OOIDA immediately responds with unsupported allegations against the company.
In what has become a common practice with OOIDA, they have once again gone on the attack against a participant in the Cross Border Program, citing statistics not in existence to further their fear mongering about non existent safety issues.
The latest target of their attack is AVOMEX INTERNATIONAL SA de CV, an importer of avocados, and other agricultural products.
This is not the first time OOIDA has selected this company to spotlight with erroneous information. They were after them while the initial PASA’s were being performed.
OOIDA makes this claim.
OOIDA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs Rick Craig pointed out that in the 12-month period ending Sept. 21, 2007, Avomex’s five trucks at that time had amassed 206 total violations in 172 inspections. That averages out to just slightly more than 41 violations per truck.
From Sept. 22, 2007 through Jan. 22, 2008, Avomex received 71 more violations in 41 inspections – well on pace to top the 206 violations in the preceding 12-month period.
What is the actual numbers, the truth?
According to data available on the FMCSA SAFESTAT database, the same one OOIDA claims to have used to make their claims, AVOMEX recieved, in a 30 month period prior to 2/22/2008, 374 vehicle inspections, resulting in 43 Out of Service Orders. That breaks down to 12.43 inspections per month or roughly 2.5 inspections per vehicle. A more realistic number than the ones cited by OOIDA. The OOS rate for the 5 trucks over a two and a half year period was 1.43 per month.
The bulk of the OOS orders occurred in 2005 and 2006 with only 10 occurring in 2007 and to date, only 1. Keeping in mind that these occurred as this company was conducting business under OP-2 authority restricting them to the commercial zone of the border.
This means that of the 374 inspections, this company passed, 331 of them without problems.
And what were these dangerous and unsafe violations that got the trucks shut down 43 times, and in OOIDA’s opinion is why the program should be halted? Let’s take a look.
CHECK THE STATS FOLLOWING THIS LINK
I can’t make a determination based on this data nor can OOIDA. Keep in mind this company pulls agricultural products and from what I am seeing, most of the trailers in the inspection reports are US registered and licensed while the power units are licensed in Mexico.
Also keep in mind, this is one of OOIDA’s little tricks they have been pulling since the program was announced. Each time Todd Spencer makes reference to a Mexican cross border truck, he wants you to believe that the participants in the Cross Border Program will use the same trucks they use in their drayage operations and this is simply not true.
And this is the proof. No conclusions should be made on any of these companies until sufficient program performance data is available from participation in the program.
But as the spokesman for FMCSA said before, “These are the types of tricks you pull when the facts are not on your side”!
Has anyone ever wondered why a Senator from a nowhere state like Norht Dakota, would have such a passionate opposition to a Cross Border Truck Program that will not impact his state or constituents in the least? I have. As they say, “follow the money”!
These politicians rarely do anything for the benefit of the people out of the goodness of their heart, and this arrogant little peckerwood is no exception.
So what is his price to jump on the Teamster’s bandwagon? About $35,000.00, at least!
In 2006, The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was the ninth largest contributor to Byron Dorgan PAC, known as the Great Plains Leadership Fund, contributing $20,000.00. Before 2006, there were few donations from the Teamsters listed.
In 2008, The Teamster’s have thus far contributed $15,000.00to his Political Action Committee. All in all, not a lot of money within the scheme of things, but the question arises why would the Teamster’s even bother to contribute to a little known Senator from a very unpopulous state? The total contributions to Dorgan by the Teamsters over the course of his career has been only $46,000.00, $35,000.00 of it occurring coincidentally with the ramping of the debate over the Mexican Cross Border Program.
But it goes further than that. This little pissant isn’t lily pure and he certainly is not one to have the right to call a Cabinet Secretary “arrogant”!
Anyone remember the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal of a couple of years back? Well, apparently Senator Byron Dorgan was butthole buddies with Mr. Abramoff until he had an “epiphany”and decided he’d better rid himself of the “contributions” muy pronto.
There are related stories to Byron Dorgans activities regarding his association with Abramoff and what he did with the more than $65,000.00 he received to help Abramoff screw American Indian tribes,including the Coushattas of Louisiana and others.
Interesting reading indeed! And we have to put up with this fool for another 2 years?
A misguided Pennsylvania state lawmaker, looking to get his name in the media, is calling for President Bush to comply with the federal law regarding trucks from Mexico.
State Rep. Dan Surra, D-Elk, has offered a resolution that urges the Bush administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation to obey recently enacted federal law.
