Mexico Trucker Online Articles

FMCSA approves 3rd Mexican carrier for US Cross border operations

Safe, modern, well maintained Mexican trucks such as this one are applying for authority to operate in the US despite the best efforts of some who oppose them

]Despite the best efforts of OOIDA and others to force FMCSA to reject another applicant for the Mexico Cross Border Pilot Program, another carrier has been green lighted to participate in the program.

Baja Express Transportes, based in Tijuana, Mexico, has been granted provisional authority to operate throughout the United States. The company has one driver and one truck, a 2004 Freightliner cleared for participation.

Some may remember that Baja Express Transportes was accused of “lying” on their OP-1 (MX) application by OOIDA, an organization who has taken “untruthfulness” to a higher art form in regards to Mexican trucks when the owner of Baja Express Transportes failed to list an association with a US based Mexican carrier on his application, an oversight quickly remedied to the chagrin and outrage of OOIDA.

Abandoned by their puppet Congressmen who finally realized the futility and illegality of trying to prevent the US from abiding by their international obligations, OOIDA, the Teamsters and their allies among the various bogus safety groups have resorted to using the 10 day comment period required before these trucks can be given the green light, to stymie the efforts of the applicants and the FMCSA.

Fortunately, this time, they failed…… Again.

Controlled delivery of “Magic Jalapenas” results in arrest of 6 in North Carolina

The controlled delivery by CBP officers of a load of "Magic Jalapenos" results in the arrest of 6 in Charlotte NC

Upon inspection, officers discovered what would later be determined to be 3200 pounds of marijuana packed in and around the pallets of Jalapeno peppers which, according the the Bill of Lading, was consigned to A&D Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale in Charlotte North Carolina.

Now immediately, OOIDA jumped in on this story proclaiming in big headlines FEDS: Mexican truck delivered peppers, pot to North Carolina, realizing that most people look at the headline and don’t bother to read any further. Such is their agenda of opposing Mexican trucks and drivers in any way they can think of, including misinforming their readers. But, I digress!

According to the complaint filed in Federal Court for the Western District of North Carolina, which you can download here, Homeland Security Investigators in Laredo decided to put their heads together with their counterparts in Charlotte NC an conduct a “controlled delivery” of the load of magic jalapenos.

Now, at this point, OOIDA wants you to assume this was a Mexican truck attached to the Cross Border Pilot Program that they detest so much, but evidence doesn’t support that assumption. All we know is that a Mexican truck, it could have been a drayage truck or one of the legacy carriers, arrived at the border and was CAUGHT… That’s the operative word here. They were caught and the contraband seized as is usually what happens in cases like this. The system worked. At the point of seizure, the load, probably only a trailer, was under the control of Homeland Security.

Five days later, the load arrives in Charlotte NC in the hands of two HSI agents posing as truck drivers. One of the suspects, later identified as Joel Manuel de la Cruz, contacted the agents and directed them to the facility. Once there, he also directed them into the dock and the unloading began under the watchful eyes of the two HSI undercover officers.

Officers also observed the suspects unloading the ganja from the crates of peppers and loading it into a white van which was later stopped and all suspects taken into custody.

Their first court appearance was this past Monday in Federal Court in Charlotte.

So to wrap it all up, the system we have in place at the southern border worked. The load was stopped before it entered the interior of the country. Opponents of Mexican trucks will continue to try and convince you that this is the norm. The manner in which all the drugs come into the country. But CBP officers on the border will tell a different story. That drugs by the truckload are an exception to the rule, not the rule. But then, OOIDA and TEAMSTERS, will not tell you this. It would ruin the fantasy they have developed for themselves against Mexican trucks.

Texas DPS Weigh/Inspection station set to open in summer 2012

This new "super coop" scheduled to open in the summer of 2012 will continue the Texas DPS and FMCSA policy of inspecting each and every truck crossing the border in Texas

OOIDA finally got something at least “half-right” concerning the Mexican Cross Border Pilot Program when they said in a recent comment;

FMCSA intends to give special treatment to Mexico–domiciled motor carriers under the proposed pilot program, not ‘national treatment’ as required under NAFTA.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is set to put into service the first of it’s kind “Super Coop” at the Colombia border crossing in Laredo Texas this summer. This will be the first of it’s kind within the state of Texas and has been built to inspect “all trucks” crossing into the United States from Mexico.

This must be the “special treatment” that OOIDA unwittingly mentioned in a recent article.

The inspection stations, which a CBP officer and former Federal DOT officer described as “a tremendous waste of money and a testament to stupidity” features 4 pull though inspection bays, 2 haz-mat trap pits, weight in motion and static scales and a large parking area for Mexican drivers to park and conduct their business with the troopers.

