Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

The battle continues over allowing Mexican trucks access to U.S. roads, everyone seems to have their own set of numbers to justify allowing or stopping Mexican trucks. I had a manager once who said that “numbers never lie, but liars figure”, so it goes with this issue. Lets take a look at the issue using a little common sense, something lacking in todays political environment. Lets look at who wins and who loses:

Winners:

1. Wal-Mart, Kroger, Giant Foods, Sav-a-lot, other big grocery chains.
   • They get their products delivered at a much reduced cost for transportation.
   • Higher profit margins on every tomato sold - do you really think they will pass savings to consumer?
   • Less delay on perishable products.
   • Less damage to transshipped product. Not really a big issue for thes companies since they will refuse damaged product anyhow.
2. Big American Trucking Companies:
   • Are able to move freight in the U.S. at Mexican wages.
   • Take the burden off of a supposed “Driver Shortage”, the only shortage is a shortage of drivers willing to work for what they will pay.
   • Reduction in the complexity of moving freight from Mexico
3. Mexican Drivers:
   • Access to more customers
   • More pay for loads as opposed to what they get in Mexico.
   • Cannot fault the Mexican drivers for wanting to make a better life for themselves.

Losers:

1. American Truck Drivers.
   • More competition willing to work for lower wages. Its cheaper to live in Nuevo Laredo than Chicago!
   • Loss of a significant source of good paying freight in the border regions.
   • More trucks operated by linguistically challenged operators on the road. They may have to be able to speak English at a basic level but can they handle the mishmash of signs and instructions thrown at us every day just to operate our trucks safely?(i.e. Low tunnel ahead…..)
2. Law enforcement.
   • More marginal trucks to inspect.
   • Harder to verify licenses, permits etc. dealing with cross border, cross language issues.
   • Language barriers, we already have a big problem now!
3. U.S. Dock Workers.
   • There are already plans drawn up to move much of the port work to Mexico and drive the freight into the U.S. Bye, bye U.S. dock worker jobs!
4. Safety.
   • You want to throw even more complications into an already stresses environment, then somethings going to break.
   • We get all of these promises about how safe Mexican trucks are but what happens in five or six years when the attention fades?
   • So far the numbers I have seen are drawn from too small of a pool to be statically reliable.(Yes, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night) We need thousands of inspections not just a couple hundred to show the real numbers on safety

This debate will continue, each side has a real argument on allowing free movement of Mexican trucks. Yes it may be good for trade and the consumers, the same people doing 90 on $3.30 gas, but I’m afraid it will be disaster fro our industry. You always hear the politicians complaining about jobs being out-sourced, well this issue is about our jobs being out-sourced. If you want to keep the gains we have made as far as wages and safety in the industry then we need to make sure these trucks coming in from Mexico have to play by the rules we do. I am not worried about this test program, these will be the safest drivers and equipment they can find in Mexico, what I worry about is down the road five or six years. Who will be crossing that border then and driving down the road next to you. More importantly driving on the same roads as your family.

What are your opinions. Who do you think will be the biggest winners and losers in this issue. Leave a comment and let me know.

Stay safe and Happy Fathers Day.
Don Rogers