Articlr

In the last month, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced that it is extending its trucking pilot program that provides trucking jobs to Mexican owned and operated rigs. The FMCSA hopes to allow 100 Mexican trucking companies access to American roads.

Why is the FMCSA doing this? Where was Congress? Where was the president? The Bush administration enacted this legislation while Congress was on summer recess. Congress had previously opposed this. After all, this could be the end of the American trucking business. If there are cheaper alternatives available, what will happen to local driving jobs?

There are standards of safety and security that every American truck must meet. The FMCSA has decided that Mexican trucks do not have to meet these same standards. This gives the Mexican truckers an unfair advantage. It also places the American public in danger. After all, those safety and security standards have a reason! It is another source of contention between truckers and the FMSCA.

It is estimated that the U.S. is short 11,000 truck drivers at present, and this number will only grow with increasing fuel costs and shrinking profit margins. Long haul drives, such as walmart truck driving jobs, will only become less attractive.

Remember the controversy over Dubai companies taking over U.S. ports? Truckers think that the FMSCA and Bush administration do, and that is the reason for the air of secrecy about FMSCAas plan to put more Mexican trucks on American roads. They donat want the public to find out. The side effect is that truckers are in the dark about changes to their industry.

Congressmen and women are getting calls from their constituents asking why Mexican owned and operated trucks are being allowed free access across the border, but official FMCSA representatives on the issue remain tight-lipped, refusing to return calls to answer questions regarding the issue.

The Senate has attempted to stop the Mexican Truck Demonstration Program. Senator Byron Dorgan, the Democratic senator from North Dakota, amended the Senate Transportation Appropriations Bill to end funding for the program. The FMCSA, with the support of the Bush White House, continues the will of silence about the program.

The Bush administrationas time in office is coming to an end, and in these waning months they are attempting to push through all the legislation they can. Independent truckers are frantically attempting to publicize this issue. It is a race against time to save the American trucking industry.