Mexican trucks ready to roll A pilot program to allow the haulers anywhere in the U.S. -- and vice versa -- is stoking new debates over NAFTA on both sides of the border By Oscar Avila | Tribune foreign correspondent MEXICO CITY - As soon as next week, the Olympic Transports trucking company of northern Mexico will make its first deliveries to Chicago, a 1,500-mile journey that has taken 13 years to become a reality. The U.S. government gave Mexican trucks the green light, starting Friday, to transport goods into America's heartland for the first time in a quarter century. So far, Olympic has the only permit, but dozens of other Mexican companies are likely to follow. The pilot program to allow cross-border trucking is one of the last bits of unfinished business from the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which opened up markets for goods traveling among the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Truckers News reported that the first Olympic Transports truck in the pilot program crossed the border without incident early Saturday, bound for North Carolina. U.S. officials inspected the truck for about two hours before letting it pass, according to the publication. more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-trucks_avila... No wonder they pushed us so hard in School to learn SpanishPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image! So are they going to inspect every truck that crosses under this program? Seems impossible to do so.
That's the plan There's only going to be about 600 of them. I'll see if I can dig up the NPR story on that. Some have gone so far as to suggest that these trucks will be safer than the domestic ones that aren't subject to such scrutiny. • • • Update: ____________________ Notes: Smith, Robert and Scott Horsley, and Madeleine Brand. "U.S.-Mexico Border Opened to Truckers". Day to Day. National Public Radio/NPR.org. September 7, 2007. See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14238522
I suppose that's a question for US-DoT. The Department has provided some online resources regarding the program, but I haven't been through it yet. I should also note that if you hop over to the NPR link, part of the audio I didn't transcribe is a brief discussion between Madeleine Brand and Fernando Paez of Transportes Olympic, the company mentioned in your topic article.
Parece una vida muy sabroso. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! If there are mariachi bands on the streets in philly I might consider moving back.
They are going to take hours and hours to inspect these trucks... until the cameras go away. Then the people working overtime at these inspection stations will resume regular hours reading the paper all day.