The facility has been built about a 1/4 mile from the old inspection facility and once in operation, will be fully staffed and operational during the hours the commercial crossing is open, as is required under congressional rules.

Special treatment for the Mexicans? You bet your ass and nothing in the NAFTA truck rules prescribes this treatment. And there is nothing remotely resembling this for our Canadian cousins who cross the northern border at will.

So the inspection of “each and every truck” that crosses the southern border in Texas, specifically Laredo, will continue at an much higher rate and frequency. And as the same CBP officer I spoke with further stated, “The stupidity of it is that it’s not needed. The trucks we see crossing here are in better shape than what you guys are driving”. I couldn’t agree with him more.

So remember kiddies and kiddettes, the next time Hoffa says something about those “dangerous, dirty, unsafe Mexican trucks” or OOIDA mentions something about the Mexicans getting special treatment or being giving “waivers” of our safety rules, and even when Dale “Trucking Bozo” Sommer’s and other radioheads regale you with tales of no regulations in Mexico, Mexican CDL’s available on street corners and no databases in Mexico, they’re all taking advantage of you ignorance and blowing smoke up your asses as they have been for the past 15 years.

Each year, Mexico honors Irish-American Saint Patrick’s Brigade (San Patricios)

From behind the bullet-scarred walls of an ancient fortress, the wail of bagpipes and a thundering bass drum echoed through a plaza in the center of Mexico City.

Passers-by stopped in their tracks. Children craned for a look as a platoon of Mexican bagpipers marched through the gates in tribute to a strange and divisive chapter of Irish-American history.

The bagpipers play each month in honor of the St. Patrick Battalion, a group of 600 Irish-American soldiers who switched sides to fight for Mexico in the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War. Mexico lost half its territory to the United States as a result of the war.

To the United States, the deserters are traitors. But to Mexicans, the “Irish martyrs” are heroes, honored in street names, plaques and St. Patrick’s Day celebrations around the country. The battalion’s name is written in gold letters in the chamber of Mexico’s House of Representatives, and a ceremony is held in a Mexico City park every year to commemorate the executions of the group’s members.

“It’s a little bit of a weird twist on history . . . and quite romantic for the Irish community,” said Myles Doherty, the Irish consul in Mexico City.

Immigrants turned soldiers

The battalion’s story begins with Ireland’s Potato Famine of the 1840s, which forced thousands of Irish to emigrate to the United States and other countries.

Read more

An Inconvenient Truth – Blame the GOP, not Obama for $4.00 a gallon gas

Listening to the callers to the Steve Sommers show last night on ATN (America’s Trucking Network) railing against President Obama, accusing him of everything from being an “illegitimate President” to being singularly responsible for the high cost of gas and diesel (some nefarious conspiracy to wean Americans off of fossil fuels), I found an interesting article by Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor during the Clinton Administration, who points the finger of blame squarely where it belongs.

Gas prices continue to rise, which is finally giving Republicans an issue. Mitt Romney is demanding the president open up more domestic drilling; the super PAC behind Rick Santorum just released a new ad in Louisiana blasting the president on gas prices; and the GOP is attacking the White House on the Keystone XL Pipeline.

But the rise in gas prices has almost nothing to do with energy policy. It has everything to do with America’s continuing failure to adequately regulate Wall Street. But don’t hold your breath waiting for Republicans to tell the truth.

As I’ve noted before, oil supplies aren’t being squeezed. Over 80 percent of America’s energy needs are now being satisfied by domestic supplies. In fact, we’re starting to become an energy exporter. Demand for oil isn’t rising in any event. Demand is down in the U.S. compared to last year at this time, and global demand is still moderate given the economic slowdowns in Europe and China.

But Wall Street is betting on higher oil prices in the future — and that betting is causing prices to rise. The Street is laying odds that unrest in Syria will spill over into other countries or that tensions with Iran will affect the Persian Gulf, and that global demand will pick up as American consumers bounce back to life.

These bets are pushing up oil prices because Wall Street firms and other big financial players now dominate oil trading.

Financial speculators historically accounted for about 30 percent of oil contracts, producers and end users for about 70 percent. But today speculators account for 64 percent of all contracts.

Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — the federal agency that regulates trading in oil futures, among other commodities — warns that too few financial players control too much of the oil market. This allows them to push oil prices higher and higher — not only on the basis of their expectations about the future but also expectations about how high other speculators will drive the price.

In other words, a relatively few players with very deep pockets are placing huge bets on oil — and you’re paying.

