Replacing American Truckers with cheap labor

The greatest threat to the trucking profession is the prospect of indigenous American truckers being replaced by cheap labor from 3rd-world nations. When NAFTA went through a series of committee discussions prior to its passage in 1994, someone had slipped a clause to legalize the Mexican commercial truck license. This clause is irrefutable evidence that someone wants to replace American truckers with cheap labor. Thanks to the advent of the internet, (ease for information to be disseminated globally) the term "driver shortage" has become synonymous with "driver turnover;" or as trucking industry spokesperson prefer, "driver churning." Everyone knows "turnover" is caused by low pay and/or poor work conditions, so industry spokesperson hides these facts by adopting the term "churning" instead of "turnover."

Industry lobbyist have deep pockets to influence our elected decision makers in Washington DC. We must now formulate a plan to derail their attempts to replace American truckers with cheap labor. Currently, there is a temporary moratorium to allow Mexican licensed truckers full access to USA. When the Mexican government implements safety policies that meets federal DOT standards, the Mexican commercial license will become legal in all 48 states. Upon close analysis of these Mexican truckers, I've observed two common traits; weaknesses that we American truckers must exploit.

The first is their intelligence and educational background. Due to economic constraints, 40% of Mexico's youths will drop out of high school and enter the labor force. This report was issued by NAFBPO, an organization of retired border patrol officers who conducted a study of why people cross our borders illegally. These 40% dropouts represent a significant portion of Mexican truckers. Unlike American truckers who hold a high school diploma, Mexican truckers often hold an intelligence level equal to a 7th grade education (or less). This weakness can be exploited by requiring federal commercial licensing standards to include a high school diploma or GED certificate. We can further argue that a high school graduate is less likely to continue driving when driver fatigue had set in. To present the argument that truck safety is correlated to education and intelligence, we'll need to review past accident records and and conduct a study of how many truck accidents involve truckers who never finished high school or held a GED certificate.

A second common trait among Mexicans is the proportion who had gotten caught, fingerprinted by INS, and signed a release form advising them they'll be charged a felony crime if they cross the US borders again. Mandatory fingerprinting of commercial truckers is required when applying for hazmat endorsement on their CDL license. Fingerprinting should be expanded as part of pre-employment background checks. The fingerprints would be sent to INS to ascertain the prospective driver had not crossed the border illegally and signed a release form agreeing he/she will be charged a felony if he/she enters the USA again. This is another option to disqualify Mexican licensed truckers' legal entry into the USA.

Lobbyist cannot be stopped from convincing our elected officials the folly of replacing American truckers with cost efficient, cost effective Mexican labor to address the "driver churning" issue. However, the argument of public safety and allowing felons full access to the USA are strong compelling arguments they can't ignore. To supplement our argument, we'll need to compile drug seizure records (from state troopers) and news reports of semi trucks hauling marijuana or cocaine across the interstates. I've observed from monitoring the news they (news reporters) often edit the name of the individual trucker caught with these multi million dollar cargoes of illicit drugs. If news report reveals the name of the driver, they often quote his base terminal as his home resident. An internet research reveals the company has a terminal in the USA, but the corporation is based in Mexico. The practice of editing the trucker's name or hometown from news reports are clues to indicate news organizations across the USA are proponents of replacing American truckers with cost efficient, cost effective labor from south of the border. When we analyze the volume of truck shipments of newsprint rolls and gallons of bulk ink that news publication plants procure annually, it's easy to see there's a significant savings in transportation cost if the Mexican truck license was made legal. Thus, we can conclude news organizations are one faction hoping to replace American truckers with cost efficient, cost effective truckers from Mexico. When we deliver to grocery distribution warehouses, we observe lumpers who speak little or no English unloading our trucks. We're forbidden from hiring an outside American lumper for liability reasons. The fact that grocery distribution warehouses prefer these migrant workers is a clue grocery chain stores are another faction lobbying to replace American truckers.

The number of lobbyist giving generous political contributions to influence committee members' decisions puts American truckers are a severe disadvantage. Writing letters or sending emails to your elected representatives in Washington DC is not enough. Historically, they've turned a deaf ear when correspondence do not include a generous contribution of at least $1,000. A good example is the mortgage housing foreclosures in the late 2000s, which was followed by a significant decrease in consumer spending, resulting in mass layoffs across the USA. Millions of letters and emails were sent imploring government intervention to halt the home foreclosures. Lobbyist representing banks and the mortgage industry PAID our elected officials to ignore these pleas. The same strategy would be applied by lobbyist hired by industries who want to save on the shipping cost to haul their products by truck. Our only logical option to fight these lobbyist is to hire our own lobbyist capable of generous contributions. Thus, we must bring back organized labor. We need to bring back the Teamsters to speak on American truckers' behalf. Furthermore, I will bring to your attention the top administrator of FMCSA, Ms. Anne S. Ferro. She's the person we need to monitor closely and whom our snail-mail letters (or emails) should be addressed to argue the merits of requiring a high school diploma (or GED certificate) and mandatory background checks with INS records. Our elected officials are just one factor to changing FMCSA rules. In spite of her past history representing the profit interest of Maryland Trucking Association, our pleas to address the safety issue by reviewing past accident reports and compiling how many truckers did not hold a high school diploma or GED certificate should present a convincing argument the correlation between driver fatigue (knowing when to pull over and rest) and intelligence.