EP truck to be 1st from U.S. to go into Mexico today
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 09/14/2007 12:00:01 AM MDT


The first U.S. truck to go deep into Mexico under a binational pilot program is scheduled to make the trip today, officials at Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution said.
Stagecoach of El Paso received the first permit from the Mexican government to operate trucks beyond the border zone this month.

Thursday, Stagecoach President Scott McLaughlin reflected on the historic significance of the shipment.

"It's been 13 years since NAFTA, and this is the first truck," he said.

The Stagecoach truck was expected to leave El Paso on Thursday and make its way to Nogales, where it was to cross the border into Mexico by morning. It is carrying plastic pellets to a razor-making plant in Obregon, near Hermosillo.

Transportes Olympic, a Mexican carrier from Nuevo Leon and the first Mexican company to get a permit to drive into the United States, has sent one truck through Laredo so far. It delivered its cargo in North Carolina this week.

Most trucks now are limited to operating inside a 20-mile-wide border zone.

Under NAFTA, the border was to open up to trucks, but lawsuits by U.S. labor organizations and environmental groups stalled the process.

The current pilot program is designed to let up to 100, pre-screened Mexican carriers onto U.S. roads and up to 100 U.S. carriers onto Mexico roads for a year.

The pilot program's future was threatened this week when the Senate voted to cut its funding. That bill is headed to conference to be reconciled with the House version, which doesn't have a comparable amendment.

Officials of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in Washington, D.C., said that the pilot program goes on and that more permits will be issued soon.

"We're still moving forward. We're clearly disappointed with the Senate vote," said Melissa DeLaney, a spokeswoman for Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in Washington, D.C.

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I do not think we should be driving our trucks in Mexico if we are not going to allow them to come in here. This is just going to encourage our government to push forward with NAFTA. I do not think we should let them make us look unfair and self serving, which in my opinion will happen if we don't let this company know we do not approve of their actions.

There is still alot about trucks crossing the border that is a security risk and I think it is wrong for a U.S. company to go ahead with this program, if one does it and gets away with it, it will only encourage other to follow suit. We need to try to stop it before it gets to big to stop. We will not know what is coming back on these trucks. I have heard some pretty bad stories about the trucking industry in Mexico, and I think it is dangerous to send our drivers down there in the current environment. The trucking companies in Mexico are probably not very pleased with our trucking industry right now and I am afraid any American driver could be a target.

I would venture to say if one of their drivers refuses the load they will lose their job, so here we go again the snowball effect, I doubt this is a union company, and the owner is going to try to make his money with no regards to the industry or the people that will be adversely affected by their actions.

Anyone who would like to call and let this company know we do not approve of his actions and his total disregard for the safety of his drivers or the people of this country I have their number.

7167 Chino Drive El Paso, Tx. 79915

Phone 915-779-8315

Fax 915-779-8890