The Three Amigos summit last weekend in Guadalajara should have brought some news of the Obama’s administration’s efforts to reinstate the wrongfully terminated cross border trucking program and replace it with a permanent solution which would enable us to fulfill our obligations under NAFTA. So far, nothing definite has come from the two day meeting.
The Obama administration and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood are playing it close to the vest this time, as they should, to prevent the usual purveyors of false information from employing their scare tactics once again.
But the mere mention of Mexican trucks starts one of the usual suspects in the issue to begin there campaign of fear and misinformation.
OOIDA Action Alert
Who else but OOIDA, although admittedly, they have calmed their rhetoric somewhat. I think they are resigned to the inevitable.
But still, they’re relying on the “fear factor” to motivate their members. Here is an example of their latest effort.
If proponents of cross-border trucking with Mexico have their way, the jobs of all U.S.-based long-haul truckers will be in serious jeopardy — YOUR JOB. You need to convey that message when you are talking with government officials. In addition, you should tell them that granting Mexican trucks full access to U.S. highways makes NO SENSE because none of the safety or security issues have been resolved on either side of the border!
Am I over reacting to OOIDA’s theatrics? I don’t think so. Look at the numbers.
Mexico has approximately 250,000 Federally licensed truckers compared to the estimated 3 million or more in the US. If we’re to believe OOIDA, then Mexican truckers and transportation companies are prepared to turn their backs on their own countries needs to come and take all of our jobs? Yeah right!
And according to the interview in the July issue of NATSO Truckers News, which confirmed what I’ve said all along, rates in Mexico are almost double what they are in the US. Mexican truckers don’t want to haul our freight. They want to bring their freight to it’s US destination and return to Mexico with freight for their customers.
They actually fear our people coming down there and destroying their rates. And it could happen!
And of course Todd Spencer keeps pushing the idea that Mexico MUST establish a regulatory structure as we have here in the US in order to meet our standards, which could not be further from the truth.
The ruling of the Arbitration panel said that the US was permitted to put in place standards of safety and compliance that Mexican trucks must meet in order to operate in this country.
In other word, when they cross the border, they must be able to comply with our safety standards The 18 month pilot program proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they could comply.
The Teamsters and Others
Interestingly enough, one of the more obnoxious critics, James Hoffa, President of the Teamsters, hasn’t been heard from in this latest debate.
Before, every word out of his mouth about the Mexican truck issued was prefaced with “dangerous” or “unsafe”, something that was debunked early in the debate.
Me wonders what kind of deal was reached or promises made to him to shut him up. Whatever it was, it was effective. Or perhaps, he is more concerned with his problems at YRC at the moment.
American’s in Support of allowing Mexican trucks
In the scheme of things, there is only a small section of the American public that opposes the idea of allowing Mexican trucks into the US. I know, there was a recent poll that suggested otherwise, but we’ll touch on that in a moment.
During the comment period back in 2007, only 2400 comments were received. 99% of them negative and not pertaining to Mexican trucks per se, but focusing on the illegal immigration debate and more bigoted comments. That is the stated reason FMCSA ignored the comments and proceeded with the program.
2400 comments our of 3 million CDL holders? 2400 comments out of an alleged 161,000 members of OOIDA and 1.4 million members of the Teamsters? Hardly a blip on the radar. But a small minority with loud nasty uninformed voices to be certain.
But calmer heads persevere such as this blogger:
A Conservative Techiewrites:
Why should one care about this? The government fought back against this by declaring a tariff (which it was allowed to do under NAFTA) for a total of $2.4 billion. The state I’m from (Michigan) is one of those states affected by these tariffs. The article states that Appleton Papers in Wisconsin supplies 75 percent of the paper that Mexico uses, now thanks to the tariffs laid against them, they are looking to lay people off
Jay Thompson writing in THE TRUCKER
let’s don’t let facts get in the way of a good story. Mexican trucks have been running in the US for a long time and are pretty safe. For reference, US-domiciled trucking fleets have safety violations at 7% for drivers and 23% for vehicles. There are 850+ Mexican carriers operating 1,700 trucks in the US that were grandfathered in from the 1984-1992 time period that have violations that are half that for drivers at 3% and on par for equipment at 23%. Even the 7,000 carriers with trucks operating in the commercial zones had low number for driver violations at 1% and on par for equipment at 22%.
And we could go on, but you get the point.
New Poll claims 66% Oppose Mexican Trucks On U.S. Highways
Rasmussen, a polling site with a decidedly right wing leaning released a poll suggesting 66% of American’s oppose Mexican trucks in the US. And of course, Todd Spencer of OOIDA is all over this, as expected.
TODD SPENCER – OOIDA
“This proves that Americans see very clearly what we’ve been saying for nearly three years,” said Todd Spencer, Executive Vice President. “It’s not safe to open the border, not yet anyway. Not until Mexico raises its standards and can comply with our ever-increasing regulations for safety and security.”
Actually, it proves nothing. other than that 660 people out of 1,000 polled reacted negatively to the question.
The question asked was one of three, the other two not having anything to do with Mexican trucks, but rather Obama’s tri lateral summit in Guadalajara and the “Buy American” provision in the stimulus bill.
The question asked was”
Mexico wants President Obama’s help to end the ban on Mexican trucks operating in the United States. Should Congress let trucks from Mexico cross the border and carry their loads on American highways?
The response:
19% Yes
66% No
15% Not sure
Having followed Rasmussen polls for some time, it is apparent that the majority of there polls favor the Republican positions, in the way the questions are asked, and I suspect the demographics of those sampled.
So again, it proves nothing more than that 660 of the respondents said no. 190 said yes and 150 were not sure. Out of a population of 330 million? You do the math.
On the other hand, a poll I’ve had running on this site for several month shows 85% of respondents, now over 6.000 believe that we should honor our obligation to Mexico
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But again. I could be saying that the majority of American’s favor letting them in. But would it be a majority? Nope! Only 85% of the 6,000+ who took the time to respond to the poll.
The tariff’s are not illegal as Spencer and other’s claim. To the contrary, they are authorized by the arbitration agreement, and while they may seem excessive, wait until Mexico imposes tariff’s on meat and poultry products, which they legally can do.
The opponent of allowing Mexican trucks into the US for the past 17 have continuously instructed their congressional stooges in Washington to throw up road blocks and challenges that Mexico has patiently met and complied with. Now Spencer and other want this to continue.
Mexico, rightfully fed up with the bullshit, imposed the tariff’s and are standing firm. More than 15,000 American jobs are in jeopardy at a time when we need jobs.
When these jobs disappear, because of these tariff’s, you can’t blame Mexico. The blame sits squarely on the shoulders of Todd Spencer, Jim Johnston and their Congressional stooges who refuse to do the right thing and lift their wrongful and ludicrous opposition to the trucks from Mexico.
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