First Mexican Truck already rolling into US under new program *NAU*

[Ganymede]

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 Spanish

So are they going to inspect every truck that crosses under this program? Seems impossible to do so.

 

[hypewaders]

So you're frightened? Yo no.

 

[Tiassa]

That's the plan

So are they going to inspect every truck that crosses under this program?

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:

(Start transcript 1:48)

SCOTT HORSLEY: The Teamsters had a rally at the border here in San Diego yesterday. They were warning that the Mexican trucks will not be safe. Oddly enough, they held their rally just outside one of the many border inspection stations the U.S. has set up to ensure the trucks are safe. The Transportation Department said these trucks would be checked out from headlight to tailgate and re-inspected every three months. I daresay these will be the most heavily scrutinized semi trucks anywhere on the roads in the U.S. ....

(End transcript 2:15)

• • •​

(Start transcript 2:37)

ROBERT SMITH: Well, for years, trucks have been allowed to come over from Canada under NAFTA. Has there been any impact from Canadian truckers on U.S. highways?

SCOTT HORSLEY: Not only have Canadian trucks been able to come across the border, but, in fact, Mexican trucks have been crossing into the U.S. for years. They are allowed to travel within this narrow commercial zone, twenty to twenty-five miles from the border. That includes the city of San Diego, and there's been no evidence of carnage along our roadways here because of Mexican trucks.

ROBERT SMITH: Well this is a one-year pilot program allowing these Mexican trucks to go anywhere in the United States. What will they be looking for to see if it's successful?

SCOTT HORSLEY: Well, that's right. It's up to a hundred Mexican trucking companies; probably on the order of six hundred or so Mexican trucks, and they will ramp up to that total between now and December. Over the course of the year I think the U.S. government hopes to show both that those trucks can operate safely in the U.S.--that the federal regulators have the manpower necessary to do the inspections--and also that U.S. trucks will have access to Mexico and U.S. trucking companies will benefit from that cross-border trade.

(End transcript 3:44)

(NPR.org)

____________________

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​

 

[Ganymede]

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.

So how is the different from what we're already doing on the border?

 

[Tiassa]

So how is the different from what we're already doing on the border?

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.

 

[Sock puppet path]

So you're frightened? Yo no.

Parece una vida muy sabroso.

If there are mariachi bands on the streets in philly I might consider moving back.

 

[desi]

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.