Chilton estimates that drivers of small cars like Honda Civics are paying an extra $7.30 every time they fill up — and that money is going into the pockets of Wall Street speculators. Drivers of larger vehicles like the Ford Explorer are paying speculators $10.41 when they fill up.

Funny, but I don’t hear Republicans rail against Wall Street speculators. Could this have anything to do with the fact that hedge funds and money managers are bankrolling the GOP as never before?

Wall Street isn’t bankrolling Democrats nearly as much this time around because the Street is still smarting from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law pushed by the Democrats, and from the president’s offhand remark in 2010 calling the denizens of the Street “fat cats.”

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is trying to limit how much speculators can bet in oil futures — a power it was given by Dodd-Frank. It issued a rule in October, but it won’t take effect for another year.

Meanwhile, Wall Street has gone to court to stop the rule. It’s already won a stay.

As rising gas prices start wagging the election-year dog, the president should let America know what’s really causing prices to rise.

Those who would attack the President over energy policy have it flat out wrong. The United States is producing in access of 20% more crude than during the Bush Administration, despite the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. And while I totally support the Keystone XL pipeline project, that is a long term, not a short term solution to our energy problems.

Based on what Robert Reich truthfully points out, there is a short term solution that would immediately bring the American public some relief from high gas prices. Enforce the damned Dodd-Frank Reform Law.

But we can’t do that because the Wall Street Republicans went to court and got an injunction against the law before it was even in effect.

A little-noted provision of that 2010 law, which was passed in reaction to the 2008 financial crisis, requires an even littler-noticed federal agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to establish “position limits” for commodity and swaps traders. Wall Street will not allow that.

But we have an ally in Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who along with 67 of his Congressional colleagues, sent a letter to the CFTC demanding them to do its job.

According to this article,

If enacted in a sensible fashion, position limits would go a long way toward easing consumer pain at the gas pump. That’s because speculators have played a major role in driving up gas prices. That’s not just empty rhetoric, or conspiracist theorizing, but proven fact. A recently updated study by the staff of the St. Louis Federal Reserve (get your copy here), found that speculation “played a significant role in the oil price increase between 2004 and 2008 and its subsequent collapse.”

It’s reasonable to conclude that speculators are also playing a key role in the current oil-price run-up, in addition to the sabre-rattling over Iran and other geopolitical and economic factors. A study by none other than Goldman Sachs has found that each million barrels’ worth of speculation adds 10 cents to every barrel of oil.  There were about 233.9 million crude oil contracts that were the subject of speculation as of Feb. 28. Thus speculation added $23.39 to the price of a $108 barrel of oil, which translates to 56 cents a gallon at the pump. Without speculation, Forbes writer Bob Lenzner notes, a barrel of oil would have cost as little as $74.61, and the cost of fuel would have been $3.12 a gallon on Feb. 28, and not the price it was actually commanding in the northeastern U.S.: $3.68.

It’s way past time to stop blaming the President for a situation he had no control over and start demanding Congress and the President to come down on the speculators and Wall Street hustlers who have put America into the position it is in today.

Teamsters “Bizarre” response to FMCSA on Mexican truck issue

Mexican trucks such as these two are the targeted obsession of Teamsters, OOIDA and their allies whose lawsuit against allowing them legally required access has now been consolidated by the DC Court of Appeals

Today, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters responded to the FMCSA’s response to the Teamster’s frivolous lawsuit with a totally bizarre brief, full of spin and out and out lies. Nothing we haven’t come to expect from the opponents of Mexican trucks and of America fulfilling the promises we made to our southern neighbor.

The irrelevant little man who is President of Teamsters stated;

“The FMCSA makes the bizarre argument that our members aren’t harmed by a program that opens the border to low-paid truck drivers and dangerous, dirty trucks. Try telling that to our members.

U.S. commercial truck drivers must follow all U.S. safety regulations while Mexican drivers only need to follow selected Mexican regulations. The government is flat-out wrong to say Mexican trucks and drivers meet equivalent standards.”

So Hoffa begins his latest tirade with two well worn out lies, which have been totally debunked, proven false time and time again. Mexican trucks and their drivers MUST follow the same rules and regulations as US and Canadian drivers when operating in this country.

Dissecting the TEAMSTERS brief

The brief filed yesterday by the Teamsters doesn’t present any new arguments, instead reveals how the opponents of Mexican truck access are reduced to “grasping at straws” in their continuing failure to stop this legal obligation this country has under the rules of NAFTA.

