The Bush administration can proceed with a plan to open the U.S. border to long haul Mexican trucks as early as this week after an appeals court rejected a bid by labor, consumer and environmental interests to block the initiative.
The administration plans to start the program on September 6. Transportation Department officials hope to receive final clearance early next week from the department’s inspector general’s office, which is reviewing its safety aspects, and finalize details with Mexican authorities.
Reviewing safety aspects essentially is a joke. Anyone regularly traveling the border states with Mexico has already witnessed how the Bush Administration reviews safety. Currently, US inspectors check 1% of Mexican trucks entering the country. About 35% fail!
Trucks from Canada have no operating restrictions in the United States.
And there’s no need. Canadian standards are as high – or higher – than US requirements.
Folks on the highway with Mexican long haul trucking companies should get ready to discover one more example of what our government is willing to give away to make corporate lobbyists happy.
Well, you can’t stop the wheels of progress…toward the North American Union. Goodbye middle class hello Jose.
Look, the Canadians don’t like the SPP either.
http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/
Are there any middle class Americans who want an open boarder policy, or is it just Corporate America?
Be afraid … very afraid. Seriously.
This is going to be a bloody (literally) disaster. I can’t wait to see trucks that are mechanically unsound and drivers that can not speak or read English hit our roads. Should be a real show when a car full of white middle class suburban kids get killed on the Interstate by a Mexican trucker. On the other hand, maybe the price off Mexican drugs (weed, meth and cocaine) will go down because they will be bringing it in by the truck load.
This will be a disaster. I was a truck driver for about a year and I’ve spent a lot of time down at the Mexican border…. These Mexican drivers do not care about safety at all. They will be dangerous and they will kill innocent American motorists.
As a American Owner Operator truck driver. Allowing Mexican trucks into America is not only a safety problem. But it will put many smaller trucking operations in America into bankruptcy. Freight rates are already low. We do not need more trucks looking to haul freight.
Our government is owned by big business, it seems they listen very little to Americans. Deregulation was bad enough for trucking. This will be just another nail in the coffin of small operators.
I never thought I would live long enough to see our Governments day by day betrayal of “American” brothers and sisters.
As a proud American Trucker let me warn you. Between the loss of good jobs we are going to incur and the death rates going up on our highways, which by the way were built and paid for by our tax dollars. We are going to wish we had never let this happen.
I sure don’t want my family driving on the same roads with those unskilled Mexicans driving their old worn out rigs. This is a betrayal and a disaster waiting to happen.
Maybe the next President of the United States will ban long haul Mexican trucks from entering the U.S. That is all we can hope for at this point.
Why has no one yet mentioned the possibility of bringing in entire trailer loads of illegal immigrants to be unloaded in the middle of nowhere? Is it because no one else has thought of this?
I lived on the road for years in the Southwest. One of the best safety moves we ever made was banning retread tires from long-haul trucks.
Guess what, folks? As part of Bush’s prep for Mexican truckers invasion – the ban was lifted. If you drive along any of the southern tier Interstates, those lovely strips of thrown treads are back on the road.
#7, Ken,
Maybe the next President will actually enforce the existing regulations.
9. Yes, I have had the exciting experience of one of those retreads come flying back at me at 80 mph, while on a motorcycle.
Welcome to globalization folks! I’m sure some of you whiners are regulars at Wal-Mart, right? Ever thought who lost their jobs because you go shopping there? Hardly no-one complained when the textile industry got outsourced to Asia. And Everyone love their cheap electronics… pretty much all made in Asia. Few complained when the industry jobs started pouring out of North America. Then the IT jobs started to move to China/India… some whining, but it happened. The food industry is currently being outsourced… without any whining… CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP… that’s what pretty much all motherfuckers want. I absolutely need those plastic toys for my kid, or he won’t have a good childhood. BULLSHIT! Make sure you serve up those fries quickly or else we’ll get some H1Bs to do that job as well.
Not nearly enough detail What does “safety, licensing, and other U.S. requirements” mean? What, exactly, is required. Do the trucking companies have to show proof of insurance? Do the insurance companies have to show English competency. How about a local presence? One of these trucks tangles with a car in rural Oklahoma at 0300. The driver speaks limited English. Who is your insurer going to call? How is that company going to investigate or settle a claim if they have no presence locally?
Do the drivers, not just their companies, have to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the rules of the road, fuel tax issues, and time and distance regulations–and the understanding that they are bound by those regulations? If not, I didn’t know will be the defense.
Will those trucks be monitored by GPS by an independent monitor to insure that all such rules are followed? Will all drivers be thoroughly vetted and identified? Fingerprints, DNA, Etc.?
Just remember that the Mexican trucking access was a key part of the NAFTA agreement… ratified with the support of Bill Clinton in 1994.
So let’s not get too partisan about this as the hands of both Republicans and Democrats are on this knife.
