Mexican truck pilot program failing due to lack of interest

[jmowreader]

I picked up the latest copy of The Trucker (www.thetrucker.com), a newspaper for commercial drivers. They've been following the Mexican truck pilot program pretty closely.

Understand that not just any Mexican company can get accepted to the program. There is an investigation and a pre-authority safety audit to ensure Americans will be safe around Mexican trucks. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration wanted 46 carriers to participate in the program and to do 4100 truck inspections. So far, there have been seven carriers approved with a total of nine trucks and eleven drivers. They have made a total of 146 crossings and their trucks have been inspected 135 times. And so far, of all these inspections there has been one problem found: a burned-out clearance light on a trailer.

Four carriers have been doing most of the carriage:

Baja Express has one straight truck and one driver, and has made five crossings into border states and 30 into the "commercial zone"--five miles from the point of entry.

Transportes del Valle runs one truck and one driver, and stays within the border states.

Moises Alvarez Perez has one truck and one driver, and stays in the border states

Transportes Olympic has one truck driven by a two-man team, and runs in the Southeast.

For a variety of reasons Mexican truckers are reticent to participate in this program, key among them that Mexico subsidizes diesel and there's a significant risk of getting to your destination then finding you have to go back to Mexico empty. A Mexican driver can only take freight from Mexico to a US terminal, and from a US terminal back to Mexico.

Mexican truckers have long run in the commercial zone. The government notwithstanding, I think this situation will continue because it works well.

[pampango]

1. That is good news. Thanks for posting it, jmowreader.

And to think Mexico was collecting over $2 billion a year in punitive tariffs on American imports because we weren't complying with our trucking agreement.

Looks like Newt was wrong on this one:

Gingrich wins SC primary, upsets Romney

"150,000 Mexican trucks are awaiting NAFTA approval to role on US soil putting over 100,000 Americans out of work. Watch your insurance premiums go up to cover these beat up old trucks which do not have insurance."

http://news.yahoo.com/gingrich-wins-sc-primary-upsets-romney-002523122.html

Looks like it is more like 4 Mexican trucks (rather than 150,000) have rolled onto US soil. Of course, those other 149,996 Mexican trucks may just be hiding some where until we are not paying attention. Be afraid, be very afraid.

[jmowreader]

3. Newt is more full of shit than he knows

The article has a photo of the first Mexican truck (the Transportes Olympic rig) to cross the border. It is a Freightliner Cascadia. If this guy has the first Cascadia to roll off the assembly line, it's a 2007 truck. More than likely, this guy bought a new truck to run cross-border.

Consider:
In Mexico, the truck stops and truck repair shops are spaced farther apart than they are in the US.
In Mexico, there is a LOT of highway robbery; truckers are pulled over at gunpoint and their trailers emptied at a far higher rate than in the US.
In Mexico, if you are a trucker and you get in an accident with a four-wheeler they throw you in jail until the investigation has been completed. This even if you are absolutely not at fault--you driving down the road at the speed limit and a four-wheeler traveling in excess of the legal speed limit, or traveling legally in a state with a split speed limit, hits you from behind, say.

Of all the places in the world I can think of to run a "beat up old truck," Mexico is not one of them.

I've been in the commercial zone around Laredo, Texas. I saw plenty of Mexican trucks. Most of them were newer than mine.


Besides...the way I read this quote, there are 50,000 Mexicans who can drive two trucks at once. Ya gotta admit that's a pretty neat trick if you can do it.

[Missycim]

2. I am glad its failing

I dont want what little jobs there is left in this country to go to drivers that get paid less.