Thread: American Trucking Asso. supports Mexican trucks & driver

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Clayton Boyce

Feb. 23, 2007 (703) 838-7902



ATA Supports NAFTA-Required Opening of US-Mexico Border
Pilot Project Announced by USDOT is a Step Toward Efficiency
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Trucking Associations supports the Administration’s long-awaited move to implement the safe, efficient and secure flow of cargo across the border between United States and Mexico, as required by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Today’s announcement by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters and Mexican Secretary of Communications and Transportation Luis Téllez implements NAFTA’s access provisions with a limited one-year pilot program. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mexican carriers operating in the United States must comply with all of the safety, environmental, insurance, homeland security and other regulatory requirements that U.S. carriers currently meet.

Mexican carriers must apply and receive authority from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration before operating in the United States, and will be allowed to transport only international cargo, not U.S. domestic cargo. Mexican carriers must prove they have insurance coverage and pay all state and federal operational taxes and registration fees that are applicable to U.S. carriers, according to DOT.

“Such regulation of Mexican carriers operating in the United States will ensure a level playing field in cross-border operations,” said Clayton Boyce, vice president of Public Affairs for the nation’s premier trucking industry trade group. “Ensuring a level playing field also requires that when U.S. carriers are to begin operations in Mexico, the permitting and regulatory processes put in place by the government of Mexico must be fair, clear and transparent.”

U.S. and Mexican officials announced Feb. 22 that truck safety inspectors working for FMCSA will be able to travel in Mexico to conduct safety audits of carriers seeking to operate in the United States, as required by Congress, indicating that both governments are committed to safety in cross-border trucking operations.

Today’s announcement about the pilot program recognized the need to improve efficiency at the border. Every day nearly $2.4 billion in trade flows between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Seventy-five percent of the value of that trade is carried by truck. Under NAFTA, U.S. exports to Mexico and Canada have increased 157 percent.

Background:

In a trade dispute in 1982, the United States limited Mexican trucks to commercial zones near the border. President George H.W. Bush signed the NAFTA treaty in 1992 and Congress ratified it in 1993. President Bill Clinton signed implementing legislation the same year, but trucking provisions were put on hold in 1995. In 2001 a NAFTA dispute resolution panel ruled that the United States could not ban trucks from Mexico. The same year Congress imposed 22 safety requirements that had to be met before opening the border. The U.S. DOT certified and its Inspector General confirmed that those requirements have been met.

Performing a single truck shipment between the United States and Mexico now requires three drivers and three tractors. A trailer crossing the border must be transferred from the originating carrier to a drayage carrier, cross the border and be transferred again to a carrier that can take it to its destination. There were about nine million such crossings in 2005. When the border is fully open, the originating carrier will be able to cross the border and deliver the shipment directly to its destination, which will reduce costs, inefficiency, pollution and transit times.


The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.

http://www.truckline.com/NR/exeres/4EF8 ... A545A6.htm


Contact:
Legislative Office (202) 544-6245 legislativeaffairs@trucking.org

Grassroots Program (202) 544-6245 grassroots@truckline.org

Office of Public Affairs
(703) 838-1873 media@trucking.org

A little old, but I don't know that much has changed:

"Union warns of drug-addicted Mexican truckers, unsafe rigs on corridor routes
Link to article here.

NAFTA superhighway to mean Mexican drivers, say Teamsters
Union warns of drug-taking truckers, unsafe rigs on planned trade routes
World Net Daily
August 28, 2006

WASHINGTON – The NAFTA superhighway, a north-south interstate trade corridor linking Mexico, Canada and the U.S., would mean U.S. truckers replaced by Mexicans, more unsafe rigs on American roads and more drivers relying on drugs for their long hauls, charges the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – the latest group to weigh in against the Bush administration plan.

The August issue of Teamster magazine features a cover story on the plan for an enlarged I-35 that will reach north from the drug capital border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 1,600 miles to Canada through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Duluth, while I-69 originating at the same crossing will shoot north to Michigan and across the Canadian border.