In response to FMCSA’s claim that Teamsters and OOIDA do not have “standing” to file these actions in Federal Court, since they cannot prove “harm” to plaintiffs, TEAMSTERS have of course come up with TWO PEOPLE who have been IRREPARABLY HARMED, by the presence of an additional 3 Mexican drivers and 2 Mexican trucks in the US. The brief states;

Petitioners declarations establish that the safety of drivers and trucks disproportionatelyaffects IBT members, particularly members, such as declarants Deane Allen and Jack Cawood ,who drive in the west, southwest, and south – where much pilot-program activity will occur.

IBT members are not just any citizens, but those most likely to beharmed by highway safety problems

Opening Br. 19. Finally, FMCSA concedes that two IBT members have submitted declarations that “suggest injury or risk of injury” from pollution.

An IBT member whose asthma is aggravated by diesel exhaust from trucks regularly travels on a highway with significant trucking traffic from the border zone. Cawood Dec., ¶¶3, 8. He – and the many other IBT members who drive trucks in the west, southwest, and south (Kimball Dec., ¶7) – will be particularly harmed by the pollution the pilot program causes. That is enough to satisfy the requirement that NEPA petitioners show that they are “uniquely susceptible to injury.”

Petitioners have submitted detailed declarations from IBTmembers who live and drive in the area the pilot program will most affect and who are subject to the safety and environmental effects FMCSA has ignoredSo Mr. Caewood, a TEAMSTER, who has asthma, and who drives a diesel truck, would be “harmed” by the addition of a few more Mexican trucks on the nations highways?  We don’t think so!

The Teamsters brief erroneously claims the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration breaks the following laws:

• It waives a law that trucks must display certain proof that they meet federal safety standards.

Gunboats on the Rio Grande – The $4.14 million dollar response to politicians hysteria

Here's the latest waste of your taxpayer dollars. This 34 foot "shallow water interceptor" with armored plating, bulletproof glass, 6 7.62 caliber machine guns, .50 caliber Barrett sniper rifles costs the taxpayers of Texas $690,000 each. Money wasted to make the politicians feel good and win browning points during this election year.

Hey Texas! What do you think about the latest waste of your hard earned taxpayer dollars? The $4.14 million dollar boondoggle!

Gov. “Slick” Rick Perry’s Texas Highway Patrol just received their first-of-six armored “Shallow Water Interceptor” gunboat. Why does the Texas Highway Patrol all of a sudden need a fleet of armed-to-the-gills gunboats? For the same reason Texas usually arms itself up: MEXICANS!

That right folks, the fear mongers in Austin have brought home the pork big time in the form of the purchase of 6, 34 foot “Interceptor” river patrol craft powered by 3, 300 hp Mercury outboards. They also have bulletproof plating and six machine guns apiece, not unlike the river patrol boats the U.S. Navy used during the Vietnam War. each boat costs $690,000.00 and will be named after fallen DPS troopers.

They’ll be operated by the Texas Department of Public Safety to patrol the Rio Grande river, which has a depth of 2 feet in some places up to a maximum of 24 in other locations. The international boundary between the US and Mexico splits the river in most places.

This should make the wingnuts happy, this unnecessary militarization of our southern border to confront a manufactured “crisis”. The so-called “spillover violence” on the US/Mexican border is largely a product of the imaginations of politicians and others who have used the concept for political gain.

How long will it be before the newly formed Highway Patrol Tactical Marine Unit which will eventually number 40 DPS officers joins those in the Border Patrol who have no hesitation at opening fire with their machines guns at people and claiming they were having rocks thrown at them?

Oh well, the Mexican military has assets on their side of the border which can take one of these out if they start shooting into Mexico.

What’s the problem with the Cross Border Pilot Program with Mexico?

Anna Amos, director of safety programs for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, left, and Marcelo Perez, a transportation safety investigator for the agency, addressed Mexican truckers in Tijuana on Friday. —Photo – Alfredo Ortíz -SUT

The story in Friday’s edition of the San Diego Union Tribune brought to light the low level of participation in the Cross Border Pilot Program for Mexican carriers with the revelation that two officials from FMCSA were in Tijuana meeting with Mexican transportation stakeholders hoping to interest more Mexican carriers in participating in the program.

Part of the reason for the low level of participation in the program, according to Alfonso Esquér, Canacar’s representative in Tijuana is that the new program has far too many limitations.

According to CANACAR National President Juan Carlos Muñoz Márquez, “It is very complicated, it’s very expensive, and to tell you the truth, it hasn’t brought us any benefit.”

Transportes Olympics, the first carrier to participate and cross the border in the 2007 and 2011 program reportedly spent more than $10,000 to prepare for the first program.

Opponents of the program, Teamsters, OOIDA and so called bogus safety groups have preyed upon the fears, prejudice and ignorance of otherwise good solid American drivers, by convincing them that once the Mexicans are allowed in the United States, they’ll be in the unemployment line. A couple of hundred Mexican trucks are going to put 4 million US CDL holders out of business? Anyone believe that.

