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The long-awaited report from the Department of Transportation on the safety of Mexican trucks crossing the US-Mexico border stated that the Mexican trucks’ out-of-service rates were similar to those of the United States’ trucks. The report found that in 2008, 21.2% of inspections of Mexican trucks resulted in taking trucks out of service, while 21.8% of inspections of US trucks resulted in trucks being taken out of service. During those inspections, 1.2% of Mexican drivers were taken out of service, while 6.9% of US drivers were taken out of service.
One item that was highlighted in the report was the lack of consistency in reporting of traffic convictions incurred by Mexican truck drivers. Although the inspections were done in the same manner in which Canadian drivers are compared to US drivers, some groups have questioned the validity of the inspection process, since the inspections mainly took place in US-Mexico commercial zones instead of randomly throughout the US.
Earlier this year, Congress chose to end a Bush Administration sponsored test of long haul trucking between Mexico and the US. Many argued that the program needed to be ended due to safety concerns, yet this recent report would indicate that Mexican truckers are at least as safe as domestic truck drivers. This report does make one ponder the true reason for the cessation of the program…
Was it because of job protectionism? Was it due to the recession? Were there safety issues that this report doesn’t reflect?
No matter what the true reason was, it’s hard to deny the results of the DOT’s report, and the industry should be eager to see what type of program the Obama Administration intends to promote.
Rachel Rutkoski is a Senior Indirect Services Category Manager for North America in Ariba’s Global Services Organization. Rachel is recognized by the Institute for Supply Management as a Certified Professional in Supply Management (C.P.S.M.) and has several years experience as a supply chain and transportation analyst in Fortune 500 companies.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Chris // Oct 19, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I didn’t see another way to contact you so I hope this is OK. I work for wikiMHEDA, a new Web site that features all kinds of resources for the material handling and supply chain management industries, located at http://www.wikimheda.org. We’re looking to cross-link our site with allied industry sites such as yours. (Links like this help both our sites move up the list in search engines.) If this is something your readers would be interested in, we’d love to work something out. Would this be of interest to you?
Many thanks,
Chris Powers
2 David Scarr // Oct 20, 2009 at 9:15 am
The opening of Mexican markets to US trucking and the US markets to Mexican trucking would only benefit a few companies in the US, but alot in Mexico.
The Canadian market did not see a large influx of American carriers, it is smaller than the domestic US market and the majority of American drivers do not want to deal with the percieved hassles of customs and immigration. The Mexican market will be the same.
This is pure Short term protectionism that does not look past their own industry, and does not look at the long term benefits to both the trucking industry but also manufacturers and consumers on both sides of the border who will benefit from this.
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