Some of you may remember a post that I did here a few yaears ago when this topic first surfaced. For those of you who don´t, I´ll repeat. There is a lot of hoopla about Mexican trucks coming here, and it could all be political. When then mexican president Fox, needed some political capital to deflect his domestic failures on the NAFTA agreement, he jumped in with both feet about the USA not respecting the terms of interstate, intercountry commerce, by not allowing mexican trucks access to USA highways, in the appointed year for compliance. At the time it was a great political move, because it was a real noise making diversion from Fox´s problems at home, and an easy issue to attack, as it wasn´t that important, but it was an argument that he could use to at least make the Bush administration squirm enough to give concessions on other more important issues facing both countries. I remember listening to the radio on a nationally broadcast program (mexican),while driving near the border, and it was an interview with the union officials of the mexican trucking companies. They were admantly against mexican trucks going to the USA, and vice versa with american trucks in Mexico. THEY DON´T WANT IT TO HAPPEN. Thier reasoning is that the entire mexican trucking industry will be in jeopardy, because the advent of more efficient american and canadian trucking companies operating in Mexico, means an eventual end to mexican trucking, because they cannot hope to compete. The politicians want to keep the issue alive, because the USA is still not in compliance with the terms of NAFTA, and they can still make us squirm on other issues, because of it. Over the years I have driven quite extensively in Mexico, from border to border, and I have talked with many mexican drivers that I met along the way. These guys are trucking like we did in the 1930´s. Anyone can get a chauffers license (thier CDL),the pay is really low,(less than one third of what we earn) they have no HOS, and have to keep going to make a living. They routinely haul thier version of doubles, even gasoline, which are two 48´ trailers, over two lane roads not designed for heavy trucks in the first place. Their freeway system is a virtual joke,and really expensive, so that few truckers can afford to use them, except possibly from Mexico City to the Texas border. There are no truck stops as we know them, and they are constantly harrassed by crooked cops on the take, everywhere they go. These days because Mexico now has Walmart, Costco, and stores like them thanks to NAFTA, you see more modern equipment, comparable to ours, running in from the border, but the more you go to outlying areas, the more trucks you see that are 30-40 years old held together with chickenwire, chugging along like they have been for all those years. And to top it all off, the job of a trucker is lowly in the eyes of the culture. Right next to following the parade horses down mainstreet with a broom and a bucket. And the biggie...the unions want to run the show.I don´t see how mexican trucks can get a handhold in the USA, anytime soon, but of course with our politicians, I´ve been wrong before. Money talks, and you know what walks.
