Cool, thanks for the translation!

 

"HOMER" posted this in January on the "How About THis Trucking Company" Thread:

i read in landline magazine celadon bought a mexican trucking company and they are among the big companies lobbying in dc to get those mex trucks running all over. landline said a memo was stole from their office last year saying their looking for big profits with mex drivers making 19cpm. if you have no experience that might be good swapping trailers on the border while you still can. i hope the experience drivers would quit so they cant drive our wages down but theyve known of this for a year.they just gonna take one for the team i guess.if you got a year exp please go to a company like crete that will pay you 43 cpm

PERSONALLY, what I'm concerned about are Mexican drivers who may cause accidents, for any variety of reasons. This is not a xenophobic comment (i.e. racist). The legal and cultural differences affecting these drivers' qualifications are worrisome. We all know that there are unsafe U.S. drivers out there already.

Does anybody know, or can guess-estimate how many tractor/trailer wrecks occurred since January 2007?

 

Nice work, silvan.

 

My observations from Southern CA. Not a racist or political view just from being behind the wheel in the San Diego L.A. area. In construction trucking,just like framing,drywall,and concrete construction a vast majority of the labor is from Mexico. I see Mexican tour buses that travel from Mexico to L.A. there condition is notably different than U.S. buses,just an observation. On many hourly jobs I am shocked to discover that many of the Hispanic trucks (they live and work here O/O of Mexican descent) are working for $15-$20 less per hour than I am when I ask why they just say they need the work,but they are dragging us all down with them. It just takes them too long to realize that after a few years of lowball trucking that they are not making it,a slow death. I don't have anything against anyone who is out there trying to make a buck and one on one they are good guys who have the same hopes and dreams that I do but they are F'ing up my buisness! They immegrate to the U.S. and there lives get 100% better while ours get 30% worse. It just seems to me that they will work cheaper and don't know why they are doing it like it is a mentality or something when they dont have to. I don't think you will find Mexican national trucks hauling freight all across the U.S. but I think they will ding the local border states pretty good.

 

Money.

And yes, thanks for the translation.

 

Yes, there is that. Money indeed.You're welcome. I was trying to find something like the Mexican equivalent of the OOIDA, Teamster's or maybe their DOT voicing an opinion on this, but I didn't find it.

 

Mexico and all foreign countries are something like a black box for a lot of us. I envy your ability to speak the language and to ferret out all the nuances of the country and the culture. How did you pick it up?

 

Just a heads up, I see now that when they discuss US carriers in all of this they are not talking about you and I, American truckers. I had to get clear on this. In other words, Senator Feinstein isn't looking out for American drivers in the article above but instead, 'US carriers.' I think in the context of everything, 'US carriers' just means companies that are owned by Americans. In the case of cross border trade, they'll be staffed primarily by Mexicans. A few Americans in management, probably all the drivers will be Mexican.

 

The article Cam pointed out.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mexican carriers want out of pilot program



Wednesday, March 28, 2007 – A trade association representing Mexican motor carriers has asked the Mexican Senate to cancel the cross-border pilot program with the United States.

“CANACAR has formally requested not to open the borders for trans-border services and to have the pilot program suspended until conditions for a fair competitive environment are existing and that the Mexican trucking industry has the guarantee of not being subject to unfair inequitable and discretional treatment by U.S. authorities,” CANACAR National President Tirso Martinez Angheben wrote in a press release.

Angheben appeared before the Communication and Transportation Committee of the Mexican Senate this past week to explain why the transportation industry opposes the opening of trans-border services and the pilot program between the U.S. and Mexico, according to a press release issued by CANACAR.

CANACAR is an organization which represents the general interests of the Mexican Trucking industry.

The group claims the U.S. government has not complied with agreements established in the 1995 North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexican trucking companies were not allowed to invest in U.S.-based trucking businesses or allowed to provide services within the U.S.

However, according to the Angheben, U.S.-based trucking companies have invested in infrastructure within Mexico and already have a “commercial presence in our country … which represents a commercial disadvantage of a great importance.”

In the released message, Angheben said he also told the Mexican Senate committee that the regulations facing Mexican trucking companies coming into the U.S. “include uneven regulation for Mexican carriers that will not guarantee a fair competitive market in U.S. territory.”

Angheben said the pilot program moved forward without Mexican Senate approval and without input from the Mexican motor carrier industry.

