I couldn’t help but break out laughing, or as Stevie Sommers puts it, “chuckle”, listening to OOIDA and LandlineNow on XM-171 last Thursday, I think it was, when they brought up the almost dead subject of the Cross Border Program.
I think Mark Reddig was talking with their Washington lobbyist about the status of the program and the comment was made;
All of us at OOIDA are working full time to see this program is stopped in it’s tracks!
Yep, 10 months into the program, and they’re working full time to stop a program that has been successful beyond even what I had imagined.
There have not been the tens of thousand of dangerous and broke down Mexican trucks invading the United States as promised by Joan Claybrook of Public Citizen.
The drayage trucks used within the border commercial zones have not ventured beyond that zone nor have they applied for acceptance into the program by the OP-1MX application process, as Todd Spencer of OOIDA would have you believe.
The trucks participating in the program have done so safely and without apparent accidents and incidents, contrary to what Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters would have you believe.
And yes, it appears participation is less than expected. And there could be a reason for that.
Mexican carrier executives are no different from their American and Canadian counterparts. They are in business to make money. If they don’t see the opportunity, they are not going to participate.
Fernando Paez of Transportes Olympics of Apodaca Nuevo Leon is a prime example. He has contracts with RegioMontano Steel of Monterrey to service their customers in the US and to return to Monterrey with raw materials for that customers. This he has done and done so with great success. And has his entry into the US freight market caused any economic hardship on American carriers or depressed the rates? Doubtful! Melton Truck lines hauls the same product and their terminal in Laredo Texas is full of trailer with the same product.
The carrier out of Mexicali, Transportes Rafa, with an account to provide a customer in California’s Central Valley with fruit baskets. How many American carriers are lined up to take this business away from the Rafa Bros.? Not many!
It was said by all the critics that these trucks would be used to transport drugs and illegals into the country and indeed, some of the South Arkansas tin hat crowd suggested nuclear materials for weapons. Guess what! Non of this has happened and won’t!
Sure, there have been stories of trucks being stopped and discovered to have drugs or illegals in them. But it has been proven here and on official government sites that the drugs and illegals come across the border by other means, stockpiled in safe houses until an American trucker, looking for a little quick cash, is stupid enough to accept a load.
Some are suggesting that FMCSA will try to extend the program by a year or two in order to bolster the statistics. Personally, I would think a year without accident or incident, coupled with the Mexican governments own safety statistics (yes, they do have databases) would be enough to prove the opposition to the program is a moot point.
And keeping in mind, after a successful year of the program, and I measure success by the no accident or incident statistics, it is going to be extremely difficult to justify pulling the plug on the program.
The big myth in all of this is that the Mexican carriers can operate cheaper and therefore undercut US rates which is not the case. Sure, they pay their drivers a little less than US carriers, but they also pay those drivers a per diem, cover their Social Security payments and have other perks that go with the job.
And when you consider the additional expenses required to enter into the program, obtain US operating authority, the high cost of US insurance, their costs of operations are equal to or slightly more than ours.
It’s all good business and those that would ignore that fact are the foolish ones. But we all know that OOIDA and others will continue to throw around false information and we will be here to debunk the myths with facts backed up by photos. That has been the success of Mexico Trucker.
Not to think I am totally down on OOIDA. They have apparently done some good fighting the new CARB restrictions in California. Their support of the TRUCC acts moving through Congress at the moment is a good thing for all the good they will do any of us. It is a panacea to a problem with roots deeper than these bills address. But on the issue of Mexican trucks, they are dead wrong and continually prove this by throwing out all the exaggerated misinformation.
We’ll all sit back and wait, but in my mind, we have much more important things to worry about at the moment.
Having lived through the ones in the 70′s and 80′s, the last one in 1984, I believe, still hanging around the back of my mind, the whole idea of any type of job action is the ultimate in stupidity.
Anyone remember the “kowboys” blocking the entrance to the truck stops, such as the old Union 76 in Ontario California, and threatening drivers unless they gave their assurances they were coming in to park and join the “strike”? I sure do! Remember hauling the freight with a sign on the back of your trailer saying “On Strike! Going Home”? I remember that too. Been there and done it! Anyone remember the shots fired at the big trucks, the 5th wheels pulled, the driver that was killed in Smith’s Grove NC by a brick thrown from an overpass by someone not remotely associated with the trucking industry? Fresh in my mind!
Are we ready for more of the same? We’ve had idiots calling the overnight talk shows making those threats all week, and while most are talking out their asses as usual, it puts ideas into the heads of outsiders who think it would be cute to involve themselves in that manner.
