New Mexican truck rules please U.S. business

This could have been solved in less than a month. if we actually had a leader in this country.

Place an 100% export tax on ALL corn and corn based products.

The US grows more corn than than any 10 countries combined.

When inflation and starvation sat in, the tariffs would be gone.

 

They would get around it by shuttle method, to an island country then to Mexico. Corn is a durable food product with a long shelf life.

Who ever pays off the best will win, always have and always will. they talk about 2200 unionized employees and will kill 50,000 to 100,000 driver jobs to save them. Unions pay BIG and vote BIG to get their way.

IT"S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY BEING PAYED and POWER.

 

I got around the shuttle method. I didn't specify only Mexican bound corn.

Those 2200 jobs are history anyway....just watch.

 

ZERO American trucking jobs are at risk with this. Either in the future or during the 18 months of the previous successful pilot program.

Read the excellent article by Todd Dills in the July issue of NATSO Truckers News. He traveled to Laredo Texas and spent a couple of days there getting the facts. The mag is still on the news stands and also is available on their website in e-zine format.

I was supposed to meet Todd there and show him around, but got tied up. He still did an excellent job on the article. (Not to mention substantiating and validating much of what I've been saying these past couple of years)

 

I think there is more than one way to look at this.

The majority are looking at trade issues. When they should be looking at security issues. It is slanted heavily (not intentionally) in the Mexican drivers favor, unlike the Canadian/American side.

Who is more secure with cross border trucking? Mexicans or Americans?

Who will be kept secure, free from rampant extorsion and violence? Mexicans in the US, or Americans in Mexico?

This will cost American truckers their jobs. As the majority will refuse to enter Mexico with a load. And there will come a time that they are told to do so, or find another job.

I truely love spending time in Mexico. But, there is no way in hell I will pull a load into Mexico. The lack of security and law enforcement makes me an immmediate target.

And for anyone to state differant....is delusional.

 

We had 18 months of a successful cross border experiment. The Mexican's showed they were capable of and did comply with all of our rules and standards. That should put that issue to rest.

From a security standpoint, American participants made twice as many excursions into the interior of Mexico with half the equipment, as the Mexicans did into the US with twice the equipment. There were no incidents of harassment, extortion or anything against American carriers operating in Mexico.

I spoke with a rep from A&R out of Joliet Illinois who confirmed this with one exception. Mexican rules require US carriers to egress the country at the same POE they entered. One of A&R's truck tried to cross at a different port and was made to return to the US through the port of origin. A small matter. We expect them to follow our rules, we should follow theirs.

You know, the American media and others have painted a portrait of Mexico that does not exist. I travel between the border and Monterrey on a weekly basis without fear or trouble. Everyone else does also.

There is plenty of police protection in the form of Federal and State Police patrolling the Federal highways. Most of the reports of hijackings are pure BS, made up in the minds of people who have never been within a thousand miles of the border. When a load is hijacked, it is usually an inside job, either by the driver or someone in the shipper.

On the side, I do cargo inspections for a friend of mine who owns a survey company in Houston. I cover Tamaulipas, Coahuilla and Nuevo Leon States, when time permits on a case by case basis.

My buddy called me a couple of weeks ago to check out a couple of UP containers at a drayage firm in Nuevo Laredo. Supposedly, two loads of Whirlpool refrigerators FOB Ramos Arizpe Coahuilla had been shipped under seal. 96 units in total.

I got to the drayage company, and in the company of the owner and Ministerial Police, we busted the seals. 6 fridges in each trailer!

The loads had been hijacked! Where? Not on the road, but at the shipper, who has short loaded the trailers.

Much of this happens, yet the pundits report it as violent hijackings.

You would be doing yourself a disservice to refuse to run in Mexico. It could be as it was here 30 years ago, when we could get out and truck without all the anal regs we have forced down our throats these days.

I am definitely not delusional.

 

That is not entirely true. Only the companies have complied. The Government has only provided minimum assistance with compliance issues.

More power to them.

How about a reliable driver data base?

I don't watch the news. Nor do I travel by what would be considered an interstate/toll road to my home.

This may all be true. But are all warehouses located within a mile of the Federal Highways? Mexico doesn't have any back roads ???

Load hijacking is the least of my concerns. I stay my ### out of the hood, and I carry a gun for the same reason.

Can't disagree with the above comments. Electronics seem to be a very costly and desirable commodity in Mexico. The profits would tempt anyone...including the shipper.

Of all the things I have purchased in Mexico, electronics have not been on that list. Too expensive.

 

1. The companies and the drivers have complied and that is the issue. The government of Mexico has tried to comply with every silly little thing thrown at them by Congress at the prompting of the Teamsters, and succeeded.

2. Agreed! That is what it is about. Mexico has much higher freight rates than we do, and that is where the opposition by some Mexican drivers and entities comes from. They're afraid we'll come down there and destroy the rate structure they have, a valid complaint.

3. FMCSA and the OIG Final Report concurred, that Mexico has a reliable database which can be accessed by LE in the US. I was getting a Level III at a scale in northern Missouri a few weeks ago and talking to the scale master, I asked him about his experience with Mexican trucks. One of the thing he said was Mexican CDL's were the easiest to run a check on. Canadian's the most difficult.

4. Yeah the news! ###### depressing!

5. The answer to your question about the warehouses, is yes. The Maquilla's and distribution centers that any American trucker would be going to are right next to the Federal Highways. Trucking in Mexico would not be as it is here. Picking up at one place and taking it to another place int the middle of town. The places you would service, say in Monterrey, such as Johnson Controls, Wal-Mart, Kohler and others are right on the highway at the end of the toll road. In Saltillo, the auto plants front the main highway. They're built that way with ease of access in mind.

Others are built in huge industrial parks right on the main highways, industrial areas just as we have in this country.

6. Something we can agree on. It's strange. Electronics in Mexico, such as TV's and appliances are about 30% more expensive than in the US. And most is made in Mexico. But you got the VAT tax of 10% to consider. At one time, you could buy in the US and smuggle it across. If you got caught, give the inspector 20 or 30 bucks to turn a blind eye. Those days are gone. Now, you get caught, at the least, your pay a 25% import fee, worst case, they confiscate the merchandise, and possibly your wheels.

 

MexicoTrucker,

With your explanation of warehouse locations, it makes it much more attractive.

I'm willing to go most anywhere as a visitor of Mexico, I do the same here. The "hood" doesn't bother me, when I'm on foot or in my car.

I do have to disagree with point #3 though. Our state had to put out an official briefing on how to recognize a CDL from Mexico.

Running a license, is hogwash in my book. I've played with the best in the past. And walked off scott free, using false credentials. It wouldn't take much to do the same today.

For all our "National Security" hoopla in this country. We have one of the most archaic systems in the world. Easily fooled, easily manipulated, and easily defeated.