Mexico Trucker Online

The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration issued a final rule that changes the way states must verify the medical certification for truckers either renewing or applying for a CDL. Phased in compliance deadlines for states, motor carriers and truckers start kicking in on Jan. 30, 2012.

Once everything is up and running on the state level, truckers will be required to present either the original or a copy of the current medical examiner’s certificate. The state agency must then date stamp the certification card and return it to the trucker.

The date-stamped card will be sufficient to prove medical certification for 15 days. Within 10 days of stamping the card, the state licensing agency must enter the information into the Commercial Drivers License Information System, according to the new requirement.

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Jimmy Hoffa must be needing a double helping of prunes this morning as word is emerging that Yellow Roadway Corporation is seeking economic relief from the National Master Freight Agreement.

In a mailer sent out yesterday to rank and file members, The Teamsters said;

YRC Worldwide Inc. management has been seeking
economic relief in the National Master Freight Agreement
for several weeks. Following the recent downgrading of
its debt rating by both Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s
Investors Service and its impact on the company’s ability
to maintain a line of credit, the Teamsters General
Executive Board today unanimously agreed to permit
representatives from the Teamsters National Freight
Industry Negotiating Committee to enter into discussions
with YRC immediately to determine how to best preserve
Teamsters jobs and protect benefits.

This is certainly not something Jimmy boy can blame on his obsession with Mexican trucks or NAFTA now is it!

Merely another sign of the times and something I’ve been saying for years. The unions continue to cripple our economy, cost us jobs and cause businesses to relocate to southern states or to other countries that are more business friendly. A good case in point is the Big 3 automakers and UAW recent comment that they have no intention of making concessions to help the companies stay afloat.

Happy Thanksgiving Guys and Merry Christmas! You’re gonna need it!

Nuff said!

James Hoffa - Out of touch with reality

Under the usual mantra of maximum pay for minimal work, Teamster’s Union President Jimmy boy Hoffa came out swinging today against the Hour of Service rules published by FMCSA.

Hoffa said the Bush administration is undermining highway safety with its “last-minute regulation” that lets truckers drive longer hours.

Where’s Hoffa been the past 5 years? Last minute regulations?

“We will continue to fight this dangerous midnight rule through the courts and through Congress,” Hoffa said. “We’re currently reviewing our legal options, especially since the court threw out this regulation twice.

“Letting tired truck drivers spend even more time behind the wheel is foolish and dangerous.… I just hope this country can survive the last 61 days of the Bush administration as it goes into a frenzy of gutting public health and safety protections.”

Yep! That’s Hoffa alright! More fear mongering to the public on things he doesn’t like!

He seems to ignore the fact that the HOS rules, which I don’t particularly care for either, have contributed to a decrease in big truck accidents over the past 5 years. Nor does he bother to let people know the rules were not thrown out but were sent back to FMCSA for technical revisions.

Sorry Jimbo! Your precious Teamsters might have to work an extra hour or two a day.

Come to think of it also, Hoffa hasn’t said a word about the recent Independent Review Panels Report on the Mexican Cross Border Program. Could it be that he thinks he has bought a President who will do his bidding?

For the sake of the country and this econom, let’s hope Mr. Hoffa’s dreams are shattered.

An independent evaluation panel’s report on the U.S.-Mexico cross-border trucking demonstration project prepared at the request of Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters, definitively shows that Mexican domiciled trucks can operate safely and in compliance with all US laws and USDOT regulations.

The report was prepared by Mortimer L. Downey III, chairman of the board of PB Consult Inc., James T. Kolbe, senior advisor at McLarty Associates and a professor in the college of business at the University of Arizona, and Kenneth M. Mead, a special consultant at Baker Botts LLP and former inspector general of the Department of Transportation.

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It was the kind of employer that every metropolitan government in the country covets: a respected, long-time manufacturer that employed hundreds of local workers and paid them a living wage, with benefits.

But Freightliner’s headquarters are in Germany and its primary markets are on the American East Coast and, as a consequence, Portland’s wishes didn’t amount to a compelling reason for the company to keep building trucks on Swan Island. That’s why Daimler said this week it would shut down its Freightliner truck plant in 2010, when its labor contracts expire. At least 900 Oregon-based employees will lose their jobs.

Oregon officials expressed their disappointment, but said there was little they could have done to change the conditions that led Daimler to shift all its truck-making operations to the Carolinas and to Mexico. And while anybody who’s been paying attention to Freightliner for the last five years knew this day was likely to come, its inevitability doesn’t relieve the sting of losing so many jobs at once.

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In this era of escalating fuel prices, unheard of numbers of truck repossession and a stagnant freight base, some people just don’t get it.

From the AP and The Trucker comes the headline story of
Teamsters picket Washington-based trucking company

AUBURN, Wash. — Picketers are carrying Teamsters strike signs outside Oak Harbor Freight operations in the Pacific Northwest.

Oak Harbor Freight lines, with 1300 employees, of which almost half are Teamsters (550) walked yesterday after talks between management and labor came to an impasse’.

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