First Mexican trucking firm allowed over all U.S. roads flunks (Teamsters blew the whistle at border

[Omaha Steve]

http://peoplesworld.org/first-mexican-trucking-firm-allowed-over-all-u-s-roads-flunks/

by: Mark Gruenberg
October 14 2011

TIJUANA, Mexico - The first Mexican trucking firm given tentative approval to have its trucks roll over all U.S. roads - allowed by the North American Free Trade Agreement and done via a controversial Obama administration pilot program - has flunked. One of Grupo Behr de Baja California's rigs was so creaky that it failed inspection at the Tijuana border station.

The U.S. would have passed the company's trucks in anyway. But the Teamsters, who have opposed letting unsafe Mexican rigs roam U.S. roads, blew the whistle on that particular semi's failures. There's also a 28.6 percent failure rate for Grupo Mexico trucks overall, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data show.

FULL story at link.

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[Coexist]

2. knr

[Divernan]

3. Hoffa: Obama concedes to multinternational corps sending jobs to Mexico..

http://www.teamster.org/content/hoffa-condemns-mexican-truck-pilot-program
Hoffa said the program is probably illegal because it grants permanent operating authority to Mexican trucks after 18 months in the so-called “pilot program” outlined in the proposed rule published in the Federal Register. Congress has not granted DOT the legal authority to do so, Hoffa said. Further, DOT would use money from the Highway Trust Fund to pay for electronic on-board recorders for Mexican trucks. Hoffa questioned whether DOT can do that legally.

“Opening the border to dangerous trucks at a time of high unemployment and rampant drug violence is a shameful abandonment of the DOT’s duty to protect American citizens from harm and to spend American tax dollars responsibly,” Hoffa said.

“This so-called pilot program is a concession to multinational corporations that send jobs to Mexico. It erodes our national security. It endangers motorists. It ignores the rampant corruption among Mexican law enforcement. It lowers wages and robs jobs from hard-working American truck drivers and warehouse workers.

“It adds insult to injury to force U.S. taxpayers to pay for monitoring equipment on Mexican trucks so Mexican carriers can take away their jobs,” Hoffa said. “The DOT shows more loyalty to the Mexican people than it does to Americans.”

[monmouth]

4. I heard that many of these drivers do not read english (road signs?)..n/t

[kestrel91316]

5. "Many"?? I suspect most. And they probably haven't met a driver's manual

they could read either.

Bu tthe poor guys are probably illiterate in their own language, too, so we don't want to lay all the blame on them. The corporation hiring them is the problem.

[safeinOhio]

6. Drug cartels free market

solution to higher profits.

[lunasun]

7. thank you I have dreaded the day this would start, More NAFTA garbage for us

[madrchsod]

8. think that`s bad ...wait till they pull into a truck stop...

they`ll have to carry a lot of fuel or have their own tankers follow them.

[fasttense]

9. What a give away to corporations and drug cartels.

Now, I wonder if those drugs from Mexico can find an easier way in? What can possibly go wrong with letting unsafe, un-inspected Mexican trucks run freely throughout our US road ways?

And on top of that, do you think anyone will hire you to drive a truck when all they have to do is hire a Mexican truck firm?

Then there is the little thing about using our tax dollars to put monitoring devices on Mexican trucks so that they are in compliance with US law. But hay using our tax dollars to put our people out of work is the way the US operates.