Street stands selling pirated DVDs and other contraband are easy to find all across Mexico, but certainly not a reason to oppose Mexican trucks, unless you're a TEAMSTER
James Hoffa’s mantra of “unsafe Mexican trucks” has been debunked and ridiculed. Mexico’s regulatory environment has been shown to be sufficient to ensure the safe compliant operations of their trucks in their country and the 2007 Cross Border Demonstration Project proved Mexican trucks were quite capable of complying to the regulatory standards and laws of the United States, so what now?
TEAMSTERSNATION has perhaps found the ULTIMATE REASON to keep those naughty Mexican trucks out of our country and allow Mexico to continue with their legal job killing tariff’s.
It has nothing to do with drugs, violence or illegals. Hang onto the edge of your seats kiddies and be skeered, real skeered, as Teamsters President James P. Hoffa wants you to be.
Ready for this?
Drum roll please!
DVD PIRACY!!!!
Okay. Once you pick yourself up off the floor from laughing so hard you fell on your ass from your chair, read on!
The Teamsters have latched on to a story in the Washington Post
The Post stories mentions;
Disk piracy and U.S. copyright violations are a challenge around the world, but in Mexico the sale of bootleg copies of “Toy Story 3” and Microsoft Windows XP are funding the powerful mafias whose relentless violence has left more than 35,000 Mexicans dead in the past four years.
Not exactly true of course, but who cares about the truth when it comes to bashing Mexico. The bootleg DVD’s sell for about $20.00 pesos on the street and are a favorite of truckers visiting the border cities for their nightly sojourns of pleasure.
But really. It’s a stretch of the imagination to use this as an excuse to continue to oppose Mexican trucks on US highways. But for the TEAMSTERS and their allies, credibility went out the window years ago.
About as ridiculous as octogenarian nutjob and Hoffa ally Phyllis Schlafly wrote in a recent TOWN HALL column where one of her reasons for opposing Mexican trucks was;
7. When Mexican truck drivers have their layovers and turn-arounds in the U.S., what’s to prevent them from enjoying a frolic and diversion? They could use that time to father a baby who would then be proclaimed a U.S. citizen and get generous financial benefits and handouts provided by U.S. taxpayers.
It’s interesting this wackadoodle also included this in her comments to the FMCSA.
DVD piracy and copyright infringement is nothing new, in Mexico nor in any other country on this planet and an absurd excuse to keep Mexico’s trucks from our highways.
Despite found guilty of bribery and trying to rig an upcoming union election, Teamster President James P. Hoffa still has time to lie to the public, Congress and his membership about Mexican trucking
Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, himself in hot water after caught using his position to offer union jobs, salaries, and pensions to bribe people for political support, released a “presser” giving his totally irrelevant and patently untrue rant in opposition to the upcoming cross border pilot program with Mexico.
THE PUBLIC OPPOSES ILLEGAL, UNSAFE MEXICAN TRUCK PROGRAM is the title of this crapola presser released today which Hoffa continues to lie to his membership and the American public.
Hoffa says;
DOT’s proposal to open the border “fails to adequately protect our members, their families and the traveling public from the potential danger of unsafe Mexican trucks and drivers, who do not meet or will not adhere to all U.S. safety standards.”
It’s already been established that Mexican trucks and their drivers are not unsafe and strictly adhere to our rules and regulations.
Based on a Travel advisory issued by the US State Department on April 22, advising Americans against unnecessary travel to Mexico, Hoffa uses this as to make the ridiculous assertion that the proposed Pilot Program with Mexico is illegal because in his opinion, it violates Section 6901 of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Act of 2007.
What he is referring to is a section in the above titled act that does not allow funds to be spent on a cross-border trucking program unless “simultaneous and comparable authority to operate within Mexico is made available to motor carriers domiciled in the United States.”
Hoffa is grasping at straws while at the same time blowing smoke up the asses of anyone who still listens to his mindless ramblings.