“Allowing Mexican truckers and long-haul rigs on highways throughout the United States – absent the rigorous inspections and safety and training standards for U.S. trucks and truck drivers – is dangerous to the public,” Surra said in a written statement.
Congress approved legislation late last year to stop funding for the pilot program, citing concerns that Mexican trucks don’t meet U.S. safety standards. The Bush administration and U.S. DOT, however, are continuing to allow the Mexico-based trucks to cross the border.
Surra is looking to put more pressure on the president and U.S. DOT to end the program.
“Keeping these Mexican trucks on U.S. highways is a direct violation of federal law, a law that the president himself signed,” Surra said. “It also puts many safe U.S. trucking companies and truck drivers at a competitive disadvantage in their own country.”
The resolution – HR612 – is awaiting consideration in the state’s House Transportation Committee.
Editors Note: Actually, the truth of the matter, which has been proven on this site, is that the Mexican carriers engaged in this program are rigorously inspected and and held to the same and somewhat higher standards than their American counterparts. The concerns cited are merely a smokescreen put before the American public by special interest groups such as the Teamsters and OOIDA to furhter their nativist and protectionist agenda.
In the six months this program has been in operation, there have been no incidents, accidents or other actions that have put the American public at risk. To date, the program has been a success.
In regards to it being in violation of Federal Law, that will be for the 9th Circuit to decide. Most people with a brain and the knowledge to use it realize that FMCSA is following the Dorgan amendment to the letter. They have not “established” any Pilot Programs regarding Mexican trucks since the Omnibus Spending Bill was signed into law. Er, where in the hell is Elk Pa anywho?
What I find fascinating is the people opposed to this program no absolutely nothing about the border, our industry down here and will in no way be impacted by the Mexican carriers involved.
The first company to remove itself from the Cross Border Program was TRINITY INDUSTRIES DE MEXICO SA de C V the Mexican subsidiary of Trinity Industries with worldwide headquarters in Dallas Texas.
Leonel Olivares, terminal manager at Trinity Industries in Eagle Pass, Texas, said its Mexican affiliate “never had intentions of the drivers actually driving into the States. They just wanted to look at the program,” he said.
However, and as would be expected, the Teamsters took the opportunity to twist the facts and put their spin on the situation.
Jimmy Hoffa, slammed the Department of Transportation for allowing a Trinity Industries of Mexico, based in Piedras Negras, Mexico, to join the program after racking up an average of 112 safety violations per truck in the previous year.
DOT spokesman Brian G. Turmail said the carrier was approved because the “vast majority of (violations) were relatively minor.”
But how true are these numbers? Larry Craig of OOIDA used similar numbers recently when filing the brief with 9th Circuit in the frivolous lawsuit to be heard next week. According to Craig, the numbers come from FMCSA’s own database, Safersys.org.
So we took a look. Running USDOT #610385, brought us to the facts about TRINITY INDUSTRIES DE MEXICO S DE R L DE C V, based in Piedras ?Negras Coahuila, across the border from Eagle Pass Texas.
According to Hoffa and Craig, Trinity Mexico amassed an average of 112 Out of Service (OOS) violations PER TRUCK, in the preceding year.
However, the numbers from the Safersys database do not back up these deliberate misrepresentations of the facts.
In reality, in the period 2/2006 through 2/2008, Trinity Mexico had it’s trucks inspected 1448 times. That is 144.8 inspections per truck in a 24 month period. Breaking it down further, that is 6 inspections per truck, per month. Keep in mind that this is the number of inspections, not the number of violations found as Hoffa and other claim. There is no information that I can find on Safersys to prove the claim of the Teamsters.
Now, of these 1448 inspections conducted randomly on a fleet of 10 trucks in a 24 month period, 161 of these inspections resulted in an OOS order. This breaks down to 0.6 trucks put out of service per month during the period.
The OOS percentage for Trinity Mexico was and remains at 11.1% for equipment OOS violations. The US National average is 23.14%
During this same period, the 10 drivers employed by Trinity Mexico were given Level 3 and 4 inspections 1745 times or 7.2 times per month resulting in an OOS order being given to just 4 drivers. This puts the average at 0.2% while the National average for drivers OOS is 6.8%.
In other words, more lies and fear tactics coming from the mouth of Jimmy Hoffa. And once again, as has been the case during this entire debate, Hoffa has no facts to back up his claims. No wonder he resorts to lies and distortions of the truth to try and bully his way through this.
What else has the head Xenophobe of the Teamsters spewed lately?
It doesn’t take much to find the answer to that. Since they don’t have the facts to back their position, they are going on the attack!
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