Critics bash Mexican truck decision
Business groups have wanted the border opened to avoid middleman costs of transferring goods from Mexican to U.S. trucks.

The American Trucking Associations said it supports the program, but wants to make sure that U.S. and Mexican truck companies are held to the same standards.

“We also are waiting to see that when US carriers are allowed to travel into Mexico that the regulatory and permitting process that U.S. carriers undergo is fair and transparent,” the ATA said in a statement.

Let’s bury our heads in the sand when it comes to the violence and vandalism that is already occurring.

And of course Public Citizen has to keep itself in the spotlight somehow -

Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said inspections will be
meaningless because the trucks won’t have black boxes that record how
long a driver has been behind the wheel.

“They have no way of telling how many hours these truck drivers have
been driving before they get to the U.S., let alone when they get
here,” Claybrook said.

She may have a point, but black boxes aren’t the answer.

And check this out – You’ll have to click on the title to go see the picture,

VDARE.com: Blog Articles ? Mexico Battle Lines — There and Here.

This photo looks like something straight from Baghdad, but it’s actually just across the border in Tijuana. The Mexican government has stationed military checkpoints on the edge of town so the army can check for serious weapons (RPGs are popular)
and other signs of criminal activity. As well it should, since more
than 300 people were murdered last year in the city. Many Mexican
police are on the payroll of the drug cartels, so el Presidente Calderon’s only hope of rescuing his country from total crime anarchy has been to send in the troops to various hot spots.

Not only is tourism down, but kidnapping for ransom is up, and many well heeled Tjuanans are “moving” north to San Diego. At least the worsening crime wave is swell news for the armor-plating shops.

Who in their right mind would go there to work/drive a truck or do anything?

Originally posted 2007-02-27 08:05:00.

San Antonio – Toll Party ? Blog Archive ? Trans Texas Corridor deemed security threat by DEA.

Of greatest importance: “The prospect of expanded
trade in Mexican states controlled by some of the country’s most
dangerous cartel leaders could pose serious national security
challenges for the United States, an internal DEA report obtained by the Daily Bulletin explains…

“Those plans include finishing the Trans-Texas
Corridor, which would open the highways to future shipping of cargo
from Lázaro Cárdenas, whose biggest investors are Hong
Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings Group and Wal-Mart. Those two firms
already have invested more than $300 million to expand the container
port.

“For many business and political leaders, the
economic growth promised by Gateway to the Pacific and the Trans-Texas
Corridor outweighs any perceived danger about national security or
increased drug trafficking.”

And why does this stat surprise anyone?

Piggy-backing
Ninety percent of all non-domestic narcotics enter the U.S. through the
Mexican border, according to a 2005 U.S. State Department report.

Drugs are a multibillion-dollar industry for cartels in Latin
America. The National Drug Intelligence Center conservatively estimates
more than $108 billion roughly equal to the combined gross domestic
product of Ecuador and Guatemala in drugs comes into the U.S. yearly.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration puts the figure at $142
billion in drug trade just between the U.S. and Mexico. Other estimates
soar even higher.

“NAFTA has made smuggling drugs across the border easier by several
means,’’ including via cargo trucks, the DEA report notes. “The volume
of truck traffic coming across the border necessitates the expediting
of inspections to the point that few trucks are thoroughly inspected.’’

More than 9,300 commercial trucks, carrying everything from piñatas
to electronics, pass through Nuevo Laredo into Laredo each day,
according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. As cargo
shifts from Los Angeles to Mexico, it is expected to triple the amount
of traffic moving from Mexico through the Texas highway system.

One thing no one has mentioned is that American trucks that someday go into Mexico is that – Imagine the pressure a US driver will be under to help in this grand picture. Either money or violence, the end result will be the same.

This is strictly rumor, but I heard that on the Canadian border a driver will be given some drugs and money to smuggle across. The bad guys tip off border agents to the decoy and while the decoy with a small amount of drugs is being inspected and processed the “real” truckload goes driving by. All the time the decoy driver thought he could beat the odds and not get inspected like he’s done a hundred times before.

As if that wasn’t enough, imagine getting into a wreck in Mexico (no fault of your own) and the corrupt justice system that hates Americans puts you in a Mexican jail. The US already cowers in fear anytime the Mexican consulate speaks, we don’t even protect our own people in our own country doing their jobs to protect us from the drug smugglers, you think the US is going to do anything about a (wrongly) convicted lowly driver? Sounds like fun! Send my butt down there now!

Originally posted 2007-02-26 08:29:00.

SPECIAL REPORT: Big questions remain on
Mexican pilot program .
Charlie Parfrey, president of Parfrey Trucking Brokerage in Spokane, WA, testified on behalf of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

Almost immediately, he condemned the “deceitfulness of the DOT,” saying the agency pushed the program through without open, unrestricted review.