Hoffa said the Mexican government is incapable of granting comparable authority under the current travel warning issued by the U.S. State Department on April 22.
It is very clear that the safety of the U.S. drivers traveling into Mexico cannot be ensured, and therefore simultaneous and comparable authority is not made available to U.S. motor carriers under the pilot program,” Hoffa said.
That is the statutes interpretation according to Hoffa and not the letter, spirit or intent of the statute as it was written and passed.
Comparable authority means that we allow Mexican carriers to operate in this country and Mexico in turn, allows US carriers to operate in Mexico, under similar rules. There is nothing in the NAFTA rules concerning cross border trucking that says Mexico nor the US has to “ensure” the safety of one another’s drivers.
Who is going to “ensure” the safety of Mexican drivers coming into this country from violence directed at them, through ignorance, prejudice and bigotry, inflamed by the rhetoric of the TEAMSTERS, OOIDA and their mouthpieces on talk radio. Some callers have claimed they will stop the Mexican by any means possible, up to and including sabotaging their trucks or burning them to the ground.
Hoffa and his union have become increasingly irrelevant and to most, a joke.
And remember we said Hoffa was caught up in a bribery scandal? It’s true. I guess corruption runs in the family.
Teamsters for a Democratic Union report that James Hoffa tried to pay off three top Teamster officials who had broken with his administration by offering them lucrative jobs and an additional pension in exchange for their backing in the upcoming International Union election.
In a 30 page report issued by an elections supervisor, revealed thatHoffa running mate Ken Hall offered Carhaul Director Fred Zuckerman a raise and entrance into the “Family Plan”, a lucrative extra pension exclusively for full-time IBT officials. In exchange, Zuckerman would have to back Hoffa and drop his bid to be on the General Executive Board. It was further revealed that Hoffa operatives approached several other International Union trustees with similar offers to buy campaign support with members’ dues. Those Trustees were offered jobs as full-time International Representatives if they would resign from the General Executive Board but continue to back Hoffa and donate to his campaign.
Instead, the officials turned down the bribes and blew the whistle on Hoffa.
Hoffa hatched the bribery scheme to try to hold together his unraveling administration, in which 6 top union officials have jumped ship in the face of Hoffa’s corruption.
The Elections Appeals Master found that Hoffa and three of his closest thugs “tried, but failed, to buy electoral support and stifle opposition in exchange for salaried union jobs.”
Of course, Hoffa, pathological liar he has proven himself to be denied any role in the scheme. The Election Supervisor did not find Hoffa credible, and credited witnesses and evidence that contradicted the cover story put forward by Hoffa and his thugs.
And what will Hoffa’s punishment be? After six months of investigation and three months of appeals, court-appointed election overseers have ordered Hoffa to acknowledge that he attempted to buy election support by offering jobs and pensions.
Hoffa must pay for a mailing to all Teamster locals publicizing the attempt, and place a notice on the union’s website and magazine.
So far, Hoffa is giving the judge the finger! Anybody surprised?
Safe, well maintained trucks from Mexico such as this Kenworth T-660 driven by professional safe Mexican drivers would finally be permitted access under the proposed Pilot Program released today by the US DOT
The deadline for comments on FMCSA’s Proposed Cross Border Pilot Program ended Friday night at 23:59 with results being about as we suspected. 1,580 comments were submitted compared with 2,359 submitted in 2007. Very few of them provided salient objections as to why FMCSA should not proceed with the proposal.
According to FMCSA, the purpose for the notice and comment process is to provide all interested parties with the opportunity to review information published by the Agency and comment on the specific details about the demonstration project. The operative word is “SPECIFIC”. This time, as in 2007, the views of the respondents opposed to allowing Mexicans into this country, prevailed over those of us who support the proposal.
You read it right. I said MEXICANS, not Mexican trucks, which is what this proposal is all about. It’s never been about the safety of Mexican carriers or their ability to comply with our rules and regulations. They proved their fitness to do so long ago. It’s simply that there are some that cringe at the thought of allowing Mexicans, whom they see as inferior to themselves, do business in this country. Imagine that. Scared of a 100 or so safe well maintained trucks operated by well managed Mexican carriers.