But this is 2008. In 1984, we didn’t have cell phones and other forms of instant communications. We seem to have some, such as Mr Kirsch and his group in Pennsylvania who are showing common sense and constraint in bringing their concerns before the American people. Kudos to them for doing it the correct way and not advocating a shutdown.
Dan Little of Little and Little Cattle Co is the brains behind the call for the shutdown on April 1st. Listening to him on the Steve Sommers show the other night, (ironically, one night after Sommers dismissed him as a crackpot) he made sense, he has a grasp of the issues although he is expecting too much to result from this. We’ll see. He has been garnering the media coverage and for the most part it is positive.
So will Mexico Trucker being supporting the shutdown or participating? Nope! I have commitments to our customers. If I happen to be home on Tuesday as I am now, perhaps we can say I participated.
Perhaps people need to expend the same energy they used when they failed to get the cross border program stopped and flood Washington with their calls and emails.
But one thing to remember, Mexico, the Cross Border Program, Mexican truckers, NAFTA is not the cause of our problems, nor do they contribute to our problems nor does the solution to these problems lay south of the border.
And contrary to what some of the looney toons who’ve called the overnight talk shows have claimed, our problems here are not an excuse to bring Mexican drivers to this country to take our jobs. Nowhere is that written nor planned except in the minds of the tin hat crowd and those who take advantage of that ignorance.
Steve Sommers (XM 173) announced that tonight he will have as a special guest in the first hour of the show, Jimmy Hoffa’s mouthpiece, Lesley Miller to discuss the Cross Border program.
For those who don’t know, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear the frivolous lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, Teamsters and others on February 12th.
For those who choose to pass on this broadcast, here is a preview of what will be dscussed.
Ms Miller will of course, preface every reference to Mexican trucks with an adjective such as dangerous, illegal or junk. References to the Bush administration will be prefaced with “rogue” She will not have any substantative evidence to back the Teamsters claims of the dangerous nature of this program.
She will more than likely announce the intention of the Teamsters to hold a “massive” protest in front of the 9th Circuit while court is in session. And in addition, announce Hoffa’s futile attempt to have Mary Peters fired in a grass roots effort.
It should be interesting, but nothing new. More of the same crap from the mouthpiece for the Teamsters.
So what’s new?
I happened to tune in to the show this afternoon about 4:55 (EST) to hear Dale Sommers begin his rant about the [cref 4-dead-on-international-bridge-connecting-reynosa-pharr accident on the Pharr-Reynosa bridge.]
And as usual, not wanting to let the facts interfere with his warped and prejudiced opinion against anything Mexican, he let us all have a piece of his mind.
And no Trucking Bozo, I do not have my “head up my ass” as you stated is the case with anyone who disagrees with your views.
Read more
MEXICO CITY – As the debate over immigration reform festers in Congress, one message is clear: Americans think people from other countries who live in the United States ought to speak English.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it to a gathering of Latino journalists. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said it when he proposed a bill calling for the designation of English as the national language. Even President Bush said it as he lobbied for his immigration overhaul package.
“I think people who want to be a citizen of this country should learn English,” Bush said.
Now a Mexican television network is saying it, too. And the network, TV Azteca, is putting its money where its microphone is.
Read more
Saying he will defend his district against anybody trying to portray it as a “war zone,” U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar defended Thursday the statements he made during a heated exchange with Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores on national television.”He cannot expect to attack me, to attack my city that I care so much about, and portray it as a war zone,” Cuellar said during a videoconference Friday.
“(People) are going to think Laredo is a bad place to come to.”
The exchange occurred Thursday during a taped interview on CNN’s nightly news show featuring Glenn Beck.
Read more
Sitting here this afternoon listening to Dale Sommers aka “Trucking Bozo” ramble on between dashes to the bano to change his Depends, the man seems to be off of his meds once again. Each time he refers to Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, her name comes out of his mouth like he has one in his mouth! How droll.
Read more
There seems to be some concern over this truck driver training school filing the airwaves with callers to the Steve Sommers Show on America’s Trucking Network.
As can be expected from this crowd, the assumption was that this is a school dedicated to training Mexicans, both legal and illegal to drive our trucks and operate as part of the cross border program. As with so many opinions offered on this show, the callers were DEAD WRONG! Once again, their prejudices got in the way of common sense. I will commend Steve for staying neutral on the subject and only passing along what information he could find, which was a short review on a “spam” page.
Since it is always our policy at Mexico Trucker to not make a comment without facts to back up what we say, and admittedly, it piqued my interest about a school with this name,so I called Mexico Truck Driving School.
Read more
Loading ...
Readers Reponses