Thread: Tighter Mexican-vehicle oversight urged

Tighter Mexican-vehicle oversight urged
By Angela Greiling Keane
Bloomberg News

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.22.2007
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Transportation Department needs tighter controls on Mexican truck and bus drivers with driving convictions, and a greater ability to inspect buses on the border, the agency's Inspector General's Office said.

The office on Tuesday released its assessment of U.S. readiness to open its border to Mexican commercial vehicles, as the Transportation Department prepares to begin a one-year pilot program to give some of that nation's trucks and drivers open access to U.S. roads.

"These improvements are needed more urgently than ever, because Mexican motor carriers may be granted long-haul authority in the near future," Rebecca Anne Batts, the Washington-based department's acting assistant inspector general for surface and maritime programs, said in the report.

On Friday, the United States said it planned to start the pilot program, involving as many as 100 Mexican trucking companies, as soon as Mexico is ready to reciprocate on access to roads. The U.S. House of Representatives voted in July to block the program, announced in February by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. The U.S. Senate hasn't voted on the measure. Brian Turmail, a Transportation Department spokesman, didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comments.

Letting Mexican trucks operate in the United States would benefit companies such as Con-Way Inc., the largest U.S. regional trucking company. In July, Con-Way bought closely held Contract Freighters Inc., which said 40 percent of its business begins or ends in Mexico. Celadon Group Inc., an Indianapolis-based trucking firm, has a division in Mexico and might gain business under an open-border policy.

Now, loads from Mexico must be transferred to U.S. trucks and drivers when the freight enters the country. The trial plan would save time and money for Mexican trucking companies by letting some of them move shipments around the United States themselves.

Public Citizen and some other highway-safety advocates, as well as the Teamsters union, which represents some U.S. truck drivers, have argued that Mexican trucks and their drivers aren't safe for U.S. roads.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/business/197548.php

Related story here:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/busi ... truck.html

Mexican trucks on US roadways thats great news for illegal drugs!!! Can we expect the drop in prices for all illegal drugging needs??

This is dispicable! Some illegals that drive them landscaping vans and trucks are lunatics I can only imagine them in semis!!!