This morning, General President James P. Hoffa is thanking his membership for filing more than 1000 comments opposing the program.
Great job, everybody, on submitting those comments on Mexican trucks! Teamsters and our allies filed at least a thousand comments telling the Department of Transportation to keep the border closed to dangerous Mexican trucks. - TEAMSTER NATION
Great job indeed. A semi-trained monkey could have followed instruction by going their web pages set up to guide the lemmings through the process. There, they had a choice of 7 pre-written letters. All they had to do was look at their union cards to figure out who they were, fill in the blanks and click SEND. And the views of James P. Hoffa were automatically published on regulations.gov under the members named. As I said, semi-trained monkeys, and no disrespect to the primates equating them to a TEAMSTER.
Hoffa supposedly made a comment on behalf of the “entire union” but it hasn’t appeared in the register yet. Hoffa’s comment, showing how brain addled and clueless he is, read in part;
The law requires Mexico to offer “comparable authority” for U.S. trucks to operate there. But Hoffa points out that Mexico is so dangerous the government isn’t capable of offering comparable authority. Therefore, the proposed program is illegal.
“Comparable authority” simply means, the US complies with it’s legal and lawful obligations under NAFTA to allow Mexican carriers operating authority in the US, and Mexico allows US carriers operating authority in Mexico. Nothing more, nothing less. The violence in Mexico has absolutely nothing to do with our obligations nor Mexico’s.
At the end of the day, the TEAMSTERS opposition has nothing to do with job losses to their membership. Their opposition to this program is wrecking segments of our economy as we recover from the recession. It has everything to do with Mexican law and labor unions not allowing the Teamsters to come in and organize as they did in Canada. Many of the same objections Hoffa makes against Mexico and Mexican trucks would be valid against the Canadians, but we don’t hear that from him.
The states who share a border with Mexico are all “Right to Work” states. Warehouses along the border are all non-union and will remain that way. Allowing Mexican carriers to operate in the US will in no way impact the TEAMSTERS nor their members.
OOIDA’s FALSE AND MISLEADING ATTEMPTS TO STOP MEXICAN TRUCKS
OOIDA, through lies and fear mongering used the Mexican truck issue to increase their membership from about 140,000 to 160,000 between 2007 and 2009 when the original demonstration program was defunded. Now, they’ve slipped back to around 150,000 members as truckers wised up and realized what a waste of time and money belonging to OOIDA was.
In desperation, OOIDA continues to lie and appeal to the prejudices and ignorance of some of it’s membership in their opposition to the Mexican truck issue.
Despite the fact that it has been proven that Mexico has much more stringent requirements for obtaining a FEDERAL COMMERCIAL LICENSE and their MEDICAL REQUIREMENTS are much more stringent than ours, OOIDA continues to insist Mexico has no drug testing requirements, no medical requirements and that a valid Mexican CDL can be obtained on any street corner in any city. And some actually believe this crap, which is what OOIDA counts on.
They tell you that allowing 100 Mexican trucks, strictly monitored will put hundreds of thousands of American truckers out of work is believed and spreads like wildfire across the internet. Beyond belief!
But OOIDA has completely destroyed their credibility with their latest caper. Imagine, hiring a free lance photographer to go to the border and take pictures of the oldest, dirtiest trucks he could find so that OOIDA could use them in their cover story in the May 2011 issue of LAND LINE. They continue to want people to believe, that OP-2 authority drayage trucks are the actual trucks used throughout Mexico and will be used to haul freight throughout the US.
ULTIMATELY, THEIR EFFORTS WILL FAIL BECAUSE OF THEIR COMMENTS
Let me share with you FMCSA’s response to the comments received in 2007 against that demonstration project and published in the FEDERAL REGISTER. You’ll see why that the proposed pilot program will go ahead and why the comments from OOIDA and TEAMSTERS members will help it become reality.
