one of his long several-days trips Carlos fills his stomach with all kinds of food before trying to make up for the chronic lack of sleep.
On the way we made just a few stops: At a military post, which are very common in the northern part of Mexico, close to the US border. I had to get off the truck and walk across the post whilst a short revision of the truck took place. Furthermore we had to stop at a tyre changing service station as one tyre lost a lot of air. Mexican trucks as well as cars are driven until they fall apart completely. There is no TÜV, no annual inspection which pulls vehicles out of service, which does not contribute to general safety. Completely worn tyres, non-functioning lights or missing safety belts are normal. As for the seat belt, I didn't have a functional one on my passenger seat on that ride, Carlos had one to my knowledge, but didn't use it. Even though the law requires drivers and co-drivers in Mexico to wear seat belts and a large number of signs along motorways indicate that, the majority of Mexicans do not care. Even more surprising than this cultural problem is the fact that children and passengers in general on the back seat are not required to use a seat belt. Unfortunately I had to catch myself on numerous trips in Mexico, that I felt it as a feeling of freedom not to be strapped on, although this should be a rather stupid thought in traffic.
Common warning signs with the seat belt symbol include sayings like „Your family is waiting for You!“. Carlos comes from a tiny border town in the central north of Mexico and has a wife as well as a seven-year-old daughter there. I can‘t really say that he lives there as he spends roughly 30 of 31 days a month on the road. When I met him he told me that he hasn‘t seen his family for a month and he longed for it very much. He hoped to be able to drive there after he had got rid of his current delivery. He hopes - if his employer sends him to another part of the country with a new assignment, this has priority. Carlos can't really plan ahead, but takes life just as his company dictates. Vacation days are also not necessarily a legal requirement for a employer-employee-relationship in Mexico. In many companies people have to gain some days of holidays as a reward hat can only be claimed after a few years of constant work.
Carlos tells me he thinks of his daughter every kilometre he completes. Yet he likes his job, he likes being alone, driving many miles. In addition, the payment is better than the alternatives available to him. For the approximately 1,000-mile-trip I took with him he receives roughly 6,000 Mexican pesos (about 300 US Dollars). A part of this money he uses to pay for the education of his daughter. She can go to a private school now and doesn‘t have to be stuck in the bad public school system as he told me. Other portions of his income end up in the purchase of cigarettes and drugs. He never told his family about the fact that he started smoking or taking crystal. Maybe they suspect it.
There would be an alternative for him to work as a truck driver in his home town for the hospital to transport ill people. He could see his family more often and didn‘t have to absolve these long journeys. But payment would be worse. In my eyes he seemed more anxious about the change of life this would mean for him than the income reduction when he talked about it. Maybe he couldn‘t get rid of his drug problem as easy as he claimed all the time. So new problems could arise.
Carlos furthermore has an incredible hatred for the „Gringos“, the Americans. He does not even talk about the US, he just describes it as „el otro lado“, the other side like if it was like hell. He can‘t cross the border like many other Mexicans, but he's not interested in setting one foot on US soil one day either. I don‘t expect Carlos to understand macro-economical systems and history of the world nor international politics and the complex relationship between the US and Mexico. It is a fact that Carlos is not the only Mexican with an opinion like this one, which is why the question arises to what extent this cultural attitude is justified and how a more moderate and open world view could be spread.
Coming back to the non-existing TÜV and the broken tyres: Carlos had to advance the amount for repairing the tyre out of his own pocket, hoping but not 100% certain that he would get it back from his company. In addition, he has to play the mechanic regularly and if something is wrong with the engine or the truck fails for other reasons, he has to help himself. There is simply no ADAC with an all-inclusive breakdown service for repairs of all kinds. Towards the end of our journey, in the middle of the second night, it happened that we suddenly stopped in the middle of the track. Luckily we had met one of Carlos' colleagues shortly before, who was driving in a convoy with us to the same destination due to a similar delivery. After two hours of work, we were finally able to continue our journey. The problem this time had been a self-caused one. Carlos had not filled one of the two diesel tanks full enough. So it had to be refilled from the tank of the colleague's truck into our tank with the help of hoses, buckets and plastic containers.
A not insignificant part of the diesel did not get into the opening but landed on the street and flowed from there into the surroundings. Used plastic containers were also thrown into the ditch and because we were already in the process, a small spring cleaning was carried out and all plastic bottles, cans and packaging, which were just in the driver's cockpit were carelessly thrown out into nature. It is unfortunately a common problem that many Mexicans, and especially a professional group like truck drivers show no responsibility in dealing with nature. Some are ignorant because of a lack of education, some are careless because of indifference and some are convinced that they are doing something good because someone else comes back and collects the garbage. So they create a job, help someone earn money. No further comment.
Carlos made many phone calls and texted many messages during our trip. Apart from taking drugs this is another method preventing him to fall asleep. However, on many sections of the route in Mexico there is not even a telephone signal. Carlos has no entertainment system in his truck, no radio. He is thinking about buying one, for a long time already, but it costs money. His company doesn't equip his truck with it.
Why isn't there any progress in improving the working conditions of truck drivers in the 21st century where everything seems to be connected and possible? Maybe there is such an oversupply of truck drivers that anyone can be replaced simply and easily, maybe it is the fear of truck drivers to loose their job if they would demonstrate against how they are treated, maybe most truck driver do not even think about the possibility of changing something. Even though I do not know the official accident statistics of the country, I am aware that serious and fatal accidents are part of everyday life. It is unlikely that the truck driver's employer will be held responsible because the driver was involved in an accident due to fatigue or other reasons. He probably cares much more about the cargo and a truck that needs to be replaced. In my opinion there would probably have to be an organized nationwide protest that would cause national, if not international, outcry before anything would change. There remains the big question of who would be interested in initiating such a protest, what the motives would be and whether it would actually lead to an improvement in the working conditions of truck drivers.
Of course there are also truck drivers in Mexico who don't take any drugs, who receive a fair payment, who rest after a few hours of driving and who receive support by their employers in case of a breakdown. However, I deliberately focused my portrayal on some of the unsightly sides of Mexican truck traffic.
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