Adios Muchachos! Viva MexicoTrucker.com

You refer to those old unsafe trucks. They don't even come into the argument. Those trucks are bought for one purpose and that is to shuttle trailers across the border. Nothing more.

They buy them after the fleets are done with them and put them to work. They are roadworthy for what they are used for and the Texas DPS makes damn sure they don't have major mechanical defects. Especially since they built all the inspection stations along the Texas border. You will be hard pressed to find the mythical "bald tire" even.

It's the same thing as the port haulers do here in this country. They buy a high mileage used truck and work the thing till the wheels fall off.

The statement in that article, therefore was true.

I don't see them being substituted either. Look at Tranportes Olympic. Out of 35 trucks, they have 2 authorized to cross the border under the program. That is the same as all of the other companies who have applied and been approved. None of these Mexican companies are committing their entire fleets to this program as some would suggest.

Well, that raises question after question. Why maintain the older, unsafe trucks in their fleet at all? Are these trucking firms unscrupulous in subjecting their drivers to old, unsafe equipment? Are they so greedy that they need to skim every last peso by scrimping on proper infrastructure for their operation? And as long as ANY older, unsafe vehicles remain in their fleet, I'd say there IS definitely at least some chance that one may be substituted for the long-haul trucks, should the firm get in a bind.

Again and again, they pay lip service to level playing field, but the actions do not appear to reflect it.

The facts to back up what I say are contained in the documents available for download on this site. They are in the public domain and also available from the source, the same way I found them.

You know, people are always bitching about sovereignty. All this crap you hear about Mexico ain't this and they don't do that like us and Canada does it has no bearing.

What matters is, is that when they present themselves at our borders, and enter this country, that they follow the rules and regulations that we have set out for us, for them and for Canada. There is no evidence or reason to believe they will not do so.

Canadian regs differ from the U.S. in a lot of ways, yet when the Cannucks come down, they are under our rules and law. Even the French Canadians who barely speak English, if any.

The point being, there is only one way to run a profitable trucking business. Follow the rules, concentrate on safety and be competitive. The differences in U.S. and Mexican companies as far as competitiveness goes is miniscule and considering the number of trucks we can expect in this country, not really a problem.

The U.S has 11 million CDL holders, Mexico has 270,000. Were you to put everyone of those in a truck and allow operations in this country, which logically could never happen, they still would not make an appreciable difference.

And you know? As I have dug deeper into this in the past few days, evidence from the past suggests this has absolutely nothing to do with safety nor differences in laws and regulations between the two countries. It is simply fear of competition, protectionism and politics. This has been happening for the past 12 years. This is all documented.

And when people like Senator Dorken (that is not a misspelling) say, "why do we need to rush this through"? Nothing is being rushed. This issue has been on the table for the past 12 years and each year improvements are being made. In the eyes and minds of the critics, if we keep delaying it year after year, the argument from the opposition will never change.

The deck is stacked more against Mexico by allowing American carriers in than it is stacked against us. Think about that!