As of July 31, FMCSA received 2,359 comments, or docket submissions, in response to the May 1 and June 8
notices…….
About 2,330 of the comments were submissions by individuals that were no more than a few sentences and consisted of conclusory statements indicating that Mexico-domiciled carriers are unsafe and that the demonstration project should be abandoned. These comments, most of which were submitted
electronically, did not include information concerning technical (e.g.)specific safety oversight procedures or
processes) or legal aspects of the demonstration project or economic issues, or any other information
supporting the assertions made therein. While FMCSA is not responding to these comments individually, the
Agency is neither ignoring them, but instead believes that its responses to the substantive comments it has received more than adequately addresses the brief comments submitted by these individuals
Now, as it was then, the results will be the same! With exception to the objections to FMCSA paying for EOBR’s to be installed in the Mexican participants, which we object to also, there was absolutely nothing of a technical nature included in any of the “canned” comments submitted by TEAMSTERS.
Taking a page from his 2007 playbook, to delay and further mislead the public, James P. Hoffa on asked FMCSA head Ann Ferro to extend the comment period for FMCSA-2007-0097 another 30 days, citing 30 days to comment just isn’t enough time.
Ferro denied the request, sending Hoffa into another juvenile temper tantrum.
“Thirty days isn’t enough time for the public to voice its objections to this dangerous proposal,” Hoffa said. “Tens of thousands of Teamsters want to keep the border closed, as do most Americans and Congress. We want to make it clear that DOT should listen to the people of America, not the multinational corporations that want to exploit workers by lowering safety, labor and environmental standards.”
Hoffa tried this back in 2007 when comment were being sought for that proposal (FMCSA-2007-28055) and was successful in obtaining an additional 30 days which gave his lemmings time to load the comment sections down with comments totally irrelevant to the issue at hand. In the end, he failed, as he is failing this time.
More than 1000 rank-and-file Teamsters have already submitted comments to the Federal Register, using the TEAMSTERS “click and send” boilerplate letters objecting to the proposal. They said they’re concerned because Mexican trucks and drivers don’t meet the same safety standards as U.S. trucks, and that border security would be compromised and American trucking and warehousing jobs would be lost. In reality, it has absolutely nothing to do with those issues as they’ve long been resolved or proven to be nothing more than misinformation and lies. What it boils down to, is they’re Mexicans. And that is unacceptable,
Comments end tonight at midnight. We’ll see the first trucks rolling across the border sometime in the next few months, si dios quieres.
Meanwhile, the corrupt little representative from Oregon, Peter DeFazio, long in the pockets of Teamsters and the obscure group known as OOIDA, earned his bribes, er, private political contributions in this speech showcased at LIFE ON THE ROAD.
After spending a few minutes on Congressman DeFazio’s website, it’s clear he’s an idiot. But he’s a ranking idiot on a couple of transportation committees. Just like his Bring Gas Prices Down videos, it’s clear he does a lot of yelling but doesn’t make much sense.
We couldn’t agree more.
LOTR also concluded;
For some reason Teamsters think they still have a voice in trucking. Teamsters are so insignificant in the trucking industry, I’m surprised they get any press at all. OOIDA, who? Once the mobs on trucking radio and the CB get fired up, everyone loses their minds and stops thinking.
Like it or not, this is going to happen. Find a way to survive or just stand around and complain the choice is yours
Again, spot on!
Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, responsible for the loss of more than 25,000 American jobs.
As expected, James P. Hoffa came out with the expected denouncement of FMCSA’s announced Cross Border Pilot Program with Mexico late this after noon, and Hoffa didn’t disappoint using his tired worn out mantra of “unsafe” Mexican trucks to lead off his rant.