In light of the fact the program has not been published in the Federal Register for public view and comment, Parfrey pointed out to Senate subcommittee members that without having had the opportunity to review and analyze specific data, proposals, and agreements, truckers and highway users alike are left with a tremendous number of unanswered questions.

“Their effort has been almost entirely secret and beyond public view or scrutiny. OOIDA firmly believes that DOT has not complied with Section 350 of the 2002 Transportations Appropriations Act,” Parfrey testified.

The cloak of secrecy that has essentially shut out public input and oversight drew speculation from the opponents as to the true intent of the program.

Don’t forget Trans-Texas Corridor , here’s another driver’s comments on the issue. And a couple of my favorite immigration sites. American’s for Legal Immigration and of course Vdare.com and their great blog. On a side note – Help the two Border Patrol Agents. If I need to explain, you’ve been under a rock for too long, catch up! Here and Here. And a new trucking book recommendation.

Originally posted 2007-03-13 18:07:56.

Adidas Custom Truck,
originally uploaded by Adventures In Trucking.

On a personal update – We have been home since the beginning of February. I’ve done some short hops to Northern San Diego and LA and some local stuff around Vegas while Cindy went to Minnesota to take care of some truck business and see family. Now the All-Star Game is here and the company we haul for got a contract from the Marketing Group for Adidas to drive three of these trucks from Saint Louis, MO and then around Las Vegas. They came with three trailers filled with electronics and other goodies. While the trailers are parked we drive these trucks around the Strip for Mobile Billboarding and driving Adidas employees around the Strip and to the Thomas and Mack Arena and back. We have a "real" trip on Monday and will be back on the road. We are going north to Chicago, so hopefully we have missed the majority of the snowfall. For a couple more pictures of the Strip dressed up go here. My last shift is tonight so will see how the night time pictures turn out.

Originally posted 2007-02-18 10:12:30.

There are so many people against this, who exactly is pushing this so hard? My thought has always been that it’s the large trucking corporations that invested and partnered with Mexican trucking companies waiting for this day ever since NAFTA came about. The only motive a large corporation has is profit, period. How they are going to get to that profit is what I’m worried about.

In a seemingly unrelated story – Teamsters are trying to take over trucking at the ports in LA and Long Beach. I also remember reading owner operators might be able to organize at the ports. So, what! Can’t you hear the people behind the Super Port and NAFTA Super highways laughing their butts off? The Teamsters will get what they want for about five minutes before the ports shut down and everything moves to Mexico. They are signing their own death warrants.

How the greedy US corporations are going to get their profits and all the drug cartel violence in the Mexican border cities and the increased possibilities for drug and people smuggling, I wouldn’t have a problem with any of this.

Finally I have a reliable source for another side of this story. A US driver that lives and drives in Mexico leaves this comment and has started another blog over here. The drive he mentions sounds like it would be`great. I know my opinion is only based on what is in the news and what I read. I’ve never driven in Mexico and honestly, would be scared to death to go down there on my own, even knowing the little Spanish I do know, I’m sure it wouldn’t be enough. Kind of like driving around Quebec (which I don’t do anymore!) but worse. One thing goes wrong and you’d never hear from me again!

I’m sure it’s a great place to drive around and the people and culture stuff are great and it would be the experience of a lifetime, maybe someday. But for now I’ll live through Porter’s stories and experiences.

Originally posted 2007-04-29 19:04:50.

Mexico’s numbers still not confirmed from  Roadcheck 2006

 North America’s largest annual inspection blitz for commercial vehicles
is scheduled for June 5, 6 and 7, but the big question is whether
Mexico will participate this year – not to mention the question of what
went on south of the border last year.

The Commercial Vehicle
Safety Alliance’s annual North American Roadcheck program involves
about 10,000 state, provincial and federal officers, and is conducted
at checkpoints and roadside stops throughout North America.

Mexico
reportedly participated last year, but CVSA’s statistics were solely
based on inspections conducted in the U.S. and Canada.

 Stephen Keppler, CVSA director of policy and programs, told Land Line Magazine that Mexico did participate in 2006, but Mexico’s data  was neither immediately available, nor published in a timely fashion.

Keppler explained that the system in the U.S. involves participation
by state and federal officials. In Canada, provincial officials make
the decisions. But Mexico’s participation, he said, is at the sole
discretion of its federal government.

In Roadcheck 2006, CVSA
inspectors in Canada and the U.S. conducted 60,357 truck and bus
inspections in 72 hours, according to CVSA.

Inspectors placed
5.6 percent of those drivers out of service, up from 4.4 percent in
2005. More than 57 percent of the cases where truckers were put out of
service were because of hours-of-service violations, CVSA officials
stated in a report.

– By David Tanner,  staff writer

If Mexican trucks are as safe as US and Canadian trucks, where are the numbers to prove it? With all the corruption in Mexico, could you trust any numbers coming from their inspectors anyway?

Originally posted 2007-04-25 06:00:00.