Funny you put that picture on this post, because I think I saw that very truck in Montana the other day. Now, if you want to see what a real long haul Mexican truck looks like, here are a few:
http://hankstruckpictures.com/dq_mex_produce.htm
Now, about your racism…..
Bush’s mommy should have put her coat hangers to better use.
From a Canadian perspective (albeit a Canadian living in the UK), I reckon this whole unified North American thing will be nice, especially as Canadians will at least be able to elect the leader that rules their country anyway….. and if that means the occasional road accident and one of the last bastions of independent businesses dies, they so be it. Who wants a middle class anyway. Society will be so much better once we are all employed by Wal*Mart…
And if we are really lucky maybe NAFTA and the EU could join forces…
Unless the current minority Conservative government in Canada changes a bunch of trucking laws, I doubt many of these Mexican trucks are going to make their way into Canada.
As Lewis Black said at a comedy festival, “Canadians are just like Americans – only smarter”. By the way, he also begged Canada to invade the U.S. and “put us out of our misery”.
He didn’t realize Canadians are too polite to do something like that.
Like #14 said, this isn’t partisan issue. In fact, to think that the parties differ is delusional. Vote either way, you still vote for the same group of greedy retarded a-holes. Everyone wants to point fingers at so called republicans, neo-cons, liberals, etc. The finger pointing is a key element in this BS working, your being duped by thinking your on one side or the other. Our entire govt has been bought off by corporations. Why is that the majority of big govt/iraq contractors employ people in each state? Leverage. Enough ranting…
This mexican trucker deal is simply an element of the NAFTA bs we signed up for. Its going to be great for drug prices and illegals who want to move north. But we know this. *sigh* Prepare to see a lot of news stories on fights and murders are truck stop around the country.
This makes it easier for the illegals to rape and pillage this country.
#12 Jägermeister
I’m at a loss for words. For once I am in complete agreement with you.
The disenfranchisement of the American working class has been accomplished by the acquiescence of the American people. Prepare to be globalized.
Jägermeister you forgot about the stock market and mutual funds.
Americans finance the very same MNCs they abhor with every dollar they can sock away. If you don’t know what your paying for with your savings you’re probably investing in KBR, Haliburton, Whackenhut, Wallmart, Correction corp. etc.
Ignorant investors enable global enslavement.
#19 Cinaedh
If only Lewis Black were correct.
I’ll concede Canadians are on the average less ignorant than Americans, but they’re no more intelligent.
Canada is in lock-step with the USA. 90% of our exports go to the USA and 90% of our imports come from there too(even the imports that originate in China).
Our culture is being eroded along with our Canadian content in media laws. We watch the same TV and hear the same songs on the radio. We buy the same products in the same stores.
Today Canadians are American in all but Name and Geography.
New Rule:
When any — ANY — system exhibits a 5% failure rate, 100% of all products, vehicles, system components, shipments, licenses, documents, and/or critical elements MUST be inspected. Then a sliding scale of inspections will prevail.
#22 nightstar
I can’t disagree with you at all but Mr. Black also said he thought Canadians had a lot on the ball because “…you don’t like invading other countries”.
Obviously he “missed ” Afghanistan. Lots of people, like CNN, do miss that but he did have a small point there.
#22 nightstar again
“Today Canadians are American in all but Name and Geography.”
You might want to think twice about saying that in Quebec, mon ami!
#15. The important thing is that, the next time a semi runs me off the road because it wants my lane, I will be able to curse a furriner instead of a Jesus-fish displayin’ Amurrican!
god bless ya, Dubya!
#25 oui mon frere, vive la belle Province.
Quebec is far more European than the rest of Canada. I’m in Toronto so I’m sad to say people here are just like the ones across the lake. Big cities in English Canada are just like big cities in the USA(except we are less religious as a group).
I must point out that we did invade the USA in the war of 1812. If memory serves we put fire to the white house :p
Canucks are just a little less reactionary
Maybe what we need to do redraw the political map of North America into ‘cultural zones’. So the South of Mexico would be one country, the North of Mexico, Texas, Florida, and Southern California could be another, the American south another, then the midwest and Canadian prairies, the west coast, from British Columbia to Oregon (and Maybe the Northern California) could have it own country, New England and the Canadian Atlantic provinces could be another country, not sure what to do with Ontario, but maybe them and Mass. could make a ‘great lakes’ state or something, and Quebec of course could be its own boss. Each state could be its own country and the countries could be unified in an EU style government. Then the whole ‘Canadian/Mexican/American’ identity can all be dropped and we can be one big happy family.
Of course, maybe this is just a crap idea and I should stick to my day job (which doesn’t involve politics….).
Funny how people laughed at us “Conspiracy Theorists” who were talking about this topic long ago. This is just the beginning, who’s laughing now?
#27 – nightstar – Quebec is far more European than the rest of Canada.
Nope. Quebecers are more French than the rest of Canada.
#31 Seeing as I’ve actually lived in Montreal I think I’ll stick with my assessment thanks.