And, as expected, he is using the targeted violence in Mexico as an excuse saying that his union members will vigorously oppose a dangerous plan to open the border to Mexico, a country ravaged by a drug war. “Vigorously oppose” we suppose means lining the pockets of the politicians he has in his pocket, er, corner, such as California Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr.
The entire silly, sophomoric rant is here if you care to look at it. Here’s some highlights though.
“Do Transportation Department officials read the news?” Hoffa said. “In the past week, eight people were killed in Ciudad Juarez within a half hour. A mass grave was discovered 80 miles from Brownsville, Texas, with 59 bodies in it. A federal prosecutor was kidnapped and murdered in Durango after she’d been on the job for a week. Five men were killed in Taxco during another kidnapping attempt.
“What is it about Mexico’s drug violence that DOT doesn’t understand?” Hoffa said.
So what does that have to do with qualified and professional drivers from vetted and reputable Mexican carriers being allowed into this country? What is it you don’t understand Mr. Hoffa?
Hoffa continues saying he also questions whether DOT officials know that the official U.S. unemployment rate is 8.8 percent. “This proposal threatens the jobs of thousands of American truck drivers and warehouse workers along the border.”
Actually, it threatens not one American job much less a union job. Border states are right to work states and the cross docking and forwarding facilities are non union shops, something we’re sure Hoffa would like to change and probably would have tried had his “Card Check” legislation gone through that would have taken the concept of the secret ballot away from the public.
And we would ask Mr. Hoffa what about the 25,000 and more jobs, the 15% market share lost to other countries in the agribusiness sector, as a result of the legal tariff’s imposed by Mexico in response to your continued corrupt opposition to the cross border program? What about that Hoffa?
Such a sad and pathetic, contemptible little man.
Speaking of which,
OOIDA ANNOUNCES ANOTHER “NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION”
OOIDA, realizing the end is near for their opposition to permitting the US to comply with their international obligations, is ramping up the rhetoric, this time with a call to action to pimp Rep. Duncan Hunters letter to colleagues calling for them to stop the Mexican truck program. It’s silly, stupid and an insipid attempt to rely upon the ignorance of their membership to continue to push their campaign of misinformation and lies.
Think it’s bad now folks? Wait until Wednesday when comments open.
Friday, the FMCSA RELEASED CROSS-BORDER TRUCKING PILOT DETAILS and the reaction was basically “so what’s new?” except amongst the usual suspects who object to anything concerning Mexico.
OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer released his usual whining rant making baseless allegations they’ve never been able to document nor prove
ATA President Bill Graves issued a statement in support of the proposal.
James P. Hoffa, President of the Teamsters Union who is usual first out of the box with his sophomoric rants about “unsafe” Mexican trucks and “unqualified” Mexican drivers, was suspiciously absent, however, the website, TEAMSTERS NATION chimed in with their instructions, showing they haven’t got a clue and are pushing fear mongering to achieve their agenda.
Their instructions to whoever reads their blog:
Write down this number: FMCSA-2011-0097
It’s the docket number for the Transportation Department’s official proposal to open the border to trucks coming from the war zone known as Mexico.
The proposal will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, if the government doesn’t shut down. You have 30 days to tell them why this is the stupidest fucking idea EVER. We’ll let you know on Monday (if the government isn’t shut down) how to send in your comments. But you’ll have to include the docket number.
Here’s one suggestion, just to get you going: Hundreds of border officials are being investigated for corruption. According to NBC News………………………
Start drafting those comments now! The government has to respond to every single one, so let’s keep ‘em busy until the next millennium!
How silly and comical is that suggestion? But it gets better.
This morning, they published instruction on How to stop Mexican trucks
Here’s what they are telling their members:
Tomorrow, you must get out your ink pen and write to the government to say, “DO NOT open the border to Mexican trucks.”
Do it tomorrow. Do it the next day, and the next. Do it every day for 30 days.
Here’s why: The federal government must post an official notice in the Federal Register in order to open the border to Mexican trucks. The public has 30 days to submit comments. The government must read every single comment and respond to it before the border can be opened.
