Mexican Truckers on USA Roads

The United States Transportation Marketplace has gone through a significant range of shifts, thanks to a continual onslaught of new trucking regulations. The means in which drivers, carriers, and owner operators do business may continue to become under assault as further restrictions on carriers and drivers continue to dominate legislation moving forward.

Putting past and pending restrictions aside, a new hazard to the livelihood of Owner Operators and also small service providers has emerged: The incentives provided to Mexican Carriers to operate on US Highways. Recently, the amount of Mexican Carriers & Owner Operators filing for an Operating Authority (called MC Number for Domestic Companies, and MX Number for Mexican based companies) have outnumbered brand new American Trucking Service providers by a figure of 21 to 1.

There is stress on the market to be able to make it possible for carriers to operate on United States Highways just as CSA 2010 threatens to negatively impact the way that Carriers, Drivers, and Owner Operators presently conduct business. However one should question how CSA 2010 applies to foreign drivers on American roads? CSA 2010 was designed with the stated goal of making the highways safer. If these intrusive constraints aren’t imposed on all drivers on the highway, how can these limitations help to make the road less dangerous? The legislation by definition is a failure if it continues to allows individuals to operate on the roads unregulated, uninspected, and not subject to restriction.

In a current article written by the President and CEO of the Free Trade Alliance, Kyle Burns makes a case of why regulating Mexican carriers to the same specifications as American drivers will be bad regarding international relations. The INBOUND LOGISTICS article makes an attempt to draw a connection between shortage of job growth, economic development, and foreign investment with the simple fact that Mexican Carriers are not permitted to have unregulated entry to the United States Highways.

Mr. Burns states in his article that Congress has enacted a ban on Mexican Carriers operating in the United States. My personal exploration indicates otherwise. Mexican Carriers are currently authorized to operate on the U.S. Highways so long as they obtain the very same operating Authority as domestic carriers. It is clear that Mr. Burns suggests limitations are in place simply because the Foreign Carriers have to register in the very same manner domestic carriers must.

The article makes an attempt to point the finger of Mexican tariffs entirely at the United States’ requirement for Foreign carriers to register. The issue of Mexican imposed trade tariffs extends significantly beyond requiring Mexican carriers to register for an Operating Authority to drive on U.S. Highways. There has been large turmoil with the Mexican government on a long list of challenges with greater impact compared to allowing their truck drivers to drive without restraint in the United States. Drug War, Immigration Policy, Deportation conflicts, and Environmental issues have all proven contentious and are much more severe than Trucking. In addition, Canadian carriers have the same limitations as well as safety requirements as United States Carriers and also must obtain on operating authority, execute onsite examinations as well as adhere to exact same insurance requirements. Right now there is no evidence nevertheless that Canada has imposed tariffs on United States products simply because of the requirement. How could one draw a conclusion Mexico has levied trade tariffs on the United States because we require a Mexican company to complete an application with evidence of insurance in order to do business in the United States? Simply absurd.

The fact we have “imposed no Canadian counterpart to cross-border ban…” is a mis-leading statement. First of all no group is prohibited, merely restricted. The actual company must apply as well as submit proof of insurance in order to receive permission to operate here. At present these new Mexican carriers are subject to truck inspections at the border. Almost all Canadian carriers and United States Carriers are required to perform on sight inspections in order to further check maintenance logs, driver logs, and other such operational procedures. Mexican carriers tend to be inspected at the border with no further inspections of maintenance logs, etc. required.

The greatest question of all is how will the new CSA 2010 impact foreign drivers. Since drivers are not subject to licensing laws of the United States (merely registration for Operating Authority) and the official government website provided no explanation, one can only assume that foreign drivers will not be subject to these kinds of severe restrictions which will undoubtedly drive many Drivers, Carriers, and Owner Operators out of business. The reason this topic has not surfaced in the industry media is because it is well-known there will be an exodus of great drivers in the industry going forward; pressured out by increased restrictions. Since freight needs to continue to be moved, new drivers will have to replace the drivers forced out by these constraints. Rather than raise awareness, those who do understand exactly what is actually going on in the marketplace are determining how to best market to these new international drivers and embrace the increase of prospective business opportunities. The OOIDA nor the American Trucking Association have raised recognition to this trend and shortage of consistent enforcement of existing restrictions. Possibly these industry Associations (and others) see much more value in marketing to a new membership base than lobbying on behalf of existing base in order to ask simply for consistent restrictions for all on the road…. in the name of Safety.

View Full Article Here: http://blog.freightaccess.com/2010/09/mexican-carriers-driving-united-states-policy/

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Category: Business
Keywords: mexican fmcsa, trucking, trucker, freight, international, border crossing, nafta, 3pl, ltl, freight