First Mexican Trucker Into US, 10 Years Experience, 13 cpm...

13 cents per mile, and 20 dollars a day in expense money. Sounds like the man is worth much more than that with a 10 years safe record running around south of the border.



http://www.truckflix.com/news_article.php?newsid=5163

 

Smear some refried beans on a tortilla, maybe reheat a few tamales on the engine block, and you can get by pretty cheaply. Heck, it doesn;t cost me 20 bucks a day to eat on the road, so unless he is a big eater, he should be getting by okay.

 

Actually, I have come up with a serious answer to the entire problem of the Mexican truckers being on our roads. Get our political people to pass a law requiring an "equal pay standard" for the Mexican drivers coming into the country. If the companies sending trucks across the border suddenly had to pay 3-4 times the current amount in wages to their drivers, I'll bet their desire to have the trucks up here running the rods would cool off some. And, for us, it makes us look like good guys, fighting to ensure that these guys earn a decent living wage. And it would guarantee thet they have no financial edge in costs that could be used to undercut our prices on a load. And of course, the end result would be that things would return to the way that they were in the beginning.

We get rid of the cheap labor problem, we get brownie points for caring about their living conditions, and we take away any financial advantage they have. Sounds to me like we would win all around.

 

The article in question has nothing to do with illegals. The drivers that are coming in driving loads are legal citizens of Mexico. They are allowed into the country in the same way that I am allowed in to haul a load up to Canada, or a Canadian driver is allowed in to haul a load into the US. The subject of illegals, and how they are exploited is a completely different one.