Let’s send them so many letters they’ll be retired by the time they can respond. The letters don’t have to be long. They just have to give a reason for keeping the border closed. Click here if you need a reason.
They go on to give a sample letter for their members to write that has absolutely nothing to do with Mexican trucks or truckers. This is the sample they provide:
FMCSA-2011-0097
April 11, 2011
Dear Sir:
An an American citizen, I am horrified by FMCSA’s plan to open the border to Mexican trucks. Giving violent drug cartels more access to American highways is harmful to American interests. Mexico is in a state of war. Nearly 35,000 people have been murdered in drug violence in that country since 2007. Ciudad Juarez, which is right across the border from El Paso, is the most dangerous city in the world.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
So please people. If you oppose having the United States comply with our legal obligations to allow Mexican trucking companies access to the United States, then by all means, follow the instructions of TEAMSTERS NATION to the letter. Put down you crayons, pick up a big boy/girl pen and send your letter as instructed. (Don’t forget to stay inside the lines kiddies)
AND WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED, YOU’VE WASTED YOUR TIME!
Think I’m joking? Lets backtrack to 2007 when comments were opened concerning the past Cross Border Program which was defunded by union cronies in Congress.
TEAMSTERS NATION is correct that FMCSA must read every comment submitted and take them into consideration at the end of the comment period. They DO NOT have to respond to the comments individually, only in a general manner in the Federal Register.
In 2007, comments coming into FMCSA concerning 2007-28055 where ridiculous, sophomoric and moronic. Out of almost 2500, only a handful contained valid reasons for or against commencement of the Cross Border Program.
As FMCSA wrote in the Federal Register after the comment period had ended, “All comments were accepted and studied an duly noted that few offered any valid reason to suspend the program” [paraphrased]
You can read some of the examples I used here, or you can Google 2007-28055 and read all of them at the source.
BITS AND PIECES
Our favorite OOIDA/TEAMSTER is back in action at Congress.org, this time with an even more moronic letter directed at President Obama. Here’s some highlights complete with misspellings.
Since that time, we have been subjected to a clash of cultures that is anything but positive as I have tried to point out in previous letters titled The Downside of Cheap Labor. In those reports, I spoke of the tendency of illegal migrants to partake of higher than normal bouts of drunken driving, drag racing drunk, murders and sexual crimes; the latter committed against women as well as children as young as eight months. And now in addition to this, we the people of this nation, thanks to you sir, will be exposed to drunken Mexicans driving substandard trucking rigs on our highways because you have an axe to grind with the people of this nation………………
As for Mexican truck drivers, Pres. George W. Bush had the sense to initiate a trial period during which Mexican trucks were allowed in our country, but restricted to an area no more than twenty-five miles north of our southern border. It was during this trial period that it was determined that Mexican trucks and their drivers are unfit for our highways………………….
We have to believe this because U.S. citizens cannot enter Mexico by just walking across our common border. No sir. Getting caught in Mexico without a Visa is a felon. Illegal migrants are not welcome in Mexico………..
But what trucker in his right mind would want to enter Mexico to subject themselves to murderers, beheadings, thieves and Montezuma’s revenge? ……………………..
e. Sir, even if you were sincere, and sincerety is not one of you hallmarks, we don’t have the manpower to thoroughly check each and every Mexican truck and its driver entering this nation bringing drugs, illegal migrants and a clash of cultures into our country………………………..
Mexican truckers will not be required to carry liability insurance, keep their trucks in top running order or pay high road taxes to pay for their wear and tear on our highways, as must our truckers……………………….
Somebody is going to die at the hands of Mexican truckers because they do not know the rules of the road, drive drunk the wrong way on one way streets and highways. A tiny little girl was recently killed by one of those drunken Mexican truckers. Keep Mexican truckers off our streets and highways. They are already congested with the three million new migrants–legal and illegal–that enter our nation each year. Just keep taking trips in Air Force to invite everyone on this continent to “y’all come. Amnesty and jobs await you . . . yadah yadah yadah.” The insanity must stop!!!!!! Please do us a favor and wihdraw your name from the 2012 election? We need a break………………………………………
Yeah, Todd and Jimbo are probably really proud of this clueless moron in Fredericktown Ohio.