Public proposals for the superhighway calls for each corridor to be 1,200 feet wide with six lanes devoted to cars, four to trucks, with a rail line and utilities in the middle. Most of the goods will come from new Mexican ports being built on the Pacific Coast – ports being run by Chinese state-controlled shipping companies.

“Tens of thousands of unregulated, unsafe Mexican trucks will flow unchecked through out border – a very real threat to the safety of our highways, homeland security and good-paying American jobs,” writes Teamster President Jim Hoffa. “The Bush administration hasn’t given up on its ridiculous quest to open our border to unsafe Mexican trucking companies. In fact, Bush is quietly moving forward with plans to build the massive network of highways from the Mexican border north through Detroit into Canada that would make cross-border trucking effortless.”

So incensed was the union over the plan for the NAFTA superhighway that it sent investigative reporter Charles Bowden to Mexico for its August magazine report on the problems affecting Mexican drivers – problems that could soon come home to Americans with the plans for the new intercontinental highways.

Drivers interviewed for the magazine report say they are exploited by companies that force them to drive 4,500 kilometers alone over the course of five or six nights without sleep. How do they stay awake on such long hauls?

One driver says, “professional secret.” Another laughs, “magic dust.” Others mention “special chemicals.”

“And then they are off, a torrent of words and quips and smiles, and a knowing discussion of that jolt when a line of cocaine locks in,” writes Bowden. “They are all family men who run the highways at least 25 days a month and they are adamant about two things – that nobody can run these long hauls without cocaine and crystal meth, and now and then some marijuana to level out the rush. And the biggest danger on their endless runs comes from addicted Mexican truck drivers, which means all truck drivers.”

Mexican drivers, of course, earn considerably less than their U.S. counterparts – about $1,100 a month. Hoffa says the NAFTA superhighway plan would “allow global conglomerates to capitalize by exploiting cheap labor and non-existent work rules and avoiding potential security enhancements at U.S. ports.”

The drivers interviewed for Teamster magazine say they are completely at the mercy of their employers, the Mexican government and police – who are the first to rob them. All of those interviewed said they have killed people with their trucks on the highways and fled the accident sites.

Hoffa calls NAFTA an “unqualified disaster” up to now – and wonders why the nation continues to pursue the “free trade” agenda. Instead of creating new jobs, he said, it has cost 3 million in manufacturing alone. Instead of creating trade surpluses, America’s trade deficit is the worst ever, he says.

“If there’s a positive side to the disastrous legacy of NAFTA, it’s that it has made it a little harder for the free trade cabal to wrap their lies around subsequent job-killing deals,” says Hoffa. “While the White House and Senate still have a majority who continue to support the free trade agenda, their ranks have shrunk over the years – sometimes due to members of Congress changing their minds and sometimes due to voters changing their member of Congress.”

He adds: “If the Bush administration succeeds (with the NAFTA superhighway), American drivers and their families will be forced to share the roads with unsafe, uninsured trucks and millions of good-paying American jobs will be lost. And just one weapon of mass destruction in an unchecked container will be too many.”

http://satollparty.com/post/?p=390

If illegal aliens do not have to abide by our laws then there is no doubt that these mexican truckers will not have to abide by any dot standards or laws that american truckers are required by law to uphold.

I have a few DOT inspectors who I would recommend for the Job of inspecting the Mexican vehicles.......... hahahahaha and they are members of the California Highway Patrol........... I would bet almost 75 percent of those vehicles would be Red Tagged...... hahaha I would love to be able to go back to work and do that job....... hahahaha I used to do DOT inspections for the company I worked for as a heavy equipment mechanic....... California Highway Patrol is tough on them...... I never failed an inspection on the depots I was assigned to. Those trucks from Mexico are rattle traps..... I hope they have inspection stations along the highway 5 miles from the port of entry........ hahahaha