These opponents take it one step further, inciting hysteria among an ignorant populace that knows nothing about trucking, claiming that these “dangerous, unsafe Mexican trucks” driven by “untrained, unqualified, drug using Mexicans” will put the soccer moms families at risk. This is Teamsters President James P. Hoffa’s favorite rant, although it couldn’t be further from the truth.

And Mexican truckers do not operate as we do in the US. Most US carriers are out to haul freight on irregular routes. Mexican carriers operate under contract. Generally, they go out with a load and return to their domiciles with another load. Without established contracts with their customers in Mexico for a back haul into Mexico, or contracts in this country for the back haul, there is little benefit.

Opponents of Mexican Trucks use innacurate government data to press their case

CSA (Comprehensive Safety Accountability) the FMCSA’s new compliance measurement system for companies operating in the U.S, that replaced the old SAFERSYS database is responsible for inaccurate portraits of carrier performance and is being used by opponents of Mexican trucks, to paint a portrait of the carriers that is far from accurate.

Senior Editor Jami Jones of Landline Magazine, once a very competent journalist before becoming involved in the Mexican truck debate, posted a story yesterday based on the San Diego Union-Tribune report. And as usual, she puts a spin on it that reflects OOIDA’s policy of misinform, circumvent the truth and when necessary, lie about the Mexican trucking industry.

Jones writes:

For example, applying companies Servicio De Transporte International, Trinity Industries, Maria Isabel Mendivil, Luis Edmundo Grijalva Gamez, Transportes Unimex and Autotransportes Libre Comercio are all in alert status in the Driver Fitness BASIC. That BASIC tracks compliance issues in licensing, ability to read and speak English sufficiently, current medical certification, etc. All six of the motor carriers have a BASIC score of 99 percent or higher.

This is a prime example of what she fails to point out.Servicio de Transporte International based out Cd. Juarez, Chih, across the border from El Paso Texas, does indeed have a DRIVER FITNESS BASIC of 100%. On the surface, this appears bad. But what have the drivers been found in violation of?

The majority (1243) not being able to speak English to the satisfaction of the inspecting officer! This company is a commercial zone carrier and most would admit that 391.11(b)(2) is arbitrary and capricious inasmuch at it gives no guidance as to what is “competency” in the English language.

This same carrier shows in the FATIGUED DRIVER BASIC, 35 violations, out of 8,465 inspections of drivers not having log books. Log books are generally not required when operating within a 100 air mile radius of your home terminal which you return to each night, as these guys do.

And in the VEHICLE MAINTENANCE BASIC, the majority of violations are a Texas DPS specialty. 393.45(b)(2) Failing to secure brake hose/tubing against mechanical damage. 2434 violations. A trooper thumb against the airline leaves “evidence” of “chafing”. This is closely followed by 1043 incidents of a light out. It might only be a marker light, but that’s enough in this new age of CSA.

It’s happening to the Mexicans, the Canadians and our drivers.

Jones continues with her spin by informing that;

Two other motor carriers – one of which is Grupo (Behr) – have safety rankings in CSA. Grupo still maintains a 50.5 percent in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC. GCC Transporte has scores of 47 percent and 57 percent in the Driver Fitness and Vehicle Maintenance BASIC respectively.

What Jones is insinuating is that these carriers are baaaddd having what would appear to be “high” percentiles in the various basics. However, the intervention thresholds for the various BASICS, meaning when FMCSA would take a look and send a warning letter, is

• UNSAFE DRIVING     60%
• FATIGUED DRIVING  60%
• DRIVER FITNESS       75%
• DRUGS/ALCOHOL      75%
• VEH. MAINT.               75%
• CARGO RELATED       75%
• CRASH                         75%

Mexico’s failure is especially egregious in the case of cross-border trucking. U.S. trucks and truckers have to meet much more rigorous safety standards than their Mexican counterparts. Carnage and crime prevent them from using Mexican highways. But Mexican trucks that don’t meet U.S. safety standards are allowed to drive on violence-free U.S. highways as part of the U.S. Transportation Department’s latest pilot program……..

Further proof that FMCSA is indifferent to highway safety came with the second company allowed into the pilot program. Transportes Olympic has one truck with a 33 percent out-of-service rate.

When the previous pilot project was suspended in 2009, “no one was able to say that Mexican carriers are any less safe than U.S. carriers. The only thing they could say was that the project did not have sufficient data to come up with a statistically valid decision. That’s where we find ourselves today, needing you to participate in this program so that we don’t come up with another draw.”