TRUCKING TALKERS AND OTHER LOONY TOONS
Admittedly, I fell asleep from boredom Friday and Saturday night listening to ATN and Bubba Bo who seemed to have problems keeping his phone lines full so we can only imagine what was said. The usual without a doubt.
Steve Sommers, on ATN last taking his first opportunity to break the news since it’s release, was his typical sardonic, sarcastic self, maintaining the OOIDA party line concerning Mexican trucks, referring to the proposal as “comical” and his Buddy Hackett soundalike, Warren, aka “Sugar Bear” coming on throughly pisses and ready to stick pencils in his ass to dull the pain. And has anyone heard Sommers latest spiel for OOIDA where he incredulously revealed that “FMCAS is going to open our borders to Mexican Trucks!! Really!!! You can’t make this stuff up!” Had me laughing my ass off and bouncing lane to lane.
Dave Nemo, this morning to his credit, finally admitted the the excuses about safety, security and all the rest were a sham. His main focus is on supposed job losses. I have a lot of respect for Dave, who along with Evan Lockridge are about the only two talkers on trucking radio worth listening to. But Nemo really needs to look at the numbers to realize his fears are groundless.
The proposal is scheduled to be published int he Federal Register Wednesday, April 13, 2011 with comment accepted through May 13, 2011 unless the opposition whines their way into an extension as they did back in 2007. Comments can be made at REGULATIONS.GOV and you will need the Docket Number which is FMCSA-2011-0097.
We’ll be monitoring the comments as we did in 2007 and share some of the more whacked out ones with you.
An FMCSA inspector conducts a Level I compliance inspection on a truck belonging to Transportes Olympic in 2007 prior to the initiation of the successful Mexican Pilot Truck Program
In a joint presser today, President Obama and President Calderon jointly announced agreement on a renewed program allowing Mexican carriers access to the United States as agreed under the 1994 NAFTA agreement.
[pullquote]“The deal to end the dispute “is built on the highest safety standards that will authorize both Mexican and U.S. long-haul carriers to engage in cross-border operations under Nafta,”[/pullquote]
The plan will allow for half of those tariffs to be lifted immediately. It will establish a reciprocal, phased-in pilot program that allows Mexican trucks to operate inside the U.S. provided they comply with a series of safety, driver-skills and language tests monitored by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Unfortunately, Mexico has stated anything less than full access will be unacceptable. A new pilot program could fall under this category.
Reaction from opponents of Mexican trucks and Mexico in general, was swift and as expected, but largely irrelevant.
Teamsters President James P. Hoffa issued this statement containing nothing new and nothing unexpected and everything totally irrelevant as has been the case with Hoffa and the Teamsters for years regarding this issue.
[pullquote]“The Bush-era pilot program was a failure that shouldn’t be repeated,” Hoffa said.[/pullquote]
“We continue to have serious reservations about DOT’s ability to guarantee the safety of Mexican trucks. Mexican trucks simply don’t meet the same standards as U.S. trucks. Medical and physical standards for Mexican trucking firms are lower than for U.S. companies. And how can Mexico enforce highway safety laws when it can’t even control drug cartels?
Perhaps it’s time for Hoffa to go find his daddy and spend some quality time with him.
OOIDA on the other hand is “outraged” with cross-border trucking plan.
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Let’s see if I’ve got this right. James P. Hoffa of the Teamsters and Todd Spencer of OOIDA are correct in their opinions of Mexican trucks and 1400 plus trade associations, newspaper editors and business groups are wrong? And the aforementioned duo “speak” for the “majority” of Americans? I think not.
The San Antonio Express News editorial board offered their opinion on the issue this morning.
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