I am so used to our elected "representatives" screwing us over that I am actually surprised when they do something that is actually in our best interest. The Senate did such a thing today when they voted 74 to 24 to cut off the funding for the Mexican truck pilot program.
For those who are not aware, this Bush pilot program was to last for a year and would allow Mexican trucking companies full access to operate within the United States. They would be allowed to haul freight to any point in the US and haul freight back into Mexico in much the same way Canadian companies do now.
So what's wrong with this program? Lots.
Firstly, the reason for big companies to want this situation is that they can ship their freight at a fraction of the cost they do now. Mexican truckers are paid less than half of American truckers and the Mexican companies will haul the freight for half of what an American company will haul it. Under the current system an American trucker will haul the Mexican freight to the border where a Mexican trucker will pick it up and haul it on into Mexico. We've been doing it that way for years and it works just fine.
Secondly, under this pilot program the Mexican truckers would be issued a one year visa. My (and many other's) question is why? Canadian drivers aren't given a visa. The answer of course is obvious. They intend for this to be a "guest worker" program in order to undercut the American trucking industry. It would result in drastically reduced freight rates and lower wages for truckers (which hasn't increased since 1980 as it is). It's a completely underhanded way to destroy the American trucking industry as it exists today.
Mexican truck drivers are not trained to anything even close to the standards of American truck drivers. They aren't drug tested at all, and in fact there isn't a single driver drug testing facility in the entire country of Mexico.
Mexican truckers are not subjected to any sort of background check or medical physical in the way American truckers are. There would be no way of knowing who these people are, what communicable diseases they carry (can you say TB?), or what sort of criminals they might be. American truckers are subjected to very close scrutiny and everything they do is recorded in a national database. Not so the Mexican trucker.
There is also absolutely no way for American DOT officers to verify how many hours or days that Mexican driver has been driving before he crossed the border. This creates a extremely dangerous safety risk on our highways.
The vast majority of Mexican trucks are the old, worn out trucks they have purchased from American fleets when they become too old and unsafe to operate in the US. These are the trucks they want to allow to come back in to run our roads. I have literally seen Mexican trucks down around the border towns with their bumpers held on with bungee cords and the mirrors held on with duct tape. That's no joke, and there is no possible way they could hope to inspect every single Mexican truck that crosses the border to ensure they are safe to operate.
They basically want to allow truckers into this country that don't even come close to meeting our training and safety standards and somehow that's going to be ok. The American trucking industry has very loudly and firmly said "Hell no!" and the Senate has actually listened for a change.
We have been fighting against opening the border to Mexican trucks for quite some time now and it looks like we finally have some hope of winning this one. The Senate and the House are reasonably certain they have the votes to override the President's promised veto on this amended transportation budget and I certainly hope it's true. If Mexican trucks start running across the US you can be damn sure the highway accident rates are going to skyrocket and a lot of American truckers will be put out of business for good.