The CANACAR president told the committee that opening the border will not have any benefits to Mexico because:

Transportation prices in Mexico are lower than in the USA;
It will cause transportation prices in Mexico to increase;
It will not accelerate the border crossing process;
It will generate strong pressure on salaries paid to Mexican drivers, which in turn will increase the cost of domestic freight in Mexico; and
The Mexican government lacks the capacity and infrastructure to supervise U.S. carriers entering Mexico and to prevent foreign companies from providing domestic transportation only reserved for Mexican nationals.
This isn’t the first time CANACAR has tried to shut down a NAFTA provision.

In 2001, the group petitioned the Mexican Senate to cancel the trucking section of NAFTA.

“The majority of people in the United States don’t want Mexican trucks to go there, and we told our president that we don't want to go, either,” said CANACAR president Manuel Gomez in 2001. “Nor are we interested in having U.S. trucks come to Mexico.”

Meanwhile, back in the states
Movement to delay the pilot program continues in the U.S. Senate with the debate of the supplemental appropriations bill. The bill includes an amendment that would restrict spending any money on allowing Mexican motor carriers to operate beyond the border zone until three conditions are met. Those conditions are:

Granting such authority must first be tested as part of a pilot program;
The pilot program must comply with the requirements of Section 350 of the 2002 appropriations legislation and the requirements of Section 31315(c) of Title 49, United States Code, related to the pilot programs; and
Simultaneous and comparable authority to operate within Mexico is made available to motor carriers domiciled in the United States.
Murray submitted the amendment to the Senate Committee on Appropriations and it was accepted on a voice vote – with no opposition.

The only discussion related to the amendment was brought up by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, one of the co-sponsors of the amendment. The amendment was also co-sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND.

Feinstein discussed the fairness – or lack thereof – of allowing Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate within the U.S., while the Mexican government isn’t ready to allow U.S. motor carriers access to Mexico.

The amendment was introduced because of concerns raised during a Senate subcommittee hearing on March 8.

Thursday things will also heat up on the House side of Congress, when Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-CA, will introduce a bill titled the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Trucking Safety Act.

The NAFTA Trucking Safety Act looks to clarify and strengthen current regulations imposed on Mexican motor carriers entering the United States beyond commercial zones along the international border.

– By Jami Jones, senior editor
[email protected]

Staff writer Clarissa Kell-Holland contributed to this report.



This is the part of the article I found interesting.

"Angheben said the pilot program moved forward without Mexican Senate approval and without input from the Mexican motor carrier industry.

The CANACAR president told the committee that opening the border will not have any benefits to Mexico because:

Transportation prices in Mexico are lower than in the USA;
It will cause transportation prices in Mexico to increase;
It will not accelerate the border crossing process;
It will generate strong pressure on salaries paid to Mexican drivers, which in turn will increase the cost of domestic freight in Mexico; and
The Mexican government lacks the capacity and infrastructure to supervise U.S. carriers entering Mexico and to prevent foreign companies from providing domestic transportation only reserved for Mexican nationals.
This isn’t the first time CANACAR has tried to shut down a NAFTA provision.

In 2001, the group petitioned the Mexican Senate to cancel the trucking section of NAFTA.

“The majority of people in the United States don’t want Mexican trucks to go there, and we told our president that we don't want to go, either,” said CANACAR president Manuel Gomez in 2001. “Nor are we interested in having U.S. trucks come to Mexico.”
"

 

Yeah, Blacksheep put that up, it was in Landline.

It's the Mexican trucking companies. They're concerned about having to compete with the 'deep pockets' of the American companies. Again, these aren't American truckers, they are American companies, the top levels of management will be American, most everyone else including all or almost all of the drivers will be Mexican. Basically, our companies will be cutting in on their action.

It's like Toyota making cars in America. Japanese don't work in those plants except top managers and engineers and what have you. It's a Japanese company and most of the employees are American. The same with US carriers operating in and out of Mexico.

Those drivers will make more than they do now. If everything moves beyond the pilot program to significant numbers, the overall wages of Mexican drivers will go up and yes, Mexican domestic freight rates will go up some.

I think where they are wrong is to say it isn't good for Mexico. It isn't necessarily good for those Mexican trucking businesses, but it will be good for Mexico overall. A lot of foreign money coming in- taxes, roads and construction... Plus, it'll clear a lot of gringos out of the border towns cutting out a little of the debauchery down in Boystown. If you feel sad right now you need to repent, anyway :wink: None of this happens overnight, but once the ball gets rolling it could change the landscape of some places.