Truck Injury Lawyer Blog : Truck Accident Lawyer & Attorney: Morgan Adams : Contingency Fee Truck Accident Lawyer

Another concern with Mexican trucks coming into the U.S. is the disadvantage it will place on American trucking companies. Currently the methodology in the CSA2010 safety rating process compares fleets with similar numbers of inspections to one another. So in the US, all trucks are subject to inspection and all trucks are used to determine the safety rating.

The government has not stated how the CSA 2010 methodology will be used with Mexican trucks. Will it only be the trucks sent into the US? Or will it also add the trucks in Mexico to get a true picture of the Mexican trucking companies safety rating? If it includes the Mexican violations, does anyone really believe a database in Spanish, of Mexican company or driver violations, can successfully be merged with an English database with US violations? The language barrier alone, without getting into record keeping, corruption, or other hurdles, would make this a bad idea.

Now lets be clear. Nothing currently prevents a Mexican trucking company from owning an American subsidiary, subject to all our safety rules and regulations. Nothing prevents any driver licensed by Mexico, with the appropriate documentation, from driving trucks in the US. My posts are simply about Mexican trucks, with drivers from any nationality who are licensed in Mexico, driving unfettered across America. This will take jobs away from US citizens (currently the value of goods going into and out of Mexico by truck is 320 Billion dollars), at a time we can least afford to have hard working US truckers out of work.

Tell your congressman and senators this is a bad idea.

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The DOT is again proposing to allow Mexican trucks full access to the US under NAFTA. The proposed Pilot Program can be found here. This was a bad idea in 2007 when I originally blogged on the subject here, and remains a bad idea today for the reasons set forth below: 

1. Mexican companies have a proposed 3 month trial period in the first phase, requiring only three inspections per month during that period. In the second phase, the inspections drop off and the company can now run more, and unsafe trucks if they want. After 18 months the third phase goes into effect and, after a compliance review, the carrier is then given full operational authority. Nothing prevents the mexican company from running 1-2 trucks for the first periods, and then running hundreds of unsafe trucks once full authority has been given. This is only one of many possible scams can be run under this flawed program.
2. The DOT Inspector General, in 2009, found that the Mexican CDL database had problems with information, and lack of information, contained within the system.
3. Mexican drivers may have more than one CDL, making it harder to track dangerous  truckers with these licenses. This is illegal for US CDL drivers.
4. There is still a problem performing adequate safe and effecient bus and truck inspections on the border. The facilities and equipment are still laking for a full inspection program.
5. Trained DOT inspection personnel are insufficient to inspect a large number of trucks and buses. Today, only 1-2% of trucks are inspected in the US. Over the last ten years how many more trained DOT inspectors have been placed on the border? Anyone looking at the DOT's budget can quickly tell that the number of inspectors has not risen over the years.
6. In 1998 50% of Mexican trucks were found to be out of service at the border.
7. One border location had 1,300 trucks daily with only one inspector (an inspector can do 10-14 trucks in a day per IG’s office) and some locations had no inspectors. 
8.  US trucks have brakes maintained by US certified brake inspectors, Mexican trucking companies do not.
9.  US drivers are enrolled in the Pre-employment Screening Program (PSP), with their entire driving history available to employers, Mexican truckers do not.
10.  US carriers are inspected by the DOT at their place of business, are we really going to have DOT inspectors in Mexico inspecting Mexican companies at their HQ? 
11.   Mexican Companies are required to be safe, but how safe? US companies have inspections, and are rated by size, on:

a.       Unsafe driving

b.      Fatigued Driving

c.       Driver Fitness

d.      Drugs and Alcohol

e.       Vehicle Maintenance

f.       Cargo Securement and Loading

g.      Crash History

In short this is a bad idea. Good luck finding the Mexican driver after a wreck. Best of luck taking the deposition of a records custodian somewhere in Mexico! Injured Americans will have to pay far more to get far less justice and it could all be prevented.

Currently almost 4,000 people a year die from crashes involving safer US inspected tractor trailers. Do we really want to find out how much worse it will be under this NAFTA program? I predict the death toll on our highways will rise under this program, about two years after it goes into effect. I hope I am wrong, and even more that this never goes into effect!

Call your Senators and Congressman now and ask them to vote against this!

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I am pleased to report that my blog on trucking litigation has been selected as one of the Top 75 Truck Sites on the internet! The selection criteria states: 

Truck Injury Lawyer Blog It’s all fun and games until you or your truck gets hurt, and if that’s the case then this is the guy you want to talk to.

I am pleased that my hard work over the years to inform the public of trucking issues has been recognized. For a full list of the Top 75 Truck Sites see the original posting here.

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Every so often drivers ask me how to report a company that forces them to work over hours, or drive unsafe equipment. The government has set up a toll free hotline to take these complaints and start an investigation. The DOT website to report violations can be found here and states:

The Motor Carrier Safety hotline is a line of communication available to commercial vehicle drivers to submit reports of actual or potential violations of the federal motor carrier safety regulations. The line, 1-888-DOT-SAFT (368-7238), is a toll-free number for drivers nationwide to contact the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The Safety Violation and the Consumer Household Goods Commercial Complaint Website Hotline http://nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov  is available to drivers to report safety violations to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration online using a secure system.

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