LAREDO, Texas — From the time the truck rolled up to the U.S. Customs checkpoint from the Mexican half of the World Trade Bridge until it drove forward into the 100-degree sun of south Texas, only 27 seconds passed. While other trucks with trailers can languish for hours as federal agents screen them for anything from methamphetamine and cocaine to counterfeit and pirated goods, the four novel lanes for “free and secure trade for commercial vehicles,” or FAST program, acts a sort of TSA PreCheck for the bridge’s most frequent truck travelers, which comes to about 20,000 daily.
Considering that the bridge itself transports more dollars of trade than any other land port in the country and that Port Laredo is responsible for nearly half of U.S. trade with Mexico, every minute counts. Officials estimate that $1 million worth of trade traverses the border every minute. Even before…
