1st Mexican truck to enter US interior within days

[Guest CCI]

The first Mexican carrier is set to roll into the U.S. interior within days, but the Teamsters union and two California congressmen haven't given up on stopping the cross-border trucking program that had been stalled for years by safety concerns and political wrangling.

U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Bob Filner joined Teamsters President James Hoffa at the border Wednesday to take a bipartisan stand against the pilot project that will allow approved Mexican trucks to come deep into the United States. The first one will enter Texas on Friday.

Hunter is a San Diego-area Republican, while Filner is a Democrat whose district includes California's border with Mexico. They were surrounded at a news conference by more than 75 union members from at least five states.

Allowing Mexican trucking companies to deliver goods rather than transfer them to U.S. haulers at the border will put American jobs and highway safety at risk, they said.

"We're literally taking good jobs here in America and passing them over the line to Mexico," Hunter told the crowd, many holding signs reading "NAFTA kills" and "Stop the war on workers."

Washington on Friday approved the first Mexican trucking company, Transportes Olympic, nearly two decades after the hotly contested provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement set off lawsuits and a costly trade dispute between the neighboring countries.

Transportes Olympic's long-haul truck will cross the border Friday at Laredo, Texas, and head about 450 miles north to Garland, Texas, to deliver industrial equipment, said Guillermo Perez, the transport manager at the firm in the industrial Monterrey suburb of Apodaca, about two hours south of Laredo.

He dismissed claims that Mexican trucking companies and their drivers do not meet U.S. safety standards. He said his company has a strict, random drug testing policy for its 61 drivers and it has bought more than a dozen trucks in the past two years.

U.S. inspectors will check the trucks Thursday and will also have a database on truckers who have been approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Perez said.

"It's a really controlled program. There's no way to avoid the law," he said. "We are really prepared for this. It's not weird for me that some (U.S. trucking) companies are willing to shut it down because now they have to compete with us."

Perez declined to reveal how much his drivers earn.

The company was approved under the pilot program in 2009 before President Barack Obama's administration cancelled it. Mexico retaliated by placing tariffs on 99 agricultural products worth more than $2 billion annually.

Mexico cut the tariffs in half this summer after Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon approved an inspection and monitoring program for the companies that had been approved in 2009. The Mexican government has vowed to lift the rest once the truck heads out of the border zone Friday.

"We're really excited," Perez said. "Now we can provide door-to-door service, so it's about a 15 percent savings for companies."

Opponents say the fight isn't over.

Hunter has co-authored a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., that would stop the pilot program in three years and require Congress to vote on the issue again.

"We hope we can stop this before we have a disaster," Filner said.

Criminal activity has been a problem for years even within the U.S. government's strictest trusted carrier programs. Drug trafficking organizations have smuggled tons of drugs inside trucks driven by approved truckers coming from inspected and certified facilities inside Mexico.

Todd Spencer, the executive vice president of the Independent Drivers Association, which represents small independent trucking businesses, said 100,000 trucking jobs will be lost. Proponents say it will spur economic growth as companies save millions by sending the goods door-to-door.

"We certainly hope that it cannot be stopped," said James Clark, director of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce's Mexico Business Center. "The U.S. has been in violation of the NAFTA agreement ever since the beginning of the trucking issue. Mexican trucks have every right to come into the U.S. under NAFTA as long as the trucks are fully inspected to U.S. standards and the drivers speak English."

Supporters say especially strict safeguards have been implemented: Electronic devices will track the routes drivers take, how long they drive and how long they rest. Participating drivers must undergo national security and criminal background checks, and inspectors will administer oral English-proficiency exams.

Three U.S. trucking companies have been given the green light under the program to drive into Mexico, according to the Mexican government. But Hoffa said American truckers don't want to drive into Mexico because of the country's violent crime problem.

http://news.yahoo.com/1st-mexican-tr...184747565.html

[Dolomite_supafly]

[sarcism]Glad to see this is happening. After all it is too hard and dangerous to dig all those tunnels to transport drugs and illegals.[/sarcism]

The next major attack on US soil is going to come across our southern border. If they can transport the amount of drugs they do then transporting a 20 pound nuclear device would be nothing, if they haven't already. This Mexican trucking line is going to be nothing more than an expressway for all things illegal.

I'll make a prediction. Initially we are going to be searching the vehicles like we should be. Then there will be some complaints made about how the searching is causing grief for the Mexican trucking company. We will then have to scale back the searching to a point where it is useless. And at that point the trucks will be hauling illegal cargo.

Dolomite

[sigmtnman]

If our government were really concerned about terrorism, would they allow this?

No they would not.

Think about it for a minute.The same folks who say we need to worry about terrorism day in and day out, say it's ok for trucks from a country run by drug cartels to freely move about our country? Come on folks, it's time to start doing some simple math here.

If an attack happens from this, it is because they want it.

[DaveTN]

In tough economic times we just gave away more American jobs and made the pipeline for drugs and illegals a little less restrictive.

[Tncobra]

Smokey and the Bandit..o

Edited October 21, 2011 by Tncobra

[Guest CCI]

Drug and human smuggling.

Isabel: Mexican semi-truck found with 513 individuals

[gregintenn]

Maybe now I can get some Cuban cigars!!!

[mav]

I wonder if this is going to allow the Mexican fleet to do backhauls after they drop off their goods. Anybody know? It seems like that would really hit the domestic trucking industry hard.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Maybe now I can get some Cuban cigars!!!

They aren't all that great. At least the current productions ones I have had didn't live up to all the hype.

Dolomite

[Guest adamoxtwo]

I think our government is gasping for political positioning. Mexico is a drain on this country and our economy, yet we feel impelled to give them more money for defense against their drug cartels and still they ask for more and more and blame us for everything , and now we have given terrorists another avenue to enter our country. Funny what is the fastest growing religion in Mexico? That's right Islam. makes sense I suppose.

[dlm37015]

I wonder if this is going to allow the Mexican fleet to do backhauls after they drop off their goods. Anybody know? It seems like that would really hit the domestic trucking industry hard.

yes as long as it heads them back just like the canada truckers

[Timestepper]

I wonder if this is going to allow the Mexican fleet to do backhauls after they drop off their goods. Anybody know? It seems like that would really hit the domestic trucking industry hard.

Stands to reason that backhauls would be allowed, otherwise it wouldn't be economically feasible for Mexican trucks to come more than a couple hundred miles into the U.S. And you're right, it will hit us hard. I gave up the long-haul stuff a few years back (along with a good portion of my income) in order to stay within a days' drive of Knoxville simply for the extra time at home. There are drivers who don't have that option and they're going to suffer for it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is less freight to haul and the resulting drop in freight prices.