On November 14, the house approved the Transportation spending bill with Amendment 624 intact.

For those not familiar, Amendment 624 is the attempt to stop funding for the Mexican truck program.

For now, the bill is not expected to go to the Senate for vote until they return from the Thanksgiving recess. If passed, it would go to the President for his promised veto, which I support fully. Action on this bill probably would not occur until after Congress resumes in 2008. At this point, the Mexican truck program, consisting of 7 Mexican carriers with a total of 44 trucks, and 4 US companies operating a total of 41 trucks in Mexico will have been in existence for almost 6 months, operating safely and without complaint.

Once the bill is vetoed it goes back to the Senate for an override vote which would happen at the end of January or beginning of February in the new year. And if the veto is overidden, what then?

New Carriers given authorization.

In the past week, several new Mexican carriers have been given authority to begin operations. One carrier of note is Trinity Industries de Mexico SA de CV. Many may not recognize the name, but Trinity Industries headquartered in Dallas Texas is a major player in the transportation industry and a political powerhouse.

If the veto is overridden, we can be certain to see lawsuits filed and injunctions requested.

And I imagine they will be successful and could possibly take us into the fall of 2008.

But what if……

the program ended with the vote? Would Mexican trucks disappear from the highways of the US? Would the authorized participants in the program pack up and go back to Mexico?

No way Jose.

Take for instance Fernando Paez and Transported Olympics. They have been operating legally and safely in the US for years. The sister company in McAllen Texas, Fernando Paez Transport dba OMC Transport will continue to operate, using the same Mexican drivers, including Luis Gonzalez, who was profiled as the first Mexican driver to travel beyond the commercial zone. Sr Gonzalez has been hauling freight legally from Monterrey to points in the US for the past seven years.

Most of the other Mexican carriers authorized under this program have similar arrangements. Nothing will change! At least for the Mexicans.

But it is a different story for the American carriers who have been granted rights to operate a Mexico, a process that has been long and costly for the participants. The hour that the Mexican truck program is stopped, that is the hour that American carriers will lose reciprocal rights to operate in Mexico. We are the losers.

And what about the 850 to 1300 Mexican carriers who have grandfather authority to operate under terms of the 1982 moratorium? This bill has no effect whatsoever on them. They will continue to hold this authority and to operate at will. These in part, are the carriers who have a better safety rating and history than the Americans or Canadians.

Nothing will change!

The border shuttle fleet which operate under OP-2 authority, will continue to operate and be part of the 3.5 million crossing that occur along the Texas border every year, a number that increases proportionately4% per year and will continue to do so.

The changes you will see.

The opponents of the Mexican truck program have always used “safety and security” as the reasoning for their opposition and to mask the true cause of their oppostion.

Over the years, the funding contained for this program has paid the salaries for more than 500 new State and Federal, CVSA certified inspectors. It has also paid for the construction, upgrade and operation of Weigh in Motion scales and inspection stations at all the commercial border crossings.

This has resulted in the ability to inspect more of the border shuttle fleet and US long haul carriers transiting the border regions. The success of these inspections is obvious in the border shuttle vehicles. Defund the program, you lose the inspectors and the inspection stations staff. What does that do for safety?

What have we learned?

  • Despite what Jimmy Hoffa claims, there is nothing “dangerous” about the Mexican trucks, nor “illegal” about the program. Hoffa’s objections are purely protectionist in nature and will cripple safety improvements established along the border.
  • There has not been a “flood” of junk trucks waiting to cross the border as Joan Claybrook of Public Citizens repeatedly states. Instead, the companies participating are well managed, stable and safe operations.
  • Todd Spencer keeps whining about databases and “his” inability to connect with them as well as US law enforcement, yet, the Kansas Highway Patrol gives us a different view. I think for all of Spence’s posturing and mass exaggeration of the facts, he has accomplished his agenda. Increasing his membership using fear tactics.
  • And perhaps most importantly, I have learned that people choose to be led. By listening to people express opinions which sigues into their own prejudices, they make uninformed decisions with no knowledge of the facts. Perhaps this is what is meant by the dumbing down of America.

So in the end, not much will change. Nothing changed when the border opened in September. It was all anti climatic. Nothing will change if the program stops tomorrow.

And what is amazing, all the hype, the hysteria, the lies that have been told; all because of 15 Mexican trucks, oops! 44 now!

To me, none of this has ever had anything to do with safety or economics.