Worries about safety, smuggling are listed (Mexican trucks in US, link to comment to DOT!

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070707-9999-1b7mextrucks.html


Online: To view comments that have been filed and government documents relating to the cross-border trucking program, go to http://dms.dot.gov. Click on “simple search” and under “docket search,” enter the docket number 28055.

To submit a comment, go to https://dms.dot.gov/submit/. You will be asked to register and to provide the docket number 28055.



Worries about safety, smuggling are listed
By Paul M. Krawzak
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

July 7, 2007

WASHINGTON – Critics appear as full-throated as ever in their opposition to a Bush administration plan to open the nation's highways to Mexican trucks, according to a review of public comments collected so far by the federal government.

More than 2,100 people had submitted comments to the Transportation Department as of yesterday, and almost all expressed displeasure with a proposed one-year pilot project that could begin later this year.

Among the concerns: worries that the Mexican carriers' trucks would be unsafe, that they could be used to smuggle drugs into the United States and that they would imperil the income of U.S. truckers.

“I think that if this project goes through it would create severe problems with drug trafficking and terrorism,” wrote Nicholas Louya of Thomasville, N.C. “I am a small businessman with two trucks of my own. This industry is already a struggle. This would crush the little man. . . . I also see problems with the safety of all affected. I don't think the local governments have the means to enforce this properly.”

Far less representative of the comments was this optimistic one from Joe Peters, who provided no address: “I have read most of the comments and found that most fellow drivers have no idea of how U.S. Customs officials operate when a truck reaches their commercial facilities. . . . Customs and Border Protection officials are the most prepared and have the latest technology to find drugs in the world.”

The Transportation Department extended the deadline for comments until the close of business Monday.

FULL story at link.

[wakeme2008]

1. Just a thought but what would stop Wal Mart from hiring Mexican trucking

companies to make deliveries to their stores? There is more to this than just just cross border trucking, IMHO.

[OregonBlue]

2. Done. Other DUers, please comment. This is a travesty. Here are my comments.

This is a very bad idea. I have spent lots of time in Mexico and the rules are not the same. Mexican trucks are not safe. The drivers do not have the same strict regulations as U.S. truckers. This is bad for the American trucking industry and it will hurt our ports and dock workers as well.

American truckers should not have to compete with Mexican workers who will work longer hours for less money at the expense of our safety and security. I do not believe that the Mexican government will adhere to the same strict inspection regimes that we do in the U.S. nor do I believe that the U.S. government will enforce the same strict regime on Mexican trucks that they do on our truckers.

This is just another give away to big business and is being proposed for their advantage, not our nation's. The potential for bribery and corruption is obvious.

Why would our government even propose such a change? How can this possibly be good for the American trucking industry? So, instead of outsourcing, you're insourcing. Either way the American workers is screwed!